TDG: Table Dancing: Southern by the Grits of God

[kpurvis]

95% of the piece was in regard to the national media as opposed to locally.

Oh, I'd agree with that one. I'm permanently tired of stories in "Bon-Gour-Sav" about food in the South that start with some variation of "In the land of chicken-fried steak and grits, who'd expect to find (fill in the blank) . . ." (I'd expect to find it, Colman! And do, all the time.)

My favorite example of pre-set expectations (and I apologize if I've posted this story before, but it still makes me laugh): A friend's husband is a free-lance camera man. A crew from a national food show was coming in to do some show or other. When they called him to make arrangements, he was actually asked if the road from the Charlotte airport was paved.

Excuse me? You mean the roads that lead to the second and third largest banks in America? "Well, lemme take this straw outta my mouth and ax Goober if he's done finished with that cee-ment truck yet."

[Varmint]

I was shocked to see that there was fine dining in the land of bagels and corned beef. Shocked, I tell you!

[laurenmilan]

If Southerners find the presence of sweet tea so stereotypical, then why, of why is it just about everywhere you go, in Waffle Houses, restaurants, parties, homes, BBQ pits, fast food chains, just about everywhere a person can eat in the south?

If it's nothing more than a silly stereotype, then why is it so widespread? (And so much better than the traditional lemon stuff that passes for "iced tea?"

[timothycdavis]

I didn't mean to imply that the *presence* of sweet tea was stereotypical, just that there's more going on in Southern cuisine besides "swee'tea," grits, and pulled pork.

And yr right -- it IS better. Too much lemon always spoils the party.

[Mayhaw Man]

If Southerners find the presence of sweet tea so stereotypical, then why, of why is it just about everywhere you go, in Waffle Houses, restaurants, parties, homes, BBQ pits, fast food chains, just about everywhere a person can eat in the south?

If it's nothing more than a silly stereotype, then why is it so widespread? (And so much better than the traditional lemon stuff that passes for "iced tea?"

You know, I have been thinking about this and have decided that this is a regional thing, but not really a single region, more like county by county or (in my case) parish by parish. I cannot think of a single place where I live that I would, automatically get sweet tea-on the other hand, I can drive 45 minutes east of here, to Hattiesburg, MS and I would get nothing but. now that is not to say that everywhere in MS serves sweet tea automatically, because I know a good bit about Jackson, Vicksburg, Greenville, and Natchez, and the places that I can think of off hand are about an even split. So I think that IMPLYING that it is automatically served is stereotypical, because that is what many writers from both inside and outside of the region do. Waffle House has both kinds, and so do virtually all restaurants I visit, with the exception (most of the time) of very small BBQ joints and fish houses-they will occasionally only have sweet. Some areas drink all sweet, some drink both.

That is a similar thing implying that every RC ever consumed went along with the purchase of a moon pie, like some kind of sugar laden combo meal-or that everybody who ever drank a Dr Pepper shoved a sleeve of Tom's Roasted Peanuts into the bottle (although I will say I kind of like the salty sweetness that results, but it has been about thirty years since I have done it)-or that gumbo HAS to have okra (it absolutely does not, and in some case it is wrong to add it-well, maybe not wrong, just not right.

We are not all the same here, even though we often get painted that way. Sometimes we do paint stereotypes as self portraits for fun and profit, sometimes we get painted that way by others. None of us really care, as long as you call us when it's time for dinner.

[therese]

If Southerners find the presence of sweet tea so stereotypical, then why, of why is it just about everywhere you go, in Waffle Houses, restaurants, parties, homes, BBQ pits, fast food chains, just about everywhere a person can eat in the south?

It's not, actually, or at least it didn't used to be. I was born in the south, spent much of my youth in the south, and virtually my entire adult life in the south, and yet the first time I was ever offered sweet tea in a restaurant I was already in my 20's. I think that sweet tea has spread the same way pizza and crap chinese food has spread across the U.S.

Pretty soon you'll see it being served in New York and Boston and San Francisco, and then we'll get to talk about how it was never really southern in the first place and was actually invented by German immigrants and so it really is okay to serve it because otherwise it would mean everybody'd adopted something southern and therefore carried a racist taint...

