Everyone says that and my thought is this: Since grits have no taste whatsoever, why not just eat butter, salt and pepper without the grits.
I lived in the south for two years and they wanted me to become one of them so bad that I got a ticket for not getting my NC driver’s license within 30 days. But I was always known as a damnyankee.
The KKK rallys on the news blew my mind–and I had no idea there were still debutantes in this country. I loved it down there though and really miss it. Well, that’s all before I get all teary. ::sniff::
My beloved maternal grandmother was born and raised in Bedford, Indiana. At the age of 19 she met and married a man who’s family originally came from Charlotte County, VA. He brought her home to South Richmond with him and she lived here for the next 60 some years until her death in June of 1994. By the time of my birth in 1958, she had become the epitome of a Southern woman. Everyone who ever knew her adored and admired her. Her home was always open to anyone who knocked. She was the ultimate Southern cook and hostess. (I learned everything I know about cooking at her knee.) The kitchen was the heart of her home. She like so many other Southerners was fiercely loyal to the Southern cause. She believed that her beautiful South had been razed and neglected by a government that was to busy or self rightous to care. She raised her children with a sence of pride for their home. She taught them a strong work ethic, respect for others, and the manners of Southern gentlemen and ladies.
With the help from her and my mother, my sisters and I were exposed to the history that surrounded us everywhere. We visited battlefields, museums, cities and plantations. She was a wonderful story teller and kept me occupied many evenings with stories of her girlhood back in Indiana, and the years here in VA while she raised her children. (A great love of college basketball must run in our genes!) I never once thought of her as anything but the consumate Southern woman. After living here 60 years, embracing the essence of what it is to be Southern, I believe she deserved the title of Southern woman.
Her youngest child my aunt, moved to Bedford at 18. She married a Indiana boy and has lived and raised two children there since the late 1950s. While she was born here, my aunt is pure Indiana Hoozier all the way. There is a strong and binding connection between the Southern and Midwestern traditions in our family. It doesn’t really matter where you are born, what you eat, or how you pronounce your third person plurals. Being Southern like so many other things is so much more, it is a state of mind, and a certain pride in who you are.
I’m married to a Middleton descendent…those from the Charleston area know who they are…I hear great tales of the relatives during the civil war.
It’s great to hear the stories from the civil war. It’s neat to hear the stories on the Middleton house tour, and then re-hear them from the family perspective. My grandfather-in-law has this huge arsenal of weapondry, cuz you just never know what will happen.
One of the most indicative signs that a woman is southern - she hides her silver.
dpr, very good answer. I usually tend to ignore people who make general statements of that nature, we are fighting ignorance here after all.
You do not ‘become’ southern. You are born southern. It is much more than a state of mind and presence. Many women have migrated to the south, some have acquired the southern grace, but, that still doesn’t make them southern.
That’s were you and I happen to disagree Ultress my friend… I have met and observed MANY people born Southern, men and women, that I have found to be an affront to what it is to be Southern. They are no more Southern than our friend who just moved here, or the Yankees that migrate here and ridicule our ways. You must remember that where you come from is not so often as important as where you are right now.
That’s not just a quote, that is wisdom beyond the comprehension of most.
WOLFPACK BABY!!! AAARRRRR!!-AAARRRRR!!-AAARRRRR!!-AAARRRR!!-AAARRRRR!!
(make that sound like a wolf while holding up your hand straight up, extending your index finger and pinky straight up (to look like ears) and extend your middle and ring fingers forward (perpendicular to your index finger and pinky) and touch the tip of your thumb to the tips of your middle and ring fingers to form the mouth. open the ‘mouth’ each time you say ‘AAAARRRRR!!!’)
Needs2know, a horse standing in a pig pen is still a horse no matter how much like a pig you try to make it. Sure we have southerners that disgrace us, but then that’s true in most cases. You have Americans that disgrace America, etc. You could go down the list.
Anybody that wants to can call themselves southern in some aspect or another. That does not necessarily make them right. You think that Virginian women are a stickler for being able to trace their heritage, don’t even step foot in Charleston.
I love Charleston…one of the South’s most beautiful cities. I most certainly will step foot there, next time I get the chance, Savannah too. As for the horse/pig thing, please. Besides I never said my Nanny called herself a Southener. I just felt like she epitomized what it should mean to be one. She was proud of both of her homes the one in the midwest and the one in the south. Perhaps she’s one now not by virtue of her birth, but by the fact that she is buried now in the Southern soil that she embraced for 60 years and loved.
Needs2know, my post was not directed at you as an individual. I was taking in several posters at the same time. I’m sure your nanny was a wonderful person.
My reference to Virginian ladies recollecting their heritage was directed at an earlier post. Charleston is reknown for their ability to trace their heritage and if you aren’t from a certain line then you are not a true southerner according to them.
Sorry, Amulet, but I can’t possibly be all that close to being a Southerner. I still thank the good Lord that the North won the Civil War, and there are a few more current matters of significance where I strongly favor the Northern way.
But let’s keep the discussion polite. How 'bout them Hokies?
