Voices of Huntsville | Erica DeSpain's Two Generations of Loving Where You Live!
Voices of Huntsville is awarded once a month to a local resident of Huntsville, Madison County, Madison City, Decatur, and surrounding areas to share their personal perspective of our community. Our Voices of Huntsville feature shares their creative passion and unique perspective about what they absolutely love about Huntsville in a format that best speaks to their own creativity, vlog, blog, photo essay. Interested in becoming a TSG Huntsville Voice of Huntsville? Apply here!
Portrait Photography courtesy of White Rabbit Studios.
Portrait Photography courtesy of White Rabbit Studios.
Portrait Photography courtesy of White Rabbit Studios.
Portrait Photography courtesy of White Rabbit Studios.
October 2021
Erica DeSpain’s Two Generations of Loving Where You Live!
When my parents moved to Huntsville in 1987, I wasn’t born yet, and neither was I-565. Huntsville Hospital was microscopic compared to what it is now and Madison Square Mall (now home to MidCity District) was sparkling new.
They moved here from New York City after my dad accepted an engineering job, and my mom still smiles when she recalls getting settled in Huntsville.
“We loved it from the very beginning,” she remembers.
She describes Huntsville in the late 80s as a simple, small, suburban town that had so much hidden potential. She says that it was easy to see that the city had big things around the bend.
They were giddy to be a part of Huntsville’s growth and were generally just so happy to plant their roots here.
After several enjoyable years in South Huntsville that solidified their desire to stay for the long haul in this area, my parents began looking to purchase a new home. One day, after my mom dropped off my dad at the Huntsville International Airport for a business trip, she took my two younger siblings and me on a detour through blossoming Madison.
She says that there was nothing but farmland west of Wall Triana Highway and only a few stoplights throughout the town. Her eyes lit up though at the idea of raising our family there. She recalls Madison being a bit cheaper than Huntsville since it was still such a small town, and she and my dad loved the idea of our family growing up right along with this little community.
So when I was 7, we moved to Pebble Brook neighborhood in Madison along with dozens of other young families. I loved my childhood in Madison. We didn’t have any big entertainment options or classic big-city perks to enjoy, but somehow my friends and I always found something fun to get into.
We spent all summer long swimming and every Friday night during the school year cheering on various Bob Jones High School sports teams. We’d occasionally go to the bowling alley, movie theater, or even just sit in the back of trucks in the Kroger/Applebee’s parking lot before ending the night at the hippest new place in town: the brand new Sonic on HWY 72. Madison had made it!
By the time I graduated from high school though, I was more than ready to get out of Madison and live somewhere new. By 18, I’d somewhat rapidly adopted this idea of “There’s nothing to do in Madison” and was ready for the next chapter.
Interviewing Governor Bob Riley in 2005 as a senior at Bob Jones High School for my journalism class (assistant editor)
BJHS homecoming queen 2005 pictured with my siblings
Discovery Middle School cheerleader circa 2001 pictured with my dad
I spent four great years in Tuscaloosa at The University of Alabama earning my Bachelor’s Degree while also dating a guy who was in school at West Point in New York. He proposed the summer after we graduated/he commissioned, and then we got married fairly quickly too. An Afghanistan deployment was soon approaching.
Though life as an Army spouse was challenging, I loved the excuse to live in new cities and states that I surely would never have ever visited (let alone lived in!) had it not been for our time as a military family. I didn’t know how badly I was ready to flap my wings, move away from Alabama, and explore until I became an Army wife.
Around the seven-year mark of active duty (and four deployments later), my husband made the decision to begin transitioning out of active duty and into the civilian world. We never envisioned that we wouldn’t do the full 20-year career, but it was very obvious that it was time for the next chapter.
