I had planned to review/talk/rant about a recent book I read set in the south, but written by people who lived in California. Throughout the book there were sweeping generalities: all the "normal" girls in high school want to be like Kristin Chenoweth from GCB (blonde, ridiculously tan, and skanky but in a Christian way), EVERYONE reenacts old Civil War battles (or really the War of North Aggression), and no one ever makes it out alive (as in the small town you're born in is the small town you'll die in). Being from the South I know that all of those three things aren't true. However, I guess I live in a bigger town, so I could be missing out on some Southern experience I have yet to find out about.
While I was helping set up for the Crystal Ball (that's tonight), I was going over in my mind everything I wanted to say about the South. You could go on for days talking about it and you still wouldn't cover it all. There's the tradition that's engrained in our very bones, the wildness that will never be tamed, and the history and mixing of it all through storytelling to provide some classic gothic tales. When I was younger, I wanted to escape Mississippi just as fast as I could. I knew I had to go to Ole Miss (because for some reason, out of state schools never really seemed in the realm of possibilities), but once I done with Ole Miss, I was leaving this wretched state for good (I kept count of the years). I never really had a true plan, it was more of a need to leave. All I could see was the sad state of the Delta (think that black and white photograph from the great depression of the "Migrant Mother"), the state's test scores and low literacy rate, and some one high up in government trying to convince me to stay in Mississippi by telling me all of the smart people were leaving (those were his exact words but close to it). Plus, every time I told someone I was from Mississippi they were surprised, like I should be wearing overalls, no shoes, and not know how to live in the modern world.
In college, I came to love this state and while I want experience life in other states (because I believe one should), I know that I eventually want to come back and settle here--if it fits into God's plan, of course. Mississippi does have it faults--obesity, low literacy, sometimes not so great politics--but the other things I love about this state aren't going away any time soon. I like to think that the things I love about Mississippi are some of the same things that writers like Eudora Welty, William Faulkner, Willie Morris, Barry Hannah saw in Mississippi. Mostly I know that it's probably a far stretch but I'm still learning about this state through their work. I'm still growing up here and the more I grow up the more I stop taking our Southern traditions for granted.
This is actually a picture taken in Alabama (my second favorite state) at my Grandfather's.
Title: "Red" by Little Green Cars
Labels: Alabama, Life, Mississippi, Music, Musings, Ole Miss, South, Southern Traditions, Southern Writers
