It's been slow at work. Good shifts and not so good shifts but that's just part of the game. It's a slow time of year, lots of people on vacation and even more pinching pennies. Can't blame them...I feel their pain!
I was born and bred in the south. I wouldn't exactly call myself a southern belle, I'd say I'm more of a cotton ball that's been part of a few bountiful crops and lived through some boll weevils.
At lunch today I walked past the bar and another server who I am pretty tight with was sitting on a bar stool chatting with one of the regulars who was eating lunch with her husband and son. She was sitting sideways and had one leg on one side of the stool and the other hiked around to the other side. Being the sweet girl I am I said "That looks graceful." The wife laughed and my co worker said "Hey...I got on a apron." That started talk about southern women and how different we are. The woman who was eating with her family said that she had a friend who moved to the south after living up north most of her life and had commented to her "What's wrong with women in the south? It's the only place where a woman you don't even know will come up behind you and tuck your tag in if it's showing from the back of your collar without even thinking about it."
I think that describes southern women perfectly!
I came back into work tonight and was standing at the bar talking to another server who grew up in Augusta and is originally from the outer banks of South Carolina. She said with no hesitation at all, "You have a hair sticking out of your chin, want me to pull it out for ya?" I said "Yes please" and then we both examined it closely after she eradicated it from my face. I now have one less flaw! (Thank you, Marvel Kay)
This same server told me about growing up in a southern Baptist church where one Easter morning an elderly woman who couldn't see well was sitting behind another elderly woman who was hard of hearing. This was back when hearing aids were larger than a blue tooth and had the wire coming out from the ear, running down your neck to the battery pack tucked in your shirt . The elderly woman with bad eyesight only saw a friend sitting in front of her on Easter Sunday with what SHE thought was a tag still attached to the poor hard of hearing woman's dress in front of her. She quietly leaned forward and took out her nail clippers and snipped the wire to the woman's hearing aid as the woman turned around and said "Huh?"
That's what it's like to be a southern woman. We don't mind rooting around in your business....we consider it helpin'. There also seems to be a lot of things always broken in the south because we are constantly "Fixin' to do something."
Our mother's taught us to wear clean undies in case we were in an accident and used a tiny slip of Ivory soap up your booty as an enema when you were constipated . At least the soap bragged to be 99% pure...pure what I don't know, but it worked! Paregoric was used for ear aches and fresh produce was bought off an old truck driven through our neighborhood by a black guy (that's what we called them ... no African American for us)
Only in the south... you had square dancing classes in elementary school . I know they don't have them now but when I was a kid I learned the "Virginia Reel" LONG before I learned "The Hustle."
We're not total dolts... we just tend to follow tradition more and remember our manners, even if it's painful.
I got "Whup-uns" when I did something bad as a kid...and my Diddy always started them off with "This hurts me more than it's gonna hurt you." "Yeah, RIGHT" always came to mind as I leaned across his lap while he sat on the closed toilet lid with the bathroom door closed. If you were in the 'green bathroom' with my Diddy, it wasn't gonna turn out in your favor...but at least punishment was given and it was over.
Dang...I wish we'd had a green bathroom when my kids were little!!
I am proud to be from the south. I am tremendously sorry for what my predecessors did to slaves. I bet they ALL regret THAT cruise, and I am ashamed of the ignorance of my own race.
As my husband says "You can't change yesterday...you can only change tomorrow."
My friends, those are some powerful words to live by.
I have three blogs backed up in drafts and AFTER my fourth double in a row on Monday I am going to relax and post and post and post!
As always, thanks for reading and as we say down here "Yer Sweet ta do it!"
Til next time...COTTON
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