"A Southerner"
by Rebecca Raiford, Tennessee

If you've ever met a Southerner, you know it. We have a code of ethics unto ourselves. I guess that is what I would like to tell you about, sharing Southerners at our best.

The South has a way of forgetting herself. ‘The road to hell is paved with good intentions' is a phrase that could have easily started right here. The South as a place is a sister unlikely to be matched in charm or beauty and most certainly not in wit. She has always held her head high. Times from the very beginning have been hard if you remember, if not, how could you forget.

The world has always had its eye on her bounty and what her potential might be. She has not failed to produce in many aspects. Her yield is quite apparent. But how does she hold on to her mystery? It is a secret locked away in her people, all of them born and bred by her and her ways. All of them have made her what she is. The good and the bad have had their influence. She is no angel. But her beauty certainly makes you think she might be.

But it is not just her beauty, my friend, that makes her. There are many places that could claim beauty and they'd be able to do so. It is in her people that she has her charm. The person who is a Southerner is a special creature. Every single and last one of them from the time they came here and were first born. Color, language, attitude, status, and all aside, a Southerner in unlike any other person.

How it all started no one really knows. But it had to be with a grace and a way that blended it all just right. Listen to the smooth drawl of a Southerner and you will be wondering where in the world the accent comes from, the South is all you will be able to guess. Or take a drive down a long, winding Southern road past farmhouses and trees, lots of them, and tell me where you are, the South, I would say yes. Look at an old oak tree hanging with Spanish moss, the sheets hanging to dry in the hot summer breeze, or the old men and boys hanging outside some old tumble down building on a Saturday night playing the blues like they used to, and you tell me, where you are. You are in the South.

I love her in all her ways. She is the great and the fallen. She still has her trouble but I figure she will always pick the right way in the end. I have never agreed with all of her ways, don't get me wrong, but I still have respect for her.

Legends in this place are always remembered. There is no rush or hurry to do away with our greats. Bear Bryant is as much a part of Alabama as the Gulf Coast; and Andrew Jackson lived here so many years ago that some might have forgotten "Old Hickory" had he hailed from any other place. We love the legends here.

When you think of the South, you cannot forget to mention her food inspired by working the land and the rivers. Biscuits and gravy, grits and hominy, crawfish and jambalaya, all of these are Southern dishes that will set you to craving for a lifetime. Any body worth their salt has to be able to barbecue, and to be able to make and bake from scratch. The Southerner is a discriminating dinner guest but the simple beans and cornbread can do as much justice as a finely laid out table of delicacies. Not that we here don't appreciate the finer things. Good heavens, no, we do appreciate the finer things but we don't need them to enjoy the company.

And as for the finer things, a Southern party just isn't complete without the best taken down from the cupboard and laid out for any guest who might happen by. Every day might seem like a party to a visitor but that is the way we like to live. Never let it be said you were not comfortable in a Southerner's home. You are likely to be called a liar.

We aim to please here. We are simple people with worldly ways. We are modern as the next but prefer not to admit it. We have our big cities here but our small towns are our heart. Memphis and Atlanta are shining stars. Nashville and New Orleans are our entertainers. The rest fall all in between but they are the veins that keep the South's heart beating. We are a good lot, with a few bad seeds, but overall, we are the best company one could hope for on a journey.

If you are a Southerner, you understand that there is a time and a place for everything. But you also understand that everything good takes time and that there isn't always a need to rush and get thins done. We are as quick-witted as the next even though by our tone or the way we speak you might not think it. We have some of the finest schools in the world here. We also are educated by our past as every day we pass battle sites of the Civil War and think we don't ever want to be there again.

To be a Southerner is to be many things. But it is all of the best things a body could hope to be. We love family, we love sports, and we love our country. We are Americans graced to live in what we like to think is the soul of what makes this country great, its diversity. The South is as diverse as a place can get and most people thought they would have to go to New York City for that kind of thing.

I have had the opportunity to leave the South and to visit other places in this country and around the world. I will tell you one thing. The first word that always comes out of their mouths is ‘are you from the South?" I always smile and say proudly, "I sure am!"

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