I love The South.

We northerners can sometimes be smug about it although I realize that the very things we poke fun at are some of the qualities that make it so wonderful. Its very habits & nature bring a smile to my face every time. Southerners are a feisty proud lot still standing firm on the Mason-Dixon line. Southern Hospitality greets you in every store, restaurant, gas station, dock, sidewalk, nook & cranny.

I create this list with gentle respect to all those characters that bring The South alive.

You know you're in The South when:

- No matter where you are there is a Bubba on the VHF
- A high percentage of the homes have pillars, porches, rocking chairs & multiple flags
- Collard greens, grits, crab cakes, shrimp & hush puppies are on every menu
- Clothing stores have camouflage as a mainstream color
- Ducks & geese are always on the fly trying to avoid the duck blinds in all the little bays.
- Pecans grow here and you see them drying on porches in the sun ready to go in the Thanksgiving Pecan Sugar Pie (which we'll be having in Georgia I hope)
- You round Cape Hatteras and the Gulf Stream welcomes you by heating the air......just like a big ole southern hug!
- The Gun & Knife Show sign is placed at the entrance to the liquor store (honest....see the Photo Gallery)
- Grasses can be as tall as a house
- Store clerks say, "What can I do for you sweet thing" to everyone
- Houses tower on hidden stilts to survive floods from all the low coastal land
- Dogs drive trucks (honest....see the Photo Gallery)
- Modern Southern belles gather in groups to share gossip & stories of inappropriate behavior and it is just too funny (ma' daddy is iiin the senior citzens houme an' he tells the dirtiest ole jokes.....iit is sooo embaaRaSSin'!)
- Servers in restaurants will convince you to order more than you intended because they explain the food in the MOST mouth-watering way (... or at least it works on me!!!)
- Sport Fishing boats are in marina slips by the 1000's and have names like Bad Buoy & The Hooker!!!
- Some Honorable Civil War heroes were buried with a cannon attached to their gravesite (honest....see the Photo Gallery)
- The foliage is green everywhere with a few variations of palm trees to demonstrate that temperatures only drop so much ............and, magnificently, the magnolias still reign supreme!

Yes, many factions of Southern history and even current times are impossible to ignore. What does shine through to a traveler in the Carolinas is the sugared charm of the drawl, the ingrained nature of being hospitable and the coastal beauty of sand dunes & salty cottages.

As one big truck bumper sticker put it, "WE DON'T CARE HOW Y'ALL DO IT UP NORTH!"

p.s. see evidence in Photo Gallery under You know you're in The South when....