I love being from the South. I feel sorry for people who, by virtue of birth, don't share this clear geographical advantage.
I feel sorrier for the people who feel sorry for me for thinking it's something special to have been born in the South.
Bless their hearts…they just don't understand.
Southerners understand that "bless your heart" is relative to context; we know what it means when your baby (who happens to be nine) skins his knee, and we know what it means when Doreen wears white shoes after Labor Day.
"Bless her heart" can be a compliment, backhanded or otherwise, and a skilled Southerner can roll it off her tongue sweeter than honeysuckle dew and you might think it's one when it's really the other.
A Southerner's drawl emanates from heart and soul, not from brain and tongue. We drop our g's, stretch one-syllable words into three and we make up words that are so…well…useful, y'all ain't got no idea how boring our Mother Tongue would be without 'em!
Southerners revel in our food. Sweet mercy–half of it is cooked in pure lard AND IF IT'S SO BAD FOR YOU HOW COME WE HAVEN'T ALL BEEN KILLED OFF ALREADY?! I admit, Paula Deen and her boys might be attempting a subversive Southern genocide by GLOPPING BUTTER IN EVERYTHING THEY COOK–Exhibit #1, –but isn't that like a double negative, which in fact makes it a positive?
I do possess some crazy math skills, no?
Working on a new project recently, I wanted to identify something iconic that illustrated "Southern" better than anything else. In a very carefully chosen focus group–my 3,600–I posed the question "What speaks Southern to you?" and a few responded with marvelous answers:
Your turn to chime in! What speaks Southern to you? Can you think of anything not listed above?
Great list! Thank you for including me! I hadn’t even thought of Bless Your Heart!
Love it! Just got a tinge of home sickness. I also thought of “I swanee” (sp?).
Southern gentlemen. There’s nothing better. Men who will call you ma’am and hold the door open for you, and southern women who can respect their valor instead of being offended or feeling oppressed.
LOL, I actually heard DaveRamsey say that “Bless Your Heart!” can actually mean “I’m going to stab you in the throat!”
Love it. I’m from Texas which some might argue is not exactly Southern, but my dad was from Alabama. I grew up spending my summers in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. I feel completely and totally Southern and, like you. And I love me some sweet tea!
I would have said you, @amberrunsamuck, my first love’s mom (OY!), and drawl.
And I really don’t know how you can stand the food. I love fat, but not deep-fried and carbs. *sigh* I’ve been down here a year, and I still can’t get into it.
Being called “Hun” or “Honey” by random middle aged women that I’ve never met.
Or the conversation between my two daughters earlier while looking out the window:
“I see a bunny.”
“Whay-ur?”
“Thay-ur!”
“Whay-ur?”
“Thay’ur!”
You get the picture! 🙂
I’ve been in Alabama for 2+ weeks and I’m adding some things to the list. Mainly butter beans, lady peas, cornbread, SEC football, Auburn, and my husband’s family.
How about when we see something we’ve never seen or heard of before?
Standard answer…”Must be a Yankee thang…..”
The South really is the greatest place on earth to live, in my completely objective opinion. 🙂
Thanks for including me!
Big front porches with rockin’ chairs swayin’. Visitin’ after Sunday supper. Raising a hand to say hi when passing a neighbor on a backroad. The breeze that finds it’s way through the magnolias after the air has been so thick and steamy you were sweatin’ like a you-know-what in church on Sunday. Answers to questions that are better stories than blockbuster movies, but still don’t answer the question. Fierce loyalty to God, family, and tradition.
I cant seem to see this already listed …
Saying “she’s a mess” to mean several varied things ….
Love the “fixin’ to” … and what about Chick Fil A?
Defintely Yessirs
I absolutely love Southerisms. I think one of my favorite things about the South is when people wave on the street and the slower style everyone has. It’s a more laid-back way of life. (Might be why the cookin’ hasn’t keeeled us yet.) 😛
Well, hon…bless YOUR heart, then! 😉
Oooo! A good one that I actually say sometimes!
Yes…it makes me sad to realize there are some who ARE offended by this gesture.
Hmmm, now THAT'S extreme, but…in some cases? yeah, I can see how that works!
