Moving to Alabama

Last week we moved to Alabama. A-L-A-B-A-M-A. How unexpected--I am from Ohio. I have lived in the Midwest, the Northeast, Europe, and the Southeast. What will it be like to move deeper into the South? What better way to process change than to blog about it?

And what does it mean to be from a place, anyway? The suggestion is that where you come from is woven into the very fiber of your being, shaping your morals and values. At a company party, I met a guy who knew the area I am from, and he said very matter-of-factly, "You carry that with you." Like a prison tattoo? I suppose I do, but in the best of ways. I learned that neighbors help each other out (because the winter is long and gray) and that you better get an education, because manufacturing jobs will up and leave. Pro-football loyalties are gladiatorial.

The South is different. College football is king. Conversations between women carry undercurrents I don't always follow. Recently, Time Magazine came out with a whole issue on the American South. Alabama didn't figure much into the issue at all. I expected to learn something I didn't know about the South, but I'm not sure I did. In all fairness, I have lived in the South for 17 years. Time did explain that the South has been in the process of losing its unique identity and deemed the  "new South" time and time again, only to retain an ongoing mix of old and new. The influx of residents from all over the country, even the world, may or may not be changing the southern cultural landscape. At the same time, the hallmarks of southern culture, like fierce regional pride, closeness to the land, guns and trucks, a sense of independence, and God (really more Jesus) aren't going anywhere. But this is hardly news. I felt the heaviness of a racial divide in SC in a way I never did in the Midwest, but I can't discount the fact that I was a young adult when I left the so-called Rust Belt. Maybe if I had stayed, I would have seen a more severe racial divide.

People hurry to tell us that northern Alabama isn't Alabama. One blog comment complained that this area is "no longer the south." Geographically, the Tennessee River Valley reminds me of Davy Crocket and Daniel Boone, not Ben Tillman. But I have everything to learn about my new home. I'm sure there will be many surprises along the way.