When it comes to the Owens community, it’s easy to see a beautiful contrast in the residents milling about at the beginning of their days. While there may not be elementary school aged students running around Owens Elementary anymore, Mt. Pisgah Baptist Christian Academy has several school-aged students learning diligently every day. Adults on their way to work stop by The Village Mart to fuel their cars or Mike’s Cafe for breakfast for themselves. and during harvest season, that drive may take a little longer with combines gathering the beautiful cotton that still grows in the area, uninhibited by retail development taking over other communities in the county, but it’s safe to say that the beauty is probably worth the extra five minutes on the road.

Some Owens residents are running around to head out of the community in the mornings, but there are also plenty of residents who have already paid their dues and are enjoying their time front porch singing at the Owens Senior Center. The senior center is a place where the older residents of Owens can gather, eat together, and listen to their friends sing and play a myriad of stringed instruments as well as complete puzzles, play dominos, or walk the outdoor track to exercise their minds and bodies.

Although many leave and return to Owens after the day is done, the community is blessed to have dedicated responders stationed in the area to care for their properties and loved ones if something unforeseen were to happen. The Owens Volunteer Fire Department stands ready to respond from multiple stations in the case of a fire, and the newly opened EMS station in Clements has reduced response time to the Owens community if medical tragedy were to strike (not to mention the paramedics already on staff with the OVFD).

Owens also boasts some “hidden gems” that those in the community may or may not not know a lot about, but that all of Limestone should. The first is the presence of event venues in the community. The most visible with its bright red roof and stunning wooden walls, located just off of Highway 99, is Southern Charm. Their website claims the venue can seat up to 250 guests indoor or out and provides the space needed for ceremonies’ participants to prepare for events from weddings to banquets. A little further off the beaten path, Honeysuckle Hollow boasts a gorgeous outdoor venue for weddings, birthday parties, family reunions, and photography sessions according to their Facebook page.

Other than event venues, the community is also host to a statewide online public school called Alabama Connections Academy. The school provides tuition-free digital education to students throughout Alabama and opened its headquarters in the old Owens Elementary School building in May 2017, providing a bittersweet sequel to the building’s long history in the community for those who attended the school in its middle and elementary years. Who knew that the building filled with screaming West Limestone children just a few years ago, yards away from the fossilized West Side Video, would provide digital education from Ardmore to Mobile?

The Owens Community is a place for home, work, and play to a lot of people. and while it may be technologically advanced enough to have a “state paved road” running through its famers’ payload and a statewide online school, Craig Morgan and Alan Jackson would still be proud to know that this community has plenty of “God fearing’ hard workin’ combine driver(s) hoggin’ up the road” and a place where our seniors can spend well-earned time enjoying their “cornbread and chicken … front porch sitin’.”