MORE “SOUTHERN THANGS”, page 2

The Legend of the Spanish Moss

There’s an old, old legend, that’s whispered by Southern folks,

About the lacy Spanish moss that garlands the great oaks.

A lovely princess and her love, upon their wedding day,

Were struck down by a savage foe amidst a bitter fray.

United in death they were buried, so the legends go,

‘Neath an oak’s strong, friendly arms, protected from their foe.

There, as was the custom, they cut the bride’s long hair with love,

And hung its shining blackness on the spreading oak above.

Untouched, undisturbed it hung there, for all the world to see,

And with the years the locks turned gray and spread from tree to tree.

Describing Southern Cities:

PERHAPS IT WAS THE MASSIVE oaks draped with Spanish moss, or the gracious wrought-iron-accented buildings, or the cobblestone walkways along the riverfront, but my first and lasting impression of Savannah was a sense of deja vu, like a vague distant memory evoked by some provocative fragrance. — Alice Ross, Gobelle website.

I was a typical farm boy. I liked the farm. I enjoyed the things that you do on a farm, go down to the drainage ditch and fish, and look at the crawfish and pick a little cotton.  Sam Donaldson, Reporter and News Anchor from Texas

About fifteen miles above New Orleans the river goes very slowly. It has broadened out there until it is almost a sea and the water is yellow with the mud of half a continent. Where the sun strikes it, it is golden. Frank Yerby, Author

Growing up Southern is a privilege, really. It’s more than where you’re born, it’s an idea and state of mind that seems imparted at birth. It’s more than loving fried chicken, sweet tea, football, and country music…it’s being hospitable, devoted to front porches, magnolias, moon pies and coca-cola… and each other. We don’t become Southern – we’re born that way

“True grits, more grits, fish, grits, and collards. Life is good where grits are swallered.”–Roy Blount, Jr

“All I can say is that there’s a sweetness here, a Southern sweetness, that makes sweet music. If I had to tell somebody who had never been to the South, who had never heard of soul music, what it was, I’d just have to tell him that it’s music from the heart, from the pulse, from the innermost feeling. That’s my soul; that’s how I sing. And that’s the South.” — Al Green

“When I go to the Gate, I’ll play a duet with Gabriel. Yeah, we’ll play ‘Sleepy Time Down South’ and ‘Hello, Dolly!.’ Then he can blow a couple that he’s been playing up there all the time”– Louis Armstrong, on his 70th birthday

Southern weather forecast: tolerable, hot, really hot, and scorching.

“Tough girls come from New York. Sweet girls, they’re from Georgia. But us Kentucky girls, we have fire and ice in our blood. We can ride horses, be a debutante, throw left hooks, and drink with the boys, all the while making sweet tea, darlin’. And if we have an opinion, you know you’re gonna hear it.” ~~Ashley Judd, Actress

It’s so hot in the South, the cows are giving evaporated milk.

“A Georgia peach, a real Georgia peach, a backyard great-grandmother’s
orchard peach, is as thickly furred as a sweater, and so fluent and sweet that
once you bite through the flannel, it brings tears to your
eyes.”
-Melissa Fay Greene, ‘Praying for Sheetrock’

A Southern farmer discovers the local kids have been feasting on his watermelons in the patch. He posts a sign saying, “Warning! One of these melons contains cyanide.” A week later the farmer returns to check on his melon patch to find another sign that says: “Now there are two!”.

Well it’s way, way down where the cain grows tall. Down where they say, “Y’all”

Walk on in with that Southern drawl. ‘Cause that’s what I like about the South.

She’s got backbone and turnip greens. Ham hocks and butter beans

You, me and New Orleans. An’ that’s what I like about the South~~Bob Wills

“She was so Southern that she cried tears that came straight from the
Mississippi, and she always smelled faintly of cottonwood and peaches.” ~~Sara Addison Allen

It is so hot in the South tonight, the mosquitoes are carrying canteens.

