101 Good Reasons to Live in Alabama

1. Cheese Grits
2. We're the reason God created Football.
3. World's last outpost of good manners
4. Humidity eliminates need for expensive home sauna
5. You can put a license tag on anything, drive it down the road, and no one will stop you.
6. Sweet Tea
7. Barbecue
8. Unlike less-fun Yankee states, it only takes one snowflake to create a statewide holiday
9. Supermarkets have cute names like Piggly Wiggly, Jitney Jungle and Winn-Dixie
10. No official limit on height of hair-dos
11. Children address adults using Sir and Ma'am
12. Police Officers greet you by name when pulling you over
13. Cultural trends take hold at a leisurely pace so everyone can get on board
14. Crocuses come up before the last Christmas decorations come down
15. New York and California are not taken seriously
16. Gulf Beaches
17. Everyone knows how to tell a good story
18. Politics are more entertaining
19. Auburn-Alabama Game
20. Front porches
21. Back porches
22. Corn on the Cob
23. We have our own way of tawkin'
24. We have our own music
25. More family reunions than any other state
26. Best joke tellers in the world
27. Plenty of elbow room
28. Fried Apple Pie

29. People still know how to dress up
30. At every get together there is always someone who can pick a guitar
31. Unlike hum-drum Yankee supper tables, there's no skimping on side dishes
32. Vintage automobiles are given the respect they deserve
33. Highest per capita cosmetic skills in the nation
34. More books and songs written about Alabama than any other state
35. Azaleas
36. Fried Okra
37. Cornbread
38. Farmer's Markets
39. Flea Markets
40. Neighbors rarely come over empty handed
41. If you break down on the side of the road, someone will always stop to help
42. Soda pop brands have colorful names like Nehi and Grapico
43. No part of a pig ever goes to waste
44. Church suppers
45. Citizens generally know the difference between right and wrong
46. Wild Blackberries
47. Bluebirds in the Spring
48. Children use the quaint expressions "Please" and "Thank You"
49. Tent Revivals
50. River Rats
51. People don't generally pass through -- they come to stay
52. Small talk skill level highest in nation
53. Handshakes still effective in business dealings
54. We might fight but we always make up
55. Fishing that borders on religious experience
56. Knowing someone will always hold the door for you
57. 364 day golfing season (every day except Christmas)
58. Palm Trees, Dogwoods, Sycamores, Live Oaks, Fig Trees, Sweet Gums and Magnolias
59. Never a shortage of advice on any subject
60. Traffic laws subject to individual interpretation
61. Central Air
62. Sweet Potato Pie
63. Misty mornings in the mountains
64. Wild Muscadines
65. Dirt Track Racing
66. Family Recipes
67. Sunsets in November
68. Red Tail Hawks
69. Homemade Ice Cream
70. Peach Cobbler
71. Boiled Peanuts
72. Heat waves on Thanksgiving
73. No legal limit on quantity of exterior Christmas lights per household
74. There are still people who talk without cussing
75. For those who must cuss, wide array of original expletives available
76. Backyard Gardens
77. Sawmill Gravy
78. Neighborhood block parties
79. Volunteer Fire Departments
80. Mayors who conveniently also sell insurance and used cars
81. Camellias blooming in February
82. 'Nanner Puddin'
83. Mee-maw's Coconut Cake
84. Pa-paw's Tomatoes
85. Folks who know your Mamma and Daddy and their Mammas and Daddies
86. Bluegrass Festivals
87. Going barefoot in March
88. Butterbeans
89. Fried Catfish
90. Certain homemade beverages (someone put moonshine on this line, but I think year-round iced tea is the best Alabama beverage of all).

