Sailer, I’m curious how you, as a kayaker, can speak positively about Lake Wheeler.

I am also a kayaker. I avoid large waterways whenever possible. I am endangered everytime I am on the water with powerboats or jetsksis. No exaggeration-every time. And, of course, the water is filthy.

When you complain to the marine police, the typical response is: “If I see it, I’ll ticket them or arrest them.” Uh, well, gee officer, idiot powerboaters and jetskiers aren’t going to behave that way when your clearly marked police boat is nearby. Maybe using an unmarked boat or watching with binoculars would work.

Of course, when you suggest this, the officers become hostile as you are “telling them how to do their job.”

Where do you put in when you kayak? Surely you don’t use the dangerous boat ramps. Perhaps you proceed as I do-taking time and effort to find a sloped shore with no glass, broken concrete with rebar protruding, etc.

Ever wait 10-30 minutes to put in or take out because of the waves caused by powerboats/jetskis at the ramp? This is common for me.

Alabama parks and resources are unbelievably trashy. The parks here are worse than in Chicago. Worse than St. Louis, worse than Kansas City, worse than Chicago.

Sipsey Wilderness…. ….hmmm. It really should be called the Sipsey Scar. That isn’t a wilderness. It is what has managed to live after the land was r_ped. When you can be in the Sipsey/BNF, of course. “When” because AL (as well as other states) allows hunting on public lands. It isn’t a good idea to be in the woods during hunting season and public campgrounds frequently do NOT allow camping or warn against it duing the hunting season.

Does no one else see the problem with this? The authorities allow an activity-hunting-that is so dangerous they either prohibit campers from being present at that time or strongly warn against it.

The BNF and Sipsey are, like the other public areas here not dedicated to nature. There is much development on the shores. I have never been in a public park area in other states which allowed so much development on the shore.

Alabama leaders should be ashamed about what they’ve allowed to happen to the state’s land and waterways. The clearcutting and chemical pollution are abominable. Even if one tries to focus on the present and future rather than the past, it is a depressing situation.

AL is in a five year drought. A drought categorized as “emergency” by officials. Yet in the Shoals area where I live there is no watering/carwashing ban.

Have you ever been to a gas station North of Tennessee? The fuel pumps have “vapor recovery nozzles.” The VRNs use a simple rubber boot to capture vapors that would have escaped into the atmosphere. Other states have mandated the use of VRNs.

Watering bans, VRNs, an ENFORCED “no tolerance” policy on loud stereos…. …these are all laws/policies implemented by other states. AL simply needs to follow the example of those states. The research has been done, all AL has to do is implement these policies-the difficult task of figuring out what to do has been performed by others.

Many of these policies would be implemented at the municipal level rather than the state level. The lack of such policies is indicitave of the mindset in the state. The areas of AL that I’ve seen are unbelievably backwards. The situation here is, as I’ve previously mentioned, like that depicted in movies.

Do you think the people here could possibly speak correctly? I’m not referring to accents, but to mispronunciations. The word “on” rhymes with “fawn” not with “cone.” I’m a carpenter. I need to here “to the left 1/8″ inch” or “right 1/4″” not “back over yonder ways a might.”

“Back over yonder ways a might.”

Do Southerners really wonder why so many people have a negative perspective about them?

As I said, I can’t wait to leave this place. I will, upon departing, scrape the soles of my boots just as I do after stepping in dog excrement.

To all those who think I am overly cynical: I know my comments won’t be well received. Prove me wrong-I challenge you. Rebut my negative commentary point-by-point. I challenge you.

I’ve been living in the “Shoals Area” for approximately 18 months. I hate it here…

I have never been treated so badly by people. The locals appear to be still fighting the civil war. This area is very much like a bad Southern movie-or like a good one: “Deliverance.”

I am serious. I am a kayaker and have had some VERY bad encounters with the rednecks here, potentially violent encounters.

The people here are backwards; there is simply no other way to put it. I moved here expecting the “New South.” I expected to meet civilized, intelligent people-Southern gentlemen, gentile ladies, and a younger generation who had cast off many of the attitudes and prejudices of their parents.

I have met many of the following: rednecks, white trash, and “hip hop” types. I thought rednecks kept all their rusty clutter in the back yards, not the front…

I was previously an electrician in a large midwestern city. My coworkers would occasionally travel to other areas to assit with storm/disaster recovery efforts. After my colleagues travelled to MS, LA, and AL after Katrina, I frequently heard the following comment about southern electricians; “I don’t know how they keep the lights on down there.”

I know how. The people here understand EACH OTHER. They can communicate effectively amongst themselves. They are largely unable to communicate effectively using a common technical vocabulary that every other electrician-from Oregon to Michigan to New York.

Final example: I recently went to the local Lowe’s store to purchase some 2×3 lumber. Not only did the store not carry it, no one at the store had even heard of 2×3s. To add insult to injury, I heard the staff discussing me from the next aisle’ “Who is that know it all yankee?!”

So nice. I politely ask for a product I’ve used for years only to be talked about badly. Is that the legendary southern hospitality?

I can’t wait to leave this place.

Your blog reminded me of the things of Birmingham I loved. I still don’t know how I found it, but it was a great day.

I will miss it. But I still think your decision to move back to Louisiana so your kids could know their family is a great one. I hope they appreciate what you are doing for them.

as for the festival theater, it’s greatness - a first rate movie theater that no-one went to - was it’s demise.

I had no idea that Highland Coffee and the Festival theater were gone.