I enjoy being a southerner. Theres a particular nuttiness that always lies just below the surface, waiting for a chance to break out, and the only people who escape it are the ones who moved here from somewhere else. I enjoy the weather; its warm, but most places have definite seasons. I enjoy the food, I enjoy the sense of patriotism, and last but not least, I enjoy the football. Last weeks Iron Bowl was ESPNs all-time highest rated ballgame; in Birmingham, the share was 51%. What the heck was the other 49% DOING? Thats shameful, that 49% were watching something else. Something Must Be Done. There are all sorts of social theories floating around, that southerners are so football-mad because the south lags the rest of the country in many areas, but definitely not in football. Bull. Southerners dont feel inferior; we feel blessed. No, our median income isnt as high as most of the countrys, but neither is our cost of living; we dont need as much to have the same level of comfort. What someone in a different part of the country counts as awful, that we dont have easy access to the arts, we count as an acceptable trade-off because (A) we can always go to other places if we want to see a particular play or painting or hear music, and (B) we have football :-). Way back in the eighties, I was in New York City for a conference, and at one of the luncheons I was chatting with the others at my table. You would have thought I was a zoo animal, the way they regarded me, and an amazing one at that because I could speak intelligently. Evidently a lot of people thought Dukes of Hazzard and The Beverly Hillbillies were how everyone lived in the south. At one point the conversation ranged to a current TV show that was on CBS, and when I voiced a comment on it the woman beside me got the most amazed expression on her face, and said, Do you mean you get CBS? with heavy emphasis on the CBS. The way she said it, youd have thought CBS was the high holy of TV broadcasting, whose transmission waves stopped at the Mason Dixon Line. I must not have been as patient then as I am now (snort) because I turned on her like a T-Rex on a tethered goat and barked, Hell, lady, we even have hot and cold running water! Im better now. Honest. To that poor lady, I humbly apologize. The point of this is: Ive never been anywhere that I didnt find nice people, different things to enjoy, and a sense of family. We all enjoy the same things, dont we? These are the things that help cement society, no matter what part of the country we live in. Ive found beauty in the wind-swept landscape of upstate New York, the luscious evergreens of Minnesota, the open plains, the coastal regions, the mountains, the desert. Im always glad to come home, because this is where my family is. And theres always the football :-). -- Linda H.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 16:03:58 +0000
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