[Braves_fan]

Msjbrent why are you posting in the Alabama section of this board if alls you're going to do is cut it down?

[Keeper]

I just moved here a year ago if that makes me a local then so be it. I knew no one here but my daughter. But everything I mentioned happened from the first day I moved here. As far as FL is concerned I lived there for 30 years in Tampa and have seen and lived in a big city.
I just wonder where you live now and when you lived in AL?

[Braves_fan]

Keeper I think they are just wanting to stir up the pot , they must have had bad expierences living in the rural South.

[nalabama]

My nephew made almost exactly the same observation about his reception in a rural restaurant in Kentucky as brattpowered has offered. He's only 6'4" tall, was wearing ripped and drooping jeans, and has an array of shoulder-length dreadlocks standing out in all directions. Couldn't help myself...all I could do was burst out laughing when he expressed his righteous bewilderment.

[DaddyJ]

In the past year I moved from a small town adjacent to Birmingham out into the boonies. This is true south and I absolutely love it. I'm have a one man service business. The business is struggling for local clientele only because it will take a while to become established and to get known. As for the people, after I've seen a person enough to breed familiarity they always are friendly, welcoming, and rather trusting. I pretty much work all over the state and see alot of people and get to know them fairly easily just by giving them a smile and saying "thankyou". I work in some very rural, mostly black poverty stricken counties and the people there are as easy or even more easy to get to know as anywhere. I lived in Atlanta for 6 months after high school and it was by far the most difficult to get acceptance and the easiest to feel isolated by far much more so than Birmingham.

[meredith06]

Alabama has the southern hospitality and it is affordable to live. What part of Alabama were you thinking of wanting to relocate too?

[NotYourTypicalSoutherner]

Originally Posted by brattpowered

.

I wouldn't get family values mixed up with conservative values of insularity, ignorance, and hypocrisy. The place I found family values to be the greatest was in Southern Vermont, a very "liberal" place. Parents taught their children the value of acceptance, the importance of helping thier neighbors and all fellow human beings, and a love of nature and wariness of ignorance.

THANK YOU! I've lived in Alabama for over half of my life now (I'm 25), and I agree some people get "family values" confused with plain ol' backwardness. People may attack you for that observation, accusing you of "not getting out much", but I've LIVED it, my family has been here for generations, and I know exactly what you're talking about. I'll be the first to admit that it's not just in Alabama...but since Alabama is what was inquired about, then that's what I'll focus my answer on.

Moderator cut: off topic/personal

When you have REAL family values, not pretend ones, then nothing can come between you and your family, not even religion. It all is a reflection of a major cultural paradigm shift we're experiencing here in the South: how to maintain the values of the Old South while progressing into a modern New South without taking all the racism and superstition with us. We're just going through some growing pains right now, but I think it'll all turn out fine in the end. If people would stop being so divisive and making everything an "us vs. them" issue (like churgoers vs. nonbelievers or liberals vs. conservatives), then we'd make a lot more headway and eventually shake the "ignorant Southerner" stereotype.

[Southlander]

I like your thinking, NotYourTypical!!

[DaddyJ]

I suppose that I should be glad all these folks have so much bad stuff to say about Alabama. I sure wouldn't want all them ignorant people here. We've got our own little pot of gold and they sure don't deserve a chance to enjoy it. Hopefully they'll stay away. We've got what we need and sure don't need people who don't appreciate us. All the crap about hanging black people, burning homosexuals, etc. is absolutely insane. Nothing of the sort happens here any more than anywhere else in the nation. For the most part we have some of the reverse of what is prevalent in other areas when it comes to extremists. There is a balance of social ideas and it wanes from time to time and place to place. If you stand out then you will be noticed. That's the way it is anywhere in the world.

[sally.white]

DaddyJ,

I have a question for you..

How's is the climate in the over the mountain areas? Is is like the valley with no breeze?