Posted on 09/13/2006 11:33:05 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
Although my days of overplaying my Beach Boys albums are over, whenever I happen to catch California Girls, I completely ignore that Mike Love wishes all girls were cute, tan Californian girls. Instead, I take pride in my geographical origin and grin at "The northern girls with they way they kiss, they keep their boyfriends warm at night."
I have lived in the state of New York my whole life, and although I often joke that I went south for school, Penn State, with its copious amounts of colorful trees surrounding old collegiate buildings, couldn't possibly exude the northern university feel any more.
But this summer, an internship required me to put my ethnocentric qualities aside as I forged past the Mason-Dixon Line.
Before trying out for my internship program, I knew that I could be placed at a newspaper in any part of the country. Call me optimistic, but I was dreaming of copy editing at a newspaper near the sandy beaches of California or living right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of New York City. But the copy-editing gods had a different idea -- Southwestern Virginia.
I lived more than four hours from the beach and just as far from Washington, D.C. The city I lived in, Roanoke, is just a few miles short of North Carolina and its citizens spoke with an accent I couldn't even fake if I tried. People there automatically knew I was a northerner -- with my loud, fast talking and an inability to fit "y'all" into every conversation.
My first southern lesson was learned the hard way. I found out that Virginians take life at a much slower pace, especially while driving. A Virginia State trooper must have been salivating at the sight of this northern driver who was speeding down U.S. Route 81 on her way to move to Roanoke. I was slapped with a big ol' Virginian reckless driving ticket, and I had only been in the state for three hours.
After that lovely welcoming present, I was even more skeptical of the place that I would call my home for the next several months. But the more I saw of the area, the less ignorant of the South I became.
Confederate flags meant more about people's love for their area than wanting pre-Civil War life back.
I had never tried grits -- now I'm searching State College high and low for a place than can fix my grit-deprivation. And it would be impossible to find a restaurant in town that has fried chicken as good as what I had this summer.
I was transformed from an iced tea lover to an adamant sweet tea drinker, which was everywhere in Virginia, even McDonald's. I never saw a tobacco field before, and then I was inundated with them.
I lived near the Appalachian Trail -- which is gorgeous, and a hike or drive on the mountains will take away any of the "Appalachia" stereotypes many northerners conjure.
Yes, I was surprised at how many of my co-workers went to church (there seemed to be more churches than people in the city), and a lot of the people I worked with were conservative -- which was a change from the newsroom atmosphere up here. I learned to not automatically organize people into distinct categories.
I learned that people with southern accents aren't automatically unintelligent. Virginia taught me how to be genuinely nice to people -- cashiers, mail carriers and other everyday people I came in contact with were truly helpful and generous. The culture also showed me how to be more laid back and less stressful. Most of all, my time in Virginia showed me that I shouldn't be ignorant of places I have never experienced -- every place has something to offer.
And now, y'all can here me proudly sing along to another line in my favorite Beach Boys song: "And the southern girls with the way they talk, they knock me out when I'm down there."
Northern gal comes South and discovers what we already know
Most northerners I think would find what she found if they'd just come without the preconceived notions. I knew a young northern gal that moved south with her parents. They moved to West Cola. SC right after she was graduated from high school. Her first job was as a desk clerk at a motel. That's where she learned about northerners and their bias about the south. The northern guest would assume that she was a southern gal, and as she said would talk to her with a LOUD VOICE AND VER-RY S-LOW-LY. When she realized what they were doing, she also discovered that she was doing the same thing. She is now a proud and assimilated southern girl.
My wife was a Northern California girl true and true before she and I got married (she had even voted for Bubba...twice!) After we got married (we met, dated and got married in Las Vegas, where I was stationed from 1995 to 1998,) we moved to San Antonio, where she got her first, albeit slight, exposure to the South. At first, she couldn't handle it, but she quickly assimilated (she voted for GWB in 2000!)
Then we moved to the Florida Panhandle...when I first told her that was our next destination, she had the same attitudes the author of the article had.
When we left Florida, heading back to California, she was a Southern Woman! Upon trips to California to visit family and friends, her Liberal friends would treat her a whole lot differently than they did before we got married...after all, she had married, had children and become a stay-at-home Mom.
I couldn't be more proud of her!
This lil'gal knows how we feel 'bout the south
"Virginia taught me how to be genuinely nice to people -- cashiers, mail carriers and other everyday people I came in contact with were truly helpful and generous. The culture also showed me how to be more laid back and less stressful. Most of all, my time in Virginia showed me that I shouldn't be ignorant of places I have never experienced -- every place has something to offer."
3 cheers to Southern Hospitality. Y'all done good...
Whoa! That's verification deluxe.
That was a lightbulb moment for her.
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
Well, hi there!
free dixie,sw
btw, i wonder how many more posts there'll be on this thread, before the south-HATERS show up to post something IGNORANT & HATE-filled. i'm guessing less than 25.
free dixie,sw
Probably. They're just such a rude and bored bunch of thugs. You'd think they'd go side with all the other bashers on FR. Anyway, Satan will be dispatching the wannabe's soon...
Hell, if you learn that you have most people beat by a mile.
Truth be told it goes both ways. The first time I ever left Alabama and went to Los Angeles I didn't quite know what to expect and to be honest was probably a little scared. Once they got to know me and I got to know them things went fine.
True, I had to endure quite a bit of Southern accent "oh that is sooooo cute! Say that again." but at the end of the day people are just folks and culture is the major difference.Odds are darn good that rule sticks if you travel around the world.
You still couldn't get decent Q in Los Angeles, nobody sat on their front porch and talked to people that walked by and as always I was glad to get back home, but nobody scalped me.
California livin' is nice - it just ain't my style.
Life just isn't the same without grits, Jack Daniels, fried chicken & Bammer football. Apparently that is the way God intended me to be, and that is the way I aim to keep it. LOL
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
Roanoke ping
It would be a nice companion opus to your book about General Lee's daughter.
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