Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > Roleplaying in General

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 08-01-2010, 12:50 PM   #31
Inquisitive Raven
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Default Re: A-way down South in Dixie

Quote:
Originally Posted by Furabo View Post

* Family traditions often include passing down names that, on the face of them, are ridiculous. However, we bear them proudly. A few names to get you started: "Daisy Dee, 'Aunt Sis', Alma, Beck (as a first name)..."
I've read that one naming custom involves one kid (probably a second son) being given the mother's maiden name as a first name. Not actually being from the region, I can't swear to this one.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Furabo View Post

* Some sayings/quips:
"God-willing and the river don't rise...!"
I always heard this one as "God willing and the creek (pronounced 'crick') don't rise," but that may be an Ozark variation. I grew up in Missouri which is sort of a transitional state, specifically in St. Louis which is decidedly not a Southern feeling town.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
Metaphors are more common in speech. ("running around like a chicken with its head cut off"; "so stubborn they'd argue with a fence post")
[grammar nitpick]The phrase "like a chicken with its head cut off" is a simile. You can tell because the comparison is made explicit; with a metaphor, it's implied. Also, I'd call "so stubborn they'd argue with a fence post" an exaggeration rather than a metaphor. Figurative speech, perhaps would be a better term. [/grammar nitpick]
Inquisitive Raven is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-01-2010, 02:26 PM   #32
moldymaltquaffer
 
moldymaltquaffer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Idaho
Default Re: A-way down South in Dixie

I'm kind of surprised that the "sharp cheddar cheese on apple pie" hasn't come up.
moldymaltquaffer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-02-2010, 01:12 PM   #33
Furabo
 
Furabo's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Pennsylvania
Default Re: A-way down South in Dixie

Quote:
Originally Posted by Inquisitive Raven View Post
I always heard this one as "God willing and the creek (pronounced 'crick') don't rise," but that may be an Ozark variation. I grew up in Missouri which is sort of a transitional state, specifically in St. Louis which is decidedly not a Southern feeling town.
My hometown was on the river--thus we may have changed it up! We always pronounced "creek" more or less like "creak." Here in PA I get looks.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Inquisitive Raven View Post
[grammar nitpick]The phrase "like a chicken with its head cut off" is a simile. You can tell because the comparison is made explicit; with a metaphor, it's implied. Also, I'd call "so stubborn they'd argue with a fence post" an exaggeration rather than a metaphor. Figurative speech, perhaps would be a better term. [/grammar nitpick]
Quite right! Quite right!
Furabo is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-02-2010, 08:52 PM   #34
RyanW
 
RyanW's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Southeast NC
Default Re: A-way down South in Dixie

Just to demonstrate that there isn't just one "South", here are some samples of Lumbee dialect (I used to live in that area):
  • You orta notta done that.
  • I think there's another co-cola in the kelvinator. ("refrigerator")
  • Get frocked up, company's comin'. ("dressed up")
  • That house is got all kinds of haints and boogers. It makes me feel right jubous. ("That house is haunted. It makes my feel eerie.")
  • It's right airish tonight. I'm got an extra kiver on my bed. ("It's cool tonight. I've got an extra blanket on my bed." I'm is not a typo.)
  • I pure arnt pleased to see you. ("I'm pleased to see you.")
  • She is purty ("She is unattractive")
  • I ain't seen you since the shake ("in a very long time," referring to the earthquake of 1886)
__________________
RyanW
- Actually one normal sized guy in three tiny trenchcoats.
RyanW is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-03-2010, 01:51 PM   #35
aesir23
 
aesir23's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Vermont
Default Re: A-way down South in Dixie

Quote:
Originally Posted by moldymaltquaffer View Post
I'm kind of surprised that the "sharp cheddar cheese on apple pie" hasn't come up.
Well I was shocked to discover they do that here in Vermont, but I've never heard of it being a southern thing, I thought it was a New England thing.

(I'm from Wisconsin, originally, where we keep our apples away from our cheeses, for the most part.)
aesir23 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-03-2010, 02:54 PM   #36
Adina
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Louisville, Ky
Default Re: A-way down South in Dixie

Don't forget that the big patriotic outdoor holiday, with parades and concerts and so on, is Memorial Day. July 4th is just a day off from work.

Jeff
Adina is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-03-2010, 05:47 PM   #37
Fred Brackin
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Default Re: A-way down South in Dixie

Quote:
Originally Posted by aesir23 View Post
Well I was shocked to discover they do that here in Vermont, but I've never heard of it being a southern thing, I thought it was a New England thing.

(I'm from Wisconsin, originally, where we keep our apples away from our cheeses, for the most part.)
Actually, apples are not a big Southern fruit. They don't grow in large areas of the region. You have to get up into the mountains before you see them.

I happen to prefer apple pie to peach cobbler but my grandmother had only a recipe for latter and not the former.

Come to think of it she didn't do a lot with cheese either, It probably wasn't very attractive in the days before widespread refrigeration.

