Just Call Us The Clampets

As I predicted, since I've finished posting about our trip to Ohio, my blogging has slacked off yet again. Really, there just hasn't been all that much going on around here. Other than trips to the pool, the library, and The Walmart, the only interesting thing that has occurred is that Shawn has been working like a dog, once again, to attempt in turning our yard into something respectable. Actually, it has come a long way since we bought the house. We've planted, I think, about 9 trees, countless bushes and various flowers, but the yard is still having a hard time forgetting that it used to be a rock-filled tobacco field. Every summer Shawn reseeds, fertilizes, and prays that grass will grow, and every year we are disappointed in the outcome. Not one to back down from a fight, however, Shawn keeps at it.



Anywho, he and I were just discussing the other day that we have lived in the South now for nearly as long as we had in the North. I was shocked by this, but it's true. I moved to Tennessee for college in 1994, and have resided in some Southern location ever since. Despite this fact, I still wholeheartedly consider myself a Northerner, and I'm not sure that will ever change. I list the following as evidence of my Northern "ness" :

1. I have yet to fully adopt "y'all," and still prefer the Northern, gender neutral address of "you guys" when addressing more than one person.


2. Carbonated beverages are still called "pop," not "coke," not "soft drink," not "soda."


3. I do not consider it to be officially winter until the temperatures are BELOW 40 degrees.


4. I miss snow, and it makes me sad that my children don't own snow boots or snow pants.


5. I still have more sweaters than I ever have need to wear, but I refuse to get rid of them.


6. I still think of Ohio as "home."


7. I hate okra.


8. I hate grits.


9. I think wedding receptions should include a full sit-down meal.


10. I do not find it necessary to have full-blown, personal-detail-revealing conversations with people I have just met.

I think the evidence speaks for itself.

However, both of my children were born in the South, and though neither of them say "y'all" yet, I am daily presented with more and more evidence that they are more southern than northern.

For example, Claire asked me the other day that if boogers were supposed to be made of snot and dirt, then why weren't her boogers orange since the dirt is orange.

Now, don't even act like you haven't had conversations with your children about boogers. I know this happens to all of us at some point. In fact, I wasn't at all concerned with the topic of our conversation. Indeed, talking about boogers didn't upset me at all. What did upset me was the fact that my child thinks that dirt is ORANGE!

She's right actually. The dirt here is orange, but I grew up seeing dirt the color that it is supposed to be. BROWN!!! She has no idea that dirt is really brown and that what she is seeing is the red/orangey clay-like stuff that passes for dirt here. I am still shocked when my husband brings home a load of orange "dirt" for our landscaping, but my daughter merely views it as normal.

Sad.

And, as further evidence that both of my children are southerners. I present to you a picture of Ben after a hard day of playing outside:

I rest my case.

Yeehaw.