There’s a Southern accent, where I come from

The young’uns call it country

The Yankees call it dumb

I got my own way of talkin

But everything is done, with a Southern accent

Where I come from ~~Tom Petty

“The true Southern watermelon is a boon apart, and not
to be mentioned with commoner things. It is chief of this world’s
luxuries, king by the grace of God over all the fruits of the
earth. When one has tasted it, he knows what the angels eat.”, Mark Twain

“Red beans and ricely yours.”

Louis Armstrong loved red beans and rice so much he signed his personal letters thus

Well, I was raised up

Beneath the shade of a Georgia pine

And that’s home you know

Sweet tea, pecan pie and homemade wine

Where the peaches grow ~~Zac Brown, Chicken Fried Lyrics

Yeah, I like my rice and gray and my black-eyed peas.
Corn on the cob, I want a big glass of tea
Some okra and tomatoes and some turnip greens
I want some real soul food, Do you know what I mean? ~~Kenny Bill Stinson

Jesus is my friend, America is my home

Sweet iced tea and Jerry Lee, Daytona Beach. That’s what gets to me

I can feel it in my bones

Smooth as the hickory wind, that blows from Memphis down to Appalachicola

It’s hi ya’ll did ya eat well. Come on in child. I’m sure glad to know ya. ~~Southern Voice Lyrics

There’s buckwheat cakes and Injun batter, makes you fat or a little fatter

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land

Then hoe it down and scratch your gravel, to Dixie’s Land I’m bound to travel,

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land

I’m a Southern girl. I like when they open the door and pull out a chair. I’m really into a man’s man. Brooke Burns

Southern nights and the living is easy, Southern weather is humid and hot

Southern living is roots and tradition, Southern ways they never forgot

Southern drawls and soft gentle voices, whisper through the magnolia trees

Southern belles and porch swings a-swayin, enjoying the touch of the warm evening breeze. ~~Judy Yeager

Are you from Dixie, I said from Dixie, where the fields of cotton beckon to me

Hello, how do you feel, I’m glad to see you. Here’s the friends I waited to see

If you’re from Alabama, Tennessee or Caroline. Anyplace below that Mason Dixon line

Then you’re from Dixie, hurray for Dixie, cause I’m from Dixie too.~~Lyrics from song, Are You From Dixie

Born and bred on Southern ground. No place I’d rather be found.

But down in Dixieland, with my feet in the sand

Drinking sweet iced tea under a magnolia tree. No place I’d rather be

No matter where I roam, I’ll always come back home

Cause Dixie is a part of me. My Dixieland. ~~J. Yeager

Johnnie! Susie! Come to supper! The music of iron skillets, the flitting of lighting bugs, are in that antique invocation. Supper, in the South, was the light meal: cereal or sandwiches, sometimes bacon and eggs. No culinary folderol, anyway. All of that belonged to the midday repast known as dinner, when the whole family turned up, from office or school, to feast in solidarity on meatloaf and turnip greens.~~by William Murchison, The Dallas Morning News Columnist 3/13/96

“O magnet-South! O glistening perfumed South! my South! O quick mettle, rich blood, impulse and love! Good and evil! O all dear to me!”–Walt Whitman

Our Southern homeland, beautiful and so grand.

Your laid-back Southern ways,

Your long, hot, humid days,

Your traditions from long ago and your speech that flows so slow.

Your native sons and daughters, too

My Dixieland! I love you.~~J. Yeager

 

In the South, we “sip” sweet tea, mimosas, and mint juleps while “swayin” in the porch swing or “rockin” on the veranda. These things are all guaranteed stress relievers! ~~J.Yeager

 

Rules of Southern Cookin: 1.Cook everything ’til well done & then some. 2. Fry when possible. 3. Don’t measure. Southern cookin is done by taste, not by book. 4. Cook in iron pots & skillets. 5. Always have biscuits or some form of soppin’ bread every meal. 6. Always cook large quantities in case company stops by. 7. Don’t toss out grease. Keep a can on the stove for all drippins. 8. Don’t waste anything. 9. The more you grow, catch or shoot, the better it will taste. 10.Always bless the food.

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