Bobbi Coln (barjcoln@mars.utm.edu) from 192.239.146.10 at 10/26/01 04:09PM
comment
    In my opinion, there is no "typical southern family"; everything depends on individual circumstances. My family lives in a very small community called Acton. It is unincorporated and has only two businesses: Iron Action Gym and Shackleford's funeral home. Yes, there is a major highway running through it (Hwy. 22), but there are no red lights, no fast food restaurants- no restaurants at all as a matter of fact, not much of anything really except farmland, houses, and small country churches. Things are slow paced in Acton. For years I lived on a gravel road that didn't even had a name- we were just Box 78A. Progress has reached us with the new 911 system, and though the road is still gravel, it at least has a name: Will Coln Lane. Living in the south has a different meaning to me. For instance, I can drive down Will Coln Road and Will Coln Lane and tell you who lives in every house, and who's related to who (most of them are all somehow related to me). When someone's cows get out and come onto our property, my dad can look out the window and say, "Those are Richard's cows," or "Those are Doc Meek's cows; I'd better call him up." I know I'm in the south when I can look out in the backyard and see coyotes or deer and not be the least bit surprised by it. I know I'm in the south when we have Thanksgiving dinner at home, and then go over to Gerald and Joyce's house to see all of the other relatives and eat dinner a second time. We have potluck family reunions on a regular basis and everyone knows what everyone else is going to bring before they get there. I know I'm in the south when I can go into the drug store and people come up to me and say, "You're one of those Coln girls, aren't you? How's your daddy doing? Did he get over that sick spell he had?" Everybody knows everybody and their kids and their cousins. I know I'm in the south when I'm at home and I can tell who's driving up the road by the time of day or the sound of their car. I always knew when the bus was coming as a child because I could hear it rumbling down the road from at least a mile away, breaking the calm stillness of the country mornings. I don't know exactly what a southern family is, but I know what it means to be from the south, and I wouldn't have traded it for all the freeways and traffic jams and high rises in the world.