Available at Pink Tulip of Daphne’s Etsy store
One of my most popular posts has been Butter My Butt and Call Me a Biscuit (and other Colorful Expressions), so I figure y’all will just eat this up. When I ran across the clip on YouTube, I was happier than a pig in slop (but also madder than a wet hen that I didn’t think of it first).
I’ve neglected, thus far, to post about one of my all-time favorite writers, Flannery O’Connor, but this prompts me to get around to it sooner than later. It’s an audio clip from a lecture she did at UL Lafayette she did in ’62 that was found in a filing cabinet last year. I’ve transcribed it for my Yankee readers, seeing as her accent is thick as Tupelo honey.
“A few young Southern writers feel about the South the way Joyce felt about Ireland, that it will devour them. They would like to set their stories in a region whose way of life seems nearer the spirit of what they think they have to say. Better, they would like to eliminate the region altogether. But you cannot proceed at all if you cut yourself off from the sights and sounds that have built up a life of their own in your senses and which carry a culture in them. The image of the South is so strong in us that it is a force which has to be encountered and engaged. It is when this is a true engagement that its meaning will lead outward to universal human interest.” Flannery O’Connor
Faulkner as “The Sound and the Fury”
by John Sokol
On my recent trip to MS, I noticed that the Pacific Northwest trend of putting birds on everything has migrated down South. This clip from Portlandia offers a hilarious take on it. Note to Etsy types, if you want me to buy something, put a WORD on it. (Also, I must confess that I am also partial to stuff adorned with images of birds.)
Earlier this week, I saw a presentation at Book Larder (a cookbook book store, y’all! Southern entrepreneurs, take note!) by two delightful young ladies who started up a candy business called Liddabit Sweets in Brooklyn. They just published a candy cookbook, which I cannot recommend highly enough for anybody who’s ever suffered from fudge failures and caramelization catastrophes. They demystify candymaking and include helpful troubleshooting photos. I’m still devouring the book and haven’t attempted a recipe yet, but I tasted their homemade marshmallows and was sold.
Caveat: Seeing as they’re east coasters, there are a few items missing from their candy repertoire–pralines, divinity, coconut balls, etc.–but don’t hold that against them. Also, they use way more walnuts than any Southerner would find socially acceptable, but it’s easy to substitute edible nuts.
Discussion question: When you buy Halloween candy, do you load up on the good stuff and hope for few trick-or-treaters or is that just me? What are your favorites? I usually go for Snickers, Almond Joy, and the occasional Kit Kat.
stuff southern people like 
I also listened to this recording of O’Connor a few days ago and have been thinking about it ever since. Not for what she said, but how it was said. Who has such a beautiful accent anymore? We’ve all been watered down!
Love your post as always!
Thanks, Hope! I love her accent too, but I have to admit I had to backtrack a few times when doing the translation. Me: “The way joy felt about eye? Huh? Oh! The way Joyce felt about Ireland!”
You kill me….you are always so bang on. I have a Christmas hand towel with a big cowboy boot on it and it says “Merry Christmas Y’all….and my blog site….www.vintageyall.wordpress.com
Yes, living in Yankee land, I am very proud of our little word ya’ll.
Next Cricut project is to make a vinyl sign that combines my husband’s Italian culture with my southern culture: Bon Appetito, Y’all!!
Thanks for the laughs, love you blog.
Kat
Thanks, Kat! Great idea for a project. And good luck to anyone coming to dinner at y’all’s house who wants to get a word in edgewise! When those two cultures collide, things are bound to get LOUD! 🙂
LOVE the drawings made with writers’ words! Living a long way from the South, I do like to dip into your blog to remind me of some things just not part of life anywhere else…For the record, I’m a Snickers girl.
Thanks, Anita! I love hearing from fellow Southern expats! Especially those with good taste in candy bars…
What I liked as a Southern kid. Purchase an ice cold Coke, and I mean a Coke. Take a big swig to make room in the bottle. Then, take a bag of “Tom’s Roasted Peanuts” and pour them into the Coke bottle. It’s easier when you make a “funnel” around the mouth of the bottle with your left hand. Back then, a bottle of Coke and a package of Tom’s Peanuts were a nickel each. Yep, I’m older than dirt. Enjoy!
Peanuts in Coke is on my list of things to write about one of these days. Thanks for reminding me! Haven’t done it since I was a kid (and Cokes were a quarter), but I remember it fondly.
Can’t buy Halloween candy without making sure we have snickers, whoppers, kit kat and milk duds. We would always have lots of filler candy in hopes that that the good stuff is left over. I would make a big pot of soup, my mom would join us and we’d set up a table in the driveway to enjoy our meal, hand out candy and visit with all the little ghost and goblins as they would come calling. This was our tradition…. Until one year… I had stepped inside the kitchen for a brief moment only to return and find my mom chasing something down the driveway. She had helped herself to some milk duds… Which had gotten stuck to the roof of her mouth. In an effort to release them, she had “released” her dentures which were, shall we say, trick-or-treating all by themselves. Being a true southern belle, that could have been one of her scariest Halloweens ever! Instead, we’ve celebrated every Halloween since by eating milk duds and laughing, even now when it’s in loving memory of mom.
Love that story, Tammy! I can just picture her now, chasing after the runaway teeth. I must say, I’ve never been partial to milk duds (figured there was a reason they called them “duds”). But I will enjoy a Snickers in memory of your mom (and mine).