Why are people so nice in the Deep South?

01/24/2013

[FoxPro]

I have lived in Las Vegas and Los Angeles for the past 5 years.

I drove down to Huntsville, Alabama to work on some software, with a friend of mine.

I have never been to the "deep South".

I have been here for 24 hours.

It is really a bit of a culture shock after spending a day sorting things out, here.

Everybody is "Yes Sir" and "No Sir" with people differing to you with "Am I in your way?" and "Can I help you find something?"

Well, this is exactly what happened to me today.

I sat down to get to work, on my computer and the battery in my mouse dies.

I move my mouse and the arrow is just there, not moving.

It always happens at the worst of times.

So I drive down to Kroger's grocery store, walk in, stand there, trying to figure out if I should turn left or right, in my hunt for the "Battery Center".

Well this very large man walks up to me, he is wearing a Kroger badge and below his name it says "Manager".

He intones "Can I help you?"

I said, a bit jaded "Yes, I need ONE AA battery, but I know I will have to buy a 12 pack, but that's just the way things go."

He motions me over to a check stand, grabs a 4 pack of AA batteries, tears it open, pulls out one battery, hands it to me and says "Merry Christmas."

I am stunned...

DO YOU REALLY THINK THIS WOULD EVER HAPPEN ANYWHERE IN LOS ANGELES? Really?

The guy made my day and it is a seemingly small gesture, I will never forget.

But this guy knows I will probably spend $100 or more, at this Kroger's, in the next few months, than I would have otherwise.

He knows that this small act of kindness will be recouped many times over in the near future.

This gentleman knows all about not being "Penny wise and pound foolish."

I think I will like being an Alabamian.

[dragnet2]

Ya think anyone buys that cowflop?

[Kirkwood]

“My story was intended as humor AWhole.”

Wow! That was RUDE!

[pnz1]

Can’t tell you why other than it’s just the way we were raised?

[FoxPro]

Unless the *manager* paid for the batts out of his own pocket, or owned them, his was employee theft.

That's why I am reluctant to post his name.

[dragnet2]

To be honest, the manager sounds like a deranged jackball.

[ottbmare]

There’s Maryland and then there’s Maryland. When you were being hassled by rude people in Gaithersburg at Lockheed, I’m pretty sure you were talking to people who were not bred, born, and raised in the Maryland countryside. The people who live in Montgomery County, from Germantown south to DC, are part of the DC complex. Not many of them are natives of the area; a lot of them are very ambitious people who move to the DC suburbs in pursuit of a high-flying career. They’re stressed and exhausted and some of them are not very nice.

But outside of DC and Baltimore, Maryland is full of normal humans. They drive trucks and go to church and wear cammies and have a couple of hounds back in the loadbed. They hunt. They’re active-duty or former military. They fly the flag. They hunt some more. They vote Republican. They spank their kids. They have a Southern sensibility. They’re American. And they’re very nice, for the most part, especially if you don’t seem to be some out-of-town jerk liberal who wants to tell them what to do.

[re_nortex]

I just thought everybody needs to here some good stuff once in a while.

Thanks for the great, uplifting, positive thread! I'll just add that Deep South was on the vanguard of the Conservative resurgence begun by Barry Goldwater in 1964:

In your heart, you know he's right!

I campaigned for Richard Nixon in 1960 but was just under voting age. My first vote ever cast, enthusiastically, was for Senator AuH20 in 1964. If the rest of America has followed the lead of the Deep South almost 50 years, we'd sure be in a lot better shape now.

And on a lighter note, how about some music from Phil Harris? That's What I Like About The South.

...and for for BBQ near Huntspatch, AL, try Greenbrier. It was the place back when I lived there eons ago and I hope it's as good now as it was then.

[re_nortex]

He motions me over to a check stand, grabs a 4 pack of AA batteries, tears it open, pulls out one battery, hands it to me and says "Merry Christmas."

I should have added this to my post (#147) and it supplements what others have mentioned. What the manager did is not at all atypical here in the right-thinking part of America. And, in terms of other places, Huntsville is actually one of the more quasi-liberal parts of Dixie. That's relatively speaking of course since the metrics are entirely different down here.

