Wow! I can definately say that I like where I am from! I can't imagine cooking all day and getting that dressed up for events or just to get the paper! More power to those who live in the South. I don't think that I would fit in very well in your areas. Don't get me wrong, I like to get dressed up and look my best, but I am also a "fly by the seat of your pants" girl who goes with the flo! (I am not saying people don't do this in the South. I am just saying I don't think I would last there.)

Anyway, someone said earlier that they are a "Mid-Atlantician," and that's what I am! Close to the city (Baltimore and DC) and close to the mountains (western Maryland)...and a beach is 3 hours away! I like it here!

Out of all the things I LOVE about being southerners, these are some of the reasons that top my list:

1. You aren't going to find prettier land anywhere. I'm serious. We've got beautiful moutains, beautiful coastlines and beautiful lakes. There's so much hiking and boating that can be done in the south. I've practically grown up outdoors.

2. The food. Nowhere else can you find more grandmothers making peach cobbler and fried chicken.

3. The accents. Love 'em or hate 'em, they are unique.

4. Think Scarlett O'Hara. Southern women are unmatched in the charm department.

5. We've given rise to great writers like Flannery O'Connor. It's practically brimming with artistic and literary inspiration down here. :)

I hope that I will never have to live outside of the South. Other places in the US are quite lovely to visit, but there is something about the South that just feels like home... maybe it's the syrupy sweet accents. I must admit, as slow as Ace from The Real World Paris seems, everytime he opens his mouth I just bust out into a big ol' enchanted grin. Hearing a real Southern accent on TV is a pleasure that we don't often get to experience. Anyway, that's a little off-topic.

It's difficult to precisely explain the beauty of a Southern woman to a person who has never really been around it. Yes, Rudey, women in Manhattan dress quite well, but it's not about the price of the clothing or the latest trends. Actually, born-and-bred Southerners will almost always choose tradition over trend.

It's all about POLISH and SPARKLE. Southern women always like to look our best... This may well be due to the fact that, on a Saturday morning at the grocery store, you are likely to run into every single soul you know in a small Southern town. And you definitely don't want old Miss Eugenia goin' home and telling her family, "Y'all, I saw Suzy's little girl Jennifer at the Food Lion this mornin' and... well... bless her heart... " Because anything that begins with "Bless her heart" is bound to be slightly offensive!

Anyway... I can't imagine a life without Chick-fil-a, a world where you order tea and it is hot and in a teacup, a world where shagging is something straight from Austin Powers... How very sad I would be!

OMG....sooo true. i don't ever leave my house without at least somemake-up b/c ya never know who you may run into....and if by chance i do get a lil risky and go out bare faced, i have a hat on to cover any un-lovely parts. ;)

and as far as "bless her heart"....LMAO....very, very true......my great-grandmother would say that a lot right b/4 goin off about someone.....either "bless her heart" or "God love her...." always followed by a "but"....lol

I've been known to get free stuff up north because my accent is just so doggone cute... ;)

I will admit, I have used my accent to get people to like me, notice me, remember me, get ahead, you name it.

The asst. superintendent of schools here calls me "Texas".

In an area where people drive their "cah" to the "bah" to drink some "beeah", I stick out like a sore thumb. (This accent makes me want to poke out my own eardrums!).

My students say I talk like Sandy on Spongebob. :p

And dammit, I love Blue Bell and Mrs. Baird's....

If I said how I really felt, this post would be 10 pages long, so I'm fixin' to stop typin'.

I have to agree about the new england accent dzsaigirl. At first its kinda cool but the novelty wheres off and Im like "PLEASE PRONOUNCE YOUR R's".

Southerners tend to be very loyal. Like Coke was created and based in Atlanta, GA. So most places in the south people will ask for a Coke, meaning any soda product. Even if the place only serves Pepsi. ask for a Coke they know to give you a Pespi if thats all they have. You don't hear pop or soda at all really.

AlphaGamDiva, do you mean something like, "She's a sweet girl, but bless her heart, she has a face like a split-rail fence."? Yeah, I've actually heard that one. We tend to season our insults with sugar!

LOL...Southern BBQ is not necessarily chicken and ribs...It's usually beef or pork slabs (sometimes chicken) pulled from the bones and slow cooked in southern BBQ sauce and spices.

Some things that I love about the south are the sweet tea, friendly people, peach or apple cobbler, and family cookouts. Like CarolinaCutie mentioned, I could not live without Chik-fil-A or Krispy Kreme. OMG, lets not start on Waffle House, I love the way everyone yells mornin' when you come in for breakfast.

yep, that's it right there!

"God love her, but....she gotta bigger 'stache than my great uncle/2nd cousin jebb"

"bless her heart, but....the only pageant she'll ever win is miss county hawg"

"God love her, but.....i seen double-wides with less storage space"

"bless her heart, but.....i do believe she was prettier with that extry 150
lbs

at least when someone insults you, they also "bless your heart" ;)

I love how you said EXTRY... that's so country and it just tickles me to death :D

LOL. Or, as we might say, "tea" and "untea." (Sweet tea just seems so redundent.)

You're right that Coke can mean any soft drink -- if you want to specify Coca-Cola, you say "Co'cola." Of course, don't forget that Pepsi Cola was invented in New Bern, North Carolina.

Last night at work (I work at Cracker Barrel) I waited on this table of three southern women (the accent gave it away) and when they left, they wrote on the back of their check "The waitress was just precious!" For the rest of the night my manager teased me about being "just precious" *lol*