When in Rome...
September 23, 2016 -
Recently, Hubby and I decided to take an excursion for a few days. We headed South. Even MORE South.
I went to many colleges for varying degrees and studies. I landed at Middle Georgia College for my 13th year of high school. I wasn’t ready for college and my high school grades proved it. After seasoning up, I studied Communications and graduated (where I made Dean’s List, BTW) from Georgia Southern University. After working in an advertising agency in Atlanta, I chose to change my focus to education and landed in graduate school in English at Georgia State University and English Education at the University of Georgia.
So, see? When you count my childhood and now as an old married woman, I’ve lived in the east side of the state, the west side, middle Georgia, South Georgia, Urban Atlanta, and North Georgia. I count myself as somewhat of an expert of ALL THINGS SOUTHERN.
I was in a sorority in college. By being in one, you receive their national sorority publication. Ours is called THE ANGELOS, because I am a Kappa Delta. Every sorority I know has one. Since my 1975 undergraduate graduation, I have received this national quarterly magazine (that’s 4 x’s 41) . There are several interesting sections regarding my sorority sisters. We have sections that recognize outstanding women in various fields: leadership, philanthropy, popularity, GPA’s, beauty, civic involvement, and athletics, just to name a few. This publication places pictures of these women next to their written achievements.
Since 1975 I have played a game with myself when my magazine arrives. I used to be pretty good at it. I guess I could call it FIND THE SOUTHERN BELLE. Before I read one LINE of comments about the pictured girl, I’d cover the information with my hand and try to guess WHERE this outstanding woman attended school. And over 41 years I had a pretty good track record of guessing the geographical location of the school she attended. Was it Northern, Southern, West Coast, New England? IMO, the United States and its women had a distinct look by location.
Did the sorority gal have the sunny beachy California look in 1975? What about New England and their prep school wool sweaters?
But between New England cold and the harsh upper North winters, that choice could be a hard one. It was never hard to pin point a Southern girl. The hair. The clothes. And mostly the beauty queen smile (and crowns). Oh, and don’t forget the peachy complexion – from the humidity we get here. BTW – a Kappa Delta (Debbie Maffett Wilson) was 1983’s Miss America!
Today, it’s harder. Since we are such a melting pot, I’ve gone from about 77% accuracy to the low 30%. I can’t tell any more. Yes, I am 63 and still playing that game. Silly. And I should quit. I am not getting any better.
But while on our mini vacation, my husband and I visited Paula Deen’s LADY AND SONS Restaurant in Savannah. What a beautiful city. And what a mixture of tourists! The servers bring over homemade (Paula Deen style) cornbread fritters and biscuits to munch on while cooking your order. Suits me. I love cornbread. May I have some more buttah, please?
Perusing the clientele of the restaurant to see if I thought there were many out-of-towners having lunch there, I noticed a group of women looking hesitant about their bread choices. I watched and sure enough there they were, using a knife and fork for their hand held fritter. My guess was, “They are from out of state.” I wanted so badly to ask them where they were from. Hubby wasn’t sure I should interrupt but I had to find out if my instincts were correct. At the end of our meal and before theirs arrived (Hubby skidaddled out of there while I sided up to them), I posed the question. Sure enough, their answers were Ohio and Colorado.
And then they wondered WHY I had asked. I explained my observation. They graciously didn’t seem to mind my question or possible intrusion. One lady said, “Fritter? Our server called it a hoecake. We didn’t know what that was but it sounded like we should put syrup on it, so we did.”
OMGosh! Even worse! No wonder they had to use a knife and fork.
P.S. I don’t even want to know that you had to look up what a fritter or hoecake looks like.
Recently, Hubby and I decided to take an excursion for a few days. We headed South. Even MORE South.
I went to many colleges for varying degrees and studies. I landed at Middle Georgia College for my 13th year of high school. I wasn’t ready for college and my high school grades proved it. After seasoning up, I studied Communications and graduated (where I made Dean’s List, BTW) from Georgia Southern University. After working in an advertising agency in Atlanta, I chose to change my focus to education and landed in graduate school in English at Georgia State University and English Education at the University of Georgia.
So, see? When you count my childhood and now as an old married woman, I’ve lived in the east side of the state, the west side, middle Georgia, South Georgia, Urban Atlanta, and North Georgia. I count myself as somewhat of an expert of ALL THINGS SOUTHERN.
I was in a sorority in college. By being in one, you receive their national sorority publication. Ours is called THE ANGELOS, because I am a Kappa Delta. Every sorority I know has one. Since my 1975 undergraduate graduation, I have received this national quarterly magazine (that’s 4 x’s 41) . There are several interesting sections regarding my sorority sisters. We have sections that recognize outstanding women in various fields: leadership, philanthropy, popularity, GPA’s, beauty, civic involvement, and athletics, just to name a few. This publication places pictures of these women next to their written achievements.
Since 1975 I have played a game with myself when my magazine arrives. I used to be pretty good at it. I guess I could call it FIND THE SOUTHERN BELLE. Before I read one LINE of comments about the pictured girl, I’d cover the information with my hand and try to guess WHERE this outstanding woman attended school. And over 41 years I had a pretty good track record of guessing the geographical location of the school she attended. Was it Northern, Southern, West Coast, New England? IMO, the United States and its women had a distinct look by location.
Did the sorority gal have the sunny beachy California look in 1975? What about New England and their prep school wool sweaters?
But between New England cold and the harsh upper North winters, that choice could be a hard one. It was never hard to pin point a Southern girl. The hair. The clothes. And mostly the beauty queen smile (and crowns). Oh, and don’t forget the peachy complexion – from the humidity we get here. BTW – a Kappa Delta (Debbie Maffett Wilson) was 1983’s Miss America!
Today, it’s harder. Since we are such a melting pot, I’ve gone from about 77% accuracy to the low 30%. I can’t tell any more. Yes, I am 63 and still playing that game. Silly. And I should quit. I am not getting any better.
But while on our mini vacation, my husband and I visited Paula Deen’s LADY AND SONS Restaurant in Savannah. What a beautiful city. And what a mixture of tourists! The servers bring over homemade (Paula Deen style) cornbread fritters and biscuits to munch on while cooking your order. Suits me. I love cornbread. May I have some more buttah, please?
Perusing the clientele of the restaurant to see if I thought there were many out-of-towners having lunch there, I noticed a group of women looking hesitant about their bread choices. I watched and sure enough there they were, using a knife and fork for their hand held fritter. My guess was, “They are from out of state.” I wanted so badly to ask them where they were from. Hubby wasn’t sure I should interrupt but I had to find out if my instincts were correct. At the end of our meal and before theirs arrived (Hubby skidaddled out of there while I sided up to them), I posed the question. Sure enough, their answers were Ohio and Colorado.
And then they wondered WHY I had asked. I explained my observation. They graciously didn’t seem to mind my question or possible intrusion. One lady said, “Fritter? Our server called it a hoecake. We didn’t know what that was but it sounded like we should put syrup on it, so we did.”
OMGosh! Even worse! No wonder they had to use a knife and fork.
P.S. I don’t even want to know that you had to look up what a fritter or hoecake looks like.
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