Thursday, 21 May 2009
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What It's Like to Grow Up in the South
The southern United States that is. Where I's born and raised. The state in which I live is Tennessee. It's amazing. Sure it ain't considered "the deep south" but it is most DEFINITELY part of the south.
There are 4 things that I'm gonna cover about the south: southern hospitality, the Bible belt, southern cookin' and, of course, weather.
Here we go:1. Southern hospitality -- It does exist. My aunt, who lives in Indiana, came down for the weekend and we went to my city's mall and she was shocked at the number of men that held the door open for us women. And a few years back (like 10 years), my family went up north and my mother said "Thank you" to a cashier and she seemed shocked. My sister had a similar experience when she went to PA last year.
Down here, you have casual conversations with the cashiers. These are people you've never seen before in your life and you just talk to them like they're an old friend. It's just how things are done. While southerners are some of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet, if you mess with them, they ain't afraid to speak their mind. We got attitude down here!
2. The Bible belt -- This really does exist as well. Tennessee is in the buckle of it and I can prove it. My city is probably a medium sized city. Got plenty that are bigger. And yet, last we counted, there are around 150 churches here. I am dead serious. There is literally a church on every corner! There are probably thousands in this entire state.
You can even tell on the news. The newscasters will often say after a story airs, "Our thoughts and prayers are with them". And once they even reported on a family that's moving to a 3rd world country to be missionaries! There are plenty of other examples, but I got other things to write about too.
3. Southern cookin' -- Man, this stuff is GOOD. I'm talkin' THE BEST. We got foods such as grits, fried baloney, friend okra, cornbread and boiled cabbage among other things. All this to go along with SWEET TEA. Now that's southern. Soo good...
4. Weather -- Mild winters, cruel hot summers,severe thunderstorms and humidity. That pretty much sums it up. But y'all know I'm gonna write more on it. I can't speak for each southern state because I've only lived in one, so I'll just tell y'all a little bit about this state's weather.
"Don't like the weather in Tennessee? Stay 10 minutes, it'll change." I don't know who said this, but whoever did must be a genius. It is 100% true! Our weather is ever changing. It changes in the blink of an eye. We can have 85°F and tornadoes one day and the next we got temperatures just barely above freezing and snow!
Wait, what? Snow? What is that again?
Snow is pretty rare here. We get 1" and it shuts down the entire city. We got 2" last year and people on the news were saying "If at all possible, stay off the roads! Stay home!" and my dad, who is from Chicago, was saying "Up north they'd just tell you to slow down a little". I have never seen more than 4" of snow on the ground at one time. I couldn't even begin to imagine a foot of it!
I mentioned severe weather earlier. This is something that every southerner is familiar with. As I've said before, Tennessee leads the nation in the average number of tornado related deaths with 110 since 1950. When it comes to tornado outbreaks, we average one major outbreak (this year it was the Good Friday outbreak, last year was the Super Tuesday outbreak) and several minor outbreaks in between.
There are many other things I could say about the south. Such as the fact that flat land is nonexistant here and so on. But I gotta eat breakfast sometime today.
So...
How are these things different from where you live? Have you ever been to the south? If not, would you ever consider going?
Yahweh bless and rock on!
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- From: Audiofreak18@xanga
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Comments (59)
I live in Texas, so. There's a ton of flat land where my hometown is though. Of course I'm comparing that to the area of Texas I'm in now where there are so many trees and hills that it drives me crazy. Maybe compared to "flatter" places my hometown is nothing. Hmm..
my roommate is from georgia and she is so nice to everyone, she probably has three times as many friends as i do!
and man, southern cooking... even though i've only had an imitation of it at a chain restaurant up here it still tastes pretty good!
"Don't like the weather in Tennessee? Stay 10 minutes, it'll change." --> i've heard this saying for like three states haha
Haha I have heard that the southern hospitality is very true.
