My South

[duck_nutt]

My South!!!!

This was written by Robert St. John, executive chef and owner of the Purple Parrot Cafe, Crescent City Grill and Mahogany Bar of Hattiesburg, MS.
Thirty years ago I visited my first cousin in Virginia. While hanging out with his friend, the discussion turned to popular movies of the day. When I offered my two-cents on the authenticity and social relevance of the movie Billy Jack, one of the boys asked, in all seriousness; "Do you guys have movie theaters down there?" To which I replied, "Yep. We wear shoes too."
Just three years ago, my wife and I were attending a food and wine seminar in Aspen, Colo. We were seated with two couples from Las Vegas. One of the Glitter Gulch gals was amused and downright rude when I described our restaurant as a fine-dining restaurant.
"Mississippi doesn't have fine-dining restaurants!" she insisted and nudged her companion. I fought back the strong desire to mention that she lived in the land that invented the 99-cent breakfast buffet.
I wanted badly to defend my state, my region, and my restaurant with a 15-minute soliloquy and public relations rant that would surely change her mind. It was at that precise moment that I was hit with a blinding jolt of enlightenment, and in a moment of complete and absolute clarity it dawned on me -- my South is the best-kept secret in the country.

Why would I try to win this woman over? She might move down here.

I am always amused by Hollywood's interpretation of the South.
We are still, on occasion, depicted as a collective group of sweaty, stupid, backwards-minded, racist rednecks. The South of movies and TV, the Hollywood South, is not my South.

This is my South:
My South is full of honest, hardworking people.

My South is the birthplace of blues and jazz, and rock n' roll. It has banjo pickers and fiddle players, but it also has BB King, Muddy Waters, the Allman brothers, Emmylou Harris and Elvis.

My South is hot. My South smells of newly mowed grass.

My South was kick the can, creek swimming, cane-pole fishing and bird hunting.

In my South, football is king, and the Southeastern Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference is the kingdom.

My South is home to the most beautiful women on the planet.

In my South, soul food and country cooking are the same thing. My South is full of cornbread, butter beans, fried chicken, grits and catfish.

In my South, our transistor radios introduced us to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones at the same time they were introduced to the rest of the country.

In my South, grandmothers cook a big lunch every Sunday, so big that we call it dinner (supper comes later).

In my South, family matters....deeply.

My South is blackberry cobbler, peach ice cream, banana pudding and oatmeal cream pies.

In my South people put peanuts in bottles of Coca-Cola and hot sauce on almost everything.

In my South the tea is iced and almost as sweet as the women.

My South has air-conditioning.

My South is camellias, azaleas, wisteria and hydrangeas.

In my South, the only person that has to sit on the back of the bus is the last person that got on the bus.

In my South, people still say "Yes, ma'am," "No ma'am," "Please"
and Thank you"

In my South, we all wear shoes....most of the time.

My South is the best-kept secret in the country.

Please continue to keep the secret....it keeps the idiots away.

Faith is taking God at His word

[sportsman450]

Great read!

[Bully]

I remember years ago my family was visiting my dad's aunt in Michigan. I was hanging out with some cousins and their friends when one of the guys blurts out "So what do you guys do in Mississippi, sit around and chew tobacco all day?" So I said, "Yep, and every once in a while a yankee will come through and we whoop his booty just for the fun of it." He didn't say much else after that!

[gyver]

we have bourbon, beer and barbeque.
they have spritzers,ale and hot dogs.

i'll take my pinto's and cornbread over there jiffy mix and broth any day.

[Deadeye]

In my South, we have chicken and dumplins, boiled peanuts and fried sweet taters.....

In my South, we catch catfish on Coke cans...

In my south, it's watermelon, homeade ice cream and naner pudding...

In my south, bottle rocket wars, cow crap fights and no man stands....

I could go on and on.... that's life in rural Mississippi.

Deadeye... proud ot be in the south.

[duck_nutt]

"In my south, bottle rocket wars, cow crap fights "

been in some serious battles!

it usually started off with the dry chips but when it gets more serious, the cow crap gets moister and moister..sometimes ya had to 'scoop' it up with both hands to throw it!

bottle rocket wars were intense too...we'd use metal pipes so we could aim a little better...once, brother brought a single shot 20 ga and use it!!
only probley were those dud rockets that went shh-BOOM ..hehehe...sweet memories!

[teul2]

In my south, bottle rocket wars

We would have them in an old sand pit.
You get a skulling paddle and tape a pack of "mars missles" to it and rush the other teams lines. Kinda like Blitzkreg (sp).
Man those were the days.

[Mud]

My South:
Friends are there forever
Grape and Sour Apple Gum
Sneakin warm Shlitz beer and swisher sweets
Swimmin in warm farm ponds
dirt clod wars...daily during the summer
shootin turtles....cause they ate the baby brimzes
real food.....every meal!
teacher calling your parents before you got home
sittin next to your Grandma in church....cause' you been actin up
tomatoes.......hours old
damn.... is that a tear in my eye.........I am missing Ms. bad!!!!

[sportsman450]

bottle rocket wars were intense too...we'd use metal pipes so we could aim a little better...

We used to use to tube that went over a barbell. Hurt like hell when you had one that blew up in the tube too. Shhhaboom!!!!!!!

[BeastMaster]

we had some baddens too.. the bottle rocket wars were brutal.. i introduced our group to using the cardboard tube that is on some clothes hangers.. perfect for aiming.........

also in my south are the cars that get stolen at 4 pm
and the porch monkeys that live off my check
and the politicians too scared to do anything about it

sorry but just got a bad taste in my mouth today

[regishay]

I tell i have been shoot by many a bottle rocket, i remember one year one of my best friends took out the sling shot and we lauching M80s. You could fire em down the road and see the fuse leaving streaks thru the air, would bounce a couple of time, lord knows it hurt like hell to get hit by one of them and that was before it went off.

My south
We used Roman Candles to put out the street Lights,
We ate momma's cooking every meal
We always had room for one more at the table

[Duckmanhar]

dey called tracers

[Big Steve]

In my South
Knowing that if you screwed up at school, you'd get at least 3 booty whoopins for it......
1 from the teacher (your mom's best friend)
1 from the principal (your dad's fishing buddy and/or your Sunday School teacher)
at least 1 when you got home

Playing outside till dark in the summer until you heard yo momma calling from 2 blocks away

Catching fireflys at night

Walking home from school without having to worry about being kidnapped, offered dope, or the girls gettin raped

and last but not least.......high school football games on Friday night ALWAYS started with a prayer and the National Anthem!

[hillhunter]

catfishin on a pool bank till dark, then cookin em in hot grease right after with hush puppies.

[gyver]

peanut butter and nanner sandwiches.
gettin' your cherry popped in the back of a pickup on a turn road in a cotten field.
strawberry hill for the girls and wild turkey 101 for me.
huntin' all dat then going out and talking about hunting all night then getting up and going hunting again 'fore daylight.
being proud when your 6 yr. old takes a deer with a rifle.
makin' love on a pontoon barge while your trolling for crappie down the middle of the lake.and still checking the poles
That right there is stuff you don't hear no yank saying i guarantee

American by birth, Southern by grace.