Earlier this year, my essay “You Might as Well Eat” was selected for inclusion in the Winter 2016 issue of South Writ Large. Needless to say, but I am quite proud of this essay and where it got placed!
The Winter 2016 issue focuses on aftermath, so my essay about life and tornadoes in Alabama seems a great fit for the theme. You can read it in full here.
But for a sneak peek at the essay, here’s a short excerpt of the opening two paragraphs. Enjoy!
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It’s become a cliché that there are two kinds of people who live in the state of Alabama: those who listen to Paul Finebaum’s radio show, and those who lie and say they don’t. Depending on the subject, his voice can be troubling, maddening, self-righteous, or even humorous. He mainly talks about SEC football, and now he is simultaneously broadcast throughout the land on the SEC TV network every weekday from 3 to 7 Eastern Time. I listen to him while driving, watch him when I’m home. He isn’t much to look at, but then that’s not what attracts me.
It’s his voice, sharp and resonant, the one I somehow trust even when he disparages Alabama coach Nick Saban, which is, admittedly, rare. For it was his voice, when he still broadcast from Birmingham, that let me know that I wasn’t going to die from the blast of tornados that swept through my hometown in the spring of 2011. I’ll never forget that moment, that sound: “From wherever in the vicinity you can hear me and for whatever comfort or warning this gives you, right now the tornado is passing just north of our downtown studios. I can see outside, and believe me, it’s not something I want to see.”
Terry Barr 