In just a couple months we will have been in Nashville for an entire year. It has gone so fast!
We are beginning to find our way here. Getting used to the accents. Yes, accents. There is TN talk and KY talk. Two completely different languages there, folks.
We have had some fantastic BBQ and have finally learned that, unlike on the west coast, we ‘grill out” here not “BBQ”.
BBQ is what you eat not what you do.
Lesson learned.
I’ve even woken up with a tick on my person. Yup. On my back. Brent had to dig him out. And he got most of it. I’ve not slept well since.
I am sure there are a ton more things to experience, to do, to eat, to see.
So, what are they? All you southerners or people who know what southerners do…what do we yet have to experience? We’ve got a couple months left before we hit that 1 year mark…I wanta fill it up with a bunch of firsts!
Whatcha got for us??
Master the art of sweet tea with no lemon. Grow a garden. Have flowers that take your breath away….inside and outside of your home. Say bless your heart and really mean it. Say y'all. Love SEC football. Grill out just about every day in the summer. Laugh hard. Love deeply. Country music is good.
ok….i can do all this but i just can't do the SEC thing. i can't. i can't.
=D
Okay. I'm a displaced northerner & I hate country music. But, I got talked into going line dancing when I moved here & it was so much fun. The live music, the tacky moves. Find a classic (albeit touristy) place like the wildhorse, take the family, and be ridiculous.
i think this would be so much fun to do with a bunch of friends! and i would LOVE to see my oh so white no rhythm husband try to line dance!!
The sweet tea thing is a must — the sugar content must far exceed the tea content. The kids (big kids, too) have to go crawfishing……find a creek and turn over some rocks. You'll find them. Watch out for snakes, though. Water mocs are also a very Southern thing. I'd say NASCAR, but I hate it……Southern nonetheless. Country music is optional, at least for me it is. We also go to the Gulf, which sounds like golf, but means the beach. Usually Destin or Panama City, but Gulf Shores makes the short list, too.
You've probably already discovered that all soft drinks are Cokes, we have our pictures made, and we use a buggy for shopping.
Also in any word with both a double O that ends in an L (pool, school, etc.), the L is silent.
Avoid chiggers (sometimes called red bugs) at all costs.
water mocs???
You really need to go snipe hunting.
I have NO idea what that is. do tell!
You've NEVER been snipe hunting, Tam?? Omgosh…my great uncle took me in high school–it was terrifying and exciting all in one because you do it at night.
but i don't even know what snipe hunting is. someone needs to tell me.
It's really hard to explain what they look like exactly…it's better if you can get someone to take you out that has property and experience hunting them. They only come out at night. You need a large sack and something to hit it over the head with. Rocks or shovels. My uncle had me use a shovel.
You must always say y'all, fixin' to instead of going to, and you've got the love Jesus & have a church home down! I'll have to think of some others. BTW, I'm southern but I hate sweet tea, or any tea for that matter! And I wouldn't go sniping, crawfishing, or hunting either!
i always mix my sweet tea and regular tea at restaurants. and i still don't know what sniping is.
baby oil or peanutbutter on a tick will back him completely out..then burn him…haha yeah thats what we do…
no way! really??
done this lots of times, they seem to breathe through their back when attached…i always have tweezers ready to grab him when he backs out then i burn the little sucker…i hate them!
Have you gone honky tonkin' on Broadway?
define, honky tonkin'.
This southerner HATES modern country music, so don't get sucked into that one. Sweet tea is mandantory. Don't EVER complain about the tea being sweet. You will NOT minister to those people. Ever.
Brent's obviously already owned a good 4×4, so that's not really a thing for you, I guess.
i don't dis sweet tea but it is TOO sweet for me.
Got nothin for ya – but I DO have to say I am so glad I "twitter" met you because of Sara a little more than 6 months ago. And I think you choose joy really really well – God bless. And wipe that tear from your eye. you know, the same one I get when I think of her.
thanks, craig. i do miss that girl!
Oooooooohhhh I DO have something – I have learned, because I read so many Southern bloggers, that "south" when speaking of the land that God loves above all other lands (except maybe Israel) is ALWAYS capitalized. Yup. True word. Also, when I retweeted your tweet I fixed your spelling "issue" – just sayin. God bless.
Go strawberry pickin'…not picking…pickin'.
Also, go to the Southern Women's Show every year! It's a must around here in Charlotte! 
And learn to loooove biscuits if you already don't! Not the stuff from a can…they are fine, but make them from scratch. Also have yourself a good helping of some pinto beans and cornbread if you already haven't…and some shrimp and grits (yes…grits are awesome when made properly!). Living in the south for the past 15 years has taught me to enjoy these things…but I have yet to really enjoy a glass of sweet tea that tastes like a 5 lb. bag of sugar.
Also, one more thing…learn to love playing cornhole. Seriously, it is a game…and cheap fun for the whole family!
You don't have to love country music. I don't like the modern, new-fangled stuff (and get off my lawn). You do have to love music and love how it serves the Story. You need to know the story of how this came to be Music City – it's a story over 150 years old and involves nuns and the patron saint of music. You have to allow a great pride well up in your soul for the way the South (Craig is right, it's always capitalized) circles around its own, loves and cares for the weak among her, and is willing to fight for her greater good. You also have to love that the South accepts all weary travelers as her own. We're like one giant table at your Grandmother's on Sunday- everyone is welcome and there is always room for one more. You don't have to love football, but you do have to love the tradition. You don't have to love biscuits, but you do need to know the holy place a pound cake has in the healing of your neighbor's soul. You have to know what a place of triumph, failure, and recovery this land is for the living.
You have to know how much better we are for the addition of another and how we sing for the love you bring. You have to believe in a higher power of your understanding and know that higher power has a place here too. But mostly, you have to want to belong here.
Um, has Kass been through etiquette school yet? She must learn how to sit properly, set a table correctly and write and appropriate and timely thank-you note. A MUST for any Southern girl.
I know it…makes me shake my head…
Oh dear Lord, I am so insecure is a transplanted northerner. I'm positive I'm doing things wrong all the time!