Category: Living Southern
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Living Southern – When Your Wife Is Not
Any Southern man worth his grits can spot a woman not native to the Southland. Her dress, her demeanor, or her dialogue will give her away. I considered it a gift from God to have grown up in the American South. Needless to say, when I started dating again after being a widower for several…
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Living Southern: Clean Old-Fashioned Hate
College football rivalries in the Southland resemble a Hatfield-McCoy feud. They are intense, long-lasting, sometimes bitter, and always passionate. Think Auburn vs. Alabama, USC vs. Clemson, Florida vs. Florida State, Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State, and, of course, my favorite, Georgia vs. Georgia Tech. It may sound like a random collection of words, but Clean…
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Real Comfort Food
While running several errands one day, my wife suggested we grab lunch at her favorite Thai Restaurant. I like Thai food — sort of. My favorite cuisines are Mexican, Mexican, Mexican, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Georgian (as in Republic of), and French. Thai is on the list, I just don’t know where. Ordering a Southern Thai…
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The Georgia Peach and the Time Lord
My wife calls me her “Time Lord.” I hate to be late. Let’s just say I am passionate about punctuality. I like to plan ahead; she adores spontaneity. I have pre-printed checklists; she is more of a spur-of-the-moment kind of person. I help her make her appointments ON TIME! She helps me to slow down…
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Daisy Grace, Louis L’Amour and Fried Chicken Fridays
The search is over. I found it. I bought it. I brought it home. My library is complete. Recently, I was able to meet, for the first time, Runelle and Ruth, first cousins of my mother. We had reconnected through email and decided to meet and exchange memories and pictures of our common ancestors. I…
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Respecting the Opposition – A Lesson from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
This week, we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., the most visible leader of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Growing up in Atlanta during that same period gave me a front-row seat on the non-violent protest strategy used by Dr. King. I must confess to not always understanding, much…
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Drinking from My Saucer
It was January 1969, and I had started dating the teenage girl who would eventually become my wife. That year found me hanging around the Smith household many evenings, weekends, and just as often as Mom and Pop Smith would allow this lovestruck teenager to linger. My future mother-in-law often enjoyed a cup of coffee…
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Living Southern: Scattered, Smothered, and Covered
If you see a Southern Baptist Church on every street corner, a Dollar General every few blocks, and a Waffle House at every major intersection, fear not, you are not lost. You are probably cruising through the great state of Georgia. Down here, you can Eat, Pray, and Shop without leaving your neighborhood. In the…
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Living Southern – In the Peach State of Happiness
No Georgian has to look at a calendar to know that it is now July in Georgia. There is ample evidence that sauna-time has hit the Southland. Just step outside and be greeted with the invisible monsoon. Summertime is defined in Georgia as “you gonna sweat a lot.” Well, at least, men will sweat. In…
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Living Southern – Blue Plate Wins
My recent post about “Bubba and the Masters” and “Biscuits or Cornbread?” reminded me how blest I am to be from the South. “Southern by the grace of God” is not a cliche in my family. Having grown up in the land of peaches, peanuts, pecans, and pine trees…and yes, yellow pollen too, I have…
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