More twee crap.

[annieb]

srhcb:

Those northern rednecks wouldn't have jokes told about them, would they? Where they're always named Ole and Lena?

[KatieM]

Those aren't jokes about Northern Rednecks. Those are jokes about Norwegians (or Swedes, if you happen to be Norwegian, or Danes if you happen to be either of the above, etc). Of course, I'm Danish, and got teased relentlessly in college because I went to a school that was made up of about 90% Swedes. We Danes are always being oppressed by the Swedes. Actually, I much prefer the jokes about Iowans or North Dakotans . . . ie:

So two North Dakotans went on a fishing trip and rented a boat to take out on the lake. The fishing was really good in one particular area of the lake, so they decided they needed to mark the spot somehow. So the first North Dakotan says, "Ja, so, doncha think we should put an X in the bottom of the boat then?", and the second North Dakotan says, "Ja, but what if we don't get the same boat tomorrow?"

Haven't you ever listened to the Prairie Home Companion?

There are jokes about Northern Rednecks, but they are pretty much identical to those about Southern Rednecks. We need to make the distiction between rednecks and Southerners. Not all Southerners are rednecks, and not all rednecks are Southerners. Where I come from (East Central Illinois) there are plenty of trailer-dwellers. In fact, I had several friends who grew up in double-wides or "manufactured homes". My brother is marrying a girl who grew up in a single-wide. When we told jokes about Southerners, it had more to do with Debutante Balls and being "polited to death" and other such GWTW stuff. Of course, that was probably more out of jealousy.

And I can personally vouch for the fact that there are plenty of "cheap champagne and dyed satin shoes" weddings above the Mason Dixon. Also RC Colas and Moon Pies eaten together. Not only a Southern thing.

Then again, I am NOT a Yankee. I'm a Midwesterner. There is a marked difference.

BTW, thoroughly enjoyed the article!

[annieb]

Yah, but you still didn't explain what's a northern redneck.

A friend from north Florida (which he liked to say was really more like south Georgia) said you could tell the difference between a redneck and a good ol' boy because the good ol' boy always threw his beer cans in the back of the pickup instead of on the side of the road.

[KatieM]

Yah, but you still didn't explain what's a northern redneck.

Hmm . . . I'm not sure how to explain what a Northern Redneck is. Maybe a true Northerner can help me out with this (I don't really consider myself to be a Northerner). BUT, I'm sure you could see for yourself if you've ever been to the State Fair. Or, in my town, the County Fair demolition derby. That's the most highly attended event of the summer. Of course, I like going to the demo derby, so what does that make me?

Well, I guess I have a few in my family, too. My dad's side of the family is all farmers. One time we had a family reunion at one of my great uncles' places. We had a hog roast and hay rack rides for the kids. Normal family reunion stuff. But then I met one of my cousins who was from that neck of the woods (Peotone, IL). She was probably a 3rd cousin thrice removed or something. I can't remember. Anyway, she said to me, "Ooooh! Yer one of them city cousins!". Now, I grew up in Champaign, IL. Not in the middle of nowhere exactly, but I certainly didn't consider myself a "city" kid. I thought city kids were from Chicago or New York or something. To her, I was a city kid, though. That would be my example of a Northern Redneck.

Oooh, I just thought of this one! The last time I went home to visit my family, one of my dad's friends had just poured a new concrete patio. So that evening, we all went over to admire it. Everyone stood around, hands in pockets, jingling their change, saying things like "Whelp . . . looks real good Kurt . . . yah did a real nice job on it . . . sure hope it doesn't rain though . . . " and Kurt regaling us all with hilarious tales of how his son almost dropped the wheelbarrow and how he never thought they would get it smoothed out in time. So we stood outside for a while, repeating the above statements, then went inside to sit on the screened-in porch and admire his work from there. The men drank some beer, and we all ate some puppy chow (the kind made from Crispix, not Chex) and leftover Easter candy.

Umm . . . do those descriptions help at all?