Southern Comfort

Yeah- lots of things about the south are comforting to me. Our customs, our little eccentricities, all the little things that make us Southern.

Take Sweet Iced Tea.
Nothing could be better on a hot summers day- except maybe skinny-dipping in the swimmin hole. And yes- every little community has one of those. We may have to drive thirty miles to get to it- but we all have them.
And we bring the sweet iced tea with us to the swimmin hole too.

Take grits. Most people, whether they are from another part of the country- or from another country altogether just don't get the appeal of grits. We southerners LOVE them. A real southern breakfast just isn't complete without a big ole bowl of grits. Either covered in sawmill gravy or red eye gravy, or with a good sized chunk of butter with salt and pepper.

Now lots of people will be askin' what in the heck those gravies are.
Saw-mill gravy is bacon or sausage grease with a liberal dose of self-risin' flour added and browned - sort of a rouge-but not really. Then you add lots of salt and especially pepper to it til its all browned but not TOO browned- and add a big ole bowl of while milk to it and stir it til its thickened. Pour it over all sorts of other southern delicacies like biscuits, or fried meat- bout any kind will do- or grits, or even all by itself. Sticks to your ribs it does. Red-eye gravy is basically the best gravy there is. You take some country ham- fry it up in an iron skillet(that's very important- cant be anything BUT an iron skillet or it just ain't right) and then after you take the ham out, you add a cup or two of strong black coffee to the ham drippins and heat it up. OMG.its absolutely wonderful.
Sounds pretty nasty after reading it over- but it's absolutely divine.

what else..........

Nicknames. Is it just in the south or do we have some of the strangest nicknames ever?
Sweet=pea
Teddy bear
Skeeter
Boone
Bo
Doo
Roho
Re-re
Lucky
Bodidley
tadpole and toot-toot.

Not to mention the southern standards like bubba and sissy and paw-paw or papa.
Granny is a fav- and so is gradma.

Activities....
Huntin, Fishin, goin to the NASCAR races and Monday night wrasslin(wrestling to the rest of you people.) Horseshoe pitchin is fast becoming a lost art.
Playin poker is a fav pastime in the south as is shootin pool. And contrary to popular belief- drag racin for pinks is still big here in the south too.

I don't know if I could ever live anywhere but the south. It would be like leaving the real world and livin in Bizzarro world for me if i ever tried.