Monday, July 7, 2008

the deep south

I already told you about the wedding and my trip to Pottery Barn, but our other stop on our trip was in Valley, Alabama. Yes, Vaaaalley, AL. You have to say it with an accent, if you can. Valley is a sweet little southern town that is half asleep. My mom was raised there in a teeny tiny little house beside a creek, and she shows us the creek each time we go. The house has been torn down, but the brown little creek is still there.

My Uncle Tom and Aunt Sarah still live there in this cute little house. When I was little I loved the porch swing and steps up to the house. I always thought steps leading up to a house was somewhat romantic and I could just imagine a date walking up those steps to get me.

I know, I have a somewhat vivid imagination.

We spent all of 24 hours in Alabama and I came away with a jar of fig and strawberry preserves and a love of homemade biscuits. My Aunt Sarah made them for each of the three meals we had with them!
This is my sweet Uncle Tom. He talks so fast and with such an accent that when I was little, I could not understand him. He loves bass fishin' and grillin' and boatin' on the lake, which we were gonna do, but the boat battery was dead. So we sat on the shore and enjoyed the breeze and caught up.
Here is my Aunt Sarah with Charlie. She is actually my Mom's cousin, but I call her Aunt anyway. She is such a sweet lady and she fried up eggs and bacon for breakfast the next morning before we got on the road. She used to do that everyday for my Uncle Tom until he had a heart attack and now she feeds him cereal. He was so happy we were there because she cooked!
Here is the lake with the dead pontoon boat. I did walk over to the boat ramp and wade in the water a little bit to say I had been in the lake. It was nice and cool and it would have been fun to swim, but we hadn't brought our suits. Silly us.

It was such a nice little break after all the hurry up stuff that was the wedding. We relaxed and talked and drank tea and ate biscuits.

Sweet Home Alabama.

10 comments:

Hunny Bee said...

Aw, I love family like that. Reminds me of my grandparents, who are both gone. Something about having a nice country lady cook for you that just makes you feel good and warm inside. I miss that.
Their home looks about as sweet as they do. I hope you had a wonderful time!

Caroline said...

How refreshing. I relaxed a little just reading it. I love time spent with family, and you gotta know there's always gonna be some good foot to boot. That's how we do it in the south.

Debbie said...

What a great pictoral of days gone by and a pace of life that is enviable. So much fun to read!

Karin @ 6ByHisDesign said...

the sweet south.
thanks for sharing.

oh. and I loved that movie :)

~Karin

Jennifer P. said...

I want to go down south and eat biscutis and listen to the drawl! Sounds like such a nice visit with family. I loved the part about having to eat cereal because he had a heart attack---funny and not funny at the same time ;)!

Rebekah said...

Tea and biscuts. I could eat sum-o-that.

Heather said...

I can smell those biscuits. Their house is ADORABLE. THEY are adorable. That swing out back is ADORABLE. It sounds like you all had a very nice visit.

Unknown said...

I've missed you, Sissy! But I've had so much fun reading through your past entries and "catching" up. That wedding was beautiful. Did they say why they wore the hats and canes?

Anyway, I loved this post. You are a good writer. I felt like I was there! Sweet home Alabama indeed. (BTW, that's one of my favorite movies.)

Lula! said...

Ahhhhhh...nothin' like the south. The REAL south. Just by looking at your pictures I can tell that they are so my people. Without a doubt.

Sigh...I'm ready for a trip to Georgia now.

Anonymous said...

They have such a beautiful home. It is so nice to have a great southern family. Now, I am in Alabama, but I've never heard of Valley. Is it north or south of Birmingham?

Anyway, looks as if you have a wonderful visit.
-- Brandi