Thoughts on the South: Month One

Well, as of yesterday, we've been in the house for four weeks. Wow, how life changes in the course of a month! In some ways it feels like we've been here much longer because so much has been happening. Here are some thoughts after the first month in the South:

• After spending an entire lifetime in the Midwest, there's a whole new world of critters to discover here that has provided for a learning experience. I have learned about fire ants and how to eradicate them from your yard. I've also learned that one little fire ant can bite/sting enough for it to HURT! Who knew an ant could do that to a human?? (A special thanks to my mother-in-law for letting me know that baking soda will diffuse this ant-inflicted pain!) I have learned that it's not so out of the ordinary to have found a scorpion (yes, a SCORPION!!) in my house. It was only about 2 inches long, but let's just say I'm glad I didn't know what it was until I'd already killed it....... I've also learned how fun it is to look for the lizards darting across our driveway on my way to the mailbox.
  
• Country Music Come to Life......I remember several years back when Brooks and Dunn's "Red Dirt Road" was always on the radio. Now I really know what a red dirt road looks like, seeing as there are some that intersect the road we live on. Also, upon hearing Diamond Rio's classic "Meet in the Middle" while in Walmart, the line about meeting in the middle "beneath that old Georgia pine" means much more since I literally have a forest of them towering in my back yard.
• Y'all.......This is not just a stereotype, friends. This is as much a part of the vernacular here as any slang phrase you can think of. And it's not just an uneducated-bumpkin turn of phrase like TV and movie try to make you believe. Anyone here from your average Joe to your highly educated white collar professional is prone to using this expression, not only in spoken language, but in text forms in emails and such.
• It's hot here, as anticipated. Not much else to say about that.......looking forward to fall and winter...........
• Weekends are respected here; a nice breath of fresh air. Don't expect responses to professional emails between 5pm Friday and 9am Monday. People take their weekends seriously here, and for that, we are grateful.
• There are a surprising amount of Ohio connections in this town. They kind of turn up anywhere. From Laura's P.E. teacher who played football for Heidelberg College to the undergrad I met at the pool yesterday who was born in Cleveland and raised in Columbus, the presence of Buckeye State connections crop up everywhere.
• In a twist of irony, we finally have a big stash of change in our car's change dish, but we no longer live in a city with parking meters.
• I'm still struggling with getting used to my peers calling me "ma'am". I expect it in formal situations, but when someone my age in an informal setting says "yes, ma'am", it still catches me off guard.
• Our daughter is so perceptive. She has picked up on the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) differences in how she speaks compared to how her teachers and classmates do. Not only does she experiment with drawling words like 'five' (fahv), but she remarked one day that her classmate's name is pronounced 'Rah-lee', but it's spelled 'Riley'. It's how she hears her teacher pronounce the name, but she knew that the sound didn't match up to the vowel in there. I love it when her mind works like this.
• A college town is always an anomaly in its area. Baldwin County is a largely rural area in a fairly remote area of central Georgia, but when a university is present in town, you can always count on a certain amount of diversity and tolerance you might not otherwise find in a city this small. I found this to be true during my grad school years in Athens, Ohio, and in a lot of ways, this town reminds me of my time there.
• No matter how often you drive by it or stop in to buy something there, Piggly Wiggly still is a pretty silly name for a supermarket.
• After spending my life in VERY Catholic-dominated towns and cities, it is crazy to realize that the only Catholic church in the entire 3-5 county area or so is about as big as the school house/church on Little House on the Prairie episodes (and about as old). And Catholic high schools, a dime a dozen in Cincinnati.....yeah, they don't exist here at all. Baptist Churches, on the other hand.........
• People are people, no matter where you are, and for the most part, people are friendly here just like they are anywhere else we've lived. And that's really all that matters!

Gina