I'm feeling a little nostalgic lately. I guess it's because I've watched two notorious southern movies and read one notorious southern book within the last week. Maybe it is because I've been planting for spring and listening to country music with the windows down. Then today, I read this article: I Am Mississippi. I have one thing to say. I love my home!
Now don't get me wrong. It wasn't always this way. I remember being in junior high and high school proclaiming that moving away would be the first thing I would do when I turned eighteen. Mississippi was a black hole and I was a self-proclaimed "city girl". Let me tell you something. You can be a city girl in the south (although, I do prefer the quiet beauty of the countryside now). You can like going to art museums, little coffee shops with a thousand options, eating foreign foods, and still call the south your beloved home. You can be an educated country girl. The south has a lot more culture to offer than most places you will find. And our folk art is to die for.
I remember the day it clicked. I had spent almost three months in Australia. I was missing home. I was missing sweet tea and summer festivals. I was missing warm days outside (it was winter in Australia). I was missing my granny's home cooked meals. Then I started to miss something strange. Country music. Anyone who knew me then could attest that I hated country music. Who wants to listen about honky tonks and pick-up trucks, I said. Somewhere around the fourth of July I made a little hole in my heart for country music.
I guess we are all scared of the stereotypes. These people who claim to be open-minded sit around the discuss how culturally aware they are, yet seem to still be so darn ignorant when it comes to the south. You know the names we are called. My sentiments are summed up in this quote from Steel Magnolias: "an ounce of pretension is worth a pound of manure". Think about it.
My little state with the bad rap. But I love it and it's home.
What about you?
Where do you call home?
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