in praise of the South

[slyc_willie]

Well, ya'll do think that good bar-b-que is beef...evernone knows it's pork...and the best is from MEMPHIS!!!

Then you haven't spent enough time in Texas . . . good BBQ is a mix. Brisket, pork loin, chicken . . . Look for a place called Rudy's next time you come through central Texas.

 

[slyc_willie]

One thing about Texas that I love...those wide ass roads, and the way folks will pull to the right to let you pass.

Most kind indeed!

That's only outside major cities. In SA, Dallas, or Houston, y'all git yerself kilt if ya can't keep up. ;p

 

[driphoney]

Then you haven't spent enough time in Texas . . . good BBQ is a mix. Brisket, pork loin, chicken . . . Look for a place called Rudy's next time you come through central Texas.

Rudy's!!! Oh my ... oh ... I'm ... wow. It's just my favorite! The original, out by Camp Bullis!

Everything about it. So, worth the trip out there. Worth the rental car, whatever it takes.

Rudy's .... [sigh]

 

[Dixiedevil67]

The South has always been stereotyped. I find it funny how the MTV show "Jersey Shore" is getting so much heat for its representation of Italian Americans. The show has lost advertisers and seen protest from Italian American groups for its so-called portrayal of Jersey life.

Well, welcome to our world. Shows like Hee Haw, the Beverly Hillbillies, and the Dukes of Hazard have aired for years. I’m sure Jersey Shore no more represents the north than any of those shows. None of them portray anything like true Southerners. One acceptation might be the Andy Griffith Show however. The characters on that show are perhaps the closest accurate portrayal of real small town life in the South.

Once a man who lives here, who was upset with some local politics, referred to the town we live in as Mayberry. He meant it as an insult, but if you think about it, it’s really not. Everyone knows everyone and gets along. Moonshine seems readily available. The only crime is the local drunk, and he arrests himself. If there is any major crime, you’ll notice it’s always some convict from a big city coming through town. Hell, I’d love to live in Mayberry.

As far as accents go, I have seen a few shows that do a good job with the accents. The actors on True Blood do a great job. Bill has a gentleman’s accent while Sookie has that fast, common drawl. That Geico pothole commercial cracks me up also, mostly because I know girls that talk exactly like that.

 

[cloudy]

As far as accents go, I have seen a few shows that do a good job with the accents. The actors on True Blood do a great job. Bill has a gentleman’s accent while Sookie has that fast, common drawl. That Geico pothole commercial cracks me up also, mostly because I know girls that talk exactly like that.

Of course I don't know which area you're from, but I so TOTALLY disagree about the accents on True Blood. Absolutely adore the show, but the accents are so god damn horrible that I wasn't sure at first if I was going to be able to watch it.

Bill speaks exactly like a Brit trying to sound Southern, and I don't even have the words to describe how heinous Anna Paquin's (Sookie) attempt at a Louisiana accent sounds like. I swear, it hurt my ears the first couple of times I watched it, and I wondered why the hell they couldn't have afforded a voice coach with all the other stuff they have to do for that show.

It's possible that if you're in Kentucky or Arkansas or somewhere like that, then those "Louisiana" accents sound realistic, but they're just horrible. Vivien Leigh sounded better than any of them do.

eta: ah, I see you're from Tennessee. That explains it.

 

[Misty_Morning]

Dr. Hook...3 Doors Down....Marcia Ball....The Radiators...Dash Riprock...The Subdudes...and although I hate to admit it...Jimmy Buffet..

(ok, the thing about Jimmy Buffet...I went to the same high school as him...well one of the ones he got expelled from...and then I worked at a University that he attended...and I am sick of him...yadda yadda yadda...)...




oh...Omar and the Howlers...

And ..The North Mississippi All Stars..and Dread Clampitt.....

good music...


ETA...The Tangents...this one you gotta have lived in the MS delta for...

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I lived in the same state as Buffet, small world!

 

[Dragonlipz]

Dat be Mr. Jerry Garcia....ya know..."Have a very Jerry Christmas and a Happy New Weir"


It's a Deadhead kinda thing.

From one Deadhead to another: nice avatar, and Memphis BBQ is pretty damn good (mine's better)....had a friend down there who could make some asskickin' cornbread.....Merry Christmas and Happy New Year............

 

[jomar]

...

It's not like we just tote a gun around with us at all times.

...

I pack heat 24/7 but don't carry a gun.

