[SamAdams76]

For me, the South is an endless string of Waffle Houses and Cracker Barrel restaurants with nary a Dunkin' Donuts to be found anywhere. For me, the South is where the speed limit on the interstate highways is 85mph regardless of what is posted for the northerners. The South is a very friendly and hospitable place. It is a place where the summer air hangs heavy and is filled with June bugs and other flying insects. There is nothing like the smell of freshly cut hay and cow dung wafting in the wind. You only get that smell when you are down South.

If you have to keep a lookout for fire ant hills, you know you are down South. If you are walking down the road and everybody stops to offer you a lift, you know you are down South. If everybody is sitting out on the porch with a pitcher of iced tea, you know you are down South. (And no matter how much you try up North, you just cannot make iced tea that tastes the same as down South.)

If the restaurant you are at offers grits as a menu option, you know you are down South. Ditto if biscuits and gravy are on the menu for breakfast.

If you see huge billboards on the highways advertising FIREWORKS FOR SALE, you know you are down South.

If NASCAR trumps major league baseball on the sports pages, you know you are reading a paper from down South.

Those are just a few trivial observations...I could go on for many more pages. BTW, I visit the South every year and like it down there much better than here up North, where the people are usually rude and obnoxious.

[processing please hold]

Thank you for your sweet reflections on the South.

We set our tea out in the sun for about 8 hours to get that great taste. Sun tea cannot be beat.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Now about them dunking donuts...when I left, they were in New Orleans...and had been since I was a kid.

But you should see the Fireworks for Sale signs in Wyoming! I do believe it's a major industry, to sell tourists fireworks that are illegal to shoot in Wyoming, but legal to sell.

I do admit to enjoying having left the land of fire ants. I used to garden barefoot so that when I got a fireant bite, I could immediately flood my foot with the waterhose, cause it made the bite sting less. I still have a number of little circular scars on my feet from the ant bites.

I miss the taste of water in the air, the sweet voices from North Mississippi, that nasally sounds of east Texas, the almost Brooklynese of a proper New Orleans Yat...and Magnolia grandiflora...and crape myrtles...

Can take the Southerner out of the south, but probably never take the south out of the Southerner...

[Classicaliberalconservative]

I know you are from MA and Dunkin Donuts is sacred there but Krispy Kreme kicks Dunkin Donuts' ass any day.

[kalee]

Who wants Dunkin Donuts when you can have Krispy Kreme?