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.

[dixiechick2000]

I don't know...
They take the phrase "he needed killin'" pretty seriously in Texas.
;o)

[brianl703]

Pop is the term for soda/coke/fizzy carbonated sugar water in Pittsburgh.

It's soda in northern VA.

[OldPossum]

It ain't polk salad. It's poke sallet.

As I recall, it was written and pronounced poke salad, though I can remember it occasionally written out as polk sallet. In any event, it really tasted good when my grandmother cooked it. She boiled it twice (telling me that that was necessary to remove the poisonous aspect of the plant) and then added it to scrambled eggs.

[bootless]

Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Thankee!

And I will never, but never, put it in the dishwasher!

I promise.

[kokura]

My grandfather was raised in Sullivan's hollow but as far as I know now, wasn't Sullivan. Other family names are Dickerson, Coleman, Craft, Goldman, Lee, Fortenberry. There are some Sullivan's in there by marriage I heard from a distant cousin in Magee once but haven't had time for more extensive gen research. Remember briefly about the basketball game shootout in the only Sullivan book I have---the one by Chester Sullivan--mine'a a softcover version. My aunt has an old copy of a book called Confederate Patriots of Jones county that I have borrowed in the past--interesting reading about Newt Knight and his followers there as well as in the Chester Sullivan book. One of my distant relatives,(a 2nd or 3rd great aunt by marriage to a Dickerson uncle) was named Cornealous Coleman, used to swim the Leaf River on horseback to carry food to her two brothers and others who were with Newt Knight there in those Leaf river swamps--so it says in this book. The last time I visited Miss we left Mt. Olive on a back road that ended right near Hot Coffee and took us over a bridge over the Leaf River. I remember thinking of the Coleman woman that day and wondering if we weren't traveling along the same ground. That's what visiting Miss has done to me at times, along with haunting graveyards, tranformed by genealogical pursuits into a contemporary ghost of those long dead. I have mostly curbed those pursuits, interesting and enjoyable but time consuming.

Maybe I'll get to visit again and go see that old Sullivan dogtrot. My grandfather lived in one somewhere outside Waynesboro back in the fifties, we stayed with him there when we first moved to Miss--I remember sleeping on the breezeway porch on an old creaky bed.

I appreciate the sharing of your Sullivan history. Now, I'll probably run a mild case of gen fever for a few days and re read the Chester Sullivan book and my bad copy of my aunt's book, lol.

[dixie sass]

You will love it and never want to leave. Of course, I'm prejudiced...

[dixie sass]

It was also used when you had "low blood" because of the iron in it. Nasty stuff, GACK!!!

[BnBlFlag]

My Dad also used the term "frog strangler".

[dixie sass]

The first "cooking" lesson I remember was doing a Turkey for Thanksgiving at Grandmomma's house in Columbia, SC. This was before they cleaned out the innards and packaged them up real pretty. The next was Angel Biscuits/Rolls and Apple Pie.

That Christmas my Aunt Margaret made me my first apron that said Nadja Lee makes Apple Pie. I had that apron until it literally fell apart!!!!

[In The Defense of Liberty]

I grew up spending summers on a farm in west Tennessee, and there are a great many words that I recall not hearing up north... reckon, 'carrying' someone to the store, etc... but here's one that I think I'm about the only one left to use (but I'm making my own personal crusade to bring it back, because nothing else really fits!)

Dasn't
adverb / conjunction; dare not; a dire warning; to dare one not to do a particuar act. "You dasn't speak to Miss Minnie that-a-way, else'n she'll take a switch to you."

Anyone else still use that word???

[BnBlFlag]

Hav'nt heard the term "Widder woman" in a while.

[yarddog]

How about "Grass widow", altough I don't think the term is completely Southern.

[Feiny]

"Before the food police came along we never threw grease away after the first cookin either. Just kept it in a pot on the back of the stove for re-use and seasoning."

My daddy still keeps the bacon grease on the stove in a coffee can.

[Feiny]

There are hushpuppies here in Southern CA....you have to go to a Cajun or Creole place to get them....or a place that sells ribs. I LOVE hushpuppies especially with a bit of cayenne pepper, butter & honey!!!

[kokura]

I have heard of it but don't recall hearing it personally. My kin are mostly in Mississippi and these are some of the things I have heard--
have heard " carry" as in carry me up to town
"fixin to" as in going to
"bald" peanuts not boiled
someone being "a mess"
also a "mess a' greens" for collard greens
"sammiches" for sandwiches
"crowders" for purple hull cowpeas and "buttabeans" for limas
"dreckly" as in be up to the phone directly
"cain't"
"mash" for push
"tote" for carrying something heavy

being called by a middle name
my uncle calls his shed/old hog pen the "hawg parler"
"jawja" for Georgia
my aunt describes herself as "umble" to her husband
names:
Eye-nez: Inez
Ow-dis: Audis
Ow-mer: Alma
these are also all middle names but names of kin known to me all my life

Lots of yez,may-um! and yessir and the use of may-um? as a question when you misunderstood or didn't hear what was said.

[BnBlFlag]

Or the old saying "He ain't worth killin'".

[BnBlFlag]

The first time I was in North Fla., I was surprised that it was hilly. Looks like my home East Texas.

[BnBlFlag]

Never heard of the term "grass widow".

[WKB]

Or the old saying "He ain't worth killin'".

He ain't worth the powder it'd take to blow em away!

[yarddog]

Grass Widow is a term for a divorced woman, it was used back in the days when divorce was considered such a disgrace that many women claimed to be a widow rather than admit divorce.

Those who knew she was in fact divorced would refer to her as a "Grass Widow". I have no idea where the term originated.