Thanks Orange Beach, Ala.

The name of the city alone, screamed, “Predominantly white, stay in your place!” (I’m not scared of them, but I’m not stupid either).
The DIGEST was staying there to cover a football game against Alabama State in nearby Mobile. Orange Beach, an hour away, was the site of the closest hotel. I was relaxing in the lobby of the beachfront hotel, looking up and watching the ceiling fans oscillate. They were made out of huge leaves and I found that interesting.
My phone rang, taking me out of my zone.
“You gotta come to Winn Dixie,” my advisor, Derick Hackett, told me over the phone.
I’m asking, ‘What for.'”
I don’t care to go to Winn Dixie; I was sitting there comfortably. He insisted it was something really important and I just had to see it because I’d enjoy it.
Thoughts ran through my mind. First, it better be some tropical fish I’d never seen before (I watch a lot of “Animal Planet”). Plus, the fish better be swimming in a 70-foot glass tank, I could hover over it and hand feed it real meat. It was possible, we were on a beach. That would have been the only thing I would have gotten out of my seat to go to Winn Dixie.
I arrived in less than 10 minutes, half-crunked and half-like, ‘Whatever.’ I let out a heavy sigh and hoped for the fish. I turned the corner to see Hackett smiling and a photographer alongside him was grinning too.
I finally asked out of aggravation, ‘WHAT.’ They calmly pointed to the top shelf and there it was.
Low and behold, in between ice chests representing University of Alabama and Auburn University, stood bold and proudly, Southern University ice chests. I know it seems simple, but it’s the little things in life that really matters. I was taken aback.
Where was the manager? I just wanted to give some thanks.
We weren’t stored away at the bottom shelf to get dirty by passersby. The ice chests didn’t have missing pieces. SU was fully stocked like the state’s schools and we were front and center. That was my day!
It’s nice to know I can leave Louisiana and get more love and respect than ever. Thanks Orange Beach. We lost the game that weekend, but in Orange Beach, we don’t have to fight the battle.
It’s already won.