Sweet Home Alabama! Post #5

Having left New York at 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning, we didn’t arrive to Mobile until around 9:00 p.m. Monday, June 30, 2008. We needed to pick Les's car up at the airport so our first stop was in West Mobile. It was dusk and the girls and I decided to drop Les off and find our own way to our house - which I had found on Craigslist. Map in hand, off we went. The sky was a beautiful pink and the palm trees stood as proud silhouettes on a balmy, summer night. Having described Mobile as “Erie Boulevard with Palm trees” (see my second post),my oldest, Nejla, a UAB student who hadn’t been to Mobile, looked at me incredulously and asked, “What was ugly about Mobile?” I had the same feeling of shock and surprise as I said, “I don’t know!”

        We drove Airport Boulevard to Government Street so it was a long strip. But on that night, neither of us had ever seen such a beautiful sight. The sunset and Palms nicely camouflaged any plainness or ugliness I had remembered. The warm, sultry air and the distant smell of the ocean mixed with sweet flowers accentuated the view! I now know, after a little experience in Mobile, that there are two worlds; west of 65, and east of 65! As we drove in the western world of Mobile, we saw beautiful neighborhoods I hadn’t seen back in April, and the sky was very different from the gray skies during our three-day visit here. Even the boulevard traffic was dwarfed in comparison to the backdrop that enveloped it, as though an artist had painted the sunset over the boulevard just for our arrival.

        In the eastern world – after Bellaire Mall, the commercial landscape began to disappear and, in spite of the now-dark skies, the Live Oaks stood magnificently, tunneling streets. Then we got to Government Street! I had never seen Live Oaks before because, as stated in my second post, they were either invisible when we were here in April or they had been installed between then and now because they were NOT there before! The three of us squealed, squawked, and ‘oooh’d and aaah’d’ over the trees, the many versions of Palms, and the garden-like quality that surrounded the beautiful mansions of Government Street in the historical district.

        We knew we were getting close to our street but feared ours would be out of the other end of this beautiful area, where there would be no Live Oaks or historical mansions. When we finally reached it, we again gasped in delight to find that our street was right in the heart of historical Mobile. We turned and as we drove down the street, were amazed to see that each house was more beautiful than the next and we knew at that moment that I had won the lottery: a house, found on Craigslist, sight unseen!

        My previous neighborhood had been similar type but there was no ‘historical’ section, just ‘historical’ houses and certainly the streets were not tunneled with the trees or filled with tropical landscaping. The fact that only certain houses were deemed historical meant that your neighbor could put on aluminum doors, vinyl windows and siding, undermining the whole character of the neighborhood.  As we drove down our street, also tunneled with Live Oaks and historical houses with yards that looked like tropical gardens, the houses got smaller and ours was nearly the smallest. However, I had always lived in houses with big porches and this porch would do. The Live Oak in the corner of the yard that drapes over the driveway and shades the whole front yard washed away any disappointment that my little rental house was not one of the bigger ones that lined the streets.

        I was pleasantly surprised at how much bigger it is inside than it looks from out – a phenomenon that is quite common here! Not having been a renter in over 20 years, it was then that it hit me how lucky I had been to land a house such as this, sight unseen, in such a gorgeous area! I shuttered to think it could have been a roach or rat infested house in the worse part of town, yet, here I was in a place that I had always pictured in my mind, the tropical garden quality, trees that tunneled the streets and the must-have Palm trees and plants that assured me there would be no snow! Yet, I didn’t know it actually existed, nor would I have had a clue where to begin looking for it, yet here it was and here I was!

You would think I’d start unpacking the house but instead, all I wanted to do was sit on the porch and bask in the beautiful scenery that was now my home. Our landlord and his girlfriend had just put a new kitchen in the house and were in there completing the final touches when I arrived. Their obvious concern for me to be happy was evident! After they left, my girls and I walked up and down the street like tourists in New York City, with our heads looking up, only here at the trees. We kept tripping on the sidewalks, most of which are lifted and broken from the roots of the Live Oaks and Magnolias. Only it didn’t matter! We would just have to watch our step! The trees reigned and the sidewalks would just have to deal!

         When we had first reached the Alabama state line coming in on 59 and stopped at the welcome center a load of weight rolled off my shoulders. The stress that I had felt for so long fell off at various milestones of the trip, but the last of it fell away at the welcome center, surrounded by gardens, Florida pines – the tall ones that don’t smell like Christmas or snow – and beautiful trees – but not yet Live Oak territory. You would think that, between there and here – about five hours, I would have taken a long, beautiful nap. But I didn’t want to miss a thing in my new state and could not sleep! Finally, we were here and I was certain, though, that sleep would find me that night. After all, I was finally home – a place I had never been before!