*rimshot*

 

[jomar]

Long ago my father told me that southern people spend the first part of their lives trying to get away and the rest of their lives trying to get back.

No, no. You mean males...nine months getting out and....

...
1. Lynyrd Skynrd ...

I have the "fire" album. Don't think there's many out there. Don't know how much it's worth now.

 

[lesbiaphrodite]

It makes me sad when a thread about the south turns into a case of deconstructive binaries with one set of people attacking it and the other trying to defend it. Why must everything in this world be about fucking binaries? Is every single solitary thing under the sun designed only to polarize people? God, it makes my poor brain hurt.

I refuse to step on the bandwagon explaining all the ways that the south is not this or is not that. However, I can speak a little about myself. I do love this region and also heartily add that I possess a Master's degree in English literature, a minor in French, a dual major in psychology and English at the undergrad level, don't dip snuff, do travel outside the region, love people of every stripe, breed, gender and kind, hate bigots and racists, love the French, hate bad manners and poor upbringing, adore New York City, think that Chicago's Art Institute is awe-inspiring, enjoy watching films with subtitles and surprisinginly despite my accent can be understood easily by anyone from any culture. Christ on the fucking Cross, how unstereotypical does a person have to be to disprove the frigging stereotpyes.

 

[jomar]

Something not mentioned is the traffic wave.

The geriatric set waving to passing motorists from folding chairs in their front yard.

Kids waving to 18 wheeler trucks to get them to blow their horn.

Waving as you pass another motorist. If I know you, you get the whole hand raised from my steering wheel. If not, just a finger or two (but politely!)

Head nods: Chin down for strangers and chin up for friends.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

LES

The average Southern white and black believe that the Yankee is trash from southern or central Europe, or worse, Irish.

 

[Edward Teach]

All those crosses and Christianity in the South freak me out; those billboards and signs promising hell and damnation, 24 hour-a-day evangelical radio stations pouring invective into the night. I'm a big city Jew and it shows, even though I don't practice any more. I do fine in Atlanta, but Nashville has too many neon crosses for me, looming over the downtown like the wrath of God, and when I stopped outside of town for ham and red-eye gravy (which was a big disappointment--just coffee and fat), they didn't seem very happy to see me. Maybe they knew their red-eye gravy was for shit.

There's nothing wrong with reminiscing about how good the food and people and music were where you grew up. (The food and people and music where I grew up were pretty good too, and yes, we had lightning bugs and softball too.) There's nothing wrong with reminiscing as long as you don't imply that anyone who missed out on what you had is somehow inferior or got short-changed and thereby make everyone else feel shitty and resentful.

Personally, I don't like to hunt. I don't like venison or game (though possum is good) and I find biscuits and gravy awfully heavy and hard on the system. I'm not much of a sports fan and I hate the heat, so I'm just as glad I grew up where I did, where I learned to love books and learning and to value people from all sorts of backgrounds.

Zoot, most of the comments on here about Yankees are tongue-in-cheek. They’re making fun of the stereotype which, if I understand, is part of what Cloudy was doing when she started this thread—note her backhanded crack at me about NC.

With a few exceptions, northerners are readily accepted here. The misconception that northerners are hated is the joke. They blend right in to everyday life. A northern accent draws no attention here. Hell, they’re commonplace.

What doesn’t go down well is the behavior of some ignorant bigots who come here and openly bitch and complain and deride everything southern, the largest and wealthiest area of the country with over one-third of the population, yet never go back because they are enjoying a lifestyle they never could have had or afforded where they were. They have a larger home in a nicer neighborhood and activities of almost every imaginable kind for their kids along with things only dreamed about before, like affordable swimming pools and country clubs. They are Damn Yankees.

Posters in the AH make bigoted comments about the south all the time, usually not even realizing what they are saying. Next time you see a negative comment about the south, that no one challenges, mentally substitute the word black, or gay, or Latino, or Eskimo in place of the word south and imagine the furor it would generate.

Or just begin to notice how often the south is denigrated on here, I think it may surprise you.

 

[cloudy]

Or just begin to notice how often the south is denigrated on here, I think it may surprise you.

Kinda like this one?

I'm just as glad I grew up where I did, where I learned to love books and learning

For the record, I was born in Massachusetts, went to elementary school in Los Angeles, high school in Santa Barbara, and only moved to the south (where both my parents are originally from) when I started college. Zoot, I'm probably just as well educated as you are, and I know for a fact that my parents are/were (my father worked on the space program with Von Braun).

