Southern Delights

 

Being the southern gal that I am, I have a deep appreciation for the southern culture. And that appreciation and love has only grown over the years especially through the past four years when I moved up North for college and have been able to recognize and take notice of things I may not have noticed if I had not been able to have the experience of a different culture to compare my southern culture to.

There are some things about the south that are just stereo types, what everyone not from the south imagines it to be like. Such as, grandmas and grandpas rocking on the rockers on the front porch. Ok, so that actually isn’t necessarily a stereo type because that is actually real. There are particular houses way out in the country that I enjoy passing because there will often be some elderly folks sitting outside in chairs or rockers waving to every car that drives by.

But more recently I was attending a small church fellowship event in which I didn’t know many of the folks, so therefore, had plenty of time to observe and watch the interactions around me. Now this potluck fellowship is the true picture of southern culture. Some of the food displayed were things such as, casseroles, fried chicken from Bojangles, biscuits, watermelon, and last but not least, homemade ice cream that four different people had brought. And don’t forget that there was plenty of lemonade and sweet tea to drink, as well. The outdoors, a bit muggy, buggy, and hot, yet quite tolerable for us who have put up with it all of our life. The accents slow and drawn out. But one of my favorite things was some of the conversations I heard between the women.

I sat eavesdropping on these older ladies as they shared with each other about their recipe for this and that, asked for each other’s recipes, and so forth. Some people who don’t understand us southern folks have remarked that we of the south just eat supper unhealthy, all the sugar and fat we saturate out food with, not to mention all of our fried whatnots. Let me just say, dear friends of the North, we just enjoy good food and know how to make it too, so stop judging. Ok, but really we enjoy food, but not only that, we also enjoy the creation of good food. We don’t just prize our food, we prize our recipes. Each woman of a home seems to have her own special recipe for this or that and everyone knows who makes such and such a dish. It almost feels as if recipes are just a little sacred in the south. We love our food, but we love our recipes, too.

The last thing that you should note at this gathering, is the buckets of homemade ice cream. In my four years in Minnesota, I don’t recall eating real homemade ice cream once. Maybe I just landed in the wrong spot of Minnesota or maybe I just ended up with the wrong friends, but it certainly does not seem to be the habit of the Minnesotans to make homemade ice cream. But in my two weeks of being home this summer, I have already enjoyed homemade ice cream twice. Not to mention the numerous times I have enjoyed that most cooling and refreshing summer delight during many other summers in the past.

Now that I am done bragging about the joys and comforts of the southern culture, I will tell you three bits of life news.

- I am dating a kind young gentleman. (I suppose I can't write any more posts about how wonderful singleness is! 😊)

- My younger sister is getting married in August.

- I just finished my fourth year of college this past May and only have one year left before I graduate.