My home's in Alabama

I grew up in Alabama.  I have told people that in the last several years when asked where I am

from and the looks I get or the comments are less than gracious.  I was even told by someone that I was

officially "white trash"  and they meant it.  I have literally been around the world by ship and by plane.  I've

been in Somalia, Africa, Egypt, the Middle East, Italy, Spain, etc...   I've lived in Jackson, Mississippi,

Atlanta, Georgia and I currently live in Nashville, Tennessee.  I live here because it's where work brought me.

I love Nashville, don't get me wrong, it is a great city and I think I'll probably be here the rest of my life but as

the song says "My home's in Alabama"

I was 20 years of age and had just finished Infantry Training School at Camp Geiger, North Carolina.  I was

given orders to Naval Air Station, Brunswick, Maine.  The morning I graduated I got in my S-10 truck and

drove straight through.  It's 19 hours from North Carolina to Brunswick and that's a lot of road to travel

when you are by yourself.  I can't tell you it was a great drive.  Honestly I can't tell you much about the drive.

What I can tell you is that knowing that I might never see my home, my folks, my friend or Alabama weighed

heavy on my mind;  like the air right before a tornado touches down and changes your life in an instant.  Only

I had 19 hours to think about it.  I did what most people do I suppose I turned on the radio.  In those days

before satellite radio and iPods you had to change stations ever 50 or so miles as you ran out of reception,

waiting till the words were so interrupted with static so that you could no longer sing along or understand the

song.  There was no "seek" button on the radios then, you had to slowly turned the knob till you came upon a

station that was clear.  I listened to gospel, country, rock and almost any station you could imagine.  There

were no "talk" radio or "sports" radio then, just music which is maybe the way it ought to be again, but I

digress.  I was around 17 hours into my drive when I saw the sign that announced the Maine State line.  My

radio was just issuing loud crackles of static and I began to move the dial to find a station hopeful it would lift

my spirits.  The sign had pushed me into a deeper funk, realizing that I was only hours from my life changing

knowing it would never be the same.  Finally, a station cameover the air clearly.  The announcer told me it

was a country station and and a song began to play.

Oh I'll speak my Southern English just as natural as I please

I'm in the heart of Dixie, Dixie's in the heart of me

And someday when I make it, when love finds a way

Somewhere high on Lookout Mountain I'll just smile with pride and say,

that my

Home's in Alabama, 

No matter where I lay my head

My home's in Alabama, 

Southern born and southern bred.

I'd like to tell you I was manly, but the honest truth is I cried like I was 14 year old girl who just had her heart 

broken by her first love.  No cell phone to call home, nobody to share my grief, just me, the radio and 4 men 

who grew up, lived and then sang a song about our life.  I don't know if I'll ever move back to Alabama.

I don't really know what tomorrow will bring or where I'll be six months from now.  What I do know is that 

ever time that song plays if you look closely you might just see a tear in my eye and a smile on my face.