As a Southerner, I have always enjoyed the simple joy of driving down the backroads of Alabama. The black top two lanes that cut through the state are beautiful, flanked by old pecan orchards and cattle farms, where rustic tractors sit half visible behind tall grass, like monuments to our agrarian roots. Amongst the hand-painted signs and well-worn service stations that line these roads lies the heart of Alabama.
Our culture was changing long before industry moved south. The world I grew up in moved much slower and at gentler pace. Mostly, I would guess, because of our isolation. We had 2 or 3 TV stations and about the same number of radio stations. We spent our free time with family and friends. Most of our entertainment came from visiting others. We neither knew nor cared much about the outside world.
I certainly miss a good part of how it used to be, but there are many things that have improved. We have access to food, music, and people that we never had before. I don’t judge one to be better than the other because it’s out of my control. What I can and have done is to teach my children our history and to instill in them the importance of spending time with people.
"Improvement", always and forever, comes with the side effects of un-differentiation and the death of local particularity. Whether one considers this a worthy trade or not is up to individual discretion, but I believe it contributes to the soul-death of culture. There needs to be a stop to "improvement" somewhere, somehow. At a minimum, development and change need to settle and sit for far longer than it does now, so as not to risk the wiping away of those crucial sentimental and historical waylines spiked to the earth by our forefathers.
My Florida has changed significantly, even beyond the first waves of Yankee settlement in the 1910s and 20s. They never stopped coming, but it wasn't ever in mass droves. Dark-skinned foreigners are now the main source of cultural dilution, but the constant land development continues ever onward, destroying our beautiful central/southern wetlands and pine flats. Although I'm only in my late 30s, the change I've seen is staggering. And i'm not sure I like it anymore.
I'm in my late 20s, the change I've seen in 4 years is staggering! 10 years and you're on another planet when it comes to Florida. I'm on my way to rural Texas soon if this keeps up. I will not sit by and live in the Miamization of this entire state.
I’m a 71 year old southerner and seventh generation Floridian and could relate to this article before most of you were out of diapers. As a child the clipped speech of northerners stuck out but sadly my southern accent is an endangered species in the land of my birth. I grieve for my Florida and fear for her future.
Our culture was changing long before industry moved south. The world I grew up in moved much slower and at gentler pace. Mostly, I would guess, because of our isolation. We had 2 or 3 TV stations and about the same number of radio stations. We spent our free time with family and friends. Most of our entertainment came from visiting others. We neither knew nor cared much about the outside world.
I certainly miss a good part of how it used to be, but there are many things that have improved. We have access to food, music, and people that we never had before. I don’t judge one to be better than the other because it’s out of my control. What I can and have done is to teach my children our history and to instill in them the importance of spending time with people.
"Improvement", always and forever, comes with the side effects of un-differentiation and the death of local particularity. Whether one considers this a worthy trade or not is up to individual discretion, but I believe it contributes to the soul-death of culture. There needs to be a stop to "improvement" somewhere, somehow. At a minimum, development and change need to settle and sit for far longer than it does now, so as not to risk the wiping away of those crucial sentimental and historical waylines spiked to the earth by our forefathers.
My Florida has changed significantly, even beyond the first waves of Yankee settlement in the 1910s and 20s. They never stopped coming, but it wasn't ever in mass droves. Dark-skinned foreigners are now the main source of cultural dilution, but the constant land development continues ever onward, destroying our beautiful central/southern wetlands and pine flats. Although I'm only in my late 30s, the change I've seen is staggering. And i'm not sure I like it anymore.
I'm in my late 20s, the change I've seen in 4 years is staggering! 10 years and you're on another planet when it comes to Florida. I'm on my way to rural Texas soon if this keeps up. I will not sit by and live in the Miamization of this entire state.
I’m a 71 year old southerner and seventh generation Floridian and could relate to this article before most of you were out of diapers. As a child the clipped speech of northerners stuck out but sadly my southern accent is an endangered species in the land of my birth. I grieve for my Florida and fear for her future.