Growing up in Rural Alabama

I grew up in rural Alabama.  My Grandparents were farmers and had a hundred head or so of Black Angus Cattle.  It tickles me now to see all the advertisements for "Black Angus" hamburgers, steaks, or whatever.  I was eating nothing but Black Angus my entire life until I moved out on my own in the early 80's.  When I was a baby my parents built a home about 4 miles from my Grandparents.  I can remember my younger brother and me walking the distance down the gravel road to my Grandparents when we were about 8 and 4.  Now would I have dared let my children walk that far by themselves..... heck no!!!  Times are so different and of course, when my daughter was that age we lived in the city!!

When I was about 12 years old my Grandparents gave my parents the "Old Home Place" and 20 acres for Christmas.  I loved that old house and still do to this day.  My Grandmother apparently had wanted a new home for years so they built one less than a couple of miles away, as the crow flies.  What that means is we could walk through Pa Crouch's cow pasture and cross the highway to get to their new home!! Even though I loved that old house as I came into my teenage years I began to realize not everyone lived without central heating and cooling.  My bedroom was at the front of the house which was shut off from the rest of the house during the winter.  I did have a small space heater in my bathroom to use in the mornings.  I told myself that when I grew up I was leaving the country and NEVER LIVING IN AN OLD HOUSE!!! Never, never, never!!  Well, what did I do????  I fell in love with a beautiful historical home in Tennessee and moved back to the country in 1999.  Oh, I even planted huge gardens and canned and froze vegetables just like a good southern women does!!  My beautiful old home was heated with propane heaters and cooled with window units and that was just fine with me.  When family would come to visit they never stayed long because it was just too hot or too cold for them!! lol  Didn't bother me one bit because I loved my old house.  Now, I will admit that first winter I thought I was going to freeze to death, but once I got used to it I was perfectly comfortable in my old home!!  Unfortunately that homed burned December 5, 2005 and I was devastated!  I truly believe I was almost in a trance for nearly 5 years after the loss of that home.  It was a total loss and the only thing saved was our precious little dogs crated in the living room of the home.  I toyed with the idea of leaving the country life completely and even tried it for about a year.  Apparently you can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl!!

This past April I purchased another old home in a different county in Tennessee built in 1900.  Now, I just turned 50 so, I decided the convenience of a central heating and cooling system would be a smart idea.  First week I was here I made arrangements for my neighbors company to install two units.  One for upstairs and one for downstairs.  Didn't really have time to get a garden planted but we have tomato and peppers plant in with the flowers.!!  Next year there will definitely be a huge garden.

I'm only 15 minutes from where I grew up in Alabama, so I haven't gone far.  Back when I was 18 or 19 I would have sworn I would never live in the country again.  I can't imagine spending the remainder of my life anywhere but in the Rural South!!