Only in the South

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Only in the South

Being a Midwestern, Asian-American, self-proclaimed Yankee girl who has recently been transplanted to Mississippi, this is my running list of items, characteristics and stuff that is found Only in the South.

Obviously it’s not a fully comprehensive list, but rather an entertaining collection of my personal observations. And for all intents and purposes, I am referring to the deep South: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina.

The beginning: Only in the South

1. Chitlins

2. Muscadine jelly

3. Chicken-on-a-stick

4. Pig feet

5. Insanely large numbers of wedding attendants in weddings

6. Deer camp

7. The popularity of camo

8. King cake

9. Grits: cheese grits, plain grits, shrimp and grits

10. Sweet tea as thick as syrup

11. Pimento cheese

12. Prevalent usage of “y’all”

13. Mud bugs, crawfish, crawdad boils

14. Dressing up for college football tailgates

15. Fried green tomatoes

16. Calling people Northerners and Yankees

17. Mentioning the Mason-Dixon Line (do you really know where it is?)

18. Caramel cake

19. A love for mayonnaise

20. Tony Chachere

21. Going by your first and middle name, or having two first names. Thus far I know a: Jane Claire, John Hugh, Jon Foster, John Clark, Anna Lisa and Francis Ann

22. Throwing in “bless your heart!” for good measure

23. Adults using the word tee-tee, as in “I have to go the restroom to tee-tee.”

24. Comeback (Kumbak) salad dressing (sauce)

25. Starting a sentence with “I’m fixin’ to…”

26. Boiled peanuts

27. Chess pie

28. Blue plate lunch specials

29. Two to three kinds of hot sauce at the table in a restaurant

30. Pink eyed purple hull peas

31. Northerners = lima beans, Southerners = butter beans

32. The muffaletta

33. Putting turkey in the Thanksgiving stuffing, er, I mean dressing

34. Planting pansies in the winter

35. Bread pudding

36. Tomato gravy

Discussion

10 Responses to “Only in the South”

I echo this list wholeheartedly!

Posted by Christine | November 1, 2011, 10:19 am

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When my family first moved here. We owned a convenient store where I worked at when i was only 13 years old. I never heard of SOUSE! ( you really don’t want to know the ingredients )
Or putting Peanuts in your Coke can or bottle. Or Pickeld Pigs Feet. Or Pickled Eggs!
And a huge desire for strawberry frozen cokes or Icee’s

Posted by gloria beauchamp | July 28, 2010, 5:23 pm

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- Souse?! Do tell!
  
  Posted by gidgete27 | July 29, 2010, 8:16 am
  
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someone at work brought in a recipe for “cooter soup” from Mississippi….after some digging we found out that cooter was a turtle. -yikes

Posted by Tristian and Tate's mom | June 18, 2010, 1:45 pm

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- I am relieved to find out a turtle is the cooter the recipe was referring to.
  
  Posted by gidgete27 | July 20, 2010, 10:05 am
  
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  - That’s funny!
    
    Posted by gloria beauchamp | July 28, 2010, 5:25 pm
    
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- Just thought I’d mention that Ben’s dad says that every Southern town has a person nicknamed COOTER. I cannot verify that information, but thought that it was interesting. Once I did teach the son of a high school friend of his named Cooter, and the son was Cooter 2. So there you go.
  
  Posted by Miss Faye (Ben's stepmom) | August 24, 2010, 6:34 pm
  
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