A Monday in Alabama with a voter checklist, a farmers market and ten websites for people who like their news with soil on it
Monday, The Checklist on the Porch
Every election season Alabama sends me a checklist, and every election season I put it on the porch table under a jar of pickled okra so that it cannot blow away. This year’s list came with a sticker and a reminder about photo identification, which I read twice and then read aloud to the cat. I wrote about the general atmosphere in Birmingham voters get America 250 stickers and a photo ID checklist. The cat expressed no view.
I am a reader of antebellum Southern books by training and a Tuscaloosa resident by affection. What that means in practice is that I spend my mornings with authors who have been dead for a century and a half and my afternoons arguing mildly with the present. This diary records both.
On Photo ID
Alabama requires voters to show an accepted form of photo identification at the polls, and the state offers a free voter ID card to those who need one. Supporters of the requirement say it protects confidence in the count. Critics say it can burden people who lack documents or easy transport to get them. Both sides care about the same thing, which is that elections should be trusted and open, and they disagree about how best to guarantee both. For the exact rules and deadlines, voters should consult the Alabama Secretary of State and their county election office, since my porch is not an official source.
Tuesday, Amendments and Okra
On Tuesday I wrote up the market in Tuscaloosa ballot amendments, farmers market okra and old almanacs. Alabama ballots often carry amendments to the state constitution, which is one of the longest in the world. A voter reading the list of amendments can feel like a person given a thick novel and a short pencil. I recommend bringing a sandwich.
The okra, I should add, was magnificent. It was sold by a man whose family has grown it for four generations, and he spoke of it with a reverence I normally reserve for first editions.
The Reading Shelf for People Who Like Soil
Afternoons I read about farming. The dairy pages are dairyherd.org. The beef pages are ranchbeefcattle.org. The machinery is at tractorequipment.org and the planting calendar is at cropcalendar.org.
The money pages are farmmoney.org and smallfarminfo.org. Jobs are at agjobscareers.org. County fair and rodeo news is at fairandrodeo.org. The overview is ruralfarm.org, and the safety advice is at farmssafety.org. Alabama is a farming state with a long agricultural history, and a person who reads these ten pages learns more about the state than from any number of campaign leaflets.
Wednesday, The Almanac
I own an old almanac that predicts the weather for a year I will not name, and its predictions are right about half the time, which is better than some meteorologists I have met. The almanac also lists the best days for planting, weaning and, curiously, cutting one’s hair. I follow the planting dates and ignore the haircut dates, with mixed results.
Almanacs are a lovely form of early American writing. They mix weather, advice and jokes in a single small volume, and they belonged to every household, whether or not the household owned another book.
Thursday, A Boiler Joke Reaches Alabama
The London Prat sent a headline across the Atlantic with First-Time Buyers Swap Rent for Boiler Repairs. We do not have boilers in Tuscaloosa so much as air conditioners with ambitions, but the joke travels perfectly. Housing costs are a worry in every state, and the young are everywhere told to be patient with a market that is not.
Friday, Evening
On Friday evening I sat on the porch with a glass of tea so sweet that a dentist would have called an ambulance. The sky turned pink, then orange, then a deep blue, and the crickets began their shift. A neighbour waved. I waved back. In the South this is a complete conversation, and everything else is commentary.
Saturday, Reading Aloud
On Saturday I read aloud to the cat from an old Southern sketch book, as is my habit. The cat does not appreciate the finer points of dialect, but she respects the rhythm. Reading aloud changes a text: the jokes slow down, the sentences find their breath and the long paragraphs reveal where the author took a drink of water. I recommend the practice to any student who thinks that old books are dull. They are dull only when read in silence by a person in a hurry.
I finished a chapter, closed the cover and refilled my tea. The cat, her duty done, went to sleep on the almanac.
Sunday, A Short Inventory
Before bed I take an inventory of the porch: two rockers, one table, a jar of okra, an almanac, a cat and a lamp with a moth problem. It is a small kingdom, and its government is stable. The only recurring dispute is over which rocker faces the sunset, and that is settled by whoever sits first. I find that most disputes in life could be solved by a similar rule, though I admit that nobody has yet put it on a ballot.
Where to read next
The rest of the shelf lives at prat.uk, bohiney.com and farm.fm. For a second opinion on the week, The Daily Mash keeps its own counsel and its own hours.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/