WHERE ARE YOU FROM?

I never quite know how to answer that question.  I could legitimately say:

"Florence, South Carolina" because I live there.
"Newport, Rhode Island" because I was born there.
"Norfolk, Virginia" because I lived there twice.
"Guantanamo Bay, Cuba" was home for two years.
"Nashville, Tennessee" was where I spent my four college years.

As the daughter of a Naval officer we lived in many other places.  One constant was that my parents were from the farmlands of North Carolina. So my roots were definitely southern although my birth certificate indicated Yankee.  So today's blog is a tutorial for our southern way of talkin'!



In the south:

We don't push buttons, we mash them.

Instead of rolling down car windows when we park in the summertime, we crack them so the heat won't be unbearable when we get back in.

The word jeet is actually a question, meaning, "Did you eat?"

Ya'll is singular.  All ya'll is plural.

Fixin' to is a word that means, "I'm getting ready to do that."

We like to refer to our shopping cart as a buggy.

We grow, eat and like okra.

We know what a hissy fit is and don't want to be around when our mama throws one.

We carry jumper cables in our car for our own car.

Iced tea is appropriate for all meals and we love it sweet.

Jawl is an easy way of saying, "Did all of you?"

Backwards and forwards means we know all about you.

At midday we eat lunch and at night we have supper.  On Sundays at midday we have dinner.

We like our festivals and proudly name them after a fruit, vegetable, grain, insect or animal.

Our main spices are salt, pepper, mustard, ketchup and hot sauce.

The saying I had to go around my elbow to get to my thumb means we were forced to do something simple, the hard way.

I might could, means maybe I could.

And if you hear a southerner say he is fixin' to fry up a mess, get your appetite ready because he's about to cook a bunch of fish.


Cheese crackers and peanut butter are called Nabs.

When we say, "Don't be ugly," what we are saying is don't be mean.

My grandmother used to caution me to, "Be pretty now."  I knew full well she was telling me to behave, to be good!  Mama called it being pretty on the inside.
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We pull over to let a funeral procession pass.  We don't have fireflies but call them lightening bugs.  Taters are mandatory while shoes are not. Chicken is fried and biscuits come with gravy.  Kool Aid, Sundrop and Cheerwine are the house wines, second only to our staple sweet tea.

I wish all ya'll could come over and share some Nabs and Mt. Dew with me on our porch swing.  Then we'd chew the fat awhile 'fore supper. And of course we'd have a big ol' sweet iced tea!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHp6C0MapYw&feature=player_embedded#!