"Dissing" the South

[WB4WHJ]

And Dr. Pepper.

I lived in Ky for several years.

It fully recovered after I left.

TOM K8ERV Montrose Colo

That is surprising, that NC recovered
73
Bo Wb4whj

[W4KTL]

To quote the late, great Lewis Grizzard "I have yet to see anyone in a bar in Atlanta celebrating because they are being transferred to Buffalo".

[KB3LAZ]

I have only eaten at a Bojangles once and I was not particularly fond of it. I do not like donuts. I drink water, no sodas for me. I really do not find trains interesting.

That aside, there are plenty of things that come out of the south that I do like. We will use one of the OP´s examples, Fried chicken, which was not invented or developed in the south, merely changed or to some "perfected". To which I have no argument.

I really do not understand the southerner vs Yankee thing and I doubt I ever will. Both those who live above and below the Mason-Dixon have their faults as well as their high points. The same can be said about any region. Growing up I spent a lot of time in the Carolina´s, the Virgina´s, Tennessee, and Kentucky. I rather enjoyed the experiences every time I had the opportunity. I have spent time in other southern states but not extensively and therefore can not draw a valid opinion.

Tennessee is one of my favorite places to visit for the summer and would spend more time there if I could. Particularly in smaller towns rather than he cities. Both have their high points but with my version of fun and enjoyment rural areas always beat out cities. What I enjoy most, and this is true most places I go, is communication with the local people. Contrary to popular belief I find that people as a general rule are very kind an accepting in all necks of the woods. I suppose this could simply be my disposition and that the mileage of others may vary. In my opinion this is more true in rural areas than cities. Why, because everyone in the city seems to be busy at all times and everything moves quickly. In the country things seem to move at a slower pace and people have more time to socialize with you. Or at least seem to have more of a desire to do so.

My point is that the reactions and experiences people live differ do to their opinions, demeanor, and desires. What plays a big factor in either living in or visiting an area is our preconceived notions of what a place and or its people will be like. Much of this is due to the media as well as taking the opinions of others for granted. Many times such opinions come from such people that have never actually been to said area that they criticize.

Personally, I like new places and new people. However, I do not go somewhere expecting that the customs change at my whim. It is really enjoyable to partake in customs and or cultures not of our social norm. We may as a whole have an expectation of what a social norm is but it does differ slightly from state to state, region to region, country to country, etc.

As for being a Yankee, well yes, I am. However, go to the UK and or Europe and you will notice something, all of us from state side of the pond become Yanks. =)

On a side note, I really am not sure why some take it as offensive to be called a Yankee.

[N2EY]

Let's talk about industry a bit and "stupid" southerners. Do you yankees remember the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Lines? To hear them yankees tell it, they was invincible and nobody could run a railroad better than them yankees! They went bankrupt due to bad management and failure of the infrastructure/ customer base that supported them.

If only it were that simple.

First off, the PRR and the NYC did not go bankrupt. It was the merged Penn Central which fell apart and went bust.

That happened for a complex series of reasons, including bad management, a terrible merger plan, bad regulations, tax-subsidized competing modes, old infrastructure, WW2, geography, weather, industrial changes and much more. It wasn't about "Yankees".

A good start is the book "The Wreck Of The Penn Central". "The Men Who Loved Trains" tells the rest of the story.

Did you know that the Southern Railway System, tho smaller that these two were consistently named in Standard & Poors, not only a top railroad , but as one of the top 5 best-managed corporations in the USA? No other railroad could make that claim.

The Southern Railway merged with the Norfolk and Western in 1982 and the merger took 8 years to be fully effective.

Them "yankees" couldn't manage a railroad, so they re-formed as Penn Central, and it STILL went bust! So the government reorganized it into Conrail.............and it, too, was threatened with extinction save the influx of government moola. Guess who saved it? Infested and invested with the same kind of thinking that sank the formerly "mighty" railroads, a Mr L. Stanley Crane was tapped to bring Conrail back from the brink. Uh.............he was the recently retired CEO of..............Southern Railway System. He kicked a** and took names. Never was there such a hue and a cry from the existing management who could not see the light. But Mr Crane put Conrail on a solid financial footing, and enough so to make it an attractive target for a sale, a merger, or a takeover.

There's a lot more to it than that.

One BIG factor you forgot is the Staggers Act of 1980, which drastically reduced government over-regulation. Another was the modernization and catch-up maintenance work done between the formation of Conrail in 1976 and Mr. Crane's taking the job some years later. There's also the divestiture of commuter rail operations from Conrail to various transit agencies in the same time frame.

Today the remnants or Conrail are divided into two and controlled by two strong, profitable railroads: CSX Railroad and Norfolk Southern Railway. CSX is based in Jacksonville, Fla, and Norfolk Southern is in Norfolk, Virginia. The two partners that make up NS are, again Southern Railway System and Norfolk & Western Railway.

Both of whom paid a very healthy price to BUY Conrail.

When I last went up "N'awth, what I saw was a RUST BELT. A HAS-BEEN.

Much of the country looks like that, not just the North, because so much industry has been sent "off-shore".

