Growing up in the South has begun to come with a cloud of negativity surrounding it, and I believe that’s uncalled for. The South will show you injustices like nobody else but also show you love like you’ve never seen. The South is full of people who love their community, work hard, and simply want to sit on the front porch and drink a cold glass of tea.
My entire life has been spent around people who say things like, “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen!” or “I’m about as happy as a pig in mud!” Spending your formative years around such characters develops your character in turn, so I too value the cold glass of tea after a day’s work, akin to the way my grandparents did after their days in the tobacco fields.
My childhood memories are dotted with proof of the influence the South has had on me. We discovered my brother has a peanut allergy when we were playing in a peanut field. Summer was marked by a visit to Burton & Brooks Orchards to get homemade ice cream, alongside a bushel of peaches to be turned into peach cobbler later. That’s what summer in the South looked like for me.
That’s another aspect of growing up in the South that is slightly overlooked: The sense of community that is built even in a small neighborhood. These days, I see a lot of discourse about how that sense of community is gone, that nobody is neighborly anymore. But back then (2012), it was still there.
It’s known in the South to have that “southern hospitality” and “neighborliness,” of being kind and extending grace to those around you, of being a helping hand, knowing one will extend when you need it as well. That’s one result of growing up in the South: I have that trait instilled in me, much like everyone else.
I vividly remember spending an afternoon learning how to ride a bike without training wheels. It had recently poured, and I decided to fall into the ditch that was full of muddy rainwater. My parents made me get back on the bike after that and pedal the entire way home. This lesson, although now a decade old, still remains a lesson of determination, gritting your teeth and getting on the bike with wet socks on and pedaling the entire way home.
Southern people get viewed in a negative light because of the loud ignorant people that claim to be from here, but truly southern people understand the values outlined above: hard work, determination, grit, community, love, guidance, and respect. Each of these values is inherently southern. And looking at the history of the land, they are a common theme. Growing up in the South has shown these themes to me: Even though I did not work in the fields like my grandparents, I still have learned how to handle the heat in the kitchen.