The South

Being from the South is a lifestyle and most people you meet will gladly sit down on their porch and tell you what they think about Mississippi or the South in general. Being from the South is all about God, friends, food, hunting, and sports. You can learn everything you need to know throughout life at a high school football practice or in a weekend at deer camp. People can say what they want about the South and our backwards ways, but we live life the right way. I do not agree with everyone from down here and there are many things I would change, but the feeling of a no holds bar good time is not one of them.

The South is about so many things, but the most important is the people. Quite frequently I come across people talking about southern gentlemen and what they think a southern gentleman is. A southern gentleman is friendly, not nice but friendly. There is a major difference between the two. He will always firmly shake your hand. He will compliment the women around him because it is the polite thing to do and most of the time it is well deserved. He knows everything there is about football and will be happy to tell you about it. He will drink scotch or whiskey or beer or all. He will hold the door for a lady. A southern gentleman will maintain his grace in the most trying times. He is just as comfortable at a 5 star restaurant as he is running a trot line on the Mississippi River. He will always respect his elders by being kind to them and using yes ma’am and yes sir. A southern gentleman is normally going to be a nice guy, but he is not a pushover.

When you hear people say someone is “so southern” it is usually meant as a compliment. I don’t think that is necessarily true when you say someone is “so northern.” Atleast not when someone from the South says it about someone. That is not to say there are not nice northerners, but people above the Mason-Dixon Line don’t take the time to enjoy life like southerners do. They seem to move at a faster pace, with their eyes on a goal and not on how they are living that day.

“To identify a person as Southern suggests not only that his/her history is inescapably formative but also impossibly present.” The above quote perfectly describes people from the south. We grow up southern and learn from our parents who grew up southern. Being southern is in our hearts and souls. This is never more prevalent than at a college football game. Some of the happiest and saddest times I have had in my life were sitting in the bleachers of a college football game. Simply put, there is something spiritual about tailgating, the game, and the after party. The after party is critical. I hear people all the time say “We may not have won the game, but we won the party.” When it all boils down to it that is all a fan can control. Some may say that’s what teams that regularly lose say. Maybe so, but who gives a damn. We had a great time with even better people.

Wally