the state by state speak your mind about...alabama

[The Genealogist]

75. My experiences in Alabama

Between 2000-2009, as I was exploring, then attending, Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, I drove across Alabama, I would guess a total of probably two dozen times, from Houston County in the very SE corner of the state, to Marion County in the NW part, on US 231 to I-65 to US 78 (now I 22). I've been on 1-10 for its entire length through Alabama, and I-20 between Birmingham & the Georgia state line. In short, I have seen quite a bit of Alabama. I found some things appealing. For the most part, I would say life moves slower (well between Montgomery and Birmingham, people drive like bats out of Hades!). There is some beautiful scenery: pine forests and quaint towns.

Too many years of stereotypes, movies, tv and horror stories led me to believe, as I drove across the state the first few times, that any time a corrupt law enforcement officer was going to pull me over and a corrupt judge was going to sentence me to 10 years in a work camp for speeding or jaywalking. Reality: I never had a single bad experience with a person in Alabama. The people are generally courteous, they go about their business like anyplace else. The roadside rest areas were cleaner and more attractive than they are in most other states, in my experience and have pleasant buildings for the restroom/tourist pamphlet/snack machine buildings. Further, most larger towns are really not all that different from other parts of the country in terms of what they look like or seem like; there are Wal-Marts, and Shoney's, McDonalds and Days Inn. The greatest oddity I found in Alabama, really, was the traffic lights. At some intersections, there are these single red lights along with the rest, that have a white strobing light surrounding them, that blink as the light is getting ready to change. You can easily see from a distance what is going on at the intersection before you ever get to it; if anything these were more helpful.