I live in (south) Florida and I don't know what to consider it. A lot of people consider south Florida more northern but a lot of your points reign true here. We are some of the nicest friendliest people. We don't have problems to helping out store employees and making small chat with them. But then again, we don't like to take crap either. So when New Yorkers come down and start complaining about every little thing (they always do) you'll get someone who starts yelling back at them.
Pussies.
And oh god sweet tea! I was so shocked when I first found out that Northerners don't drink sweet tea nearly as often as we do! I used to drink that shit everyday in our school cafeteria.
The bible belt eeeeh. We do have a deep religious trench here, but it's mostly people who go to church and fight for god but all other times they act like assholes. It's like those jerks who go to prison for killing 12 people and then come out saying they've found jesus.
And I'm sorry. But Florida has two settings.
Wet Hot, and Hot Hot. LOL.
We don't have much of a weather change down here. It's always hot and either it's humid or its really humid. Take your pic. lol
But then again we have hurricanes!
LOL, yeah I live in Chicago, and when my aunt moved to Franklin, TN, she was telling us stories about the inch of snow it takes to shut down the city. I couldn't believe it. I've driven in actual blizzards before, gotten stuck in snow banks, and spun out across three lanes. For an inch, they would just throw a little salt on it (or in recent years, with the salt shortages, they might not do anything). And if the school isn't buried, it isn't a snow day.
Chicago has that crazy weather too. No joke, this past March we had a day where it was about 80 degrees F, and the next day it snowed. Such a tease, broke my heart.
@thinkin_up_dreams@xanga - i completely agree.
I live in Texas! It's the best. :)
Vancouver is like that now.. You can have snow, hail, rain, clouds and sun all within two hours. Literally. :X
& We, Canadians actually say 'Thank You' to a bank machine. Dang.
HAHA! I have to say I loved your post. I'm from Tennessee too, Knoxville, to be exact. It's kinda a bigger city, I guess. *shrug* Yes, the weather definitely changes every ten minutes! It's freaking amazing but can also be annoying but it's one of the only places where you can still sort of where flip flops in October and November and you kinda have to keep the long sleeved stuff out because it's bound to get chilly in the middle of May. :P
I'm not really big on Southern cooking, but it does make you appreciate some small things. Like sweet tea. If you cut open a Southern person's veins, I'm sure sweet tea would flow out! And when you go up North? They look at you like you're crazy when you say you want sweet tea. Also, there are hardly ever mashed potatoes to be found and corn bread is pretty much non existent anywhere past Ohio!
And yeah, I agree with the snow thing! It never snows here and if it does, people freak out and go, "What's this white stuff?!" And yes--there's definitely Southern hospitality. Not that there's not jerks around here, but you do tend to get people who say "thanks" or hold a door open for you. Yeah, definitely in the Bible Belt as well! I made a joke once about how you can go somewhere up in the mountains and you can count the churches like you could stars in the sky because there are just SO many! As for tornados, Knoxville doesn't get that many. We're kinda holed up in the valley, so nothing gets in, but smog never gets out! Ha!
Loved the post... I am from Tennessee too. Born in the mountains and now calling Memphis home so I spread myself out over the whole state.... I'm stuck in Illinois farm country at the moment and I love it here too but the South will always be home to me.....
I'm from Mississippi and I can't argue with anything on this entry. Great Job!
I live in Georgia. About 2 hours south of TN, and it's the exact same here. The weather is absolutely ridiculous, and as for the food and the southern hospitality, that's the only thing that's kept me here all my life. I don't know if I could deal with going in a gas station or Wal-Mart or something and not have a small conversation with the cashier. Closer to big cities like Atlanta, things are a lot different though. I used to live about 15 minutes from Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta, and when I moved away from there, to a more rural area, I realized how rude people were in Atlanta, you never get the door held for you, cashiers are very rude, won't have a conversation, won't thank you for coming to their store, or anything else like that. The BBQ in the city was better though. Nothing beats getting a pulled pork BBQ sandwich from Harold's BBQ in Lakewood. I hear it's went out of business though
I live about 1 mile South of Memphis and I've been here for all my life and I gotta say...all true lol.
