So ok, Taylor got me to doing a little bit of thinking... well more so my affinity for Designing Women actually. Am I a southerner???? This has been a point of contention among many people in my family/friend group that has been born and raised in the wonderful state of Murlin (Maryland). So lets review the facts shall we?
1). I was born in Balmer (Baltimore) in the great state of Murlin which IS, historically below the Mason-Dixon line... I was born 35.5 miles south of the Mason Dixon line if you want to get all bajiggity about it. So historically I would have been fighting for the confederacy.... if you know, the confederates were all open arms about the whole gay, bi racial thing....
2). I listen to country music all the effing time. As Chip will attest to, on the WMZQ 98.7 station, you can turn it on at pretty much anytime and I'll be able to sing along to whatever song is currently playing. I knew all the words to achey breaky heart in the 2nd grade... who was the cool kid?? oh that'd be me.
3). I use the terms, y'all and all y'all, as well as terms of endearment like hun (Balmer term) and darlin on a regular basis. This is further magnified if any type of alcohol is added to the mix, and then I become what has been termed as "gone with the gin." When at school in Maine, I would get made fun of on a regular basis for using such terms.
4). I know how to and have made on many occasions, beer battered shrimp, fried chicken, fried okra, hush puppies and cornbread, and there will be no frying in peanut oil... no maam, that'd be bacon grease and canola oil. At every family holiday there's always a big pot of ambrosia that someone made and everyone eats out of good manners.... and honestly if you aren't from the south ambrosia would be a foreign term to you.
5). There's a special way that southerners flirt, if you aren't from below the M/D line it's impossible to duplicate.... I think it's something in the water.
HOWEVER.....
I don't own a cowboy hat or boots, no one in my family owns a pickup truck, and we don't have any two namers in our family (bobby joe, Ray-bob, shirle-anne and so on and so forth in that manner.)
I guess I'd like to think of myself as maybe Southern-light, a little bit of the twang but not full on good ole boy I guess. As JFK MEANT to put it about the DC area "DC is a city of northern efficiency and southern charm" I think I'll take it.
*ADDENDUM* The Boy pointed out that the JFK quote actually reads "DC is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern Charm" however I like mine better, so therefore I am right and he is wrong.
16 comments:
I always think of Howard Stern's movie Private Parts...
WEMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMZQ!
Kathryn: never saw the movie except for the part with the kilebasa queen, and I'm just not going to touch that one with a ten foot pole
Dudley:oooh good one!!
Chip: bat the eyes, tilt the head and smile all the while saying... Why thank youuu for the driinnk, aren't you sweet as sugar!
As a gal who was raised in the Deep South (Georgia and Tennessee), and who gets grief for her thick twang on a daily basis, I feel the need to correct you on a minor point: Maryland (along with Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri) was part of the Union. That's right, despite the fact that "Murlin" is technically below the Mason-Dixon line, you would have been fighting for the North.
On a quasi-related note, I now want to give you a second name. Dale-Bob? Joe-Dale? Hmmm...I'll have to work on that one... :-)
Actually, JFK said it was a city of SOUTHERN EFFICIENCY (slow) and NORTHERN CHARM (unfriendly).
http://quoteworld.org/quotes/7638
Boy, I like my quote better... and you are now on my Sh*t list for pointing out my foible, sleep with one eye open... BEWARE!!!!!
Bettyjoan: In Dale's defense (from Wikipedia on the issue of Maryland as a border state):
"The Maryland Legislature rejected secession (April 27, 1861), but only after the rioting in Baltimore and other events had prompted a federal declaration of martial law. As a result of the Union army's heavy presence in the state and the suspension of habeas corpus by Abraham Lincoln, several Maryland state legislators who were believed to support secession were arrested and imprisoned by Union authorities. Maryland contributed several units of troops to both the Confederate and Union armies. Maryland was omitted from the Emancipation Proclamation, but abolished slavery during the Civil War."
As a Murlander who regularly swallows syllables, love grits, believes everything tastes better fried in lard and also uses the words "y'all" "hon" and ocassionally "darlin" I believe Maryland is a state that is technically part of the south (below Mason/Dixon) with a distinctly southern culture, but of dubious political origin.
Being from the south....you couldn't possibly no what efficiency is. or charm for that matter........
yes but at least I KnoW how to spell... redneck inbred hick.
besides, you wouldn't know charm if it bit you!
Well aren't you just a sweet piece of punkin pie...Bless yer little heart.
Tell yo mamma I axed her how she durrin?
Oh JP ... I light up and smile every time I hear anyone ask "how you durrin'?"
Okay, anyone who knows me or has been within 50 feet of me knows that I am about as Southern as they come (at least accent-wise).
It's all a matter of degrees. I don't think DC is a bit Southern, but I'm sure it feels more Southern to folks from further north. The South doesn't have rowhomes/brownstones, and we don't screw around with a/c ... central air all the way baby! The South doesn't begin to start until you leave the 703, and even then it's pretty watery until you get down to Roanoke and Richmond.
The absence or presence of y'all in someone's vocablulary is no longer indicative of their Southern-ness. I hear people from San Diego to Sag Harbor saying y'all now.
And let me tell you, greasy foods are certainly not restricted to the South. In fact, I went to this place in Pittsburgh once called the O where everything was fried and a small onion ring basket would feed a family.
Okay I could write tons more, but I don't want to be that guy who writes gigantic comments.
Actually, it was WNBC.
The South Shall Rise Again! [waving confederate flag] (as if)
I'm from Jersey, but I can still appreciate Julia Sugarbaker give someone his well-deserved comeupance. Back home, we do it by a two-by-four, so I'm just plum intrigued when someone does it verbally.
I will begrudgingly accept my yankeeness.... although we few and honored from Ballmer are a breed all our own!!!
Something I used to hear a lot of, when visiting the true South, was, "Come ovah here and give me some sugah," (meaning a hug. Maybe you should drop THAT line in a D.C. bar some night. See if it flies.
Hang on there aklsdjhfa
You can't compare a state that borders to the north with one that is all the way to the south.
That's the same thing as saying is Maryland more like Virginia ot Maine? North Carolina or Massachusetts?
I live in Western Maryland and I'm damned proud to consider myself a Southern and take pride in Dixie. I think that when most people think of Maryland they only see the central part there in the Baltimore/DC area. Maryland may not be quite as Southern in those areas. But it's just as Southern as areas in southern Alabama I've been to in Western Maryland, Southern Maryland, and the Eastern Shore.
Another "Southern quality" is Maryland's state song. The lyrics "She spurns the Northern scum" doesn't sound like a North friendly state to me.
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