Southern Living

I lived in Alabama most of my life. I never appreciated the charm of the South until I no longer lived there. Now I understand that the South is an alluring place. There's something about southern living that makes me more calm and at ease. There's a laziness about it. People move slower and talk slower. People aren't as self-centered as I have found some people in other parts of the country to be. People don't mind sitting and chatting for a spell. People speak to each other; make eye contact with one another and somebody always smiles. If you go anywhere in the South I'll bet you'll hear a mother teaching her children to say yes ma'am and no sir. If a mama calls her child and that child is crazy enough to reply, "What?" you'll hear what it sounds like to have a southern lady get on to said child. People who are absolute strangers will offer their food to you if they are eating something and you're not. You'll hear the standard, "Have some?" Of course you say no, but everyone knows that it's proper to make the offer. A southern lady can say "Bless your heart" and use it as a term of endearment or an insult. Hey, people are polite even when they're being mean! A southern gentleman will see you with an arm full of babies and wait for your food to be ready so he can bring you your tray. He's already eaten and was actually leaving, but that doesn't matter to him. You'll smile and say, "Thank you so much!" and he'll reply, "Yes, Ma'am. Y'all have a nice day." You don't know him and he doesn't know you. You understand that this is how he was raised. You don't get offended that he called you ma'am even though you're young and spry! You were raised this way too and you get it. A man you have never seen before will notice that you drive the same car as his wife and stop you to have a five minute conversation. You'll find out that he bought a cargo carrier like yours but couldn't get it to work and then he'll tell you about the transmission work he had to have done. Next you'll chat about going to Tuskegee University. At the very end of this conversation you'll find out his name! You won't mind, even though you were really supposed to be pumping gas so you can get back home to your children. After all, you're in the South. You're at home. This is who you are and this is what you do. It immediately comes back to you, no matter how long you've been away.

This is the foundation we want to establish for Ryan and Evan, our native New Englanders.


This is a part of who they are because this is a part of who we are.

This is why we hitched up the SUV, packed it to capacity, grabbed the dog, two babies, and the Yo Gabba Gabba dvds and took an 18 hour car ride. Yep, 18 hours. In the car. With a dog. And two babies. We weren't in any hurry; we didn't have to be anywhere at any particular time so we took our time. Ryan and Evan did surprisingly very well on the drive down. It was tough on them the last stretch of the drive, though. By the time we made it to Atlanta they were over being in the car seats and wanted out! The solution to our problem? A stop in Super Walmart! I tell ya, I miss me some Super Walmart. We don't have those here, and people don't know what they're missing! We made it to my grandparents' house in Tuskegee on Saturday July 3. I'm going to recap our time down south in a series of posts in letter form to Ryan and Evan. I want to "speak" directly to them since this trip was about so much more than visiting. There are life lessons to be learned one day. Lessons I want to teach our boys about good 'ole southern values.