I was born and raised in Columbus Ohio. I am an unabashed Big 10 fan. I'd like nothing better than to watch Ohio State clock an SEC school. Just to shut them the fuck up about slow Northern Teams. We play Football in football weather. The SEC plays football in beach volleyball weather. Sundresses and heels are not proper football attire.
That said, I have a major affection for the South. I am a card carrying Liberal. I don't care.The sublime, sweet,serene, sensual, Southern siren song has me as rapt as Odysseus. How?
How indeed?
It's complicated. Famous last words.
I first saw the South as a twelve year old boy on a family driving vacation. We visited family in Memphis. Drove south to New Orleans.I saw spanish moss on trees lining the two lane.In N'Awlins we wandered the Quarter.
Even then there was a gothic sensibility in the French Quarter that tugged at my soul. The ancient buildings. Courtyards.Balconies. The sunlight. The shadows The dark, Delta jewel beckoning, smiling softly..As a suburban boy from Ohio I was amazed and awed by the history.Walking in the footsteps of Lafitte,, Williams. Faulkner.Jackson. I had never experienced anything like this.The smells, sounds and music moved my heart and nestled somewhere in my soul waiting to reemerge in my adulthood. To catch me by surprise.
We moved along the Gulf coast. My younger brother and I launched bottle rockets into the Gulf of Mexico from a beach in Gulfport Mississippi.
We travelled along the Redneck Riviera.Got salt and sand in my swim trunks in Ft. Walton Beach Florida.
Up the East Coast through Savannah, Charleston. We ate well. It was on this trip I developed a lifelong disdain for grits. I have since been informed I may have to reevaluate that attitude.
I walked the decks and marveled at the big guns on the Battleship USS North Carolina.
On to Washington DC. Mount Vernon. Williamsburg. In the summer. In the South. The seeds were sown.
As an adult I spent time in Nashville and discovered I pick up accents easily and quickly. I found a different way of life. An appealing attitude.An intrigueing world.
I also developed a soft spot for Southern women. Similar to my genetic, Irish fascination with red heads.Both turn my head and steal my reason, only for me to discover I'm far out of my depth. I turn befuddled into the arms of strong Yankee women and am comforted there. I understand them. As well as I understand any woman. .
I later spent time in Maryland.
Then came my return to New Orleans.
She stole my heart. Captured my soul. The ambience. The music. The food. The people. The deep South called to me with it's genteel charm. The flower scented breezes. The sensual dance of life. It's hard not to love the South.
I am at best eccentric. At worst functionally crazy. A bit of a rogue. A scoundrel with an astounding lack of propriety. Eccentrics, scoundrels and rogues have a storied tradition in Southern life. We aren't avoided and condemned as in the staid puritanical North. And many of us are Irish. Imagine that.
I realize the South is conservative. Well so is most of Ohio. I simply feel lost and out of place in the North. I have a Southern sensibility pulling at me. Calling me. Confusing the hell out of me. Though a dear Southern friend told me I understand the charm and foibles of Dixie better than most Yanks. I would fit in.
I know moving is not a panacea. However I feel if I'm going to be alone and miserable I can do it just as well, if not better someplace I'd actually like. After all these years I can say with certainty that Ohio sucks. Not in a good way.
So it seems to be time for an exodus. Time to become an expat Buckeye. Time to live not exist. I'm overdue to embrace the the sultry seductress that is the South. It could be a mistake. I could get burned. But as Buffett once said,"the pleasure is worth all the pain". It'll be one hell of a ride.
Showing posts with label The South. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The South. Show all posts
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Monday, June 24, 2013
Looking South (REVISED)
When I mention I want to move South, people look at me aghast. "Why?", they ask. "You're a Liberal. They'll kill you and eat you. If you want to move go to the Northeast. Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Delaware." I explain because, snow. Cold. Also New England tends to be a bit staid for me.
The South on the other hand is warm. Mild winters. A more laid back lifestyle. Besides there are Progressive Southerners who despise the stereotypes that their Representatives tend to reinforce on the National stage. I am also quite adept at finding the Liberal resistance cells. Having read and spoken with some of these Progressive Southern voices I have great hopes for the South. The South has progressed, albeit slowly. There are still attitudes entrenched in the culture that will take time to evolve past. There are good Southerners of vision leading that evolution. They need our encouragement and support, not
our ridicule and disdain.
But they're redneck racists, I am told. Trust me, Liberal Columbus Ohio has their share of those. And then some.
I will say during Segregation and Jim Crow at least the South was up front about how they felt. Unlike the insidious covert racism of the North. An African American could eat at the Woolworth's lunch counter but they'd best be back in Bronzeville when they're off work. We had our Ghetto and Red Lined neighborhoods. Here in Columbus the Federal Court ordered busing to desegregate the Columbus School System two decades AFTER Little Rock. I remember when the Ghetto here in Columbus burned. In the upscale suburbs there is the issue of driving while Black.
I've been in the South and Deep South. What I've found are warm, caring people. A culture of hospitality and a genteel sensibility. OK, there's ignorant rednecks there. So, we have them here. It's conservative. Have you looked at an Electoral Map of Ohio lately? Or Indiana?
