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.

[bootless]

Well now! I see further down that you are from Charleston! My (former) m-i-law was born there, as well. I may be divorced, but she's and by f-i-law are still family to me! I have never been there ... can't wait to go.

[nopardons]

Oh dear ... I'm not sure just how my mother made her's. She took the recipe to the grave with her; never did teach me how to make one. I do have VERY fond memories of it though. :-)

[wardaddy]

I thought it might be over there...I remember a few clubs in that area. My dad's construction office yard was on the other side of 49 on the north side of Northside dr before Bullard or Bowling (?) and the old St Joseph's highschool. I think it's an auction barn now. We used to sight in our deer rifles right behind there in a pit.

Yes...The White House....I had a friend when I lived behind Mynelle Gardens and Shady Oaks (Yudan country) whose stepfather owned the Vapors, the Fiesta (over by the fertilizer plant on 51 south) and the Red Carpet. The Vapors and Red Carpet were off White Rock road (country club dr) and we used to go as young teens with him to the White House to take booze and collect vending money for Leo Hall (Bonafiglioli)...now dead...Jackson's answer to a wise-guy....Clem of Clem's cottage on Capital street was one of his underlings...anyhow we would go inside and all the "ladies" would tease us mercilessly....and my dad would chew my ass out when he found out where we;d gone...lol

[WKB]

Did you ever fall down the staris at "The Wagon Wheel"?

[wardaddy]

I have even been known to eat malt o meal...lol

I used to like Coffee with condensed milk...Jamiacan style...I believe the Vietnamese do that too...maybe with tea?

Pumkin or Sweet Potato?....I like both about equally although properly made sweet potato like DC2000 described may have the edge....hell, I like all pies ..even rhubarb.

Shoney's (Big Boy or Kips) strawberry pie used to be a treat but now....I doubt I would set foot in Shoneys unless very very hungry...not when there is a Cracker Barrel around...lol

[wardaddy]

I ate there last in around 84 or 85 passing thru. I do remember the BB pie.

[kokura]

Sullivan's Hollow (spawned me in part)

My daddy was born in Cohay, Smith County. Don't think its there anymore. Had a chance once to see wildbills cabin when visiting a cousin who lived near Mize but didn't take the offer, short on time during that visit, regret that I didn't now. Miss the taste of muscadines and bald peanuts-love watching the land getting flat and even flatter--looking at the cotton fields along Louisiana I-20 heading to the river bridge at Vicksburg. Am not a native but spent a few years of my childhood playing with doodlebugs in the sandy soil of Waynesboro in the piney woods during the 50's. Mississippi has haunted me off and on since. No place like it.

[wardaddy]

In Hattiesburg?

I just remember the wait and my dad bitching at me to quit being antsy. 49 went on and on...all concrete and thunpety thump the whole way. When you got to Wiggins you knew you were close.

I did my senior year in Fairhope AL....and drove 98 a lot....blood alley between Lucedale and Camp Shelby.

I was there last month going from Jackson to Destin and now it;s all 4 lane.

[nopardons]

My son-in-law likes Cracker barrel. I've never been in one, so can't comment.

I like both pumpkin AND sweet potato pie. But, my all time favorite holiday desert ( and we usually had at least three. LOL )were my grandmother's strudles ........ paper thin, almost nonexistant dough, filled with apples or cherries, or poppyseed paste or .......... gee, there are so many.

I use sweetened condensed milk for my Key Lime pie and that's about it. And, my Key Lime pie IS delicious. :-)

[Just_de_facts]

And once more for your edification:

The deep dish pizza pie at Lillo's in Leland.
A Golden Girl or Red Rock cola with a pink snowball.
Barq's peach or cream soda.
The rolling store.
Package stores in dry counties.
"Go Mississippi keep rolling along, Go Mississippi we're
singing your song!".
WLS am radio at night out of Chicago.
White and colored signs.
Desegregation in 1969.
The Delta Blues Festival.
The King and Queen of the Cotton Ball.
Shotgun Houses.
Swinging from a muscadine vine.
Hand grabbing catfish among the cypress knees.
FFA
Cathead biscuits with Brer Rabbit black strap molasses.
Cud'n (fill in the blank).
Frog gigging at night with flashlight.
Barbeque liver and chicken gizzards.
Young men in freshly laundered shirts and khakis
and pretty girls in cotton dresses with the sheen of summer
and voices so sweet midst the smell of whiskey and lust.
Toolboxes and whiptail antennas on trucks.
Riding out on the place to check the crops.
Canning butterbeans, purple hull peas, maters', and black
eyed peas.
Revival Meetings and proselytizing among the heathen Methodists.
The lobby of the Peabody
Blood smeared on your head at first deer kill.
Hunting wild boar in the river bottoms near Yazoo City.
Shooting cottonmouths on the sandbars and cottonwood thickets.
Driving at night no headlights.
Going parking in a cottonpatch.
Being able to straight arm a chopping hoe.
Knowing the difference between a thrip, a boll weevil and a boll worm.
Going out to the commissary on the place to get some food.
"Who was your mother's mother and what does your Daddy do?".
Hotty Toddy and Rebel flags.
Charlie Conerly.
Mary Ann Mobley.
Going to the cemetery to visit.
Highland Strip in Memphis circa 1968.
The Peppermint Lounge on 49 in Jackson.

