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Christian Pridgen

Lynn Raymond

English 1102

February 19, 2013

Off in the Back State of Alabama

In Alabama there lived a sweet teenage girl by the name of Tai Alexandria.

She lived in Aliceville, Aliceville just as most parts of Alabama is very country. Tia

lives the life of a southern bell. She is an African American girl living in a mostly

white community. Tia and her white friends are benefiting from the struggles of

many of their ancestors. Alabama before the civil war and civil rights movement was

a slave holding state that did not respect any rights of African Americans as human

beings. As a result of all of the suffering and fighting that her ancestors endured, she

is now able to attend school with white people and also hang out with them in

public.

Tia is a very pretty girl. She has a caramel brown skin complexion and long,

beautiful, flowing hair. As a southern belle she is very fun to be around, and is very

popular. She enjoys the simple things about life; she is entertained by riding her

horse, and other sorts of tomboy things such as playing with worms in the swamp

area behind her house. She has no problem with walking around all day outside

with no shoes on, or just going for a ride on her horse. Tia is also very active in

school. She balances academics and athletics. She enjoys being a part of the

cheerleading team a lot. Her father loves her; she is a huge daddys girl. She loves

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when her father goes hunting and is successful; sometimes she even goes hunting

with him. She loves the thrill and excitement that comes along with hunting. Hearing

the pop of the raffle and then feel the vibrations travel from the gun to her chest to

the rest of her body serves as satisfaction. To top off a great day of hunting her

father would prepare to game for he mother to cook it in the morning. They would

eat the game and share it with their other family members that lived in surrounding

areas.

It is a beautiful spring afternoon and Tia is doing one of her favorite things,

she is lying out by a pond that is behind their house. While laying out by the pound

Tia was going through the picture on the iPad. She came across pictures of some

game that her and her father had killed, cheerleading pictures from school, and then

she came across some family and family reunion pictures.

A few of her family members live in Panola, Alabama, which is about 30

minutes away from Aliceville. This includes her cousins Little Buddy, his wife Daisy,

and their children. Sometimes she goes over to their house which in the middle of

absolutely nowhere. She does not go over to their house often but it is guaranteed

that she will go visit them along with many of her other family members that are

there for family reunion every year. The Pruitt family reunion is held every

Memorial Day weekend. Tia has no siblings so she is always excited to spend time

with her cousins who are her age. Every family with ties to the Pruitt name comes

from all over the Eastern and a few other parts of the United States. Families come

from Louisiana, North Carolina, and Texas.

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During family reunion weekend Tia usually is able to see her family every

day of the weekend. On each day there is a special event that the family engages in

together. The first is the Fish Fry on Friday. This tradition is very self-explanatory.

On Friday each family is coming in to Panola from their travel, after checking in to

their hotels. The families are hungry. This is the first time of the weekend that the

whole family is the together. The food, the family, and the fun is a perfect

combination to kick off their family reunion weekend.

The pictures from past reunions on Tias iPad make her realize that Memorial

Day weekend is coming up soon. She begins to remember past family reunions when

she sees one of her cousins post on her instagram timeline. She thinks of a funny

story. She first thinks of a fish fry from aboutthree years ago. She thinks of a

conversation between on of her older cousins and one of her uncles. Her cousin

Little Buddy asked her DeborahWha ya wik? Her cousin Deborah who is from

eastern North Carolina and did not understand whatLittle Buddy said at all, so she

asked

What? and he repeated

Wha ya wik?

They go back and forward for about four times until Deborahs husband, who over

heard and understood interjects. He translates for his wife that Tais uncle is asking

her where she works. The family often laughs about this story.

Tia begins to look at pictures from last years family reunion. She comes

across some pictures from Saturdays cookout gathering. The cookout is held down

the street from her familys house in Panola at the community center. The family

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goes above and beyond for the cookout. They have a talent show and other

activities. During this part of the family reunion the families are to share their

individual accomplishments and talents with each other. Tia comes across one of

her favorite videos from the family reunion, which is one of her cousins, Nicole

doing a spiritual dance. Nicole was dressed in a white liturgical dance gown. She

turned and twirled with her toes pointed and her arms flowing from left to right and

up and down.

Next Tia comes across some pictures from Sunday morning church service.

On Sunday the family puts on their Sunday best and attends a service at a local

church. During church service there is a possibility thatany newborn babies maybe

christened or at the least anointed and recognized. Then the family gathers one last

time after church for dinner before they part and go their separate ways. After

dinner the kids play for a little outside. The kids play basketball, jump on the

trampoline, ride the horses, or play with their hand held video games until it is time

to go. The family comes together for one last time to pray just before everyone

leaves. The Pruitt family reunion weekend is now complete.

As Tia sits by the swampland she has become more excited about the

upcoming family reunion. Tia in her excitement starts commenting on her cousins

pictures telling them that she misses them and how she cannot wait to see them this

year for family reunion. Just as she completes her last comment she hears her father

call from the house saying Pooba. She answers Yaw Pa and he responds saying,

Come on here let go down ta Panola fo a visit.