On Being Southern 8-25-05

Recently I received an e-mail about southern terms, etc.  Needless to say that caused me to think of all the old terms and such we use here on Sand Mountain.

• Just how long is “directly?” ie: “Going to the store, be back directly.”
• Only a true southern cook says “cook a cake,” instead of “bake a cake.”
• No true Southerner would ever assume that the car with a flashing turn signal is actually going  to turn.
• Southerners never refer to one person as “y’all.”
• Only Southerners say “sweet tea,” “sweet milk,” or “buttermilk.”
• [pullquote]Have you ever seen a mule-drawn dirt scoop? [/pullquote]Southerners can say anything about anybody just so long as they preface it by saying “bless their heart.”
• A Southerner knows that “fixin’” can be used as a noun, verb, or adverb.
• Two friends were talking when one asked the other what he was going to do and the man said, “I’m repairing to go to town.”  His friend replied, “You can’t say that — repair means to fix.” The reply was, “I know it, I’m fixin to go to town.”
• When Southerners say they’re fed up, it means they have had enough, a bait or a belly full.
• Here on Sand Mountain we still have supper instead of dinner.
• Do you remember fender skirts, foot feeds, running boards and steering knobs?  Can you describe a crank?  Where was the dimmer switch on a 1940 Ford? Did a Model T have a fuel pump?
• Can you make a drinking cup from a sheet of notebook paper?  Have you ever seen a hat made from green leaves and pinned together with dried sticks?
• Have you ever teased a doodle bug from its hole in the ground?  Do you know the rhyme to say?
• Can you repeat a chant that goes with jumping rope or playing hop scotch?
• Do you know what tars are?  Southerners know they go on the car or truck.  Trucks especially need good tars.
• Have you ever seen a mule-drawn dirt scoop, or a yoke for a team of oxen?
• In hitching a team of mules to a turning plow do you know what “riggin” is needed?  It includes a double tree and two singletrees.  What else?
• Can you build a far?  You’ll need kindlin’.
• Do you know what a soot rake looks like?

If you’ve used these terms, heard them, know what they mean, can answer the questions or have seen the items mentioned, as I’ve told you before, you are older than dirt, but you are still doing tolerably well. Ya’ll have a plum good day and keep on keeping on.  To coin a popular phrase, “This is My South” and this is country living.