Alabama One - Text
This subject is a 21 year old Caucasian male. He is a theatre major at Birmingham Southern University. He was born and raised in Adamsville, Alabama, a small town just outside of Birmingham. He talks about living with his parents and his grandmother (who is from Mississippi). It is interesting to note that his accent becomes heavier when he is talking about his family and home than when he talks about school. Interviewed by Cynthia Blaise. Edited by Paul Meier. Recorded 1/7/00. Running time 00:02:49.
TRANSCRIPTION
I was born and raised in a small town just outside of Birmingham, called Adamsville. (Um) There was about 250 people in the entire town. Little, little tiny place, everybody knew everything about everybody, which is-- Probably effects a lot of how I am today. (Laughs) Kind of keeping everything quiet so that the neighbors won’t find out. But (um)…
And now I’m a senior Theater major at Birmingham Southern (um) with no clue about what I’m gonna do when I get out of here. But (uh) I live with my parents and my grandmother. We-- we all live together, and (uh) it’s been that way for about ten years now. And (um) it-- it’s kind of weird, ’cause you see people out with their families. It’s usually the parents and the kids, sit-- sitting at the table in the restaurant or whatever, and then you’d look over and see my family. And it’s my parents, and then me sitting next to my grandmother, with her big white hair. And (um) she always orders the same thing at restaurants: a salad and a baked potato. She grew up in Mississippi, so she didn-- she doesn’t eat a lot of meat. And she only eats things that have been pulled directly from the ground. Unless she’s cooked it herself. Then she’ll open up the can and fix it right. But (um)-- yeah, that-- that’s one good thing about growing up with a grandmother in the house: the cooking is always wonderful. (Um) My mom, unfortunately, has fallen out of practice with cooking, and she’s like, “Oh, well, I guess I’ll just get mother to do it. ’Cause I can’t do anything any more.”
But (um), yeah, I guess that’s where I get most of my accent, which is a lot thicker when I talk about them. And when I talk to them, it’s even thicker. But, I-- I guess, being in the theater I’ve tried my best to be able to hide it as much as possible, but it still sneaks in there occasionally.
My favorite food? Oh goodness, there are so many. I guess it would have to be my grandmother’s cornbread. She makes the best cornbread in the world. In a skillet, in the oven, so it’s all crispy, all over. Not these little muffins that you get in a restaurant, uhn-uh. Gotta be this big loaf of cornbread that you cut in little wedges, and it’s so soft in the middle and just so crispy and almost burnt on the outside, it’s just… incredible. Best thing in the world.