<p>LakeWashington - I should have said I wouldn’t eat any catfish from the rivers around where I grew up. We live downstream of a coal fired electric plant. </p>
<p>My mom wouldn’t dream of cooking catfish without soaking it to get the mud taste out. I have ordered catfish in restaurants that I couldn’t eat because it had that muddy taste. I guess I’m spoiled. I don’t know whether she soaked it in just water, milk or buttermilk. I have heard of using them all.</p>
<p>“ugly” used as a synonym for “rude”
ex: When someone honks, that’s just ugly. </p>
<p>adding to the author list:
Eudora Welty
Walker Percy
John Kennedy Toole, Confederacy of Dunces
Julia Reed, The House on First Street</p>
<p>movies:
Steel Magnolias
Moving Midway</p>
<p>“Be sweet”</p>
<p>gimme sum sugah - give me some sugar</p>
<p>When my first child started kindergarten in the NE a teacher friend told me there was discussion about sending him to speech therapy until she asked them if anyone had ever heard his mama’s accent. </p>
<p>One thing I really love about being back in the south, after many decades, is that I have NO ACCENT!!!</p>
<p>And I can see a deer stand from my house (but the stand isn’t mine)
And hear the dogs</p>
<p>I’m going to set up a lawn chair and wave at the hunters across the way next fall. Probably there will be a cooler at my side. And I’ll have on a tatty straw hat. And boots- for protection against snakes.</p>
<p>a southern friend said recently that whenever several southerners get together the conversation invariably turns to snakes…</p>
<p>Dogs - doesn’t everyone have a dog?</p>
<p>Ma’am, Sir.
Southern kids have real manners. Took me a while to not be offended. My daughter’s best friend is from Ga. When I first met her she kept Ma’aming me. I explained that - it’s okay she didn’t have to and to please call me by my first name. Her response: Yes, Ma’am.</p>
<p>Porch talk. Two or more conversations at one time. No one gets confused or bats an eye.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The dogs I’m hearing were running deer, and then rabbits (I think) until the end of February. It positively couldn’t have been deer because the season was over… at least that is what my new neighbors told me. I am adding a lot of bright orange to my formerly all-black wardrobe ;)</p>
<p>Florida isn’t part of The South. Really. LOL. Let’s see . . .</p>
<p>-Daytona 500
-sweetea
-grits
-fried chicken
-pecan pie
-cornbread
-fried okra
-collard greens
-mustard greens
-black-eyed peas
-fried green tomatoes (got one ready to fry sitting on my counter as we speak)
-watermelon
-thick Southern drawls
-“Hey, Ya’all”
-Spanish moss dripping off stately oaks
-Ford F250s
-Chevy Silverardos
-Ford F350s
-oversized garages to house those big boy toys
-gun racks
-posters on the walls of high schools warning students to not ride in the back of a pickup truck because they could get thrown from the truck if there is an accident
-John Deere riding mowers to mow those acres of “property”
-BBQ
-BBQ
-BBQ
-alligators</p>
<p>Well . . . you get my point. It depends on where you live in Florida. Even with the “big cities” like Tampa, Orlando, and Miami, you don’t have to travel far to find the heart of Florida - and it definitely beats slowly and with a drawl!</p>
<p>And how could I forget?! SEC FOOTBALL</p>
<p>alh - The House on First Street is a lovely book. I will read it again before I go to New Orleans.</p>
<p>Hush puppies good.</p>
<p>Animal clinics on every corner…at least it seems that way</p>
<p>Pharmacies EVERYWHERE!</p>
<p>Good food and lots of it.</p>
<p>People who are genuinely interested in you, your family, your mother, your sister, your dog, etc.</p>
<p>The beautiful trees</p>
<p>The fall and spring weather…blue skies and fluffy white clouds…beautiful.</p>
<p>The home prices</p>
<p>The lower tax rates</p>
<p>The register your car price (so much lower than it was in Calif)</p>
<p>Yes, Shag Dancing is something I had never heard of before moving here, and I have spent enough time in England to find the name “Shag Dancing” really strange - like Dirty Dancing, only more explicit!</p>
<p>Live oaks
Spanish moss
Pelicans</p>
<p>24 hour warehouse stores for fireworks. So if you need some at 4 am, there’s no problem.</p>
<p>Well, that’s Tennessee, I don’t know how general it is.</p>
<p>It’s really just called “shaggin”…not shag dancing.
Spent many, many hours shaggin’ in my youth. And you only shag to “beach music”
One of DH and my first dates was to go shaggin’ 'cause The Chairmen of the Board were playing in town. In my college town there was a bar that played nothing but beach music…I love beach music.</p>
<p>And let’s clarify upfront that Beach Music DOES NOT mean the Beach Boys. The Temptations, the Tams, the Embers - there’s a specific beat to the music that just makes you want to shag. At college we would dance with a door handle. (Who needs a man?)</p>
<p>Add to the list: boiled pnuts. (New crop only)</p>
<p>Like my farm girl mother, I can’t stand boiled peanuts and don’t understand the attraction. Must be an acquired taste. As for salted-roasted peanuts in the shell, now there’s a treat.</p>
<p>peanuts added to your glass-bottled-coke while on car trips—</p>
<p>anyone else’s mother do this?</p>
<p>@Packmom,
what is beach music?</p>
<p>When I was younger and smoked, cigarettes were so cheap, that we would hoard cartons to take home. Cigarettes in NY 1.00, Virginia 50cents.</p>
<p>The Carolina Shag is a cross between East Coast swing and West Coast swing. The difference between it and West Coast swing is that the man is the center of attention in the Shag and often, the woman just marks time while the lead shows off. I prefer East Coast and West Coast for that reason, but if you go shaggin’ in Myrtle Beach you can find men who will share the spotlight. The footwork rivals Michael Jackson’s best. </p>
<p>When I think of beach music, I think immediately of Bill Deal & the Rondells.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The cross-cultural double-entendres are really delicious.</p>