Living Southern

I’ve always lived in the South and until I was much older I had never been out of the southern part of the United States. It was much later in life that I realized just how unique we really are. It’s not just the homemade biscuits and cornbread or our southern dialect, but our whole way of life and the respect we show to others. My mom always said “act like you were raise” and I guess she meant make us proud by being a person of good character even when people we know aren’t there. Southern men still open doors for the women, not because they can’t open doors for themselves but merely as a form of politeness that carries on even today. Some people from other parts of the U.S. take that as an insult but I think for the most part women here take it as a show of respect. We still say Ma’am and Sir to our elders, we acknowledge each other in stores or on the street, and when driving down the road notice how many people wave to you like they know who you are. I don’t think they actually do but it is a custom handed down from when they did.
Our town has a population of a little over 400. There are much bigger towns around us but we enjoy our one traffic signal, one policeman and our trash picked up weekly in the back of a large garbage truck and by the look of things, other people are quickly finding out that they like it too.
A well known southern tradition is grits, (Google it), not grit as in one but grits as in a big bowlful. Not the instant that is sold in packages, but the kind that cooks on top of the stove as it absorbs the water and butter and has to be stirred almost constantly lest it lump. This is a staple food of the true southern. It’s the litmus test to find out if the person is truly southern. If they don’t know or have never had grits you can just stop right there. You definitely know they ain’t from the South. Ok, I see this is getting to be more in depth than I had first anticipated. The word ain’t is southern slang for aren’t and it’s used so much it was added to the dictionary or at least in the “I Want To Be Southern” edition.

In the larger cities, they’re building gated communities that have that small town feel, where everyone knows everyone else and they have sidewalks and places for the kids to play, town squares and businesses for the residents to shop and essentially trying to get back to what they had or heard about people having years ago. We, in the small town south, probably take our way of living for granted. We didn’t realize how great it was having a neighbor to know when you come and go and actually be able to leave your cars unlocked and let your kids play until dark knowing that they’re safe. Believe me, if your kids do something they shouldn’t you’re going to get a phone call saying, “I saw little Johnny doing _____,“ and that’s ok because your neighbors have always expected you to do the same thing for them. The word gang was a group of kids that just wanted to get together to play a game of baseball or maybe were going down to the swimming hole for a fun day swinging off the rope swing and then eating sandwiches Mom had made for lunch. Well, unfortunately those days may be gone even here in paradise or as we like to call it the South.
Just Saying !
oer