relocating to alabama for small town family values (Birmingham, Auburn: real estate, homes)

[wifmmmy]

I was born and raised in california. I have lived all over cali from north to south and I am growing tired of the lack of family values getting worse and worse. I have always loved the southern way of life my dad was born and raised country. So I want to raise my son in a place where family is number one. I really need advice on where in alabama would be a great place to raise a family. I am nervous about being accepted from the community. As we would be "outsiders". I guess no matter where we go we will have to probably run into a few people that will not accept us but I would like a fightin chance. My husband is mexican with an accent but speaks and understands english very well and I am caucasian. I am not worried about the whole mixed marriage thing as much as I am worried about how my husband will be excepted into the community. Especially the whole illegal immigrant thing going on. He is documented and everything is legal but we have come across people that assume because he is mexican he must be illegal. He is a long haul truck driver so a job is not the issue. We know cost of living will be much lower. I would like some advice on some cities that might be more open to us. I have read alot about huntsville. I want a real good school system as well. the current town I am in is very anti christian and I am growing tired of that as well. so I know that Alabama --God and country are open and loud which I love. any advice will be appreciated.

[Mrsupertwo]

Hello there

I was wondering why you think Alabama is a place with better family values? I'm curious because something like that is important to me also.

Regards, Mrsupertwo.

[wifmmmy]

faith and family values are a high priority to me. I have noticed friends from the south and observed people from the south land have a family comes first attitude. I love that. Dont get me wrong I know that not all people are the same and dont have the same values . but in the south God and country are allowed to be shown with pride. People from the south are not afraid to say the word God without getting a look from an ACLU member ready to throw a lawsuit at them.
Like I have said in my original post that I have lived from one end of cali to the other and its becoming a more liberal and anti christian state everyday. Just the laws that have been passed proves that. Of course not all calis are liberal and anti christian but they are def the majority. and its only going to get worse.

[PITBOSS]

Here in the south, we are concerned about enjoying our life with faith, family, friends, and nature. Most of us are not involved in the rat race, money is just a neccesity to get by, not #1 by a long shot.

[AndyG]

We also tend to take things a little better than the rest of the country. Most genuine southerners aren't going to run around like a psycho chicken during a disaster or stressful times. We have a "yeah, ok whatever" attitude. Not that we don't care, it's just that we are just not the type of people to let every little thing get under our skin. We leave that to the yankees.

With a few exceptions like Atlanta, in most areas of the south, things move slower down here, and we like it like that. I like what PITBOSS said. We are concerned more about enjoying our lives than we are about the rat race. The US is a big country, it doesn't need us to contribute to the chaos. We like things just the way they are. That's why most of us don't care when the rest of the country talks down about us. We know how we really are, and that's all that matters.

[bamagal]

Hi!

We live in Clay, which is considered a northern suburb of Birmingham. There are a lot of churches in our community (we belong to a wonderful one!), and although there are many Christians here, there are also many non-believers. I would say that, for the most part, the non-believers and Christians co-exist peacefully in our area. This is part of the former Bible-belt, after all, and many of the non-believers' parents and grandparents were church-goers, even if they are not. Many of them still attend church at Easter or Christmas - they seem to think that keeps their foot in the door, so to speak. Most of them would probably say that they respect our right to believe what we do, even if they don't agree with it. Most of them have very strong family values, even if they don't attend church.

This area is growing - new subdivisions are being built in our community. They are also in the process of building a new ballpark for the childrens' sports programs. Sports are very big in this town. (The vast majority are also big fans of either the University of Alabama or Auburn.)

Although I cannot promise you that you would not experience some bigotry - people are sinners, after all - I think that you wouldn't have a problem with acceptance here among most people. The family next door to us has a similar situation, although he doesn't have an accent - I think the father's father is the one who immigrated from Mexico, and she is Caucasian - I don't know of any problems that they have experienced as a result of that.

Our church recently befriended a man - he was Caucasian, and he had married a lady from Venezuela. I didn't notice that anyone thought anything about it.

I think if you are friendly and give people a chance and an opportunity to like you for who you are, you won't have a problem with most people in our community.

I don't know of any illegal immigrants in our community, although I certainly don't know everyone here. I can't guarantee that someone wouldn't wonder whether or not your husband was one, but that could be the situation just about anywhere. We don't have any large manufacturing facilities in our area, although there are some in some of the communities in other areas of the state. I think there tend to be large groups of Hispanic workers in some of those areas where there are chicken processing plants or glove mills, and although some of them may be here illegally, but I imagine many of them are not.

We homeschool our children, so I'm not an expert on the local school system, but I've known people who have really liked it. We know children who are in the local schools who seem to be getting a good education - and we've known children who have failed - but that would be the situation everywhere. They do offer lots of advanced placement classes in the high school, and we've enjoyed some of their football games and band competitions - they do very well at both.

Regarding the situation of being an "outsider," I know that that is a problem in some smaller Alabama towns, but we haven't experienced it here - we've been here 9 years. I suppose there are layers of being an insider or outsider - many people in this community have always lived in Alabama, although not in Clay, and there aren't that many people who live here who were actually born right here - but we came from Florida, and a couple of the families in our church family came from Pennsylvania (and they still have accents!) - and we have people from the service as well who've lived all over - and they are all loved and accepted. You will probably experience the disadvantage at some time of people reminiscing about the way things were at some time or some past event that took place that you're unfamiliar with - in other words, you won't have some shared experiences with some people - but that would happen wherever you might move to. The thing to do is to become involved wherever you might go so that you'll have some shared experiences with people that you can enjoy reminiscing over in the future.

I hope that this helps!

[goinwest]

Although I am moving out of Alabama I think you might want to check into Shelby County. It is kind of a melting pot for people in Alabama and really growing. Good schools, and a pretty big hispanic community. I think you would probably fit right in and like it there. It is the biggest suburb of B'ham and real estate is booming. GOOD LUCK!

[wifmmmy]

thank you I will certainly look into shelby county.

[wifmmmy]

bamagal thanks I think you set my mind at ease. I think Alabama and the south in general have gotten a bad rap.

[steveklein]

shelby county is a great place to live.

if you would prefer to be a bit further from a big city, try lee county. auburn is a great area to live in and i would think a fantastic area to raise a family. it's about 2 hours from downtown birmingham and 2 hours from downtown atlanta.