We are in Tennessee right now and I am thoroughly enjoying the Southern culture once again… folks here are so friendly!
Whether I am grocery shopping, or at the post office, or something, people stop and say hello and share a moment with you… sometimes it catches me by surprise. While I love my hometown of Vancouver and all the people here, I don’t usually have such long converstions with complete strangers in the supermarket! I long for that kind of community though… when I am on a walk here in the West, and I smile and say hello to people I don’t know, sometimes, sometimes, there are people who just look at me funny… in the South, that never happens. You’ll always get a polite hello back and often a little conversation too.
Our neighbour Carla, originally from the North, makes me laugh… she has filled me in on the news about our area… it seems Reba (yes, that Reba) lives just up the road… huge beautiful piece of property. I loved it when Carla asked me for my opinion on how to build her fence. “You want to know what I think?” I asked her in amazement. I am a city girl through and through, and not really adept at building fences. Carla didn’t care though. And so I told her what I thought. Previously, she just lived in a tiny apartment; she loves it that she owns land now, even if her home is the only log cabin in the suburbs. There stands here beautiful, simple log cabin amidst a whole bunch of homes in the suburbs…
I am also learning new Southerisms… right quick… might could – yes, I actually heard someone say “I might could do that…” so does that mean she might be able to do that or she could do that? I wasn’t sure. The best thing is when I say “eh” after a comment, and people just stop a stare for a moment… or when the lady at the post office asked if another Canadian and I were speaking another language… well, maybe?
One favourite memory so far: sitting on the porch swing with my baby girl and watching the lightning bugs at dusk… now that I think about it, I better get back to doing that right quick…