I moved to South Alabama for a job. I’m from Ohio, so the change in culture was quite a shock. To go from big city to small town, from the North to the South, it took me some time to adjust.
When I first found out that I might be moving, I talked to my dad about it. Being my dad, he immediately searched for credit unions in Alabama and recommended I talk to Alabama Telco. I made a note of it and promptly forgot all about it.
I’m a reporter, so from the first day, I was covered up with work, if you’ll forgive the pun. Honestly, it took about a year to unpack the last box in my apartment. Fast forward to the end of that first year and I get an assignment to cover a local business that is changing its name: Alabama Telco is becoming Avadian Credit Union. I felt some sense of déjà vu. After interviewing the branch manager and several members for my story, I felt like I should have come in sooner.
When you hear members of Avadian tell their stories, the tone is different from almost any business I’ve written about. In some ways, they don’t see Avadian as a business. They see it as family.
Overall, that’s been the biggest difference in my move to the South. The sense of community in this small town is powerful. It’s a close-knit group, but they were more than willing to open their arms to a stranger, who speaks fast and with a strange accent.
After I finally got around to moving my accounts to Avadian, they gave me a small welcome-to-the-community gift, including some Southern snacks, a book about the area and an oven mitt with my college’s logo on it. The note said, “a small taste from home and an introduction to ours.”
That is not something you would expect where I’m from and I totally believe in the idea of Southern Hospitality now — thanks to my friends at Avadian.