If you want to get almost smothered with friendliness and hospitality, venture southward a bit more to Cullman! Don't get me wrong, Huntsville's great but places like Cullman are "out of sight" as songwriter Roger Sovine so aptly put it to music:

Well I've got to get back to my old hometown of Cullman
It's a little bitty town in North Alabam
The women down there are kind of wild and wooly
They don't mind my dancin' and my jammin'
And that's what I like about my hometown Cullman
Lord it's up tight out of sight hmm Cullman Alabam

Well Cullman ain't no square town no sir
All them gals just tryin' to get a little closer
And all those darlin' moms are open minded
There ain't nothin' that they ever mind tryin'
That's what I like about my hometown Cullman
Lord it's up tight out of sight hmm Cullman Alabam

Cullman ain't a very big town city hall is over the dairy queen
And the mayor he pumps gas at the Esso station
But that don't seem to hurt his reputation
And that's what I like about my hometown Cullman
Lord it's up tight out of sight hmm Cullman Alabam

Cullman is a real in town baby
The girls down there don't know about the word maybe
When they see a swinger like me they go crazy
There ain't nothin' that they ever do that is half way
And that's what I like about my hometown Cullman
Lord it's up tight out of sight hmm Cullman Alabam

[Son-Joshua]

Could their hospitality stem from strong Christian beliefs?

[gitmo]

I miss Carolina BBQ.

Now son, you gotta be a bit more specific. There's North Carolina BBQ (red tomato based) and there's South Carolina BBQ, which is mustard based.

And they are both heavenly.

The Barbeque place down the road has T-Shirts that say "Butts Rubbed Daily".

[re_nortex]

To be honest, the manager sounds like a deranged jackball.

You preface your cynical remark with "To be honest". Presuming you're not just trying to inflame, why would a Christian act of kindness toward a stranger get characterized in such a scornful manner by you? If you're not merely fishing for reaction (in which you were successful via this response), it's really quite sad that anyone has become so jaded.

[WVNan]

It is so great when folks go South for the first time and learn why it’s the greatest place on earth to live. Thank you for the nice compliment for my “home” state. I love WV, but I sure do miss sweet home Ala sometimes.

[TexasBarak]

Here in Texas, a few years ago I was doing physical therapy. My therapist was chatting with her intern (both were from other states, the intern more recently arrived). They were discussing what it was like for them living in Texas- after a bit, the therapist says “So- have you gotten used to people opening doors for you yet?”. I could not have been more shocked!

[who knows what evil?]

When my wife and I first moved to Tennessee; we had a flat tire in the Tri-Cities area...a teen-age boy and girl pulled up behind us and asked if they could help. I declined, as I was nearly done changing the tire, so I thanked them and they went on their way. My wife wasn’t used to that level of courtesy, as she was from Red Hampshire, where some teens would just as soon rob you or slit your throat.

[who knows what evil?]

It’s northern Alabama which is closer to east Tennessee — a longtime Republican holdout going back to the Civil War — culturally, than the deep plantation South.

Sometimes it is fun to check out those interactive election maps in that area county by county; where you can see that Romney was victorious by 3 and 4 to 1 margins. Some counties like that in Idaho and Oklahoma, as well.

[papertyger]

...but it’s not all wrapped up in a cloying facade.

It's only "cloying" to bitter, cynical, know-it-all, Yankees.

And it's only a "facade" when graciously maintained for the benefit of those same supercilious neo-savages.

When this Yankee married his Florida Girl twenty-five years ago, she got fair warning she'd never drag me any further north than Atlanta!

[jespasinthru]

I think the gracious attitude of Southerners may have something to do with population density. In the congested urban areas people are defensive, rude and aggressive. A “law of the jungle” attitude. In the South where you have much more room and far fewer strangers encroaching on your personal space, you tend to be mellower and more considerate.

[Tees Mom]

We were taught by our parents to be polite and respectful and I am forever grateful.

[Rebelbase]

” FWIW, this manager was stealing from the owner of the store. But obviously, the good will he created was worth it. Unless the *manager* paid for the batts out of his own pocket, or owned them, his was employee theft.”

No, it’s the cost of doing business that makes the competitors look like petty nickle and dimers.

[cripplecreek]

Rural people are pretty much the same everywhere. Mannerisms may be different but the way they deal with each other is pretty much the same.