Leaving active duty and seeking out one’s next chapter feels somewhat like graduating high school because of the blank slate of opportunities. At 30 years old, my husband had to decide what kind of new career to pursue, and as a family, we had to decide where around the U.S. we wanted to move. For our entire adult lives, the Army always told us where and when to make a change, but now we had the power to make all of these decisions, and we were terrified by our newfound responsibility to make the right decisions.
After a year of nightly discussions and a lot of prayer, we felt somewhat confident in making a move back to our home state of Alabama and my home city of Madison/Huntsville (my husband is from Birmingham). Our friends were happy for us but quickly assumed that our decision was made simply based on the fact that my parents still live here in Madison. Though I love them very much and we have a wonderful relationship, there was actually a lot more that went into the decision than “just” living near my folks.
After living in Tennessee, Arizona, and Kansas and traveling from coast to coast and around the world during our 20s, we’d learned a lot about different cultures and regions and what makes each city/state/part of the country/world unique from others. We learned what we liked and disliked but also, most importantly, learned that the old quote “how you live your days is how your live your life” is absolutely true. We wanted to find somewhere to live that made us enjoy the mundane, everyday life happenings.
Our active-duty Army days
One of our first weekends in Huntsville after moving back in the Spring of 2018
Family vacation to Germany October 2018
My All things Madison logo!
Our three girls August 2021
When we envisioned our routine lives raising our daughters, we wanted to live somewhere with great public schools, a low crime rate, four true seasons, manageable traffic, and fairly quick accessibility to the mountains or the beach. We wanted to live somewhere that had plenty to do on the weekends if we wanted to get out and do something fun, but we also wanted to live somewhere with low enough taxes that we could buy a comfortable home.
We also knew that southern hospitality is a very real thing, so we wanted a little bit of that too. I knew from the get-go that we were never living somewhere that it wasn’t commonplace to smile at and chat with the cashier at the grocery store.
And yes, my parents live here too, and so do many of my childhood best friends, because surprise! – a good chunk of my high school classmates moved back here as well. They also realized that it’s a pretty stellar place to live, work, play, and raise a family.
We moved here in 2018 and have only continued to fall more in love with North Alabama.
Like my parents felt in the late 1980s, we find it absolutely thrilling to be in the midst of this incredible economic boom in the Huntsville region.
And also like my parents, once we decided we wanted to stay for the long haul, we bought our forever home this past summer, and we totally mean it when we say we are never moving again. (I know, I know… the best-laid plans.)
Though COVID has put a damper on festivals, parades, and general community gatherings, we have still enjoyed life immensely in the Huntsville area. All of the elements we desired for the place to plant our family’s roots are truly right here. We may not have a nationally recognized children’s museum or the southeast’s coolest community pool, and yes, sometimes we might find ourselves a little bored with “nothing to do”, but we love our lives here. Madison is home.
My husband now serves in the Army Reserve and is able to fulfill his duties right here in our community at Redstone. And with such a high military presence here, we thoroughly enjoy living among so many people who understand that significant parts of our lives while active duty.
I like to call Huntsville a hidden gem, but I don’t think that term is accurate anymore. Publication after publication is beginning to write about what a desirable part of the country we have here, which is bringing big corporations, big entertainment options, and a slew of new residents from around the world.
I sometimes wonder if I’m biased about Huntsville because I grew up here, but my conversations with local friends who didn’t grow up here confirm what I’ve always believed to be true. This part of the country is special, and we feel so fortunate to call it home.
Erica DeSpain is the founder and editor of All Things Madison, an online resource created in 2020 to be the number one online resource for those who live, work in, or visit Madison, Alabama. She grew up in Madison, graduated from Bob Jones High School, and returned 12 years later with her husband to raise their three daughters and plant roots. She has a background in journalism, public speaking, and education and enjoys applying all of her experiences to the content she creates for All Things Madison.
Erica, we loved learning all about you and your family and why your family chose the Huntsville/Madison area not just once, but twice! Thank you for your story. Be sure and give All Things Madison a follow, and also Erica’s page too!
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