South or North (Page 2)

Here's an experience I had while living in Chicago.

Getting off the train, I dropped my wallet but didn't know it. I get a call from a guy, he says he found my wallet on the train platform (I didn't even realize it was missing). He works several blocks from me downtown and offers to meet me halfway between our buildings to return my wallet. All the cards and cash were still in there. He refused my offer to pay him for his kindness; I think I offended him with the offer.

Not all city folk are unfriendly.

p.s. Chicago is the best city in the US!!!!!!!

Do you see the irony in beginning your post against generalizations with "everyone thinks.."?

BTW, I know I don't need to point this out but I did not make a generalization about what everyone in the South thinks. I offered an anecdote but drew no inferences or conclusions from the anecdote.

FWIW, since you brought it up, how can you talk about the South and not talk about race matters? The South is home to church burnings, birthplace and home to the KKK, race riots (though not exclusively), lynchings, and institutionalized/codified racism. The 2 largest slave trading cities were in The South. To say the history of The South's treatment of blacks is blighted is an understatement. Let's not be disingenous about The South's multitude of sins against its inhabitants.

However, having a blighted past does not support any idea that ALL Southerners are racist. I don't even believe that - do you?

I agree Renee...But most of the things you bring up are in the distant past...(notice I said most.) I was talking present day..and as far a racism...I saw a TON of it in the far north...far more than I ever saw in the south...I dont care about racism to be honest and if you knew me you would know why...to me it is a non issue...and please dont forget there is more than one form of racism...

Ummm..puppies and poisned milk...my favorite breakfast....BTW I shot a really nice buck the other day...ummmm...deer steaks on the grill.....Now I really am hungry...

Here's a mindbender for ya, Baseball. My uncle lives in GA, south of Atlanta; he's originally from Cincinnati (but that's like being from Kentucky). He's finally accepted black people - his neighbor is a "nice black lawyer" - but he doesn't like Jewish people so much. He's a transplanted yank/semi-native southerner who now accepts blacks but his German heritage/family attitudes (this is where he formed his opinions about Jews) is still keeping him from becoming a better person.

Now, please, I don't want to read someone blasting me for stereotyping about Germans. This is an anecdote about my uncle, not a generalization about Germans or Cincinnatians or Yanks or Semi-native Southerners.

UUUUMMMMMM puppies! ......yum I like mine with lots of butter

Well, there are some Southerners who still bristle when you talk about the Civil War (I had a NC lawyer tell me it's still known in the South as The War of Northern Aggression) and they don't like to talk about lynchings or the KKK. Difficult for people to face their painful and ignominious past head-on, yeah? I would imagine that being considered, at one time, the most evil nation on the Earth made it 100x harder for them than it is for Southerners to candidly face the past. (Not bashing the South, just using similarities to encourage empathy/understanding for Germans and Southerners.)

That said, Shelby Foote was my favorite Southern historian. Sadly, he passed away this year.

OK, now you have gone and done it.....don't be messing with my grits.  If you want to talk about food and geography, we're going to have to take this outside.

Up north they put pickles in the slaw
and forget the sugar in the tea
They only eat taters for breakfast
and sneer at meat-n-3
they go on  about the lobster
yet a stone crab won't cross their plate
an inherent fear of spices
leaves you wondering what you just ate.

To my snowbound bretheren my heart goes out indeed
a dearth of decent whiskey has left them much in need
befret of proper porkfat and wondrous treats deep-fried
without a loving bisquit, 'tis a wonder they have not died

Think sad thoughts of the poor souls I will upon this merry eve
as I examine the flecks of dinner spilled daintily upon my sleeve

Naw, that stuff was just for you.

The rest of us are dining on pralines and mint julips while gentle zephyrs rattle the leaves of the magnolias and the catfish await the skillet in serene repose.

Meanwhile up north horns are blaring across fetid alleyways full of bum puke and grey snow. Weak, overpriced coffee is rationed out in leaky paper cups and the icy wind blows the sulphur fumes from the chemical plant into your face along with a bit of rancid sleet. I pity you, really I do.