I grew up on the beaches of Alabama.
When I tell people this I get two reactions; a stereotypical redneck question or someone asking if Alabama actually has a beach. Which is quickly followed up with the remark, "Oh, so you're basically from Florida." But like.....I'm not.
Obviously the beach is not nearly as Southern as the rest of the state, but my hometown was filled with people from all over. The people who showed up for a vacation, and never went home. That's how we wound up there.
Where I Come From is an ode to the south, written by a fellow Alabama Native. Rick Bragg talks about experiences that are so uniquely southern. Fishing, hunting, drinking, the usual depictions of southern life. But it's not at all like what you non-southerners see in the movies. It's riding out a hurricane, driving til the wheels fall off, asking about your mom'n'em with a single flick of a finger.
I once had a woman ask me what the food of the south was.
I said, "Fried, we fry everything." To which she responded with, "You guys could probably fry a pickle and it'd be good!" And that's when I realized not everyone knew we did that. Just like I thought everyone knew what a Tupperware Party was. I thought we all had a family member who sold Mary Kay out of their car. I thought it was normal to be 6 hours away at college, meet my dad's friend in a mall parking lot, and have him replace my car's radiator right there. But apparently, those are all southern things.
Not to mention the family traditions.
When I was a kid, my family created crawfish ball. My sister and would stand at the boat launch behind the house while the adults sucked crawfish heads before tossing them at two very eager children with tennis rackets ready to swing. It was messy and disgusting, but tradition. Every Southern family has stories like this. These are the stories I love to hear.
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