I don't think that Southerners are somehow "better" - I was just feeling thankful/happy about where I live, and then the nasty comments had to come out, implying that if someone lives in the South they must be stupid/ignorant and racist.

I've learned my lesson. Won't happen again. I wish y'all (those who eagerly believe the stereotypes that abound) could actually see what you're posting. Talk about bigots.

 

[Edward Teach]

Kinda like this one?



For the record, I was born in Massachusetts, went to elementary school in Los Angeles, high school in Santa Barbara, and only moved to the south (where both my parents are originally from) when I started college. Zoot, I'm probably just as well educated as you are, and I know for a fact that my parents are/were.

I don't think that Southerners are somehow "better" - I was just feeling thankful/happy about where I live, and then the nasty comments had to come out, implying that if someone lives in the South they must be stupid/ignorant and racist.

Cloudy, I understood Zoot to be saying that he was never taught to hunt and do outdoors things, but that he had just as happy a childhood learning to read and study and is glad for it. I didn't take it as his calling anyone ignorant.

 

[Guest]

deleted

 

[cloudy]

Cloudy, I understood Zoot to be saying that he was never taught to hunt and do outdoors things, but that he had just as happy a childhood learning to read and study and is glad for it. I didn't take it as his calling anyone ignorant.

Well, it may be past experience coloring things, but I certainly read that where he lives, "they value learning and people of all sorts of backgrounds and ethnicities," implying, of course, that we don't here.

S'okay...I don't mind being underestimated simply because of where I live. Gives me an advantage.

Cloudy, I was just going to say please put that AV back up of your very fine ass and many of us would be happy to give it a kiss.

I have a really snarky comment, but I'm not gonna do it.

Love you.

 

[Guest]

deleted

 

[jomar]

I like it when Southern folk use words like "cattywampus."

 

[Edward Teach]

Cloudy, I was just going to say please put that AV back up of your very fine ass and many of us would be happy to give it a kiss.

A kiss or two.

 

[Edward Teach]

I like it when Southern folk use words like "cattywampus."

My child is in "kiddygarden."

 

[cloudy]

My child is in "kiddygarden."

One of my friends never says "thingamabob." Her word for it is (let me see if I can phonetically spell it) "dimaflitchie."

 

[lance gt]

As a Canadian, my background of the South was TV, books & comics and movies at the theatre. It was such a culture shock to finally be old enough to go and visit the places I had learned about, and there was no semblance at all to any of it.
The more that I ventured out, on my way down to Fla. to different states and meeting people along the way, gave me a view of the south that was one of envy in many ways.

The inherant customs of the people and the hospitality they showed me, had me coming away with a feeling of being properly welcomed and treated well.
I'm looking forward to one day heading south and renting an RV, then explore the south from coast-to-coast and back in my allotted 183 days.

I think of ZZ Top and and Texas Longhorns, Bourbon St, and French Quarter Jazz , Peaches and plantation manors draped in ivy, and REM, Oranges, sand and Cuban music from beach-side cafes. So many cultures and peoples mingled together and every one with a rich heritage to explore.

What anyone could find wrong with the South is beyond reason to me. Nothing wrong with the North at all, but the South is much more sensual. Go South!!!

 

[Loring2]

The South

There are 4 distinct Southern personnas.

The dregs of the barrel is the Cracker/Nigger personna. They reside in trailers and
'public housing, their kids fill special education classes, and virtually all of them have done some time in state prison. Their means of subsistence is usually unlawful. They attend Church of God or Jehovah's Witness. Ride the city bus.

The middle group is the peasants. They work for someone, own at least one pickup, love NASCAR, look like Dolly Parton, and their chief goal in life is to be a member of the Sheriff's Special Auxillary and ride in parades on horseback. Baptists and Methodists. Drive Fords.

The Patricians own a business or have a profession. The wife is usually a teacher. All of them clean-up well. Dad is a Mason, Mom belongs to the League of Women Voters. The kids attend State U. They attend Church of Christ or Presbyterian. Many own trailer parks and used car lots. Drive Lincolns.

The Aristocracy are 10th generation Southern, Episcopalian, hold high political office, college trustee, bank board of director, kids attend Vanderbilt or Duke, drive Mercedes.

You've got it right on the button Jimie. That would do as a fine answer if Mark Twain had asked "what does the south consist of?". He would have enjoyed the answer, I'm pretty sure.

By the way, where does Tulane fit in?