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Here we go with the alphabet of SRH. This is going to be a 26 part series wherein I give, you the fine readers of Under Construction a glimpse into me, SRH, by blathering on for a while about a letter.
A: Big A, Little A, what begins with A? Aunt Annie’s Alligator, A… a… a…
The most significant thing about me that I can think of that has to do with the letter “A” is the fact that I spent the majority of my childhood in Alabama. I was born in Oklahoma, but the fam moved to Alabama when I was 3, I think. My dad was in the Air Force and got stationed at Gunter Air Station in Mongomery, Alabama. If I remember correctly we moved there on my 3 rd birthday. My only real strong memory of that time was when this kid bit my nose when I slid down the slide he was climbing up.
A couple of years later, Dad retired from the Air Force (not his choice, in fact, no male in my family has ever switched jobs by choice, they have either been fired/let-go/permanently laid off or stayed until they retired ) and took a job in Birmingham. While I was able to get out of Montgomery, I was still stuck in Alabama. I stayed in Birmingham from age 5-ish til I was 18, when I fled to an out-of-state-state college. While stuck in that horrid state I was lucky enough to actually go to a high school with some college prep classes, so I was not too far behind when I got to college. Even though that school (much like most schools in ‘Bama) had an insane drop-out rate. My freshman class was something like 600-650 students in size and my graduating class had 365. You do the math. People who transferred out should be cancelled out by the people who transferred in, so a good chunk of the loss was just that, loss.
It has been almost 15 years since I spent the majority of a year in that state, and, honestly (because if I cannot be honest on my blog, where can I be honest?), I am quite happy to not go back there anytime soon. Since marrying the Wifey almost 10 years ago, I think I have been back “home” 4 times. I don’t miss it at all. Beyond the overt and covert racism that exists down there, there is an accompanying religious fatalism that infests the state as well. It is an overwhelming sense of “If that’s how God wants it to be.” For an extreme instance, there are some people down there who won’t go into a tornado shelter because, “If the Lord is calling me back to the flock, then who am I to say ‘no?’”
This fatalism gives the general populace the righteous power to do nothing. That, my friends, is why I do not like Alabama (aside from the un-educated boobery and rampant –isms within that "culture").
To recap:
Only 25 more letters to go
Still deciding if I should go alphabetically or follow whimsy
If I follow whimsy “Q” will whimsically be last
Looks like it will be orange rice for dinner
Little Man deserves it
40°F shift last night
16.67°C shift last night
But the temp only went from 294.26K to 277.59K
There is a good chance my sinuses will hurt me for that shift tomorrow
Only time will tell
Have a great weekend, everyone
A: Big A, Little A, what begins with A? Aunt Annie’s Alligator, A… a… a…
The most significant thing about me that I can think of that has to do with the letter “A” is the fact that I spent the majority of my childhood in Alabama. I was born in Oklahoma, but the fam moved to Alabama when I was 3, I think. My dad was in the Air Force and got stationed at Gunter Air Station in Mongomery, Alabama. If I remember correctly we moved there on my 3 rd birthday. My only real strong memory of that time was when this kid bit my nose when I slid down the slide he was climbing up.
A couple of years later, Dad retired from the Air Force (not his choice, in fact, no male in my family has ever switched jobs by choice, they have either been fired/let-go/permanently laid off or stayed until they retired ) and took a job in Birmingham. While I was able to get out of Montgomery, I was still stuck in Alabama. I stayed in Birmingham from age 5-ish til I was 18, when I fled to an out-of-state-state college. While stuck in that horrid state I was lucky enough to actually go to a high school with some college prep classes, so I was not too far behind when I got to college. Even though that school (much like most schools in ‘Bama) had an insane drop-out rate. My freshman class was something like 600-650 students in size and my graduating class had 365. You do the math. People who transferred out should be cancelled out by the people who transferred in, so a good chunk of the loss was just that, loss.
It has been almost 15 years since I spent the majority of a year in that state, and, honestly (because if I cannot be honest on my blog, where can I be honest?), I am quite happy to not go back there anytime soon. Since marrying the Wifey almost 10 years ago, I think I have been back “home” 4 times. I don’t miss it at all. Beyond the overt and covert racism that exists down there, there is an accompanying religious fatalism that infests the state as well. It is an overwhelming sense of “If that’s how God wants it to be.” For an extreme instance, there are some people down there who won’t go into a tornado shelter because, “If the Lord is calling me back to the flock, then who am I to say ‘no?’”
This fatalism gives the general populace the righteous power to do nothing. That, my friends, is why I do not like Alabama (aside from the un-educated boobery and rampant –isms within that "culture").
To recap:
Only 25 more letters to go
Still deciding if I should go alphabetically or follow whimsy
If I follow whimsy “Q” will whimsically be last
Looks like it will be orange rice for dinner
Little Man deserves it
40°F shift last night
16.67°C shift last night
But the temp only went from 294.26K to 277.59K
There is a good chance my sinuses will hurt me for that shift tomorrow
Only time will tell
Have a great weekend, everyone
Labels: History of SRH, the 26
7 Comments:
Can't wait to see what you come up with to follow "Barber, baby, bubbles and a bumblebee".
B could have also been for Bama. Just a thought.
(or Blame Blogger for douBle posts)
TheMikeStand:
I think I will be going out of order, so next you might get "X is very useful if your name is Nixie Nox. It also comes in handy spelling ax and extra fox."
As I read this, I kept thinking that there must be something positive about Alabama, but lately these "Alabama Folk Arts Festival" commercials have been running on TV.
Do people chew marbles down there?
Zulhai:
Alabama is really quite a pretty state, not that bright, but pretty.
Peefer:
I expect a full on regression analysis to map the correlation, darnit!
Meeta:
The saying about Central Ohio weather is "if you don't like the weather right now, wait five minutes."
There are a couple of directions that you can go with that one.
My dad almost got a job transfer to Birmingham and we were going to move the summer before my junior year of high school. I wasn't thrilled. It wound up not happening, though I do remember that I would have gone to a high school called John Carroll, and the secretary there was lame.
Allrileyedup:
OOOhhhhh, John Carroll. That tells me a bunch...
Would you call it the Anna Nicole of States?
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