The truth is, I never planned to come back home. Not to live. Not for any reason.

I thought life had taken me away, and there was nothing to come back for, that I’d outgrown my hometown. After all, I’d lived here 17 years before going to college. At the time, I figured there was nothing more to learn here. But then time and thought intruded, complicated by the unpredictability of life.

All of that blends after 38 years to force the realization that, in many ways, culturally I don’t think I ever really left home.

Don’t get me wrong. I did leave town, and in many ways, like you, I’ve evolved. But the evolution is based on an amazing foundation I’ve come to appreciate.

Allow me to alter an old saying to make a current point. What I’m saying is you can take the boy out of Suffolk, but you can’t take Suffolk out of the boy.

All of us take some Suffolk with us when we leave. Mills Godwin Jr. did it when he became governor twice, once as a Democrat, the other as a Republican. A lot of people don’t know he is responsible for major strides in integration all over Virginia state government, especially in the area of education. More blacks were hired and appointed under Godwin than by any other Virginia governor in history.

What is it about Suffolk that gets into people and won’t get out? I think it’s a strong sense of right and wrong, balanced by a unique acceptance of who folks are culturally, a pragmatism backed up by a deep desire for fairness and an ongoing pursuit of fair play.

Godwin was a political pragmatist. In his biography “No Higher Honor,” M. Carl Andrews says that back then, Godwin knew he couldn’t get elected governor without carrying Southwest Virginia. Many of the controversial things he said were aimed at that audience. One of the reasons he ran for a second term involved the person and personality of Henry Howell who scared Virginia’s political world senseless.

Maybe it’s the Suffolk stuff in folks like me that just won’t leave. I think everybody born here carries it at the DNA level. What bothered me about living elsewhere was the absence of those qualities in other people.

Since coming back I’ve grown to appreciate how whites and blacks pretty much accept each other for who they are. The relationship isn’t perfect. But the truth is both groups are very much alike. Hard work, independence, self sufficiency, advancement through education and family taking care of family are prized in both communities. Our parents may not have talked a lot among themselves when we were growing up. But they raised us with the same values, the same way.

I’ve had to spend some time in Suffolk civil court recently. Don’t worry, it’s nothing super serious. But I came away impressed with the court’s pragmatic humanity. Judges and lawyers with deep Suffolk roots have a gentility about them, a quality in their spirits that is not always seen in counselors from other places.

I walked out of court feeling good about trying to fairly and pragmatically work through what feels like an impossible situation. Whatever the outcome, Suffolk expects things to be done with dignity, honor and respect for all parties involved. Suddenly it dawned on me: That’s the Suffolk way.

Dennis Edwards is an Emmy Award-winning television news reporter and anchor. He is a 1974 graduate of Suffolk High School. Email him at dedwards247@comcast.net.