Growing Up Alabama:

I grew up in Alabama...and that comes with all sorts of realities that the movie Sweet Home Alabama pointed out, good and bad. Since I've moved out I've found that people have all sorts of misunderstandings about the presuppositions about this.

So, here's a primer to help all you who didn't grow up there "get" us...

1. The true religion of Alabama is college football. Saturday is the high holy day of worship, with 170,000 attending the games and another 3 million or so watching on television. If you aren't a college football fan, you're subject to ridicule or you fake it.

2. The Bible Belt does indeed buckle in Alabama. I've heard other places make this claim, but it isn't even debatable. Everyone has a church, even if they aren't sure of the theology or why they it is "their church." If you aren't a religion fan, you're subject to ridicule or you fake it.

3. Family is very important.

4. Alabama is always "home." Very few people move out unless it is for business promotions or for academic endeavors. And if you do leave for any reason, your family and friends presume that you will eventually move back. In all earnestness, they ask, "When (not if) are you coming back?"

5. The women of Alabama have a tremendous amount of expectations heaped upon them. They are subject to critique of their cooking, dress, weight and/or appearance, motherhood...you name it. In many ways, the drive of a Southern woman is to reach those expectations. Guilt is a powerful motivator.

6. Conversely, the men of Alabama have a low expectation level. Just like sports and be a good ol' boy.

7. Appearances and impressions are more important than reality. Think of Scarlett O'Hara in the dress made of old curtains. Even in the darkest of moments, an appearance of dignity and grace is much more important than the reality of your home being burned and your nation invaded.

8. Manners and etiquette are important...usually discussed by women at weddings.

9. Politics are based on #s 2, 6 and 7.

10. "Yankees" are viewed with suspicion, and the term is usually expanded to anyone not born beneath the Mason-Dixon line. The cities they are from are usually spoken of in a negative connotation even by people who haven't been to them. The War of Northern Aggression (what most people refer to as the Civil War) still hurts.

11. The fine arts are "fringe." Most art films, plays, art openings, museums, ballets, etc., are far from mainstream, and those that patronize them consistently are few in number. This is changing a bit, though.

12. Racism is alive and well, but I think Alabama gets singled out in this respect because of it's visible history. I don't think it's any worse than anywhere else in the world these days, as even the older generations have learned a political correctness about the whole deal. The attitudes of the young are changing, but among the older, there is still an undertow of attitudes that are beliefs...even if you can't talk about them now.

13. Country music stations lead the radio ratings.

That's all I can think of at the moment...let me know what I left out...