Maggie's Farm

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Friday, September 26. 2008

A Southern Survival Guide

A Southern Survival Guide for the East Coast Media Elite. h/t, reader.
Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 09:31 | Comments (13) | Trackbacks (0)

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"A Southern accent does not equal stupid."

i tried explainin that to my English 5 professor at the silly elite ivy league school i attended, but she just couldn't make out what i was sayin!
#1 kab on 2008-09-26 10:10 (Reply)
touche!
#2 greenmtnpunter on 2008-09-26 10:13 (Reply)
(posted here as Spam Prevention Message blocked posting at correct place)

Time for the McCain Campaign to crank up the next round of attack ads targeting these Democrat culprits and showing McCain speaking out years ago on the Fannie/Freddie time bomb. All he need do is stay even at this point because I think the late breaking trend will be all McCain.

Even in left nutcase Vermont the enthusiasm for Obama-Biden has been, well, quite non-existent from what I can see. Very few signs, no bumper stickers, not many fawning letters to the editor of our dominant left wing press. This can't be a good sign for Obama on a larger scale.

Must be some 527's- "Truth Squads"- out there just dying to jump in the fray? Haven't seen or heard much from the 527's yet- just one on Iraq- are they holding back for the last 2 weeks or so in the swing states? Will they finally reveal who this guy Obama really is?

Obama campaign must surely know the 527's are coming at some point as 527's take over the role that the MSM hasn't been willing to play, i.e., pointing out the facts about Obama. I think the natural "mo" of this campaign will favor McCain in the closing weeks as the undecideds will not be able to visualize Obama as President, just too inexperienced, too much of a mystery man to bet the ranch on.

The bailout is the September crisis but there may still be an "October Surprise" in store which would naturally favor old Mr Reliable McCain over the untested Obama. My money is still on McCain despite the erratic polls- my sense is that McCain's internals are showing much better than they let on and Obama's are cause for concern in that campaign.
#3 greenmtnpunter on 2008-09-26 10:18 (Reply)
I knew you'd like that, Kab.
#4 Bird Dog on 2008-09-26 10:24 (Reply)
Having lived in the rural South for four years now, I'd call this post spot-on. As a few of the commenters pointed out, this was really an amalgamation of a few different "You know you're a Southerner if..."-type posts, but it was well presented.

A few additional thoughts:

- "Y'all" doesn't necessarily mean plural. More than once I've been sitting alone in a restaurant and had the waitress walk up and say, "And how are y'all doin' today?"

- She's right about Coke being the only drink. During a blistering August day I was engineering a remote broadcast for a radio station and there was a big cooler nearby filled with ice and Cokes (which, as the article notes, means Cokes and Mountain Dews). At one point, some well-meaning person donated a 6-pack of Pepsis to the cooler. For the next hour, I watched people walk up to the cooler, see the Pepsis on top, plunge their hand deep into the icy water and yank out a Coke from the bottom.

- I used the word "ma'am" more times my first month here than the entire rest of my life combined.

- As far as the word "sir" goes, while I occasionally used it (before I moved here) to address a distinguished older gentleman in a formal situation, it wasn't a word I used often. Here, I'll say "Good morning, sir!" to the kid mowing the lawn.

The good manners and gentility of the South are quite alluring. They appeal to a 'nobler calling' that resides deep in the human psyche. As the author implied, you can't pick it up in a weekend, and I'd add that you can't pick it up living in the big cities.

But move to the rural heartland and you incorporate it into your soul almost immediately.

It's almost like having good manners is natural.

Who woulda guessed?
#5 Dr. Mercury (Link) on 2008-09-26 10:41 (Reply)
I couldn't have said it better, Doc. You described the 'attitude' that goes with the charm and manners of the south perfectly.

I will say that there are areas of the south where the accent is pretty awful - around the Spartanburg area. I went to a private girls' college in SC from my home in northern NY state, and I could not get over how many different southern accents there were. I do have to say that some of them do sound horrible while those around Charleston, where my family is from, mixed with the most beautiful accent in the world - Gullah, sound like a blessing disguised as language.

And the 'sir' and 'ma'am'... It's as natural to me as breathing.
`
`
#5.1 Meta on 2008-09-26 12:52 (Reply)
Both parents grew up in Atlanta. My father received the first non football scholarship ever awared at UGA, for baseball. My mother was a campus beauty. That makes me Southern.

Ditto the Cokes.
Ditto the we ain't stupid
Ditto ya'll

The South is rapidly losing it's homogeneity but Yankees are still pretty much hated.
Southerners make up the bulk of our armed forces protecting Yankees who believe they're fools for do'in so.
Hell, we don't care what the Yankees think.

Don't come down to the old South and agitate. You'll disappear in the bayou.

This election should be a corker. The aftermath a sorrow.
#6 Habu on 2008-09-26 12:43 (Reply)
They-all don't hate us Yankees at Maggie's, do they?
I don't think they do.
#6.1 Bird Dog on 2008-09-26 12:57 (Reply)
Hah.. Habu... Yep. Buried deep within those wonderful smiles and good manners of the southerners is the world's most mercurial sensibility. It is as inherent as the smell of Magnolias.

:) Don't evah call a southernah 'stupid'.
#6.2 Meta on 2008-09-26 13:07 (Reply)
Survival guide? Uh, why do we want the East Coast Media Elite to survive?
#7 Hohenheim on 2008-09-26 14:09 (Reply)
I became a "naturalized Southerner" when I married my husband, a fifth generation Texan, in 1971. And I've been loving it [and him] ever since. I have encountered the "hate Yankee" thing once or twice, but Southerners really have beautiful manners, by and large. And a great way of life I've become deeply fond of.

What I have acquired, over the years, is a healthy resentment of East Coast Effete Elites, even though I went to college there. What I do love about Maggies is that you all are the last remaining reservoir of what I knew when I was in school -- civilized, inquiring, centrist-thinking, capitalist, traditionalist New England Yankees from the like of which my own parents sprang. Unfortunately, there are too darn few of you around. Long may you wave.

Marianne
#8 Marianne Matthews on 2008-09-26 14:40 (Reply)
I moved south with my family when I was in the sixth grade during JFKs short term in office. I think the thing that made the most impression on me, was "Yes, Mam" and "Yes, Sir".
#9 JimK on 2008-09-26 15:13 (Reply)
It took me until my adult life to live up to my Texas upbringing.

I never knew that those ladies were insulting when they said to another "why, what a nice dress you have on..."
(bless your heart) Looking back it was obviously a dig.

Oddly enough, I was taught to say "yes please" and "no, thank you" along with "sir" and "mam" by Californians when I moved there.

Now living in Oregon, I think a lot of what y'all attribute to the South is simply good Western values and manners. Go outside of Portland and the people say "howdy" and "y'all" all day long. I knew I was finally at home.
#10 Phil on 2008-09-26 15:15 (Reply)

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