Cornbread and Tornadoes

You live in the South because of the magnolias and camellias. You are blessed to experience honeysuckle and long winding porches. Banana pudding and hand- clapping, foot-stomping gospel music are part of this region. You look for lightning bugs in the summer and consume chicken and dumplings in the colder months.

Ralph McGill, Harper Lee, Margaret Mitchell, Joel Chandler Harris, Mark Twain , William Faulkner and Pat Conroy have written about the hallowed land known as the South. Robert Penn Warren, Erskine Caldwell, Fannie Flagg, Carson McCullers, Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, Lewis Grizzard, Celestine Sibley, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote,  Ferrol Sams and Clyde Edgerton have attempted to capture that Southern essence on paper. It is magical. You must experience it. It cannot be taught. It can only be loved.

Why would anyone live anywhere else ? This is a sacred place.

When you are away, you long for your home. The cotton fields. The tobacco barns. The peanut fields. The smell of the dirt. The farms. The plantations. The antebellum homes.  Sweet potatoes. Fried okra. Black-eyed peas. Egg custard pie. Waving at neighbors. Waving at strangers. Yes ma'am. No sir. Big hearty laughs. Long tight embraces.

Getting behind a tractor or combine on a dusty country road. No way to pass. Forced to slow down. This is the South. Bless your heart. Supper. Coca- Cola. Sweet tea. These are signs of a blessed life. Fried chicken. Pecan trees. Azaleas. Fishing. Going barefoot.

The challenges of living in the South include incredible humidity, gnats and too many greens. Collard greens. Turnip greens. Mustard greens. Then there is kudzu. Our history during the civil rights movement is impossible to shake. It clings to us like the kudzu vine. It should. It happened. It was horrible. The ghosts are here. The lynchings. The KKK. Some folks associate only the past with us.

We have so much more. President James Earl ( Jimmy) Carter, the 39 th President of the United States of America. In 2002 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Baptist minister and leader of the Civil Rights Movement. Rosa Parks. Medgar Evers. Barbara Jordan. Ann Richards. Now we have the Carter Center. The King Center.

Memories of Hank Aaron hitting his 715 th home run and breaking Babe Ruth's record in 1974. The Atlanta Braves winning the World Series in 1914, 1957 and 1995.  The University of Georgia Football Team winning the National Championship in 1942 and 1980. The Atlanta Falcons headed to the Super Bowl for the second time. Bobby Jones and The Masters Golf Tournament. Amen Corner. Pimento cheese sandwiches. Pistol Pete Maravich and the Atlanta Hawks.

Jackie Robinson. The 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant. Ty Cobb. Bubba Watson. Chicken salad. Covered dishes. Pot luck dinners. Preachers. Catfish. Elvis Presley. Tent revivals. Peach cobbler. Pecan pies. River baptisms. Johnny Cash. Dolly Parton. The Allman Bros. Southern rock. Woody Guthrie. Joanne Woodward. Barbecue. Deviled eggs. Fried green tomatoes. Grits. Julia Roberts. Octavia Spencer. Morgan Freeman. Johnny Depp. Ellen DeGeneres. A summer rain after a hot day. Moss hanging off the tree branches.

Picnics. Cookouts. SEC football. Tailgating. Church choirs. Home-churned ice cream. Porch fans. Funeral fans. All reasons we love the place we call home. Home-made preserves. Jellies. Jams. Pickles. Backyard gardens. Touch football. Storytellers. Back roads. Respecting your elders. Tomato sandwiches on white bread with mayo.

Stereotypes about the South remain. There are the inevitable often inaccurate imitations of accents. Bless their hearts. They may not appreciate our majestic pine trees or hot buttered flaky biscuits. They are part of our home. Blackberry picking. Boiled peanuts. Ray Charles. Johnny Mercer. They are part of who we are.

We made choices. We prefer y'all to you guys. No blizzards. We will endure the mosquitoes. Stuffing for you. Dressing for us. Snowmobiles for you. Jet skis for us. Soda for you. Coke for us.

The South is an exquisite place to live. The people are warm. Friendly. And in times of crisis, they show up. They bring a casserole or a baked ham. They bring hugs. The South means cast iron pans and cornbread. And when the weather turns on us, it means tornadoes. Southerners showed up with tarps,chainsaws,food and warm embraces. We raced to check on neighbors and strangers alike. We have survived Sherman's March. We have survived heartbreak. And we will survive these twisters.

This is home. Cornbread, tornadoes and all.