“Where are you from?” the woman asked me. For a moment, I was going to lie and say I was
from Sausalito, California. Everyone loves you if you say you’re from California, while everyone is filled with sorrow or loathing if you admit you’re from the South.
I bellowed out a big Amen after reading this quote from Murf's blog. I personally get the loathing rather than the sorrow when I meet people from up north. I can see in their eyes the jumping to conclusions: white trash, red neck, bigot, stupid, etc. It is only when I meet another Southerner, up North, that I feel a kindred spirit. "Really, so who's your peoples?" Where's your homeplace?" "How bout dem Dawgs!"
Murf of As I was Saying read The Prince of Tides for her first book in the challenge. She had this to say...
Amanda of A Patchwork of Books isn’t participating in the Southern Reading Challenge; although, she highly suggests The Prince of Tides for participants. She likes to visit this book ever couple of years, but she thinks she will put it away for five years now. Hear why...
Monday, June 18, 2007
Murf made the button, too!
~The Prince of Tides
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
19 comments:
That's weird that you get loathing (or even sorrow for that matter). I love the accents you southerners have. I don't care if that's because ya'll don't have teeth or are drunk on moonshine (you forgot those two). ;-)
LOL I never felt that way about Southerners! My dad grew up in Mississippi but moved to PA when he married my mom. The family is still here!
Thank goodness this is writing, Murf. I don't fell like getting my teeth out of the white lightn' jar by the sink. Call me just another lazy southerner. ;D
Ha, so Carol, who's your peoples and where is the ole homeplace?
I have to say I've received comments all my life about my southern drawl, all have been positive. One person said she could just sit and listen to me talk all day long cause I sounded so southern. lol
Maybe, I'm like Tom, Kay, and have a slight chip on my shoulder about being southern: or my voice is a mixture of Appalachian and Texan, which can be a little grating to some.
Although, when hubby and I were in Michigan, my voice made us leave a place in a hurry.
We were looking at antique fishing lures with a 6'5" Harley-motorcycle of a man, when all of the sudden he says, "I find southern voices so sexy."
At this point we had moved from his shop to his house next door, where he had a room filled with boxes of lures. He introduced his ole lady as we entered, where she grunted and left the house with a certain witchy slam of the door.
"Um, that's nice. Honey I think we should go, don't want to be late for the thing."
Was this biker looking at your or hubby when he said this? ;-)
*kackle* Me of course! I know this because my hubby's from New Jersey. OMG! I can't believe I just fessed up to marrying a yankee! Shush, keep this under y'alls hats... :D
Since I am a Yankee, Maggie, I couldn't date anyone more northern than I and still be an American so I went into Canadian men for a short while. I don't recommend them. :-)
I'm a southerner, but I've spent most of my adult life sojourning either up north or out west... But I gotta say, I didn't know there were so many rednecks till I went to Pittsburgh to graduate school--and Michigan, I'm discovering, ain't far behind Western PA.
Murf likes southern voices 'cause she knows a good thing when she hears it.
It's all good, Murf and Sage. We are all the same whether northern or Southern.
It's a matter of pride to claim our region as best. Makes one feel special, and binds us with others, where no other commonality exist.
It's a fact of life that prejudice people live all over the world. It's also a fact that southern authors use race as plot because their readers already assume southern whites are racist. Mississippian, Richard Wright, made the assumption that all whites think black males are only out for white female flesh. His books are extremely powerful in that sense.
Our southernness has lent a hand to many a literary devices.
It is always garring to discover racism outside of the south. We think we have a corner on it, but sadly it'a all around.
(Did you catch that capital S, Murf? Why even ask, I know you did.) :D
I'm going to have to ask my mom if she's encountered the same thing. She's a southerner who moved west when she was in her twenties. I happen to love the south, but I grew up in California--maybe it's different for westerners, or just in California, where almost everyone is from somewhere else.
My dad was raised in a very small town, West Point, Mississippi. Actually his parents came over from Italy and settled there. Imagine Italians speaking with a Southern accent! lol Lots of my dad's family still live there and in Aberdeen. I've lived in Pennsylvania all my life and never even visited the family there. My friends could hear my dad's Southern accent but I never could. lol
Sage, I've lived in Pittsburgh all my life! lol
That is so true! So many Northerners see us as just stupid and as bigots. When in fact I think they tend to be more segregated and race opinionated than we are.
That was the reason I disliked the book "The Devil Wears Prada". Remember the scene at the ball and they made fun of the Southern ladies dresses. Like we don't know how to dress? Like we all have hair that is too big or too blond?
Gentle Reader, they should say California is the great melting pot instead of NYC. :D
Carol, I passed through West Point just last Friday. It's a good two hours from me though. Would you happen to be a Foti? Oh, and I mapquested it Monday to see if it was the town I was thinking, and lo-and-behold, look who's on my Mr. Linky now, West Point Academy! :D
Deana, I just got a perm and blond weave! Aagh, and look at my last year's dress and shoes! Oh, if I was only a northern belle, no that's not the right word, but it does start w/ a b! :D
Maggie, No, not a Foti. My maiden name is Dichiara. Some of the family uses DiChiara. I think there are still quite a few of my dad's family still living in West Point. It's funny that you drove through there just last week!
I was taking the scenic to Mississippi State in Starkville, Carol. I was surprised, but there were quite a lot of Italians in Mississippi. Oh, and my little town had a POW camp which held Italians and Germans. Poor guys were forced to pick cotton for their work detail. This was during WWII.
I think a lot of Italians that came to the US headed south because of the warm weather that they were used to. I never heard about the POW camp! That surprises me. My dad was a sergent in WWII and served in Belgium and Scotland. He was also in Normandy right after the battle. My grandmother never mentioned a POW camp either. She moved to PA sometime during the war so I don't know if she knew about it.
Carol, it was south of Como and north of Sardis. While working at the Como Library, I entertained three different German families wanting to revisit the site. They told me of breakouts and harsh treatment of their fathers who served there. If you go out to the site now it's just a few slabs of concrete, but we used to have a couple of the bed frames in our shed. I'm just full of trivia: might I add useless, too! :D
I don't think trivia is useless! lol It can be very interesting. I googled POW camps especially the one at Como and I learned a lot. It was something I never learned about in school or heard anyone talk about.
Post a Comment