Culture Shock! U.S. South

I've lived in the grographic South for my entire life; however, because the city I live in is Atlanta, there is a degree of homogenization in the ATL thanks in large part to the number of people who've moved here from other cities that it really has lost its identity as a Southern city. When a friend of mine from New York (Lon Gisland, actually) asked me what being raised in the South was like, I found that I really couldn't tell him based on my own experience. Then one day I found this book. I read it out of interest in what I had been missing. It's true, this book more accurately depicts life in more traditional Southern cities or towns...in Georgia that would be larger sities like Augusta or Savannah...as opposed to truly international cities like Atlanta or Charlotte. But it still serves as a terrific primer on both the heritage and the core values that still resonate with most of us today. I bought the book for my Lon Gislander friend and the first thing he said the day after he finished it was "'Mornin', y'all!" See? There IS hope. Great book, anecdotal and referential, and written with a healthy sense of humor (terrific example, paraphrasing: "The reason so much of the food in the South is fried is because Southerners know it tastes better that way"). If you're curious about the region, about stereotypes, about realities, about the nature of a warm and beautiful group of peaople, this is the book that will answer a great deal of questions while providing some entertaining reading as well.

I'm a born and raised Southerner who married a man from Boston and has moved all over the country with him. I never realized the little quirks that helped make me "Southern" untill then, and this book is dead on in pointing them out. Little things such as children wearing smocked dresses for play,and dressing up to run errands, up to the biggies such as the importance of manners, and the role of religion in our society. Sure not everything may apply to the Southerner you know, because I'll admit the book deals primarily with the upper-middle class South of genteelness. But like it or not, it's the South I live in and that has molded me. If only I could convince all my Boston in-laws and California friends to read this book! Then we could all dress up and go watch the game together, stay out late at our alumni frat party, eat an early grits breakfast, go to Sunday worship and then write thank you notes to everyone!