POWERGRAMS

25 a child, and then sometimes rode his horse there when he was a teenager. He is one of thousands of people who have grown up picking up a pop or a Popsicle at this country market. Lisa Steele's grandmother, Mattie McDonald, opened the grocery in 1955. Steele's father, Danny, 70, and Uncle Reginald, 85, managed the store after Mattie. Lisa is the latest to fill the ancestral supervisory shoes. Steele talks to customers as she stands in the hunting section, which is adjacent to the pizza segment that is near three long shelves of groceries, shoes, hats and thousands of other items, including T-shirts that read: "If we don't have it or we can't get it, you don't need it!" There's hoop cheese a few feet away from the catfish skinners that are across from the cheapest canned drinks in the county that are perpendicular to the potted green tomato plants. Lisa has walked the floors of McDonald's as far back as she can remember and helped out "since I could see over the counters." The business is like home for her family, and customers are like kinfolk, coming through the doors as babies and visiting on through their senior years on an ever-renewing cycle. "We're just your typical Mom and Pop business," she says. "We really have made relationships through the years and we like to give back to our community." That affection was reciprocated when her son, Hudson, was battling brain cancer. He died three years ago at 13. "The support of the community, everyone in the county, spiritual, emotional and financial, is nothing like you would get in a big city," she says. "That's the key to Camden. It's just a big family." It's one big family that loves fishing, hunting and hitting the reservoir whenever possible. When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built Miller's Ferry Lock and Dam in 1970 about 9 miles northwest of Camden, the Alabama River became a huge lake, attracting fishermen from across the South. Roland Cooper State Park on the shores of the river was the biggest local attraction for more than 30 years, but state budget cuts in 2015 all but shut down the golf course, cabins, hiking trails, camping grounds and boat ramps. Locals pray that legislation or a lease deal could reopen the park before it deteriorates further. Still, fishing tournaments and seasonal hunting help fill the rooms of the Southern Inn and American Inn, bringing in outsiders looking for a meal at Hunters Run Bar & Grill, Miss Kitty's and a couple of other local eateries. Estimates Black Belt Treasures features works by nearly 500 artists. Harris, McCreary, Griffin, Wilson and Richardson help APC customers in Camden Office.

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