I'm Southern, Not Stupid

I recently spent a week getting back to my roots, God's country, you know...the south!  I love being southern, there is a certain pride and comradery amongst southerners that I love and appreciate.  It's a sense that, if you're not southern, you probably don't understand and that's okay; we planned it that way!  Ha!

I grew up in a small town in Kentucky and moved to Louisiana shortly after my 19th birthday.  I loved them both!  I had a great childhood in rural Kentucky and I learned southern pride from the best when living in Louisiana!  Maybe northerners have a sense of pride too and they just aren't as loud about it,  Obviously not everything southern is awesome but the modern day south is pretty rockin!
 
I fit a lot of the southern cliches.  I like to cook and I'm decent at it.  I love country music.  I like 4 wheelers and 4 wheel drives.  I LOVE them in mud!  I have a definite accent that thickens the longer I'm home.  I say ma'am and sir to anyone older than me and at drive thrus or on the phone (you can never be sure!).  I make casseroles and cookies for friends when there are hard times or they are sick.  I have big hair (that gets bigger in humidity!). 

On a side note, I'm convinced that big hair in the south was born of necessity.  Y'all northerners don't understand what humidity can do to your hair.  If you have natural curls, forget about it!  Embrace your big hair and call it style!

I grew up listening to country music, riding around on dirt roads, working on the farm, fishing, and frog gigging.  I was an active, award winning, member of FFA and 4H.  I could drive a tractor before I was in middle school.  I went to bonfire parties on saturday nights and church potlucks on sunday mornings.  I am a country girl, I may live in the suburbs now, but rest assured the roots are deep!

I'm not racist, married to a family member, or stupid.  I talk slow, I don't hear slow!  I do sometimes go barefoot in the summer but I wash my feet and put on my shoes when it's appropriate!  I cling to my guns and religion and I'm proud to be a Christian, American, and Southerner (in that order!)

I don't make fun of people for being from the north, there's just nothing funny about that, but I don't mind being razzed about being a southerner.  

One of my favorite southern humor stories to tell is when a woman and I were talking and she asked me to repeat myself a couple of times.  I thought she couldn't hear me so I sort of did a charade/mime movement and she figured it out.  Her reply "oh, you're southern!  That's why I didn't understand you!"  There was nothing malicious in her comment, we just had a cultural miscommunication.

Another time, I called my mechanic and he and I were talking about my car problems when he said "oh, you're southern...I'll have to talk slower."  I responded "nope, I hear fine.  You just have to listen a little slower!"  He's still my mechanic and he's awesome!

So, see, I can take a joke and I enjoy laughing and kidding around.  I miss the south, so much, but Indy is a good place the people are nice.  So, for all you northerners who think it's funny to make fun of us southerner's I say this...

"Y'all are just mad because you've spent most of your lives cold.  Go down south, warm up, and you'll be happier!"