Sweet Home Alabama

Well, friends, I am back from vacation, but the pace has not noticeably slowed. Vacation was fun, good to get out of town for a while and down to the beach. We headed to Gulf Shores, Alabama, although it was so similar to last year's vacation that it was hard for us to remember most of the time that we hadn't ended up all the way in Florida. I'll tell you a few things that were different, though. For one thing, the drawl was a lot heavier down there. I think it was funniest on the little kids. Another thing, I guess its cliche to say that people are friendlier down South, but I honestly have found it to be true. Maybe a better word than friendly would be outgoing. People all seem to be in each other's business, in a light way, even amongst strangers. People will admire each other's babies in the elevator, point out nice shoes or purses, discuss the parking situation with complete strangers, I even had a lady ask me the other day for help in how to choose a good grapefruit. It's a bit amazing to me, that people can just start a conversation as if they were old friends. I know that some people might find it grating, but I think its kind of nice, warm, it creates this atmosphere of comfort. I also don't think that people are necessarily cold in the North, it's just a difference of degree and manner of expression.

I think my favorite expression of the neighborhood mentality came every night around 10:00, when everybody from these big, fancy condos would come down to the beach, little kids, old people, middle aged people, teenage couples would all troop down to the beach with their little plastic sand buckets and nets and flashlights and go digging through the sand, looking for crabs. And I don't mean just a few families coming down, I mean there was a bunch of people coming down. I love walking on the beach at night to begin with, it is one of my all time favorite things. The velvet black water, the cool sand, the soft breeze, the little purling ribbon of surf that rides in on the dying wave. The stars and the moon hung hazy in the muggy night. Add to that the laughter of families crowded around holes in the sand and hundreds and hundreds of little flashlights, bobbing like festival lanterns all up and down the beach. It's perfect. We never found any crabs, we only brought our flashlight down once and we had no idea how to look or what we were looking for. Some people were digging up in the dry sand and some people kept scanning the surf like they expected the crabs to ride in on little pontoon boats. My sister kept spotlighting bits of dark sea shells. I don't care if we never found anything, it would be worth it to go "looking" every night for that kind of atmosphere.

We spent about equal parts of time swimming and shopping. There was another outlet mall where we stayed, which is difficult. I liked shopping and to tell you the truth, I needed the clothes and they were way cheap. I just always feel kind of dirty when I spend that much time shopping. Ah well, someday when I have all the clothes I need I can leave this life of sin behind me forever. The other major attraction was Lambert's restaurant, an institution of Foley, Alabama. They have a kind of loose interpretation of "family style" dining, in which servers walk around with different dishes that are up for grabs in any amount, any table, any person, no matter what you ordered, you could sample what they called "pass arounds." Oh, that was the other part of the particularly southern nature of the trip, this was the first time I have ever sampled fried okra or grits. I am now as Southern as a fried green tomato. Yee-haw. Anyway, the major attraction of Lambert's, which brought in crowds for hours long waits, was the "throwed rolls." That's right, you heard me, they had two particular servers who walked around throwing rolls to patrons who had the daring to raise their hand. Some of the timid would wait until they were passing right next to the table, but, I kid you not, you could raise you hand when they were across the room and they would toss it right over to you. Our own Jeanne Hughes accomplished this amazing feat of athleticism right on the spot. They were amazing rolls too, especially with their homemade pass-around apple butter. Great place, that Lambert's. However, we were talking to the lady who passed out the black-eyed peas, and she said that they only let boys have the roll throwing positions. Now, I'll grant you, some of those shots are a little tricky because there's this overhang over the booths that are along the sides, and plastic hams hanging from that...anyway, I guess you had to be there. But still, I think this whole "girls can't throw rolls" thing is an obvious example of blatant sexism. We should write letters! We should call our congress people! Ehhhh...whatever, throw me another roll. And pass the apple butter.

Yours exhaustedly,
S.