When I was working in New Orleans I found there, what I felt was a sensual, open outlook on life. The food was a celebration. The music was communion. The sultry atmosphere had a certain erotic charge to it. I felt Tennessee Williams was writing documentaries.
Whereas Ohio is a cold hidebound repressed society. A certain sexual and social repression that may be remnants of the large German population that shaped Columbus in the 19th century. It's only in the last twenty years that there has even been culinary adventurism. When I grew up there was only Cantonese served in Chinese restaurants. No Mexican or Thai. Boring Mid Western food in an over sized College town.
Columbus has changed. More vibrant, more diverse and sophisticated but still repressed and emotionally cold.
I fell in love with the South when I was there. And I'll admit the women had a lot to do with it.There seems to be cultural differences between the North and South. Southern women have this open charm lacking in the Mid West. Strength with compassion. The velvet covered steel. The gentle ability to slice you to the bone with a smile. You don't even feel it. Ninjas in heels and sundresses. They claim to have superpowers. I believe them. I have been bewitched, bothered and bewildered by them a few times. Southern Women are right up there with redheads when iy comes to making me stupid. Smitten. Surrendered. And that dark jewel of the Delta, New Orleans has stolen my heart. Soothed my soul.
There seems to be a tradition of appreciation of eccentrics, rogues, scoundrels and scalawags. My kind of people. People like me. A person I respect once told me I have a certain Southern sensibility to me. I took that as a compliment. If true my readjustment will be easier. I will need a southern culture tutor though. Need to assimilate correctly. Active camouflage.
I'm not naive. I know moving isn't a panacea. A magic cure all for my myriad problems. But if I'm alone and miserable here in Ohio, I can be alone and miserable just as well somewhere else. Someplace warm, weather and culture-wise.With good food. A different outlook on life. A smile and dinner. A drink with other eccentrics. They don't hide us crazy people in the attic. They invite us to lunch.
The South on the other hand is warm. Mild winters. A more laid back lifestyle. Besides there are Progressive Southerners who despise the stereotypes that their Representatives tend to reinforce on the National stage. I am also quite adept at finding the Liberal resistance cells. Having read and spoken with some of these Progressive Southern voices I have great hopes for the South. The South has progressed, albeit slowly. There are still attitudes entrenched in the culture that will take time to evolve past. There are good Southerners of vision leading that evolution. They need our encouragement and support, not
our ridicule and disdain.
But they're redneck racists, I am told. Trust me, Liberal Columbus Ohio has their share of those. And then some.
I will say during Segregation and Jim Crow at least the South was up front about how they felt. Unlike the insidious covert racism of the North. An African American could eat at the Woolworth's lunch counter but they'd best be back in Bronzeville when they're off work. We had our Ghetto and Red Lined neighborhoods. Here in Columbus the Federal Court ordered busing to desegregate the Columbus School System two decades AFTER Little Rock. I remember when the Ghetto here in Columbus burned. In the upscale suburbs there is the issue of driving while Black.
I've been in the South and Deep South. What I've found are warm, caring people. A culture of hospitality and a genteel sensibility. OK, there's ignorant rednecks there. So, we have them here. It's conservative. Have you looked at an Electoral Map of Ohio lately? Or Indiana?
When I was working in New Orleans I found there, what I felt was a sensual, open outlook on life. The food was a celebration. The music was communion. The sultry atmosphere had a certain erotic charge to it. I felt Tennessee Williams was writing documentaries.
Whereas Ohio is a cold hidebound repressed society. A certain sexual and social repression that may be remnants of the large German population that shaped Columbus in the 19th century. It's only in the last twenty years that there has even been culinary adventurism. When I grew up there was only Cantonese served in Chinese restaurants. No Mexican or Thai. Boring Mid Western food in an over sized College town.
Columbus has changed. More vibrant, more diverse and sophisticated but still repressed and emotionally cold.
I fell in love with the South when I was there. And I'll admit the women had a lot to do with it.There seems to be cultural differences between the North and South. Southern women have this open charm lacking in the Mid West. Strength with compassion. The velvet covered steel. The gentle ability to slice you to the bone with a smile. You don't even feel it. Ninjas in heels and sundresses. They claim to have superpowers. I believe them. I have been bewitched, bothered and bewildered by them a few times. Southern Women are right up there with redheads when iy comes to making me stupid. Smitten. Surrendered. And that dark jewel of the Delta, New Orleans has stolen my heart. Soothed my soul.
There seems to be a tradition of appreciation of eccentrics, rogues, scoundrels and scalawags. My kind of people. People like me. A person I respect once told me I have a certain Southern sensibility to me. I took that as a compliment. If true my readjustment will be easier. I will need a southern culture tutor though. Need to assimilate correctly. Active camouflage.
I'm not naive. I know moving isn't a panacea. A magic cure all for my myriad problems. But if I'm alone and miserable here in Ohio, I can be alone and miserable just as well somewhere else. Someplace warm, weather and culture-wise.With good food. A different outlook on life. A smile and dinner. A drink with other eccentrics. They don't hide us crazy people in the attic. They invite us to lunch.
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