I was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama.
All of my life, from the earliest that I can remember, I've wanted to escape, among other things, the heat. My mother died from a heat stroke in 2002 when I was 30, and it is just horrible here.
When I was small, every year when we went to the beach for vacation, I'd beg my parents to take us to the mountains instead, but they were very anti-north.
Now, at age 36, I have the chance to move anywhere. My husband spent 5 years in Alaska as a child and he would love to go back, but he has only childhood memories to relate.
Also, what we know of Alabama is very much like the stereo-types that you may have heard. (They came from somewhere.) Most people here are very poorly educated and socially annoying. I know someone will get angry because I said this, but atleast in the areas that we've encountered, it's been true. The majority are racist, consider reading to be "square", and are just cackling fools. Even my school teachers couldn't speak clearly and teased me for being a reader. They say things like "chester drawers" for your clothing, and "one-st upon a time", and "sit on the beench", and it's terribly frustrating. No one is perfect, but this is the rule, not the exception. Birmingham, Gadsden, Tuscaloosa... Have you ever seen the movie "Talladega Nights". It would've been funny if it weren't the nightmare that I live in.
For the past 36 years, people who have met me have said that I don't speak as if I've been here long. One time a guy even insisted unto the point of calling me a liar!
I have never fit in with even my family of origin. They called me "yankee". All they do is watch tv, believe whatever they see on tv, drink beer, go to the races, fish, hunt, and go to the beach. I'm an alien here. I've always hated it here.
Thank you
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