Here, just to lighten things up:
(Disclaimer: Just trying to bring a smile here. I am a 3rd generation Texan, but have traveled all over the place. There are polite people everywhere, and rude people everywhere. That being said, in my experience, things are just real, real different here - but not necessarily better! - if you were actually raised in the South. Just a fact of life, not an insult to anyone.
)
1. Save all manner of bacon grease. You will be instructed later on how to use it.
2. If you forget a Southerner's name, refer to him (or her) as "Bubba". You have a 75% chance of being right.
3. Just because you can drive on snow and ice does not mean we can. Stay home the two days of the year it snows.
4. If you do run your car into a ditch, don't panic. Four men in the cab of a four wheel drive with a twelve pack of beer and a tow chain will be along shortly. Don't try to help them. Just stay out of their way - this is what they live for.
5. Don't be surprised to find movie rentals and bait in the same store.
6. Do not buy food at the movie rental store.
7. If it can't be fried in bacon grease, it ain't worth cooking, let alone eatin'.
8. Remember: "Y'all" is singular. "All Y'all" is plural. "All Y'all's" is plural possessive. (Very important to know)
9. There is nothing sillier than a Northerner imitating a southern accent. Don't even try! Just try to lose the yankee twang as best ya can. Southerners will never understand the need to talk through your nose.
10. Get used to hearing, "Y'ain't from 'round here, are ya?
11. People walk and talk slower here. Get over it.
12. Don't be worried that you don't understand anyone. They don't understand you either.
13. The first Southern expression to creep into a transplanted Northerner's vocabulary is the adjective "Big ol'", as in "Big ol' truck" or "Big ol' boy". Eighty-five percent begin their new southern influenced dialect with this expression. One hundred percent are in denial about it.
14. Be advised: The "He needed killin" defense is valid here.
15. If you hear a Southerner exclaim, "hey y'all, watch this!" Stay out of his way. These are likely the last words he will ever say.
16. Most Southerners do not use turn signals, and they ignore those who do. In fact, if you see a signal blinking on a car with a southern license plate, you may rest assured that it was on when the car was purchased.
17. The winter wardrobe you always brought out in September can wait until November.
18. If there is the prediction of the slightest chance of even the most miniscule accumulation of snow, your presence is required at the grocery store. It doesn't matter if you need anything from the store and don't ask why; it is just something you're supposed to do.
19. Tornadoes and Southerners going through a divorce have a lot in common. In either case, you know someone is going to lose a trailer.
20. Florida is not considered a southern state. There are far more Yankees than Southerners living there. In Florida, the farther south you go, the farther north you get.
21. You can ask a Southerner for directions, but unless you already know the positions of key hills, trees, rocks, and "where the ol' schoolhouse used to be," you're better off trying to find it yourself.
, there's nothing wrong with the way I talk
. Manners, what are those
? I think you just insulted a majority of this country if only the south supposedly has manners. For what it's worth I've met my share of rude southerns and polite northeasterners, midwesterners, westerners etc.
