In my South

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> Robert St. John, executive chef and owner of the Purple Parrot Cafe,
> Crescent City Grill and Mahogany Bar of Hattiesburg, MS wrote this.
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> Thirty years ago I visited my first cousin in Virginia. While hanging
> out with his friend, the discussion turned to popular movies of the day.
> When I offered my two-cents on the authenticity and social relevance of
> the movie Billy Jack, one of the boys asked, in all seriousness, ....
> "Do you guys have movie theaters down there?"
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> To which I replied, "Yep, ... and we wear shoes too."
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> Just three years ago, my wife and I were attending a food and wine
> seminar in Aspen, Colo. We were seated with two couples from Las Vegas.
> One of the Glitter Gulch gals was amused, and downright rude, when I
> described our restaurant as a fine-dining restaurant.
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> "Mississippi doesn't have fine-dining restaurants!" she demanded, and
> nudged her companion.
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> I fought back the strong desire to mention that she lived in the land
> that invented the 99-cent breakfast buffet.
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> I wanted so badly to defend my state, and my restaurant, with a
> 15-minute soliloquy and public relations rant that would surely change
> her mind.
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> It was at that precise moment, that I was hit with a blinding jolt of
> enlightenment, and in a moment of complete and absolute clarity it
> dawned on me, .... my South is the best-kept secret in the country. Why
> would I try to win this woman over? She might move down here.
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> I am always amused by Hollywood's interpretation of the South. We are
> still, on occasion, depicted as a collective group of sweaty, stupid,
> backwards-minded and racist rednecks. The south of movies and TV, the
> Hollywood south, is not my south.
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> This Is My South
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> My south is full of honest, hardworking people. My south is the
> birthplace of blues and jazz, and rock n' roll. It has banjo pickers
> and fiddle players, but it also has B.B. King, Muddy Waters, the Allman
> Brothers, Emmylou Harris and Elvis.
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> My South is hot. My South smells of newly mowed grass.
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> My South was creek swimming, cane-pole fishing and bird hunting.
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> In my South, ... football is king.
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> My South is home to the most beautiful women on the planet.
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> In my South, soul food and country cooking are the same thing.
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> My South is full of fig preserves, cornbread, butter beans, fried
> chicken, grits and catfish. In my South we don't eat fois gras, caviar
> and truffles.
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> In my South, grandmothers cook a big lunch every Sunday.
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> In my South, family matters, deeply.
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> My South is boiled shrimp, blackberry cobbler, homemade peach ice cream,
> banana pudding and coconut cream pies.
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> In my South people put peanuts in bottles of Coke, and hot sauce on
> almost everything.
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> In my South the tea is iced, and almost as sweet as the women.
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> My South has air-conditioning.
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> My South is camellias, azaleas, wisteria and hydrangeas.
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> In my South, the only person that has to sit on the back of the bus is
> the last person that got on the bus.
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> In my South, people still say, "yes, ma'am," "no ma'am," "please" and
> "thank you."
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> In my South, we all wear shoes.... most of the time.
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> My South is the best-kept secret in the country.
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> Please continue to keep the secret, ....
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> It keeps the idiots away !!!!!!
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