26
Jan
Allow me to introduce you to Southern Valley…as I know them.
I grew up hearing about Southern Valley and the Hamilton family long before I ever got the chance to experience them. I lived amongst the agriculture community in small town South Georgia so it was inevitable that I would get word of this family way out in Norman Park that had a unique farming operation. However, I finished college and came back home before I was ever formally introduced to them.
My first interaction with the Hamilton family was with the wife of Southern Valley’s owner, Mrs. Pam. Mrs. Pam was renowned for coming to the local canning plant each summer and canning food not only for her family but also for needy families in the community. No matter how long of a day she had ahead of her, she always seemed to be bubbling over with enthusiasm – teasing, and grinning the whole time she was putting up produce in that hot, humid canning plant. She also took many a woman under her wing and taught her the canning process. All I seemed to hear about was Mrs. Pam’s salsa and Mrs. Pam’s spaghetti sauce. It hit a little too close to home when my own mother ditched her personal spaghetti sauce recipe in favor of any cans of Mrs. Pam’s spaghetti sauce that she could get her hands on. That’s when I knew this Pam Hamilton thing was serious. Mrs. Pam and her third child, Kaylee, still come to the canning plant each summer and put up a variety of produce from their own gardens and they still help other women in town get started as well.
It was a little later that I got to know Mr. Kent, a quieter natured man who appears more serious, but has a subtle, underlying sense of humor. Calm, quiet, and jovial, he is constantly looking for new ways to improve Southern Valley. His real passion is for the fields, but as large as the company has gotten, he has obviously had to expand his focus. From the time I’ve spent with him, I can see he is a man who loves his family, loves his community, and is constantly thinking and visioning where the company is headed.
It wasn’t until I came to work at Southern Valley that I finally met the matriarch of the business, Mrs. Wanda, or as her grandkids fondly call her, Ma. For years, it was she and Mr. Kent running the whole thing; Mrs. Wanda in the sales office and Kent in the fields. Since their start, the company has hired on other family members and community members to help them achieve their vision, but Ma is still the big boss. She is a strong lady, with the kind of strength that comes through years of hard work and tough country life, including the death of her son and husband at the very beginning of the farming operation. Yet, she remains an elegant and classy Southern woman with a love for her son and a love for fishing.
Over the years at church, I have gotten to know the four Hamilton children. First is Courtney. I swear the girl has 9 lives. Again, I heard of her long before I met her because as a child she fought cancer. She is now cancer-free and lives life to the fullest because she knows she shouldn’t be alive today. Her giggly laugh and bubbly nature are not unlike her mother’s and she works in the office following in the footsteps of her Ma. Then there’s Austin, who reminds me of his father and holds the same love and appreciation for the fields and outdoors with the same genuine smile and jovial nature. He plays drums, he flies airplanes, and he loves farm life. Following Austin is Kaylee – she has bucked the family tradition and has chosen not to return to the family farm. However, because of her passion for broken and sick people she is employed as a nurse at the nearby hospital instead. Kaylee can still be found in the summers at the canning plant helping her mom. And finally is Presley, or Pres-Man, as they affectionately call him. He’s the baby of the family born 9 years after Kaylee, but even as the baby he hasn’t shirked the responsibility that comes with growing up on a family farm and spends his summers just like his brother and sisters did – helping in the fields or the packing shed.
In my eyes, the Hamilton Family IS Southern Valley. That’s who they have always been to me. However, after working here, it is obvious that all of Southern Valley is part of the Hamilton Family – both literally and figuratively. With cousins and aunts and uncles who help run the operation, the business is certainly run by family, but the non-family workers become family as well. From the field to the packing shed to the office, Southern Valley is owned and operated by a real family that makes you feel like family as well.