Bill Ahlschwede (billahls@utm.edu) from 206.240.201.26 at 10/23/01 11:09AM
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    On Sunday, I read in the Commercial Appeal that Penny Hardaway missed the Phoenix Suns’ game because he was in Memphis with his ailing Grandmother. That seemed to me a strong commitment to family to miss a ball game for which he was paid thousands of dollars to play. It also seemed a notion of family ties, which I, a Nebraskan, was not accustomed to. This tie has become part of what I understand as Southern Family. I remember during my second semester at UTM asking a student why he had not been in class the previous week. He explained that his friend’s grandmother was ill and his friend had gone to see her. “I went with my friend,” the student added. Every semester, it seems, students in my class have missed class to visit ill grandparents. Like Penny, they have taken a day off to visit an ailing family member. In my none-southern experience, one missed work or class to attend the funeral of a grandparent, but not to visit an ailing grandparent. Visits were arranged on weekends, or during times when class and work were not involved. The notion of family ties was not as strong or as far-reaching as they are in West Tennessee.