Also in traditional regional cuisine it was cornbread and dumplings rather than wheat bread and pasta. The "hard" wheat varieties that make good bread flour burn up in the Southern summer heat. It was all "soft" wheat varieties grown in the winter.
__________________
Fred Brackin
Fred Brackin is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 08-03-2010, 06:42 PM   #38
Sydney
 
Sydney's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Janesville, WI
Default Re: A-way down South in Dixie

Quote:
Originally Posted by aesir23 View Post
Well I was shocked to discover they do that here in Vermont, but I've never heard of it being a southern thing, I thought it was a New England thing.

(I'm from Wisconsin, originally, where we keep our apples away from our cheeses, for the most part.)
Hmmm, what part of Wisconsin? Just wondering as it is something that I've come across in Wisconsin here and there, mostly old farm wives who still cook with lard.
__________________
My Gaming Blog
Sydney is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-03-2010, 07:17 PM   #39
Cargoman
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Default Re: A-way down South in Dixie

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
Actually, apples are not a big Southern fruit.
I just loved My granny's apple sonker . It's sort of a cobbler bread pudding friut thing . Thet have a festival for it in Surry county N.C., " Sonker Festival at the Edwards-Franklin House (annual) Edwards-Franklin House . ".
Cargoman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-03-2010, 07:31 PM   #40
tshiggins
 
tshiggins's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Denver, Colorado
Default Re: A-way down South in Dixie

Quote:
Originally Posted by RyanW View Post
Some more things to think about in the cuisine category:

Cooter stew
There is no food that doesn't go with cornbread
Pimento (or minner) cheese
If someone dies, their family will not need to cook again for two weeks
Collards and black eyed peas will be eaten on January 1
Food:

Possum is edible, but just barely. As my papaw used to say, "It's kinee slick."

Your grandfather is your "papaw" and your grandmother is your "mamaw." Your aunt is always your "aint" and never your "Ahnt."

In southeastern Kentucky, if you put sugar in your cornbread, there's somethin' wrong with you. Bits of crumbled bacon on the other hand, is dam' fine eatin'.

Pinto beans are made into a soup with a thick broth, usually with plenty of salt, pepper, rosemary and bacon (more salt) or hamhocks (ditto). The beans are never mashed and made into refried beans. They're eaten in a bowl with a big chunk of cornbread crumbled up in 'em. That's why they're called "soup-beans."

For dessert, crumble up a slab of cornbread in a glass of milk. Please note, cornbread frequently comes in "slabs," though "slices" are acceptable. Pie, on the other hand, comes in "slices" and "pieces," as does cake, but neither of those ever comes in "slabs" except as a joke or a compliment to the cook ("I'll take a big ol' slab o' that cake." "Oo, you musta liked it, theyun! Hyerr y'go! Y'wont some ahs-cream with thayut?")

Old ladies like squash. Everybody else puts up with it, 'cause they know it's good for you, especially alongside cornbread and green beans and ham. There's plenty of it, because the old ladies still plant this way:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_S...agriculture%29

Another word about Appalachian agriculture. A lot of the families their have seed strains, especially for green beans, sweet corn and squash, that has existed for generations. The seeds get divided up amongst the younger family members who stay in the area (which is a surprisingly large number of them, given the widespread poverty), so they can plant 'em and do some "cannin'" (see below). The quality of these family strains is almost universally superb in taste, but usually yield less than commercial varieties.

Mason jars get used for "cannin'" all kinds of things. "Cannin'" occupies a lot of time, starting in about July, and it continues until October. A basement full of "cannin'" is evidence of a hard-workin', well-prepared family, and those who can do it well and consistently are highly respected -- especially since they have to spend long hours in a brutally hot kitchen.

You eat tender young leaves of poke salad, after boiling them at least three times. Avoid any leaves with red in 'em, and do not eat the berries:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytolacca_americana

Blackberries grow wild, and huge thickets of them start in creek-bottoms on cleared property. A possible summertime occupation for kids growin' up in the rural southeast is to take a one-gallon plastic milk jug, and cut out a triangular section (the spout and a section of the front) big enough to easily admit a hand. Take six of those down to the blackberry bushes, work your way into 'em, and fill the jugs.

On a late summer afternoon, boys and girls aged 12-15 can be seen walking along the side of the road, two to three jugs in each hand. They'll sell you a blackberry jug for ten bucks or so, but will negotiate. An enterprising youngster can make several hundred dollars in a summer, and keep his or her neighbors well supplied. Blackberries get used for cobbler or for "cannin'" as jelly.

Local hazards:

Copperheads:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agkistrodon_contortrix

Cottonmouths are worse:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agkistrodon_piscivorus

Snappin' turtles is good eatin', but they'll take finger or toe, if you ain't careful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Snapping_Turtle

Poison Oak is everywhere (as is poison ivy, but everybody knows about that one):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxicodendron_pubescens
__________________
--
MXLP:9 [JD=1, DK=1, DM-M=1, M(FAW)=1, SS=2, Nym=1 (nose coffee), sj=1 (nose cocoa), Maz=1]
"Some days, I just don't know what to think." -Daryl Dixon.

Last edited by tshiggins; 08-03-2010 at 08:02 PM.
tshiggins is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 07:27 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.