You also forgot one of the most important factors in the development of the South and Southwest: Air conditioning. Which was invented by a Yankee!

From wikipedia:

"In 1902, the first modern electrical air conditioning unit was invented by Willis Haviland Carrier in Buffalo, New York. After graduating from Cornell University, Carrier, a native of Angola, New York, found a job at the Buffalo Forge Company. While there, Carrier began experimenting with air conditioning as a way to solve an application problem for the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Company in Brooklyn, New York, and the first "air conditioner," designed and built in Buffalo by Carrier, began working on 17 July 1902."


73 de Jim, N2EY

[W3WN]

< snip >
Hell, how'd you feel being a Noo Yawker and realizing the light at the end of yo' tunnel wuz Noo Joisey?

NJ is too good for the likes of them. You have a problem with that?

[ND6M]

Start messin wid my Beans, greens, maters, Taters, an Corn Pone an we's gonna have a fight!

Ginger ale? Ale81's alright, BUT I gotta mess a spearmint gittin knee hi in my Barrel Planter.

Don't need no KFC/Lee's/Bojangles, I got a cast iron skillet and plenty of all purpose flower. That stuff they sell ain't gravy.

Fry up a mess of chicken and make gravy from the drippins. Almost everything's better with gravy.

If I want biscuits (or spoon bread) all I gotta do is grab some stuff off the shelf and start mixin.
Plenty of clabber girl in the pantry.

Both my parents were born in the south (KY), and met in cincy.
I guess that makes me a displaced hillbilly.........

cummon down to west TN,............... I'll fix ya up a slugburger,................. ummmmm, yummy!

[WA4NJY]

Yo Dominick, has youze ever hoed anyboddy dat soundz as stoopid as dose suddeners do?


Thank you,
Ed

[K8MHZ]

So, about 10 years ago we were building a 'peaker' power plant in which most of the work was outside. Scattered about the 14 acre site were small buildings housing electrical equipment. We worked through the winter and if you could get work inside you did, if you couldn't get work inside one they were ideal for temporary shelter and a place to warm up.

The job was so big we had electricians from all over the country. One particular day I was REAL glad to be terminating wires in panels. It was snowing so hard you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. It was also windy and cold. The door opens and in scurry two electricians that came to the job from down south. They were covered with snow and looked like snowmen. One of them asked me if it always snowed like that up here. I told him no, that sometimes it snowed real hard.

They both drug up the next day and headed back home. The laugh was on me, though. I was back outside in the snow by the time they got back to their hall.

True story!

[VK6ZGO]

You're all Northerners to us!!

73,VK6ZGO

[K0RGR]

I've always enjoyed my visits to the South, but there are some things that are a bit jarring. The most disturbing ones are slowly fading away, but there seem to be new ones that pop up.

When I made my first trips to the region in the 1970's, things were much different. The black people would not look you in the eye, and they would avoid stepping on your shadow. While waiting at an airport, I read New Orleans magazine, and learned that the city council there had made a very large contribution to a local benevolent association - the Ku Klux Klan. Hey, some of my northern relatives joined the klan in the 1920's, but dropped out when they learned more about it.

My job sent me to school there in the mid-80's, and I was sitting at a bar one night, having drinks with a colleague who happened to be black. Before long, another colleague, a southern white, joined us and started to ask the black fellow a barrage of embarrassing questions, implying that he must have been a great athlete, because "...I bet you can run real fast, can'tcha?". Another white colleague with a master's degree told me that he didn't have anything against black people, "...but they are all so filthy...".

I remember getting a haircut, and one of the barbers remarked that the only thing wrong with Atlanta was all of those 'northern carpetbaggers moving here' ( I am not making that up- that's what she said!).

But in more recent years, that has all changed. The older blacks still won't look a white person in the eye, but the younger ones don't know anything about that. The South has become a beautiful place, the people are all friendly, and it looks like a very comfortable life for most. The Rest Areas on the Interstates are worth the drive down there - they should be tourist destinations in Texas, where I bet they cost more than the Taj Mahal. Still, too many educated whites still use the 'n' word to describe their black neighbors. My northern grandmother used that word too because I don't think she knew another one. In this day, it's rather bothersome.

I don't know what to make of all the people carrying Bibles in Raleigh. It seemed that everywhere I went, there were people having deep discussions about the Bible. I think it would have been intellectually challenging.

Still, if my great grandpappy saw that huge 'stars and bars' Confederate flag on the border between Georgia and Florida, he would conclude that his side must have lost the Civil War. He lost two brothers and his right leg at Kennesaw Mountain. One of my brothers, who lived in Atlanta for a few years and hated it for some reason, is proud that great grandad was part of Sherman's March, though he didn't make it to Atlanta. Brother had a house very near Stone Mountain, and one of his neighbors did a ritual "...to keep the n's out of the neighborhood...".

No, I think I could live in most of the states down there, and really enjoy it, but to be honest, my mouth would probably get me in trouble eventually. You guys don't know how good you have it for DXing. I took an HF rig with me on my most recent trip, and I couldn't believe how strong the DX signals were in Florida. Up here near the auroral zone, we never hear Europe that strongly.