It may come as a surprise to Northerners that there is more to the South than fried chicken and waffles. Every Yankee needs to know these 10 things in order to fully appreciate the South.
1. Southern Hospitality is very real.
Everything in the South is “Yes sir," “Yes ma’am” and doors being opened for you left and right. People in the South are innately kind and welcoming. They go out of their way to put others before themselves. This may come across as superficial through a Yankee's perspective, but it's a genuine way Southerners show respect to earlier generations.
2. They bleed sweet tea
I’m pretty sure sweet tea is placed at a higher value in the South than water. I think they hook up an IV of sweet tea in the maternity ward when you are born, south of the Mason Dixon. People drink it by the gallon a day. If you don’t like sweet tea, you better ask or you will have the closest experience to drinking maple syrup than any other time in your life.
3. Big t-shirts are the wardrobe
4. College Football is life!
College football is the center of every conversation for 12 months of the year, from Bucky's truck stops to college lecture halls. A three-hour SEC football game stretches out into four days of the week, from pep rallies and tailgates to post game road trips home. Football in the South is a religion that can divide families and determine who can marry into the family. After college, everyone is branded by their college color and fight song.
5. Everything’s monogrammed. Everything.
You can be sitting across from a girl at a coffee shop and look up and see that her baseball hat, vest, computer, phone case, YETI cup and necklace are all monogrammed. You won't believe it until one day you see it with your own eyes. You yourself will begin to accumulate personalized monogrammed items, until one day you're the girl that they're sitting across from in the coffee shop.
6. HEB and Whataburger are around every corner
HEB is the mother load of all Supermarkets. It surpasses Kroger and Trader Joe's by a landslide. Whataburger is a restaurant that only tastes good at three in the morning. You'll order a honey chicken biscuit, fries and a chocolate shake and devour it in record time! However, you'll wake up the next morning with a stomach ache regretting last night's decisions.7. Everyone owns a truck
And if they don’t own a truck, then they’ve easily rode in the back of one at some point in their life. You can pull up to a light and look over and see five guys sitting in the back of a pickup waving at you. A pickup truck is the perfect solution in getting a large group of people from point A to point B in the South. However, if you find yourself in the back of a pickup truck, do not Instagram this moment, because your Yankee mother who follows you on Instagram, won't be too thrilled with what she's seeing.
8. They’ve learned to two-step before learning to walk.
So what do you do on the weekends when it's not football season? Go to a dance hall. Here you will learn that twerking isn’t considered dancing in the South. They actually dance. If a guy asks you to dance, always say yes. They will teach you how to line dance, two step and swing dance. You’ll eventually stop stepping on everyone’s toes and spend the night going around in circles listening to Pat Green's songs play in the background.
9. Mums are not what British people call their Moms.
For prom in the South they do not give each other corsages and boutonnieres, instead they give each other Mums. Each year of high school, they progressively seem to get bigger and bigger. A picture is the only way to perfectly describe a mum to a Yankee.
10. Y’all is all they say
This three-letter word makes up 95 percent of their vocabulary. You’re about to stick out like a sore thumb if you address two or more people as you all. Not to mention it just takes longer to say. Don’t worry it’ll grow on y’all super fast and before y’all know it, y’all will fit right in.
