Life in the South (coming from a Yankee)

I saw this article the other day in Southern Living and it made me take a deep breath and enjoy rocking on my front porch in the Southern Sun.

Although I miss my New England family dearly and think of them on an hourly basis, I loved some of her points in the below article.  The ghist of the story is about a women moving back to her home in the South after being away for a long time.  People asked her "why" was she moving back.  Her answer was.....

I wanted to sweat when I climbed into my car.
I wanted a place where play dates did not exist and play did. (AMEN SISTER)
I wanted not to be the only woman at the school bake sale who 1. loved coconut and 2. made her own cake  (OH HOW I LOVE JUDY'S COCONUT PIE)
I wanted to garden more than three months a year (I AM JUST NOT STARTING TO GARDEN AND LOVE IT - ALTHOUGH I NEED MOM SWEENEY TO SHOW ME A THING OR TWO)
I wanted my kids to know the value of manners
I wanted to hear birds sing at night and get high on honeysuckle and marvel at the size of Magnolias, perched like Easter hats on waxy green heads
I wanted to drink in twangs and drawls
I wanted to hear the frenzied jangle of banjos and fiddles
I wanted to lay eyes on men wearing overalls and cowboy hats and women with hair teased high as Larry Hagman (I COULD TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT :) )
I wanted to hug people I just met (I DO THIS ON A DAILY BASIS)
I wanted to see bugs big enough for saddles.  And insolent enough to stick around when the lights come up.  (NO THANKS.  THAT IS ONE THING I WILL NEVER GET USED TO IN THE SOUTH - THE PALMETTO BUGS!)
I wanted to drive past walls of kudzu, both terrible and beautiful, draping the landscape like living quilts
I wanted to suck wild berries and guzzle RC
I wanted to stop agonizing over fried food (I STILL DO!!)
I wanted to eat and eat and eat
Most of all I wanted to raise my children in my ancestors geography, where they could ramble barefoot in the sunshine and not fret about being sideswiped by a speeding taxicab (AGAIN, I MISS MY NEW ENGLAND FAMILY, BUT I DO LOVE OUR NEW HOME ON OUR NEW QUITE ROAD)