So, I’m aware that this topic has been covered a million and one times, but within the last year, I have learned of some “not so common” things that we in the South do that may come off a little odd to the folks up North. You see, I moved to Tennessee last fall to attend school, and I have learned that the Nashville area is a much bigger melting pot than I realized. There are people from everywhere. Last year, I lived with a girl from Illinois. My neighbor was from New York, and the guy I’ve been dating for the last year is from Indiana. So, being from way down south in the mix of all these people, I’ve done or said things multiple times that has made them stop and look at me funny. I just wanted to share with y’all a couple of these because I seriously never realized I was so different than everyone else.
#1 “Go get some 2 liter Cokes and put them in the buggy.”
A big difference we can all agree on is how we talk. Southerners speak a little slower than most, I’ll admit to that. We say “y’all” when speaking to a group of two or more. We put more syllables in words than they actually have, but that’s just what happens when you grow up 600 miles south of the Mason Dixon line. A few things I have gotten teased about a countless number of times by my boyfriend is the fact that I call a shopping cart “a buggy,” I don’t call soda “pop,” and this is a new one to me, but he thinks it’s weird when I say, “It’s flooding,” when its raining outside. I maybe could understand the buggy thing because I’ve always known that to be a southern word, but I don’t even notice I say it when I do. We go into a grocery store and I just say something like, “Andrew, can you go grab me a buggy?” and he says, “A what? A shopping cart?” I mainly just roll my eyes and tell him to go get me a freaking thing to put my groceries in, and that’s the end of it. He also teases me all the time because he has this misconception that all southerners call every carbonated drink ever a Coke. This may be true for some people in the South, but not me. If I ask you to get me a Coke and you bring me a Dr. Pepper, I’m going to look at you a little funny. I do, however call this a soda, not a pop. A pop is like something your knuckles do or like when you “pop, lock, and drop it,” I don’t know, but it ain’t anything you drink, I can tell you that. Lastly, I’ll never understand why he thinks it’s weird that I say, “It’s flooding” when it’s raining outside. Like, it’s literally flooding places when it rains a lot, but it drives him nuts when I say that. So, sometimes I just say it to get on his nerves.
#2 “So what size t-shirt do you need? A small? Medium?” “An XL should be fine, thank-you.”
Nothing says, “I’m from the south” like wearing a t-shirt too big for you to where it looks like you aren’t wearing pants. This became a huge trend for girls my age back when I was in the 10th grade or so. I traded in all my size small t-shirts for larges and XL’s because I mean, why not look like I just rolled out of bed all the time? I never knew nobody else in the country really did this. This has become the basic “sorority girl” look, so I think it’s growing throughout the United States, but Andrew was the first person to bring this to my attention. I’ve been to Indiana with him multiple times before, and it’s true; not very many girls there dress this way. They actually wear shirts that fit them. It’s so weird, I know. Girls in the South are not the only ones who have a special kind of dress though. The boys do too. I remember this one time Andrew came home with me and we went out with some of my girlfriends to this local bar. Being that my hometown is a college town, it was fairly packed, and mainly with frat guys. I knew most of them from high school, and high school is when this trend became semi-popular, and I’ll never understand why. Andrew leaned over and whispered to me, “Why are all the guys wearing those ugly old man New Balance tennis shoes?” I know y’all know what I’m talking about. We will just leave it at that.
#3 “Which necklace matches these sandals? I gotta go to Publix.”
This next one mainly applies to older women, I feel, but sometimes I find myself doing this same thing. When it’s time to go to the grocery store, such as Publix, you absolutely cannot go looking like a slob. You may see your church’s pastor for goodness sake. You have to look nice. Now, this is much easier for me being in a town where I don’t know anyone. I can put on my t-shirt and my sweatpants and get it done, but that just can’t happen when I’m at home. This works the same way when people go out to eat or to the movies or something. Even if you don’t dress nice, you at least do your hair and put on some mascara because what if someone wants to take a picture with you? You’re screwed if you look awful. It’s much safer if you just look good.
#4 “Did you see on Facebook where Sally got that perm? Bless her heart, it just does not look good.”
In church, my youth pastor use to stress all the time about how gossip is not a good thing at all, so I would try to avoid it at all costs. It wasn’t until Andrew pointed it out that I realized that it’s invested in my blood. As awful as it is, I gossip all the time without even thinking about it. For example, I am forever sitting on Facebook when he and I are together and I’ll come across a picture, show it to him, and say, “You see this girl? I went to high school with her and isn’t she just not cute at all?” It’s terrible, I know, but since I’ve been away from home for some time, I notice that the people there gossip just as much as the stereotype portrays. We just can’t help it. Southerners are supposed to be kind to one another. That’s what we were taught. Well, you can’t be kind to someone if you tell them what you really think of them to their face, duh. And when it comes to God and gossip, this is why we say “Bless his/her/your heart,” before insulting someone. If you put a little Jesus in it, it just doesn’t seem as bad.
#5 “Mom, how much milk do I put in these mashed potatoes?” “I don’t know honey, just a splash or so.”
On Andrew’s birthday this year, a bunch of his friends from Indiana came down to celebrate with us. That night, we all had a big grill-out for dinner. We had steak, pork chops, and us girls were inside getting the baked beans, macaroni and cheese, and all the other necessities for a good home-cooked meal together. We were boiling the noodles for the mac ‘n cheese when one of the girls from Indiana asked me how long to set the timer for them to cook. Never in my life have I ever set a timer for noodles. I told her that I always just tasted them to see if they were done, or you could do the old school trick of throwing it against the wall to see if it sticks. After I told her that, she says, “southerners never measure or time anything.” I’ve never really thought about it until she said that, but that’s completely true. I’m still a pretty young cook, so I have to measure things like spices when making recipes, but my mom can whip up an entire meal without using a single measuring cup because she’s just that good. I know a lot of older women who have been cooking forever that can do that and their food tastes amazing. They just throw a handful of this and a pinch of that into whatever they’re making and poof. There’s your dinner.
So these are just a few of the many things I have realized in the last year or so that make us from the south who we are. I never knew we were so different from other people in this country, but I’d say we just go about things in a special way. If you have any funny differences you have found between people from the north and the south, please let me know! I would love to hear them.
