Things only people from the South know

8-27-03 | Unkown

[WKB]

Only a true Southerner knows the difference between a hissie fit and a conniption and that you pitch one and have the other.

Nobody but a true Southerner knows how many fish, collard greens, Turnip greens, peas, beans, etc. make up a mess.

A true Southerner can show or point out to you the general direction of "yonder."

A true Southerner knows exactly how long "directly" is - as in "Going to town, be back directly."

Even true Southern babies know that "Gimme some sugar" is not a request for the white, granular sweet substance that sits in a pretty little bowl in the middle of the table.

All true Southerners know exactly when "by and by" is. They might not use the term, but they know the concept well.

True Southerners know instinctively that the best gesture of solace for a neighbor who's got trouble is a plate of hot fried chicken and a big bowl of cold potato salad. (If the trouble is a real crisis, they also know to add a large banana puddin').

True Southerners grow up knowing the difference between "right near" and "a right far piece." They know that "just down the road" can be 1 mile or 20.

True Southerners both know and understand the differences between a redneck, a good ol' boy, and trailer trash. <> No true Southerner would ever assume that the car with the flashing turn signal is actually going to make a turn. True Southerners know that "fixin" can be used both as a noun, verb and adverb.

A true Southerner knows how to understand Southern a booger can be a resident of the nose, a descriptive ("That ol' booger!") or something that jumps out at you in the dark and scares you to death.

True Southerners make friends standing in lines. We don't do "queues," we do "lines." And when we're in line, we talk to everybody.

Put 100 Southerners in a room and half of them will discover they're related, if only by marriage.

True Southerners never refer to one person as "ya'll."

True Southerners know grits come from corn and how to eat them.

Every true Southerner knows tomatoes with eggs, bacon, grits and coffee are perfectly wonderful; that redeye gravy is also a breakfast food; that fried green tomatoes are not breakfast food.

When you ask someone how they're doing and they reply, " Fair to middlin.", you know you're in the presence of a genuine Southerner.

Southerners say "sweet tea" and "sweet milk." Sweet tea indicates the need for sugar and lots of it - we do not like our tea unsweetened, "sweet milk" means you don't want buttermilk.

And a true Southerner knows you don't scream obscenities at little old ladies who drive 30 on the freeway? You say, "Bless her heart" and go on your way.

[Fraulein]

sppose what happen to 'em

ain't sure, but there's a'whooping a'waitin if'n and when they get here!

[Search4Truth]

How Ya'll Are? = How are you?

[nopardons]

That was the way tea was first drunk, in England. It's an holdover. LOL

[Luis Gonzalez]

Jus' peachy!

Fixin' to go to bed son.

(not bad for an immigrant kid from Cuba, am I!)

[Luis Gonzalez]

Y'all southern folk?

[dixiechick2000]

Over 225 posts, and still no

Idinit!

[JoeFromCA]

You've inspired me to research the origin of the phrase "polk salad" (pronounced, as some correctly observed, "poke sallet"). I shall do so at my earliest convenience.

You certainly could be correct that it means a salad in a poke (bag). When I was a kid a big plant with huge leaves grew wild on the farm, and we called it "polk greens". My mother would pull leaves off the plant, which looked a lot like a big weed with thick leaves, and make a salad which we called polk salad. As I recall the taste was about like what you would expect cardboard to taste like. And it really was the only thing in the barnyard that the cows wouldn't eat.

[nopardons]

Me ? Absolutely NOT ! I just know historical facts, which most people don't.

And, a lot of things, which some Southerners, on FR, suppose os ONLY " SOUTHERN ", simply is not.

[Search4Truth]

Sleep tight, and don't let the bed bugs bite, may coon ass Mommoo used to say.

[teldon30]

it has a purple stalk...semi herbaceous.

[JoeFromCA]

Here's the results of my research. Polk salad is, in fact, what I recall it was!!:

Polk Salad Annie

(words & music by Tony Joe White)

Some of you all never been down South too much...
I'm gonna tell you a little story, so you'll understand where I'm talking about
Down there we have a plant that grows out in the woods and the fields,
and it looks something like a turnip green.
Everybody calls it Polk salad. Now that's Polk salad.
Used to know a girl that lived down there and
she'd go out in the evenings to pick a mess of it...
Carry it home and cook it for supper, 'cause that's about all they had to eat,
But they did all right.

Down in Louisiana
Where the alligators grow so mean
Lived a girl that I swear to the world
Made the alligators look tame

Polk salad Annie
'Gators got your granny
Everybody said it was a shame
For the mama was working on the chain-gang
What a mean, vicious woman

[nopardons]

My grand parents, up North, used to say that too.

Actually, the " sleep tight " part, is 100s of years old, European in origin, and comes from the time when bedsprings were ropes, under the mattress, which loosened, with use. One had to continually have to retie the ropes, hence " sleep tight ", which gave better support. Bed bugs have been around forever and been a curse to sleepers. There is absolutely NOTHING particularly " SOUTHERN ", in that phrase. ;-)

[Mo1]

Yea but true Southerners haven't learned to make a real Philly Cheesesteak yet

[JoeFromCA]

Southerners are the only ones who know what a Cheerwine is (not that's an obscure one--any takers?)

[JoeFromCA]

Southerners are the only ones who know how to drink a Coke-Cola with salted peanuts in it (and look at the bottom of the glass bottle and say "travel you" when finished). Another obscure saying; any takers to explain the "travel you" part?

[TatieBug]

Love to hear "yungsters" say "yes maoum." Surely beats the snide remarks made by most other kids around the country. This entire post/remarks just tickles me. We need a little something on the lighter side these days...thanks.

[TexasCowboy]

Dadgummit, NP!
You ain't supposed to come in here with all them there facts!
Jist ain't fittin'!
LOL!
Good to see ya, lady!

[Fraulein]

[dixiechick2000]

So many of the traditions in the South are holdovers, or modified holdovers, from Great Britian, and the Axis of Weasels countries.

In my neck of the woods, the Scots-Irish are predominate, though my mother's family is of English descent.
My great grandmother made crumpets, but I think that's a tradition that has gone by the wayside.

[wardaddy]

For me...it is a simple sense of knowing I came from here and I belong here in the end. I lived everywhere as a young man and loved all of it but I wouldn't trade being settled here now middle aged with a family for anything...although a vacation villa somewhere exotic (Gulf Shores?..lol) would be nice.

They may very well bury me one day either on my own property here one day (if I have any) or at my wife's family cemetary on a top of a knob in Statesville Tenn. but they had damn well better bury me facing Mississippi.