09/10/2025
The businesses in Miller are thankful for the benches that were built by the Miller FFA in 2006! They were built well!
The red benches were what caught my eye as I stopped in Miller, a small town in Lawrence County, Missouri, that dates to 1890 and was once described as a "lively little city."
While life remains, times have changed. Today, the sleepy community of nearly 700 still has a hardware and gun shop (that I’ve heard is a draw), a library, a thrift stop that I never fail to frequent and other landmarks of a small town. Those are alongside a few vacant storefronts — not unlike other small communities.
Yet among it all are those benches.
Somehow, even though I didn’t know a thing about them, seeing those dozen-or-so benches made it feel like someone cared.
I wondered if they’d been there for a long time, or were a more recent addition, so I stopped by the hardware-slash-gun store and asked that seemingly random question. Turns out, local students made them years ago as a project for the town. A few years later, another class refurbished them.
Why does that matter? To me, it reminds me that small things can make a big difference. Whether it’s kids passing by who helped make them or rehab them – or someone using them to relax at the recent fall festival, the 75th in Miller’s history – it’s a reminder of civic pride.
That folks who live here, care. And that’s what helps keep community spirit alive.
