<p>Cartera mentioned “Be sweet.” My mother, a very Southern lady, always closed her letters to me like this: “Be sweet and say your prayers.” Quite emotional for me, even now…</p>
<p>Yes, I never left my grandmother’s house as a child without her telling me to “be sweet.” If more than one - “ya’ll be sweet.” If we got into a tussle with a cousin “be sweet now.” </p>
<p>I recommend Roy Blount’s book “Be Sweet - A Conditional Love Story” - particularly the audio version in which he reads it is his Georgia drawl. The book chronicles his difficult relationship with his mother.</p>
<p>My father was partial to peanuts in bottled Coke. It’s not the same anymore in the plastic and cans. Honestly, I quit drinking caffeinated sodas when the glass bottled Cokes became rare.</p>
<p>Horehound candy. My cousins and I would see who could get the sharpest point on it without it breaking. I think of it as a southern thing but it may not be. </p>
<p>We put peanuts in Dr. Pepper. I never really liked it though. We did eat RC Cola and Moon Pies. They seemed to go together.</p>
<p>I heard “be sweet” a lot in my childhood, too, along with “give me some sugar” which meant to give the adults kisses and still have a really hard time not caling all my children’s friends “sweetheart” or “sweetie” or “honey” even when I see the horrified looks on their faces. My family also used “punkin” (pumpkin?) alot talking to children, even adult children, but not sure if that is regional. My parents would never have said “kids” and I was frequently corrected as a young adult, you aren’t talking about baby goats, but eventually they just raised their eyebrows and gave up, but that’s probably not a regional but generational issue.</p>
<p>When I was in Jr. high and high school in rural central Oregon, Native American kids from the local reservation commonly put salted peanuts into bottles of coke or pepsi, but white kids did not.</p>
<p>Songs to shag to …like that one JHS?:)</p>
<p>Chairman of the Board…Carolina Girls (a personal fav,lol)
Give Me Just a Little More Time</p>
<p>Fantastic Shakers…Myrtle Beach Days</p>
<p>The Drifters…More than a Number</p>
<p>Catalinas…Summertime’s Calling Me</p>
<p>Tymes…Ms. Grace ( a real classic)</p>
<p>The Embers…I Love Beach Music
Faraway Places</p>
<p>There are lots more but these give the you basic idea.</p>
<p>You picked all the good ones, Pack Mom. You must live close to me. My personal favorite is Lady Soul by The Temptations. If that plays, I’m on the floor dancing. My husband loves Brenda by O.C. Smith. Rainy Day Bells is good, too. My 17-yr old daughter (opera singer) can sing just about any title you can throw out since she was raised on that (and not classical music). And she is also a boiled pnut fanatic. We love to drive thru the NC mountains and stop at the roadside stands and grab a bag and a mtn dew.</p>
<p>Wow, I listen to a lot of music, but the only one of those songs I’ve ever heard is “Give Me Just A Little More Time” – that is, if the one I’m thinking about is the same song. (Give me just a little more time / and our love will surely grow . . . .)</p>
<p>JHS- That was (and is) a favorite of mine. It’s also the only one I have ever heard. Must be a Philadelphia thing with us.</p>
<p>Here is on of the few sites I could find that lets you listen to some great beach music classics for free. From the late great Bill Deal. I guarantee you can’t listen without wanting to get up an dance. </p>
<p>[Bill</a> Deal - Music](<a href=“http://www.billdealonline.com/music.php]Bill”>http://www.billdealonline.com/music.php)</p>
<p>Great link, catera45. How could I have forgotten “Party Man”? “Hold Back the Night” is one of my all time favs too. </p>
<p>JHS, yes, same song, great shaggin’ tune.</p>
<p>POTO, Did you ever go shagging at Crazy Zack’s ? Where I’m from, we all learned to shag and were sneaking into bars to dance as soon as we possibly could.<br>
Friends of DH’s parents threw us a big “after wedding rehearsal” party" at a community center. Everyone there from 12 to 75 was shaggin’. That’s the cool thing about it. My in-laws could tear it up.</p>
<p>The only place I’ve shagged - giggles please - is in Ocean Drive, North Myrtle Beach, at Fat Harold’s and Ducks or was it Ducks II?</p>
<p>Well I grew up 90 minutes from OD. (we never called it Ocean Drive) My friend had a house at Cherry Grove. (That’s before they commercialized everything and made it North Myrtle Beach. ) My mom used to chaperone the teenagers when they went to the beach for first week and she would take me, too. I was probably 12 or 13 then. So I would shag with the girls and listen to their stories about Fat Harold’s, etc. My dad is the best shagger so he is the one who taught me. We still have lots of great shag clubs in SC. On Thursday nights in Greenville, we have an outdoor venue where the beach bands play and everyone gets up and dances on the grass.</p>
<p>We went to OD, Crescent or Cherry Grove every summer in high school. My mom would chaperone us. We never called it Ocean Drive either. When my D was young, we went to Cherry Grove after the local kids went back to school to avoid the crowds. We stayed a Cherry Grove Manor, an old fashioned mom and pop place. I understand it has been torn down and replaced by a high rise. North Myrtle used to be a string of quaint little villages. I loved the beaches of North Myrtle. They are great swimming beaches and good for kids because the beaches are so wide the kids can play in the little ponds rather than the ocean.</p>
<p>Another great place is Pawleys Island. My dad lives there now and I was just down there this weekend. Not as BUSY as Myrtle Beach proper. Still lots of great restaurants and shag clubs. Did you ever go eat at Calabash when you were at OD or CHerry Grove or Crescent? We lived so close to the beach that we sometimes just went down on Sunday afternoons to eat and sit on the beach. Back then the bridge would still swing around when boats came through - my dad would get mad and turn around and we would drive back home. 60 minutes of total silence. Hmmm not a good memory there.</p>
<p>astrodeb-
Coke bottles (the ones that fit in the vending machines) are still pretty easy to find. Costco carries them by the case, and many supermarkets here have them. Sometimes they carry Diet Coke and Sprite in the glass bottles too.</p>
<p>“At college we would dance with a door handle.”</p>
<p>Lawd, Lawd…</p>
<p>Yes, we ate at Calabash each time we went down. We would go down with extended family for a week at one of the beaches and all of us would go there - about 20 of us. As I got older, I didn’t like fried seafood as much so we didn’t go on every trip. Then we stopped going to Myrtle and went to the outer banks or Ocracoke for many years.</p>
<p>Okay, I have zero experience in the south but I want to play. So I’m going to tell you about what I love about where I live, way up yonder:</p>
<p>Free health care
Inexpensive tuition at huge variety of great schools
No drop in house prices nor a related recession
No snow to shovel (blooms start in January)
Low crime rate
Fantastic restaurants
High ethnic and cultural diversity
Year round outdoor activities and sports
Great public transit and bike paths to everywhere
Abundance of mom and pop shops not yet replaced by chains and big box</p>