It's ironic that I've been invited to write a column for Gulf Coast Newspapers, since the Courier was instrumental in bringing me to Baldwin County in the first place.

Although I'd grown up both east and west of Baldwin County, I had never actually lived here until 13 years ago. Because of marriage, I moved far, far up north to join my new husband — all the way up in Atlanta — and immediately felt land-locked. It was my first time living away from the coast.

Everywhere I looked, there were buildings or mountains blocking my view. It was visual claustrophobia at its worst. I pined for the open expanse of white sand and blue waters of the Gulf and dreamed of fried mullet on my plate.

I almost sprained my eyelids batting them so hard, feverishly trying to get my husband to move me back to the Gulf Coast.

Score one for the eyes. We relocated to Fairhope in 1999 with a baby boy on each hip and a recently rescued mutt with big ears that poked straight up. I was back home to my native Alabama.

I was born in the Heart of Dixie, a block from the Florida state line in pretty little Florala. Growing up and living for a brief time in Slidell, La. and then Pensacola, Fla. gave me roots that thrive on salt water.

During the years in Georgia, while I was scheming, plotting, planning and dreaming of relocating back to the Gulf, we didn't know exactly where we wanted to live. My husband had been reading books about city planning and studying the qualities that really make a community livable. Many of the places we considered were too touristy, had too many strip malls or had a town center that was ruined by a four-lane highway.

We considered the small northwest Florida community where seven generations of my family have lived and half of the phone book shares my name, but it was a bit too quiet and serene for our tastes.

But on an excursion to New Orleans one weekend, we happened to pass the “Next Exit Fairhope”sign and decided to take a lunch break. We pulled into town and parked next to the best marketing device ever created: the flower topped garbage cans.

By the end of the day, we knew we wanted to raise our yet-to-be-born children in Baldwin County. On the way out of town, I jumped out of the car and ran over to a newspaper box, plopped in my coins, and grabbed my first copy of the Fairhope Courier.

I risked motion sickness and read every word of that issue of the Courier on the way back up Interstate 65. There was such a wealth of information on the pages of the small newspaper, and once we got home, I was motivated to place an old-fashioned phone call and spoke with a real life, non-computerized lady, who helped me buy a subscription to the Fairhope Courier.

From then on, I looked forward to receiving that bundle of tranquility in the mail every week, and I began to pore over stories about the local schools, sports teams, churches and sailboat races.

While others in Atlanta's crowded Piedmont Park read of muggings and car-jackings in the massive Atlanta Journal Constitution, I sat in the sun and savored the Courier's stories of people who took pride in their community and cared for each other in times of need. The more I read, the more we definitely knew we needed to make a change.

It wasn't possible to relocate right away, so we remained in Georgia and resumed life in the big city. Being stuck in traffic most days and watching friends shuttle their 6-month-old children to “classes” made me daydream of a simpler life amidst the charming garbage cans.

When the stars finally aligned and the moving truck pulled into Fairhope, we immediately felt at home. The kindness of the people we had read about proved to be true. Our subscription to the Courier has been a constant since then, and we've watched the paper grow and change for the better over the years, along with the city.

The Courier was my link to home before I ever came home, and I'm sure many of you have similar affections for your hometown paper, whether it's the Courier, the Islander, the Onlooker, the Independent or the Baldwin Times.

I'm honored to be sharing my stories here in these pages with you, and I hope you enjoy them. And if by some chance you are reading this in a stressful, faraway place, hurry home.

We'll save just enough room for you.

Leslie Anne Harrison is a contributor at the Southern coterie website and local blog, Fairhope Supply Co., www.fairhopesupply.com.