Five Things You Learn Growing up in the South
If you're not from the Southern United States, you may not know that anything can be fried or that we don't drink soda pop.
Just as we don't understand how people in Maine can drive with three feet of snow on the ground, they may not understand what it's like to get into a car and have the backs of your legs savagely burned by the vinyl or leather car seats in August.
Here is a list to help you better understand what we learn by growing up in the South.
- Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images 1Anything Can Be Deep Fried
In the South we fry all types of meat and most vegetables and there is no limit to what can be deep fried! How can you make an already tasty Twinkie better? Batter that bad boy and drop it in a vat of boiling hot grease. The best place to find the craziest fried treats is at a festival or county fair. I'm talking deep fried Snickers bars, jellybeans, Pop-Tarts, pizza, chicken fried bacon, Kool-Aid, dill pickles, Oreos, and even butter!
- Photo credit: f28production
Photo credit: f28production 2Car Seats Are Like a Grill in the Summer Heat
I can remember the fear of having to get into my mother's Plymouth while wearing shorts in mid-August. The car had been sitting directly in the sun in the Sears parking lot for however long, those vinyl seats just baking. You open the door for a few minutes to let the car cool down and search the backseat for a towel or shirt you could sit on to keep the back of your legs from being scalded by nature's fury!
- Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Sean Gallup/Getty Images 3We Call Every Soft Drink, Coke
In the South, we tend to forget the brand names of soft drinks when we want one. It's common for a mother to say, "Billy, go grab me a Coke out of the fridge," then have the child return with a Pepsi in hand. Many, many years ago, some ad executive at Coca-Cola did one of the best jobs ever of branding their product across the Southern United States.
- Photo credit: Ingram Publishing
Photo credit: Ingram Publishing 4It's Okay to Reprimand Someone Else's Child
We're not talking about beating children, that's against the law. We're talking about simply getting onto someone's kid if you see them doing wrong or putting themselves or others in danger. If little Larry is splashing water out of the mall fountain while his mother isn't looking, it's okay to go over and scold him for making a mess.
- Doug Benc/Getty Images
Doug Benc/Getty Images 5Football, Football, Football
Whether it's the high school field on Friday night or the University field on Saturday, football is king in the South. Some Southern cities have pro-football teams that play on Sunday, but for the most part, logos or our local high school and college teams can be seen on our bodies, cars and homes all year round. I've seen entire cars airbrushed with iconic images of Alabama football, MSU tattoos and I even saw a man who died his hair purple and gold before going to an LSU Tiger game. We love football in the South, deal with it.
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