91. Cockroach species guaranteed to scare the wits out of unsuspecting Yankees
92. High ratio of morning radio shows with hosts named Bubba
93. Siestas on summer afternoons
94. Strangers say hello on the street, and instead of running in the opposite direction, you say hello back
95. Home to one of the seven wonders of the world: the infield at Talladega on race day
96. Misguided national news coverage of state keeps obnoxiously heavy, environmentally damaging tourist traffic to a minimum

97. Children grow up bilingual, speaking both English and Southern
98. State leads the way in culinary presentation of the peanut
99. Women named Velma
100. Men named J.B., J.R., J.D., J.P., J.C., J.T., or J.W
101. You can leave Alabama, but you'll always come back home

102. They take the wheels off your home before you move in.
103. You can stop mowing when you hit a car.
104. You don't have to pay child support to your ex wife because you got remarried to your daughter.
105. Hunt'n season is always open.
106. We invented the toothbrush. If anyone else did it would be called a teethbrush.

Well, I can't argue with #105, but the others in that short list make me cringe.

107. real generous deer limits

Deer Limits: (Covington County anyway)

2 deer per day for the whole season, sometime in November through January 31st. BUT, you have to shoot a doe each day before you can shoot an antlered deer that day.

they all eat the same

Ben 589, I see that you are a traveling man. Have you trod the butning sand, or are you only a widow's son?
Alabama is a great place to live for all of the reasons above and and the open seasom on alabama co-eds. You all come down and visit some time.
Judge Sharpe

I've walked the burning sands ... Hadji - Pensacola, FL. My father and a couple of uncles were both there to watch me. (They certainly had more fun that day than I did.)

My wife and I both volunteer and try to help out with the Shriners hospitals programs/fund-raisers all we can. I take a lot of pride in the Shriners hospital program and it's just a great feeling to know I'm part of it in some small way.

Ben,

Good on ya!!

My Dad was active at Behia in Orlando and he raised me at Pearl of the West in New Port Richey.

Best to you and your wife and keep up the good work!!

I am always glad to see Masters at work. I hope ome day to meet you on the level and part on the square. My family has been invloved with the Shrine Hospitals on both sides for many years. Even my mother was a RN at the Shrine Hospital in North Carolina. It is one of the last pure good works around.
Judge Sharpe
King Hiram 774, Zamora Temple

I LOVE Alabama!! I went to grad. school at Auburn in '76, holding my breath for all the nasty stuff that rumored around Alabama. Boy, was I in for a surprise!! The university was terrific. The countryside was endlessly gorgeously wooded....and always accessible. The deer and quail were thick. The fishing was terrific. The flea markets were productive. The folks everywhere were warm and hospitable. The small towns were full of charm, and charming folks. I'm in Florida now, but oh-man.....would I go back if I could!!!!!!!!!!

Shhhh ... don't tell that to the yankees ... what are you trying to do to us? Get us over-run with 'em.

Alabama pays off Hollywood with a huge extortion sum every year for them to display our image the way they do.

Ben,

You're right...I grew up in central FL and used to quail and turkey hunt where Disney built...left in '67 and never went back to live. You boys stay quiet 'bout Bama and don't spoil it!!!

Same thing is happening here on the Eastern Shore of Maryland....used to be all bean fields and now sub divisions are getting to be more plentiful than corn...maybe I need to go back to Alaska!!

I have a little brother up in Maryland right now working for Uncle Sam with the USN.

He spends a lot of time on the road between DC, Nevada, and out of country on various research projects, but for now his address at least says Maryland.

Lived in Savannah for a few years and couldn't find Grapico.

Glad to be back.

Ben,

Hope you folks did OK with Dennis!!

Before I retired I used to deal with the Navy some. Now I don't go West of the Chesapeake unless forced to do so...I call it the "dark side". No reflection on your brother of course, but there are some here on the Eastern Shore that are convinced there is no intelligent life West of the Bay....until you get to the hills at least.

Again, hope Dennis was kind to you.

Dennis wasn't too bad.

We had some limbs down, and lost power for about 15 hours but they got it restored fairly quickly and we were ready for it.