It still shocks me that anyone serves BBQ sandwiches without coleslaw on them. I have owned my house less than a year and we’ve been busy planting hydrangeas, roses, and a magnolia is on the list. Gone with the Wind, Steel Magnolias, and Fried Green Tomatoes are all movies I
I love glitz, grits, barefoot summers, deviled eggs, hymns, country music, Papa’s homemade pickles, fireflies in mason jars, burning candles for all occasions, eating berries right off the bush, living on my front porch and waving at anyone and everyone who passes. And if fried green tomatoes or okra are on the menu - I am going to order them - Every. Single. Time.
You see, I was born in Florida and raised in southern Georgia, so I should have known - but I didn’t know all these things combined made me southern. To me, they were just part of life. And these things are very much a part of my family.
My Meme is a proper southern woman who makes amazing potato salad and my mother is at her happiest with sand between her toes and sweet tea in a nearby glass. My dad has perfected my Papa’s homemade pickles and owns a boat named – “Southern Ease” from a Jimmy Buffet song. (Think of speaking Chinese, Japanese, Southernese…got it?…) Meme thinks her grandbabies are absolutely “bootiful,” because you know – we just are.
So, in the last couple of years, I’ve really come to realize Southern culture and what a part of me it is. When my Papa passed away, I just wanted to hold on to him so badly in some way. So, I planted his favorite plants in my yard. And I hung up the walking sticks he made in the spare bedroom. And I fully intend on making pickles just like he did, though I’m not there - yet.
And while I was processing all of this, I got a magazine subscription in the mail from my Meme. Southern Living. Aha! That’s it! Stay tuned…
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