Seeing the real good

Archie McKinney was accidentally born in Rome much to the surprise of both his parents. The area would eventually become his home of 50-plus years.

“My mom was from Rome and my dad was from Mobile, Alabama,” McKinney laughed. “They had been living in Cincinnati for a year or two and my mother wanted to come down and see some of the family before I was born. She had it cleared by the doctor and took the train to Rome. Boy did I surprise her.”

McKinney said that his mom had him very early and the two of them stayed in Rome with her family until his dad was able to bring them back to Cincinnati safely. He lived 5 years with his family in Cincinnati until his mom moved him back to Rome where she could be close to her family.

“When we came back with my mom we were poor,” McKinney said. “My parents were divorced and my father ran a funeral home in Alabama and because of the laws at the time they did not allow the enforcement of child support over state lines. He helped sometimes, but not always enough.”

McKinney said that his experiences as a young man allowed him to see the real good in people.

“I would love to see some of the values of goodwill I experienced as a child come back today,” he said. “For example, the house we lived in when we were children had a wooden latch for the back door and a skeleton key lock on the front anyone could pick. We would go on trips or just to town and if anyone came up to our house — our neighbors would find out what was going on.”

McKinney said that the neighbors also were very active in the raising of all the kids on the street the lived.

“We could go up the street but we had boundaries set by our mom,” McKinney explained. “My sister and I would get a wild hair and go out of the neighborhood just to see what was going on. Well everyone knew our boundaries and when they would see us they would immediately stop us and ask why we were there outside of our road and take us home.”

McKinney also says he misses the real thrill that holidays used to bring when he was a child.

“Christmas started maybe two weeks before Christmas day, not two months,” McKinney laughed. “It was my most enjoyable time when family and friends would come over and se got a chance as children to serve the meal to the other kids and adults. There was no money for gifts.”

McKinney said that he got the same thrill when he would go to others houses as a child and they served him a meal. He regrets that some of the” joy of feasting, sharing and fellowship” has been lost to “commercialism.”

“Kids today don’t know the joy of taking care of their loved ones at the holidays. It is all about the gifts now,” McKinney said.

Despite their family’s move from the north back to Rome, McKinney said they always maintained very good ties with their friends up north.

“My mom had a lot of people from Cincinnati and Chicago,” McKinney explained. “I have great memories of making yearly trips back up there to visit and because of that I never forgot the good times we had there.”

McKinney said that because of the city’s similarities he is very much at home in both places.

“Rome and Cincinnati are very similar in the way they are set up because of the rivers,” McKinney reflected. “There is a lot of German architecture up there and the city might be larger but it has a hometown atmosphere like here in Rome. There is even a park at Highland that looks just like the view I get here from Myrtle Hill.”

McKinney spent his early career as a very successful insurance salesman. Despite his successes, he could not fight the call of law enforcement that ran so strongly in his family line.

“My whole family seemed to be in law enforcement and every family reunion was spent with them retailing their tales from on the job. I had never even considered it as a career. I always liked sales and sports,” McKinney said. “When I made the president’s club with Life of Georgia and decided it was time to try outlaw enforcement. “

McKinney applied at the Sheriff’s Office where he worked first in the jail and later as a narcotics officer.

“I wasn’t mandated and was surprised when they asked me to work with narcotics — however at the time you could work with the promise of getting certified within the year,” McKinney explained. “My captain said he was impressed with how I carried myself and chose to elevate me because of it. My first drug assignment was in Polk County, Georgia.”

McKinney said that while he was working in narcotics he was went to several counties for operations before he finally settled down as first an officer at the Rome Police Department and later rising to the Rank of Sergeant with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.

McKinney said that he was very proud to serve with the Rome Police Department where his Uncle Arch, for whom his mother named him, was the first African-American to rise to a rank at that agency.

“I have been in law enforcement for 25 years now and plan to possibly retire sometime next year after I turn 66,” McKinney said. “I am only still working at Polk County because I have a real love for the people I work with, especially the shift that I work with day to day. You could not ask to have better people in your life.”

McKinney said that he plans to spend his newly found free time hunting, fishing and traveling to see some of Europe.

“I visited Germany back in ’96 as I was able to stay with my nephew who was stationed there,” McKinney said. “Octoberfest in very big in Cincinnati — but the one in Munich I attended that year was amazing. I have always wanted to go back and to possibly go over to Italy or Spain to experience the sites.”

“I also want to venture back into insurance sales, picking the products I believe in and helping others choose the right plans,” McKinney said. “I have always had a love for sales.”