Questions for Northerners by Southerners or vice-versa in the USA?

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Yes I have met people who have never been to the ocean.

 

[ambula603]

We have frequent tornado warnings but in December of 2021, we had an EF-4 long-track tornado that was on the ground for over 165 miles.

The Western Kentucky tornado directly killed 57 people and resulted in 519 injuries. The toll makes it the deadliest tornado ever recorded in the United States in the month of December, in addition to being the deadliest tornado since 2011.

We sheltered in our basement, not knowing what we would come out to since the news said it was right over us. Since then, I have been much more fearful! It ended up hitting less than 5 miles from our house on our road.

 

[Buzz Rules]

Southerners, please explain the classic "bless their heart" phrase. Also, on a scale of one to ten, how much do you enjoy country music?

 

[StopPlayin]

Southerners, please explain the classic "bless their heart" phrase. Also, on a scale of one to ten, how much do you enjoy country music?

Bless your heart has double meanings:
It can meant as a phrase to throw shade usually said when someone is saying something stupid.
Or it can be words of care, someone says they have been going through a lot, bless your heart can be said as a empathetic statement.


Country music:
I enjoy mostly old school country but Indo love me some Kane Brown, Luke Bryan and some others. But I was also raised to enjoy different genres as well.

 

[TippyThomas]

Yes I have met people who have never been to the ocean.

I was almost 50 before I saw an ocean.

 

[BrianL]

Southerners, please explain the classic "bless their heart" phrase. Also, on a scale of one to ten, how much do you enjoy country music?

Yeah, "Bless your heart" is uaully said with a bit of pity. It might be because of something bad that happened, like a death in the family, but mostly it's because the subject person has created a bad situation on their own or, as said above, just said something stupid. It still rings with pity, just for a different reason.

I don't much care for country music at all. Memphis is more of a Rock'n'Roll and Blues town though. Country is popular though, though it becomes moreso as you move toward Nashville/East TN. I do like some older country, Johnny Cash and Dolly of course. I was never into the more modern stuff though.

 

[disneyseniors]

Bless your heart usually is used when someone does something stupid more than a comforting saying, at least when I was in the South.
I love country music, but not much of the New country. To me they all sound a like. One exception is the great Chris Stapleton who is fantastic

 

[Buzz Rules]

I think this is just a universal American thing to be honest:

 

[Buzz Rules]

What recommended northern recipes should Southerners try and vice-versa?

 

[leebee]

My credentials with respect to lobster rolls: I grew up north of Boston, spent every summer of my life until I was 21 in Maine, and have lived in Maine for the past 24 years. We always had cold lobster rolls, which I guess are really lobster salad rolls. Minced celery, chopped lobster meat, salt, pepper, mayo, served on a buttered/grilled split-top hot dog roll. I never heard of hot lobster rolls until about 15 years ago. Most local restaurants serve the cold version, but you can usually request the hot, which is hot buttered lobster in a grilled hot dog roll. I find them greasy and dry.

Sweet tea? NO WAY.

 

[nighttowll]

I know quite a few people that have never seen snow. For me I was in 95F yesterday and in mid 40’s today. Quite a difference.

We are land-locked, and there are plenty of people who have never been to the ocean, but honestly, it's not just the ocean. It's never been anywhere really. With the internet now, it's not as bad as people are more easily familiar with other places making it not as scary to venture out, but I remember when I first moved here, so many people thought it was the best place on Earth (It's not) and couldn't imagine ever wanting to go anywhere else. Many had never even been to the larger cities nearby or that's as far as they had ever gone with no desire to go anywhere else. Coming from a city of 4 million, this just blew my mind, I saw my new home as quite lacking in everything.

Southerners, please explain the classic "bless their heart" phrase. Also, on a scale of one to ten, how much do you enjoy country music?

It's like a catchall phrase that can mean almost anything based on the tone of voice it is said in, but it's best known for being a sarcastic comment meant to imply you are incredibly stupid.

Takeaway:
"If it sounds too nice, I should be suspicious." - Exactly!

 

[TiggerTrigger]

I was almost 50 before I saw an ocean.

What were your impressions when you saw it?

 

[nighttowll]

Southerners, do tornadoes 🌪 happen often near you?

Yes, all the time. I have had so many close calls. We get multiple outbreaks every year. It use to be only in spring and fall but recently, we've been getting them all year, spring, summer, fall, winter. Just had a few come threw a couple weeks ago. Before that, big ones in December did a lot of damage. It seems like every couple of months there's a new batch of storms. You just get used to it. Luckily, we've never taken a direct hit. Lost a roof once, but that wasn't a direct hit, just a lot of wind damage. Got super lucky. That one hit the dorms of a university near my house. It was a miracle no kids were injured. There were cars sticking out of the dorm buildings where the tornado threw them. They had to dig a lot of kids out of rubble.

Still, I've only been scared twice. Once I was in a sporting goods store and their designated safe area was an interior training room lined with swords and knives. I thought if that tornado hits here, I'm going to be chopped into pieces. Got out of there as soon as visibility let up outside enough to see to drive. Rather take my chances on the road than in that death trap.

