Curious: What Is Your View of Alabama/Alabamians?

by snowbird 88 Replies latest jw friends

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  minimus

  I knew of a girl in a Hall that my elder friend referred to as "stinky (or stanky) peehole". It's true!
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  Soldier77

  So the elder got down and sniffed? Or did he find that out doing "other" things to her?
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  minimus

  The girl smelled.
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  VoidEater

  Honestly, I find most Alabamians just like any other place: some incredibly generous and kind, some insular and self-righteous. But as a political entity it sure puts itself out there as one of the most intolerant, overbearing, cruel States in the union.

  My parents live there, as do other relatives, and they run the same range - from open-minds and tolerance to thinking slavery was maybe ok.
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  outlander

  I forgot to mention this before. My younger sister and her husband, both J.W's and hardcore are still in alabama. Years ago they went there because "the need was great" in that area. Winfield, Haleyville area. When they arrived they needed a place to live so one of the local Elders rented them a mobile home on 6 acres of land that also had on it what passed for the local Kingdum Hall. This was in an old plantation house from many years past that was now devoid of furniture and had no electric service because of the age of the wireing. I was inside on several occasions and it was actually a pretty interesting building, large rooms, long empty hallways, 4 stories tall, and surrounded by long overgrown grounds that used to be well cared for. Very forbidding looking at night with a full moon overhead on a hot summer night with all the country night sounds. Anyway, meetings were held in one of the upstairs rooms that had been outfitted with folding chairs and a few tables. My sister and her husband had the keys to the house and the doors were also outfitted with padlocks and chains, so the only time anyone got in was meeting nights, or like me by begging to explore the old place. Thing is, the locals soon found out that this place was being used by the J.W's as a meeting hall and did what they did best. They started rumors about the meetings and the local J.W. members. It was soon told that during meetings the J.W's all held candles and chanted in an unknown language while roaming about in small groups of two and three within the night wrapped ancient plantation house. My sis and her husband were constantly talked about as that odd couple from up north that held the strange meetings at night. I loved it!!
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  MinisterAmos

  I have not had the chance to meet every person from Alabama, but the ones that make it the 30 miles to Gulf Breeze, FL are easy to spot: They invariably have six of the following eight...

  Tattoos BIG MULTIPLE ones...

  Passenger in the car usually has her foot on the dashboard or hanging out the window

  Fat

  Pasty

  Too few clothes

  Loud

  Boorish

  Smokers
• 

  knock knock

  What is Albamama?

  That would be Jessica Alba-mama.
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  knock knock

  My short time in 'bama was years ago. Now I thought at the time that I was backwards and unlearned (and probably still am) but many of the locals I encountered had me beat - and some by a mile. A few by a full 500 mile nascar race! Like:

  Worked with some guys that wanted to go get some matching baseball hats made. This was when Toy's R Us was new and everything had to have the "R Us" at the end. So off they go with the idea that this was going to be GREAT. They came back proudly wearing matching hat's that proclaimed "Studs OR Us!" Now I aks you...
• 

  FlyingHighNow

  I am from Mobile, down on the Gulf coast. I moved away from there when I was close to turning 7. That would be in August of 1965.

  I owe my life to Alabama because my Atlanta, Georgia mamma and my Montgomery, Alabama born daddy met at Auburn University, while they were students there.

  My grandfather was a dental surgeon with a private practice that was on the 7th story overlooking the USS Alabama. My grandma was a Mobile socialite. They bent every syllable in the middle. Their ai-ec-cee-ents were varee regal sayn-ding. The said things like lay-ingth for length and stray-ingth for strength. If the answer to your question was to the affirmative, they said yay-is. Grandma called everybawdy dahhhling and grandaddy aka Pappy, liked to say okey dokey a lot and he sounded something like Yosemite Sam or Foghorn Leghorn Rooster. Once my grandmother said the word say-ix to me and made me blush. My grandparents were well accomplished, very entertaining characters, both Alabamians. Pretty cool.

  We spent weekends at Dauphin Island or someone's beach or bay house. We sailed across to Fairhope. We went to Gulfshores when it was just a few tacky pink and ugly pale green beach houses on stilts. I braved my first hurricane/tropical storm Hilda there, at least the first I can remember. We lived there when you could go see drive-movies at the Auto Show or over in Prichard.

  Mobile is the home of the first Mardi Gras which was later exported to New Orleans. We attended a parade the year Hello Dolly, the song was a big hit. And while we threw blue, yellow and pink serpentine and caught beads and candy, Louis' float stopped at the corner we were standing on and he played and sang the whole song. It left a lasting impression on this girl, who became a lifelong fan.

  Then there is beautiful Birmingham. I got to spend some time there because my brother in law is a native. He is first cousin and grew up joined at the hip with Patsy Neal. Many of you know Patsy as Fannie Flag, the author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop cafe. Neal's mother Catherine was the sister of Patsy's dad. Catherine was beautiful, very feminine resembling a blonder Deborah Kerr. But when she was young she was a tomboy who boated up and down the rivers, smoked cigarettes, cussed and spat. She wrote stories for the local paper, later, about her adventures. She and her stories are who Fannie based her character Idgy Threadgood on, in the book and later movie called Fried Green Tomatoes. She was every bit as regal and fascinating as my grandmother Carlita. She had perfectly coiffed platinum hair, piled on top of her head, long red fingernails and dressed very elegantly. If you want to know a little about Alabama's past and culture, see the movie.

  North Alabama is hilly, mountainous and very lush. The dialect and accents differ from southern or even mid Alabama.

  People in Alabama are really no more likely to be prejudiced than anywhere else you go. I've been all over the place and find this to be so. Jim Crowe laws existed all over the US, including Chicago and California. They existed here in Michigan as well. They were used to oppress and hold down anyone of color or a different race. Like anywhere, you have the majority of people who are fair minded and kind when it comes to race. And like anywhere, you have those who are not.

  I've discovered that if you get out into the country, away from any large metropolis, you find genteel country folk as well as rednecks and they look and sound different from city folk. The problem is that folks who've not lived in the south get the idea everyone looks and sounds like the poor souls they choose to interview during disasters. I wish for a change they'd pick out the more normal sounding southerners to interview.

  What is my view of Alabama? Charming and beautiful. What is my view of Alabamaians? I think we are pretty alrighty.
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  FlyingHighNow

  Alabama and West Virgina thats where the people marry their brothers and sisters.

  I thought that was Utah.