Memory lane is so crowded now, i need to renovate and zone.

[dixiechick2000]

Well, now, that is just a shame.

"I do have VERY fond memories of it though. :-)"

Hang on to those memories. They are the spice of life.

Corny, but true...;o)

[nopardons]

OMG ... is Brer Rabbit blackstrap molasses still made ? I remember that from my childhood. I don't know what my grandmother used it for ( cookies, I think, and home made baked beans too ), but I certainly DO remember what that label looked like. LOL

[Just_de_facts]

Yes, but you got to go in the briar patch to get it.

[nopardons]

I learned how to cook from osmossis, mainly ... hanging around the kitchen and talking with my mother and/or grandmother. Recipes were also handed down by word of mouth, and thankfully, my grandmother wrote some out; which I have. Unfortunately, a lot of the recipes, went to the grave with both of those magnificent, wonderful women. Still and all, yes, those memories are worth their weight in gold and then some. I have " taste memory ", so whenever I want to recall a certain food, I can still taste it; even without the actual food.

Nothing at all " corny ", in what you said. :-)

[nopardons]

You do ? My grandmother bought here's at the local grocery store. :-)

[Just_de_facts]

Just a little alliteration to Ole Uncle Remus there.

[wardaddy]

I was at Wild Bills cabin which was originally Pappy Tom's. Pappy Tom is my ggg grandfather paternally...along with probably 1500 other descendents now...lol....one of his daughters....Wild Bill's half sister...married my gg grandfather....all those wild old dogs had 4 or 5 wives who eventually died in childbirth after 6-8 children....ruff life.

Anyhow...back to the cabin which used to be one of the oldest continually lived in dwellings (true dogtrot with the kitchen separate) and I believe originated around 1815...anyhow....damned old for Miss.

I went there with my maternal grandma (also part Sullivan) to see Wild Bill's nephew(?) Shep and his Wife (?) around 1980 on a watermelon expedition. She whipped up some fried peach pies and we drank spring water from their well and visited till late. I think they may have had power by then. It was definitely in a hollow by Miss standards....but nothing like the Tennessee version in which I'm sitting in and typing right now past by nite-nite between Shy's Hill and Laurel Ridge.

You should research the famous basketball game shootout between Mize and Mcgee in the late 1910s early 1920s....a number of casualties and my paternal grandpa as a boy was in a tree watching the whole thing. I believe it was on an outside clay court...all over a bad call..lol..and of course the Sullivans figure largely in it...small wonder

My maternal grandma remarried Wild Bill's youngest boy Boyd Sullivan in the late 60s. Boyd had been with Pershing in Mexico and France. He rushed home early in the service when Wild Bill was on his deathbed and barely got there as Wild Bill expired. I have the letter from the fellow who drove him from the train station in Mcgee to Boyd later talking about how the fellow was glad he grabbed Boyd off the train in Mcgee instead of waiting till Mt Olive or Boyd would not have made it in time.

A number of books on Wild Bill by the Ole Miss press. I have the Blue covered one. I believe Bill killed nearly 30 men in his lifetime usually hand to hand but none that as he said...didn't deserve it..lol

He would have made a good Nathan Forrest but I believe he and a few of his brothers mostly waited out the war in the leaf river swamps and the Free State of Jones....some did join the butternuts though to be fair.

[MS.BEHAVIN]

Just wanted to say "Hi' to you..

how ya doin?

Mr.B's Daddy was from Missouri..Gramma Dorothy from the Ozarks..

I could listen to her talk all day..what a sweet voice..if I ask her how the weather is, sometimes she will say, that the weather is "kindly rough"..??

She knows so many things..she once told me about making Sheep Sorrel Pie..because they could not afford, nor had access to Lemons for a Lemon Pie..

She also made a Sour Cream and Raisin Pie that was to die for..and fried chicken, with gravy made from the drippins..

just heavenly!

(Yep, I'm a Yankee, but have a southern heart..)

I love the way Mr.B speaks, too..

"What all, who all" and such..

One time he asked me if "that's all the further along you are?"

Although raised in Nebraska, those southern roots never left him..

I have not read through this entire thread, only made it this far..but sure did enjoy it..

Send recipes, everyone!

Ms.B

[wardaddy]

Key Lime Pie...my favorite arguably.

I like strudel too.

I was always soft for trifle as well...anything custardy.

[wardaddy]

Pizza at Lillos?

and Maloufs nearby....and the Venetian in Greenville.

Methinks you are a Delta boy/girl....if so...you guys are a classic breed apart from us townies.