Sounds bonafide to me ;).
OH, hon-ey…BLESS YOUR HEART! lol I LOVE that you see my Southerness!! {blesses MY heart in the best of ways!} That being said, I can imagine getting used to this way of life; especially if your digestive system hasn't been conditioned to the assaults!
Oh, dear me…I just did that in my previous comment. AND I'M MIDDLE AGED AND PRETTY DOGGONE RANDOM! lol. I can totally hear that conversation in my head…think we've had it in our house :).
Uh oh. I don't know what lady peas are….
I *do* love the fact you said "thang" and not "thing". Two points for YOU!
So thankful you chimed in!!! 🙂
"Answers to questions that are better stories than blockbuster movies, but still don't answer the question."
Amen, sistah…a…men! 🙂
Yes ma'am… that needs to be added. "She's a mess" can mean as many things as "bless your heart". I try to temper my "fixin' to's" though.
I almost spelled killed "kilt" in my post; love how you did here. I do like our easy-going way…'cept when I'm in a hurry! 🙂
My friends & I were chatting about this topic on FB yesterday: SEC football & DAWG Day Afternoons; only Southerners make friends while standing in line; it’s dressing – not stuffing & no turkey necessary; a gallon of sweet tea in the refrig is a southern staple made w/1 & 1/2 Cs of “sugah” or it “aint” Sweet Tea.
Excellent post! From Texas and can relate to all…crawfish boils included.
Becky, I LOVE that you chimed in on this!!! 🙂 Thank you! All your additions are great, and it's funny–you're right, we DO make friends standing in line. I guess I thought "everybody" does that, lol.
Ickickick! Me no likey crawfish boils, but mostly because they remind me of roaches…not lobsters. But, Southern, yes!
The mornings, Robin. Those blazin’ hot, motionless August mornings I’d wake up and it’d already be ninety-sumpm degrees out there, the sun screamin’ down so hard it’d make your eyes water – the katydids whiney and insisting in one long, solid irritated note outside the screened door. Mom’s pressure cooker rattling and hissing away on the stove, taking advantage of the early hours’ comparative “cool” to boil yesterday’s fresh-picked, hand-shelled crowder peas and a lump of fat back into submission. Tea steeping in the CorningWare kettle with the little spray of blue flowers on the front. A sliced lemon in sweaty cut-glass, waiting. And lawn sprinklers waking up to sing rounds of CH-ch-ch-ch-ch-sicka sicka sicka-sssssssssssssssick.
Forgot to add two very important ones! Rice in the salt shaker and the exterminator! (Neither have ever even been heard of up here.)
This comment is lyrical, Megan. One day I hope to hear you TALK OUT LOUD (you aren't coming to Blissdom, ARE YOU????). I can hear the katydids. And though we never had a pressure cooker in our house, I can "hear" yours. GREAT imagery…I can almost see the things of which you speak :).
RICE IN THE SALT SHAKER! YES!! Though I don't do that, I can remember my grandmother ALWAYS having it! It was NECESSARY in the heat of summer…especially before the advent of standard A/C!!
Sadly no Blissdom this year. Too much to do with my 3-Day for the Cure adventure, having a tough time with that ol’ thing called BALANCE right now, but next year I hope to plan ahead enough to do BOTH. Will miss ya’ll so much next weekend. I LONG to hug necks and look into beautiful eyes and JUST BE with all of you. Will be “in your pocket” though, thinking of you as you lead your prayer coffee (such a soul you are, to bless hearts with that idea!) and your session! 🙂
I have to add one thing…the fact that people still pull over as a sign of respect when a funeral passes by. If that ever stops, it will be a sad, sad day in the south.
Other than that, I would say you have a rather comphrensive list!
I can’t believe I missed this on Twitter. =)
“It’s Lovely.” Southern genteel code talk for ‘completely awful.’ Just like “bless her heart” really means something else entirely.
Chocolate Biscuits. (YUM)
Cornbread Dressin’.
Humidity.
Honeysuckle.
Grocery Store Feet.
Crawfish Boil.
Oh yeah ! I like ‘dat ! ! !