The other time was last year. We had a super close call. It's the only time I've actually thought we were going to be hit. Usually you just watch the tornado's path, and it is nearby, but not heading towards you, so you don't worry. Last Spring, there was a huge one on the ground moving fast right for us. They said it was sending a debris cloud 70 miles into the air. I was preparing to crawl out of a flattened house. I went and changed clothes into jeans and tennis shoes. Put the harness and leash on the dog, so he wouldn't be pulled out of my arms. We were all crowded in the bathroom watching the weather man as he narrated the the tornado's path, and it zeroed in on us. At the last second, it lifted up in the air, went over our neighborhood and landed back on the ground on the other side. I'm on the edge of the city, so lots of farm land around us. It was a miracle. Someone sent me a picture of it later after it touched back down. It was huge! Really freaked me out at the time. I was texting family and friends. I really wasn't sure we would make it.

Other than that one scare, we usually just ignore them. The warnings go off all the time. You check to see where it is, and because the warnings and sirens cover such large areas, they usually aren't near you or are moving away, so you just go about your day like usual. You might shelter if it's bad enough or near you, or you are somewhere that requires it like school or work. The thing is, though, we don't have basements because of flooding and the water table. If you can't get underground, there's not a lot you can do. Many of the sheltering spots really aren't much safer than anywhere else, so you just live your life.

Oh, I do have one funny story. At my old job, the designated tornado shelter was the girl's bathroom. My boss was walking around outside looking for the tornado as all good southern men do! The rest of us were hanging out in the bathroom watching the news on the laptop. We had propped the door open with a chair when all of sudden, we hear this girly scream and a tangle of limbs comes flying over the chair and landing in the middle of the bathroom. Apparently, while my boss was walking around outside, the tornado decided to drop out of the sky on top of him. Scared the crap out of him. Never seen him move so fast. Luckily, it came down in the parking lot and moved off across a field nearby and not through our building. We were too busy laughing at him to be scared, and it was gone before we even knew it had been there, so didn't bother us. Just another day living in a tornado prone area.

 

[nighttowll]

Also, on a scale of one to ten, how much do you enjoy country music?

Not a huge fan. I used to hate it, but it's grown on a me now, and some of it I'm ok with. Honestly, though, it's not like you hear it everywhere you go or anything. Most stores aren't playing country music unless its some cross-over pop hit. You are just as likely to hear rap or rock or indie music around town. Lots of country music stars around town, though. I've got a friend who lives next to one, but we've got lots of rock stars and other musicians as well.

As a kid in Texas, they required us to take square / line dancing lessons in school, so I had 6 years of mandatory lessons. I really hated it, but I used to know all the calls and could do some really complicated dances. I think I've forgotten it all now, though. I do know people who do go to local hole in the wall places to line dance, so that really is a thing.

 

[nighttowll]

I found a tornado chart.

In our area:

• 2024 to date - 10
• 2023 - 31
• 2022 - 5
• 2021 - 63
• 2020 - 30

So you can see, they are a fairly regular occurrence, and those are only the actual tornadoes, not all the storm warnings we constantly get saying the weather might produce one. It really does create a boy-who-cried-wolf situation because you just get so use to the constant storm warnings that you don't pay as much attention as you probably should.

Also, not having any actual safe place to shelter doesn't help either because your like, "Well, if we get hit, I'm gone wherever I am, so why stop my life to hide in a bathroom that probably won't do any good anyway?"

2024 to date - 10

Didn't realize it has already been 10 this year, but one storm can produce 3 or 4 at a time, so makes sense. The one a couple weeks ago killed some people and threw cars across the interstate.

The one in December also killed some people, flattened a church, and took out half of a bowling alley party place that was packed with people having Christmas parties. I can't believe no one died there looking at the photos I saw.

 

[TippyThomas]

What were your impressions when you saw it?

It was pretty awe inspiring to be honest. To be even more honest, it wasn't until my 3rd trip to the ocean before I ever got more than ankle deep. What I couldn't see in the water scared me to death.

 

[nighttowll]

It was pretty awe inspiring to be honest. To be even more honest, it wasn't until my 3rd trip to the ocean before I ever got more than ankle deep. What I couldn't see in the water scared me to death.

I was the same way until I discovered Destin. I didn't know water could be so pretty or clear. I was use to murky brown east coast and Texas water.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

It was pretty awe inspiring to be honest. To be even more honest, it wasn't until my 3rd trip to the ocean before I ever got more than ankle deep. What I couldn't see in the water scared me to death.

Thank you for sharing! I was wondering what it would be like to experience something like that later in life and if it would be similar to my seeing big mountains for the first time. I grew up spending a ton of time at the beach and have spent most of my life less than 2 hours from an ocean or the Gulf of Mexico, so I spent a lot of time in the water. Honestly, I can understand not wanting to go in. In my adult life, I won't go in unless it's pretty blue water where I can see well around me. We live about an hour north of Galveston and the water is often murky due to silt and debris from the Mississippi River draining into the Gulf of Mexico. I'll put my feet in and nothing more.

 

[Buzz Rules]

 

[Skippy918]

Speaking of weather, do those of you in the north get hail? We seem to get hail often here in the spring. A couple weeks ago, a small city in Texas had 6” hail.