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"James J. Trobaugh" <james@ngltc.org> wrote in message
news:GM3D3q.DAw@lugnet.com...
> Well let me welcome you on down to the sunny south, take a good look at • that
> Boston snow before you leave since you won't see much of that around these
> parts.
>
> Things to know:
> -All sodas are called Coke (this is a must if you enter Atlanta, GA)
> -you put both ice and sugar in your tea
> -add "y'all" to your spell checker
> -grits are good for you, and so are black eyed peas
> -and learn to smile....alot :)
[ ... snipped ... ]
James' advice on tea is a good one and trips up a lot of visitors or new
residents. Real honest to goodness southern iced-tea is brewed hot with the
sugar in it. It almost has the consistency of syrup and will almost
certainly have some undisolved sugar in it. Real southerners swear by
sweet-tea. I personally can't drink it. It is just to sweet for me. You
can tell a good southern restaurant by whether they offer both sweet and
unsweet tea. The not-so-good ones only offer unsweet and let you add your
own sugar.
It may be an old wives tale but I was told that the reason the tea is brewed
with the sugar in it is that in the summer when it is real hot and humid,
sugar won't disolve. I have never tested it but I have heard it from more
than one source.
Grits may be good for you but people seem to either like them or they don't.
I am on the "don't" side of that one as well but I do like fried dill
pickles. When I first moved here and heard someone order fried dill pickles
I had a typical reaction: "Fried what?" Do you have to fry everything?
Well, they are really good.
Down in Columbia I believe you are on the fringe of the great Carolina
Bar-B-Q debate. Columbia has mustard based BBQ, eastern NC has vinegar
based, and western NC has tomato based. My vote goes for the eastern NC
style hands down! The BBQ debate can be as controversial as arguing
religion so beware!
Atlanta is too big to be a nice southern town and Raleigh is getting there
but Columbia will still have courteous drivers. For a while I worked for a
guy out of our Boston office. He was in town one day for a meeting and we
went to dinner afterwards. He was in the car behind me and we were stopped
at a light. The guy in the car in front of me got out of his car to tell me
he could see I had a tire that was low on air. My boss thought I had hit
him and he was coming back to argue with me. We were right next to a gas
station so we pulled in, I filled my tire with air and then - we were let
right back in the line for the light! My boss was dumbfounded. He was
completely distracted the rest of the evening as he had never seen anything
like that in Boston and couldn't stop talking about it.
As nice as most people are you will run into some not-so-nice ones. It will
happen, just don't let it get to you when someone tells you to go back north
where you came from. One thing the locals resent a lot is comparisons to
things up north. During the course of conversation if you say something
once it is fine, say it twice and you might get someone's hackles up. Say
it more than twice and they are likely to tell you "if everything up north
is so great why don't you go back?".
While we don't get snow (except every once in a while), it is not unusual to
get a doozy of an ice storm. If you are treated to one of these simply stay
home. While you may think you know how to drive in that mess (and maybe you
can), nobody else can, particularly the locals, so you are better off not
being on the road!
Mike
--
Mike Walsh - mike_walsh at mindspring dot com
http://www.nclug.net - North Carolina LEGO Users Group
http://www.nclug.net/ctb - Carolina Train Builders
http://www.brickbay.com/store.asp?u=mpw - Brick Depot
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