Move to a small town

My wife and I recently moved from Memphis, Tennessee to the small town of Arab, Alabama. Her company, which has plants in Memphis and Arab, was closing the one in Memphis. The company offered her a good position in the Arab plant. I was semi-retired, so I didn't have a job to keep me in Memphis. We decided she should take the position and that we would move.

At first there was more than a little trepidation about the move. For all practical purposes, we had both spent our entire lives in Memphis. We weren't sure what to expect in the small town, something like Mayberry RFD, I guess.

To cut to the chase, we have really fallen in love with the town and the whole North Alabama environment. Some of the reasons:

1. The town is in the foothills Appalachian Mountains. We didn't think of mountains when we thought of Alabama, but it's true up north. We've taken up hiking during good weather at a nearby state park (Lake Guntersville State Park). Some of the views just driving around the area are stunning.  Lake Guntersville is the largest lake created by the TVA on the Tennessee River.
2. People are incredibly nice. That goes for everyone from the checkout clerks in the Walmart to the car registration clerk in Guntersville City Hall. They truly seem to be glad to provide you service. In Memphis, bless its heart, the word that comes to mind most often is "surly" when I think of the service we get in either the government, fast food, or cheap retail settings. I'd like to say that those folks there act like they are doing you a favor, but that would be overstatement.
3. Shortly after we moved here, I had an accident. I had gone for an early morning walk on one of the local golf courses. It was early June, so already warm. I could tell I needed hydration, so I stopped in the WalMart (everything in Alabama is measured in distance to the WalMart. Ours just happens to be very close.) I bought a bottle of water and headed out down a short stretch of highway that runs between the WM and our street. Soon, I could tell I was in some kind of distress, but I kept drinking water and kept walking. The next thing I knew, I was flat on the ground (fortunately, I had been walking in the breakdown lane) bleeding from my forehead and surrounded by three gentlemen. One was a policeman. After some conversation, I agreed that they should call an ambulance and I should go to the hospital. (At this point, my wife made the joke that, if this had happened in Memphis, they would have tried to run over me. Slight exaggeration.)
4. Continuing #3, when I got to the emergency room, the doctor who treated me asked me some questions that had never been asked in concert before. I had a CAT scan that eventually resulted in a diagnosis of a condition that required surgery. Result, I'm "all better."
5. Everything is cheaper here!

Of course, nothing is perfect, and there are a few downsides to living in this small town, but neither of us feels that the negatives outweigh the positives.

More on Arab in subsequent posts.