Teachin’ Y’all to Talk Southern – Part 1

Every now and then, a good Southern woman sticks her foot in her mouth. And I am no exception. While I am waiting to be readmitted to charm school, I have a little spare time on my hands to write for y’all. I figured this was an ideal time to teach y’all how to speak Southern in the Midwest.

It’s no secret that Southerners have a gift with words. We have an entire dictionary of colloquialisms that make other people blink in confusion while they try to figure out what we just said.

Most people who have met me will quickly point out that I do not have a Southern accent. This is true thanks to my damn Yankee parents. I do, however, use a lot of Southernisms in my everyday speech.

Here are a few of my favorites, what they mean and how to use them in the Midwest:

Goin’ Hog Wild for Boiled Peanuts (Recipe)

Y’all seem to love reading about food, so here’s a little post about one of the simplest and tastiest dishes from the South–boiled peanuts (pronounced “boyld peanuts”). If I had to guess, you just turned up your nose at the idea of boiled peanuts since you are used to the roasted variety, but trust me, these things are so tasty, you’ll wanna slap ya mama.

A boiled peanut roadside stand in South Carolina. Photo taken Dec. 21, 2014 (thanks for sharing, Dad).

Boiled peanuts, by the way, are boiled in salt water until they are soft, and the best way to eat them is hot right out of the pot. Where I come from, you get your boiled peanuts from a roadside stand. You’ll see a handwritten sign on the roadside with big letters “Boiled Peanuts” in front of a lean-to or the like. There will be a friend there (in the South, there are no strangers) selling boiled peanuts that were likely harvested in the past 24 hours. They will dish them up from a massive pot and hand you a brown paper sack, styrofoam cup or plastic bag with steaming hot goodness.

There is something so satisfying about popping that shell and sucking out the bit of salt water before digging out the tender peanuts. Do I have you salivating yet?

Fiddle-dee-dee: Celebrating Gone With the Wind

A few items from my Gone With the Wind collection.

Great balls of fire! Today is the 75th anniversary of Gone With the Wind’s premiere at the Loew’s Grand Theater in Atlanta, and I would be remiss if I didn’t take this perfect opportunity to share with you how the movie has impacted me. After 75 years, the film has stood the proverbial test of time, even with all its controversies about the story, the movie’s production, its portrayal of Southern stereotypes and its release.

I have loved Gone With the Wind since the first time I saw it when I was probably about five or six. At the time, TNT was a regional channel, and it showed the movie frequently because it was Ted Turner’s favorite movie. There were many Sundays lost to watching 222 minutes of Scarlett, Rhett and Mammy laying on my stomach in the middle of the living room floor.

When I was 13, I set out on the daunting task of reading Gone With the Wind, which my Aunt Karen had given me for Christmas. It took me six months to read, but it was a huge accomplishment for my 8th grade self! Margaret Mitchell was a bit long winded in her descriptions of the red clay of Georgia, but the copy of Gone With the Wind I received in 1994 is one of the few books I have dragged with me through all my moves.