1. Why isn't there sweet tea everywhere?!?!
2. We do freak out a tab about the weather but we did get like 6 inches of snow in 12 hours this year. And does anyone remember the ice storm of '94? That was a big one. I was just a kid but I remember not having power for over a week.
i wasn't born in the south, but i've lived in the south for twelve years now...and "it's the bomb ya'll"
"Don't like the weather? Wait ten minutes." I have lived in at least five states that lay claim to this little gem, including Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas and Indiana. It probably came from some piece of literature. It sounds vaguely Twain-esque.
I live in NWGA, and I have until this year (when I moved over to the other side of the state), and I do have to say that usually the southern hospitality comes with strings. Sure, they're nice to your face, but as soon as you leave, the gossip comes out. :P And in terms of whether changing, when I was in Athens, we had a freak six inches of snow, and then it was above seventy within three days. In March. @_@;
Congrats on getting feautured!
My comment on your site was really long....maybe I should put it on here too! :hmm: 
Haha, I live in southern Ohio. Technically we're classed as the north, but the people here try real hard to be southern.
We never quite manage it though. While we'll talk to a cashier and hold the door open, it's always done with a bit of a "ugh, hurry up" vibe.
Can't blame us for trying I suppose...
I live in Alabama on the Alabama/Tennesse state line, and you couldn't be more right about anything you wrote. I'm not a fan at all of cabbage, okra, or grits, but I LOVE homemade Dressing during Thanksgiving.
Also, I understand the Bible Belt. There is this HUUUGE church in Athens and it is STILL building on. I'm not exaggerating at all. It just added on a two story building larger than my school times 3.
I went to Washington D.C. maybe.. two years ago? I was at a McDonald's inside a Smithsonian and my friend tried ordering "sweet tea". They were like, "wha?? Sweet tea, what's that?" I was just thinking, "What do you THINK Sweet Tea is? SWEET - TEA. Tea with sugar."
Oh, and if you've ever known anyone that likes Sun Drop (Mountain Dew times probably 2), don't deny them their daily fix.
On the way home from D.C., literally 3 Charter Buses full of SunDrop deprieved high schoolers bought all the Sun Drop at that gas station. No Lie.
XD I'm an honorary citizen of TN so I feel SO at home when you say all those things. Especially about the severe weather. It was amazing. I mean they had every single local channel interrupted for it until everything cleared out. The food is amazing and everyone really is friendly.
I'm from Chicago so it's really a treat and it touches my heart. As for the churches, preach it! LOL my uncle is a pastor so there's always a church to go to and indeed they are on every corner.
Good ol' TN.
I'm from Mississippi, and this is so true! lol
I can't imagine living in the South. I've been down there several times and I am terribly sorry to say that I was NOT impressed.
The mentality and overall ignorance of the people really fit my preconceived stereotype.
I'm specifically speaking of LOOZYANNA!
Sure there are lots of nice people, but there are a lot of IGNORANT and BACKWARD people down there.
I just read today about the High School with the Segregated Prom, i think it was Montgomery. SEGREGATED? this just goes to show you.
The south has been a black mark on this nation since it began. They should cut out off and sink it.
I think it's too hot down there and lots of you are backward. No offense.
I'd shoot myself if I had to live in the souf!
Small mindedness and religious thinking rules down there.
that weather thing is for virginia, as well. and again, my states not exactly deep south, but i find myself somewhat uncomfortable in parts of new england. ever tried to smile at someone walking down the sidewalk? terrifying. ill take my ice-cream/cashier small talk anyday. love the south... humiditys a killer, though.
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Texan here, I agree with most of that.
We have the same saying about our weather as well, though I've always said 15 minutes rather than 10.
It should be noted that major metro The South and rural The South are very different creatures.
This is so true, though I haven't been to the north since the age of 2 so I can't compare.
PIG PICKINS!!!!! SO IMPORTANT. SO GOOD.