We already know that the south is a different sort of place. Southerners have those cute twangy accents. They use words like "y'all" and "reckon" and "dumplin' ". They really like fried food.
Pacific NW natives, on the other hand, boast about their mountains and independent western spirit. They dine on fusion cooking and use words like "Starbucks" and "IPA" and "sasquatch." The Pacific NW is the birthplace of the hipster.
I was able to observe the differences up close on my recent trip to Nashville. The differences weren't as glaringly obvious as I thought they would be; there are more similarities between the two areas than there are differences. Still, those differences were pretty big.
1. Southerners drink something called sweet tea. If you order tea, you will be given a choice between sweet and non-sweet. I don't know how many gallons of sugar go into sweet tea and I probably don't want to know, but it is freaking delicious.
2. In the south, mac and cheese is considered a vegetable. So are hash browns and fried apples.
3. There is a conspicuous lack of good coffee. So you drink sweet tea with breakfast.
4. There is a distinct lack of micro brews. Or breweries. I don't think I heard anyone ask what was on tap the entire time I was there.
5. Whiskey is moonshine. And boy, are they proud of it.
6. There is a church every 10 feet. Sometimes there are five churches in a row next to each other. They aren't all baptist either. I saw two Jewish temples on the same block.
7. Speaking of churches, those southerners really love them some Jesus. There are these things called prayer walls in stores. Billboards dot the highways with reminders that "Jesus saves."
8. As much as they love Jesus, they equally love their porn. I saw the same number of billboards advertising porn shops and strippers as advertising that "God is Lord" from Missouri through Oklahoma.
9. When someone in the Pacific NW calls you "ma'am", it sounds like an insult and a comment on how damn old you are. When someone in the south calls you "ma'am", it's just damn polite.
10. This one isn't a difference. Just an observation. Hipsters are everywhere. You can't escape them.
11. The morning shows in the south tell you what not to say to a lady. As in, don't ask her age or comment on how tired she looks. They also would have you believe that all southern belles want to be married before the age of 25 and offer lots of tips on how to attract a man.
12. There really is such a thing as southern hospitality and people really are friendly. One of our waitresses gave us her delicious recipe for a cake using apple butter and wished us a "truly blessed" day.
13. I could spend hours listening to the low, slow drawl of a southern man any day. The NW can't even compare with their metro sexuality.
14. There are bugs that will sing you to sleep at night. There are also bugs that will latch onto your skin to suck your blood and give you Lyme disease but, hey, it's a trade off.
15. The south is just as proud of its Civil War heritage and its plantations as the NW is of its mountains and breweries. The only difference is that one of them involved slaves.
16. I don't remember seeing a single Subaru.
17. Southerners apparently don't believe in recycling. They still use styrofoam boxes. gasp!
Monday, August 12, 2013
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2 comments:
Pretty much.
A few clarifications:
The local vernacular calls it "unsweet" tea.
And there are some microbreweries and little pockets of good beer lovers. A few. Nothing like Bend, natch.
The ticks. THE TICKS! Yes, they are here, yes, they will attach to your skin (I've had THREE), but Lyme Disease is actually far less common in the SE than it is in the NE. So at least we have that going for us.
Yes, unsweet is correct.
Since talking to people who live there, I have discovered that there are some beer finds. I didn't pay attention to the beer because I was more interested in the whiskey.
Good to know about the ticks. But they're still nasty. I remember pulling them off as a kid. UGH!!!
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