What is it like to live in the South?

big_dreamer · August 11, 2009, 8:28pm

^Lol, my bad haha! I was thinking how you pssibly have not met somebody on CC not from LA I have always wanted to go to NO as well, road trip haha?

bigwill11205 · August 11, 2009, 8:35pm

^ you know, I might do that next year. I plan on doing a lot the summer before college; i guess I can add road trip to New Orleans to the list. :)

bigwill11205 · August 11, 2009, 8:51pm

big dreamer: I forgot to tell you, I live in Chester, VA. It’s 30-35 min away from Richmond. It’s a pretty nice neighborhood. And my internship was a great learning experience. :)

Helvetica · August 11, 2009, 9:31pm

Oh, I have some words on the Cajun food topic. We have some Cajuns that live in my area, and their food is FABULOUS!! We have a hole in the wall restaurant called “Who Dats” it’s a Cajun place in Bald Knob. It’s about a 15-20 minute drive from where I live and it is amazing. We order a cajun turkey from there almost every Thanksgiving. That is just to complement the turkey my Papaw fixes. lol The gumbo, crayfish, jambalaya, and their famous frog legs!! Y’all must think I live in the sticks! bahaha Also, it must be noted how extremely popular catfish is. We have a place called Huckleberry’s. Oh God! I practically need my meal served in a bowl of insulin. My arteries cry every time I eat there, but my taste buds are more than satisfied! haha For the Fourth we have a big family cook out with ribs, hamburgers, steak, fried chicken, and hot dogs with all kinds of side dishes. New Years always called for black eyed peas, cabbage, and corned beef. My grandparents fix enough food to feed a third world country. Fo sho!! That’s just a take on some of the foods. I didn’t even start on purple hull peas, squash, & tomatoes. Oh, I also go peach picking with my family every summer. White peaches are the bomb! Y’all should really sample some Arkansas Strawberries! They are by far the best, California strawberries pale by comparison. Is your mouth watering yet?? lol

onthefly · August 11, 2009, 9:47pm

I live like an hour from Louisiana and yet I have never been there, its a pity. Houston has a cajun restaurant called Pappadeaux that I think is good but I’m not sure if its authentic, so if I visit Tulane or something it will be awesome to try the real deal

calabacin90 · August 11, 2009, 10:09pm

Don’t mean to break up the little conversations, but I thought I’d share my thoughts on 18 years of living in the South!

Since I live in NC and about 30 minutes away from the SC state line, I would definitely consider my experiences to be a good representation of the Southern region.

The food: fried chicken, okra, catfish, mac & cheese, banana pudding are my faves. I don’t care if it’s unhealthy, I love it.
All the trees blooming in the spring (bradford pears smell weird though).
Incredibly diverse.
Lots of stately oaks and beautiful old houses.
Lots of birds.
People wave and smile a lot.
Mild weather.
I like my town b/c it’s the biggest city in NC so it has both a traditional and cosmopolitan feel.
Nascar is HUGE. They’re building the Hall of Fame here.
NC has this little “disagreement” over whether tomato based barbeque sauce or vinegar based is better. The Eastern and Western parts have their preference. 
Barbeque means pork. Sometimes it’s called a pig pickin’.

The pace of life is slower in the small towns. Bankers and Northern transplants speed things up here.
The older the person, the thicker the southern accent (usually)

I’m headed up north for college, so I guess I’ll see how things are different.

smilemyonly · August 11, 2009, 10:12pm

so uhh *** are grits? lol. i heard its like corn and cheese, or something like that, haha.

calabacin90 · August 11, 2009, 10:20pm

oh I forgot grits!

they’re like finely ground corn porridge, I guess? People put all sorts of stuff in them like cheese, shrimp, bacon, etc. Wikipedia explains it better than I can.

Usually it’s eaten for breakfast.

PlattsburghLoser · August 11, 2009, 10:20pm

You’ve never heard of grits?!

[Grits</a> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grits]Grits”>Grits - Wikipedia)
Very good with cheese and a fried egg
My mother is so OCD with grits, she’ll sit for an hour and pick out all the little black grains from the bowl and the grits will be cold by the time she’s done. Nobody will agree to eat breakfast with her.

smilemyonly · August 11, 2009, 10:22pm

what black grains? lol

and looks like corn-y oatmeal to me. ehh i probably wouldnt like it i’m not much of an oatmeal fan.

onthefly · August 11, 2009, 10:24pm

@calabacin- thanks for the input and you must be really excited about the change of pace and scenery that new york provides! Have you visited yet?

PlattsburghLoser · August 11, 2009, 10:32pm

They have like these little brown grains in the grits. The average normal not-crazed person probably wouldn’t notice them, but she picks them out.

PlattsburghLoser · August 11, 2009, 10:38pm

Incredibly OT: I am going to wring my mother’s neck. For the past forty-five minutes, she’s had me on the phone (by force) with my stepfather trying to get him to get his printer to work. Problem: this guy is completely computer inept.
I tell him to download the fricking printer driver and he doesn’t know where he downloaded the file to. I tell him to go to Lexmark’s website, he says “where’s that?” I ask him what browser he’s using, he has no idea what a browser is.

Next time either use the library to print or call Geek Squad. Never call me. Ever.

And I just found out that he already installed the driver, didn’t know he installed it and had me sitting on the phone for an additional twenty minutes waiting for him to re-find the Lexmark site. $#$%$!!!

big_dreamer · August 11, 2009, 11:58pm

bigwillOh, I’ve heard of that. Sounds good! :)

@calabacin90: Yes, I know exactly what you mean! Agreed with everything Charlotte is a lovely area to live, I enjoy visiting there all the time!

JAJdude · August 12, 2009, 12:14am

I’m tired so I’ll cut my thing short. I used to be from New York and I thought North Carolina would be everything I thought from the South- Everyone would be clutching their bibles denouncing gays and stuff like that, the church would be in a whole lot of control,. the white people would be hick racists clutching guns, the black people would be ghetto, the school system would be horribly easy with little cultural refinement, and thatb I would hate it.

I was wrong about all of those things.

In NC, the weather is so bipolar lol. One hour it would be storming, next hiour it would be sunny as though nothing has happened. There really isn’t much to do in town, since it’s mostly military(I’m sure you can guess where I live now lol), not many people down here like the Democrats(or itf they do, not for the right reasons lol), Hiliary Clinton is hated down here.

Uh, the school system is actually better than in NY heh. I feel a lot more challenged in these vcourses. IOh, and in winter, it gets abnormally cold, like 40 degrees lol. I remember being up in N.Y and thinking 40 degrees were a godsend.

happycowlover · August 12, 2009, 12:15am

shrudders I hate grits. They have to be the second most disgusting soul food that I can think of, behind okra.

My family hates me when it comes to dinnertime. I hate 90% of all soul food. Greens, black eyed peas, squash, catfish (any type of fish for that matter) watermelon. All of it is disgustingly fattening in my opinion. The only sould food I do like is fried chicken and mac & cheese, and I prefer the chicken to be oven fried.

If you haven’t notice, I’m an EXTREMELY picky eater. Always have been, always will be.