Yankees?

Don D

Just spent what I had hoped would be a beautiful four day weekend at Lake Washington in Washington County, MS., fishing with my son. It rained hard and steady from the time we got there Friday till we pulled up stakes and headed in Sunday afternoon. We cancelled the cabin for Monday. Between pulling up a picnic table under our cabin door overhang to grill steaks and fishing for supper in a driving rain, we met a few couples from that damned dreaded place up north. A guy from Michigan this morning helped me and my son pull my sunk boat up onto the pier. The motor is ruined and all my stuff floated off, but this yankee helped us save the boat. Then there was another couple in an adjacent cabin from Ohio. She said she raises rabbits and today, as we were about to leave, she invited us to stay for fried rabbit supper. I wouldn't have a boat if it were not for a guy from Michigan and a woman from Ohio invites two Southerners for fried rabbit, biscuits and gravy. I'm at a loss for words. I must admit to being surprised and impressed with the generosity of these Yankees.

Whatever

If you lived up north, you wouldn't be surprised.
In any case, I thought this would be about the coming series between the NY Yankees and the Boston team.

rad

Is it some bad luck thing that you New Yorkers can't even type the words Red Sox x;-) ?

rad

First you share whiskey with a Democrat, then you break bread with Yankees. What's going on here? /:)

HRinNH

Don, so glad some fellow Northerners were able to not only lift your damp spirits but also your sunk boat.

Dasher

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 10-11-04 AT 08:54AM (CST)[/font][br][br]Sorry about the weather -- but your trip still sounds like quite an adventure!

When I did a Diversity Training in N.C. last year, it was amazing what was written on the "Yankee" and "Southerners" panels. When we debriefed, there were quite a few ashamed faces for the way we fall for the stereotypes and generalizations about others.

mcmel

I sent those people to find you, as a courtesy, on your birthday. You're welcome!

Happy Birthday!

Shadowfax

When it comes to differences 'tween us all, there may be a few, but huntin n fishin is 'bout the same everywhere. We may take different stuff different ways, but enjoyin the outdoors is what we have in common. In earlier days, my dear wife and I paddled many of your wonderful white water rivers. We would stop at a nearby gas station or country store and inquire if someone would not be willing to place our truck several miles away at our take out. Friends who knew what we were doing thougt we were crazy. What makes you think that cracker won't run off with your truck? Sometimes these trips took several days. Never, ever was the truck not right where it was expected to be. Sometimes the agreed on fee was safely tucked in the visor. Twice, there was a plastic pail filled with ice and refreshments - and I never once knew the name of even one guy to whom I entrusted my truck.

Parabeagle

"We would stop at a nearby gas station or country store and inquire if someone would not be willing to place our truck several miles away at our take out. Friends who knew what we were doing thougt we were crazy. What makes you think that cracker won't run off with your truck?"

Didn't run into Burt Reynolds or Ned Beatty on any of those trips, did ya? x;-)

System

Eeeeyouuuuu, Beag! I hate that movie.

Shadowfax

No, but we we've run the Chatooga several times. That movie did, however, raise a a few concerns among wife, mother in law, and a few others. Bad things can happen to us in our own home, and there are plenty of bad guys out there. There also plenty of good guys, like the Yanks Don ran into, and the several folks who spotted our truck for us, and like our colleagues who give fairly freely of their time and advice when asked on these parts hereabouts.

System

I find that people everywhere are more inclined to give help than they are to ask for it. There's a fear in asking for help from someone you don't know, for obvious reasons. But we all trust our own motives and would be willing, even eager to lend a hand. Years ago a study was conducted by "Psychology Today" that asked people what they would like to do and be remembered for. The number one answer was "save someone's life." Nobility and hospitality (I find) are not exclusive to a particular area. Heck, I met a hospitable person once in San Francisco.

rad

I am consistently hospitable to anyone I find wandering around my neighborhood with a map. If you've ever visited Boston you know how useless a map is. Yet Bostonians have a reputation of being rude. Go figure. I know I can't be the only one.

I met two lovely elderly (in their 70's?) couples from North Carolina several months ago on my walk home, they were looking for the Old North Church which is around the corner from my apartment. On the walk over, I pointed out several smaller landmarks, gave them tips on everything from where to eat to how to cross the street. By the time I left them, we were like old friends and if they are back in May, they are going to take me out for my graduation from grad school!

HRinNH

xclap xclap xclap
I do the same with "leef peepers" and other tourists up my way this time of year.

ray a

For several reasons I see the walls between various regions crumbling. With air travel, Amtrack and extensive highway systems it is so easy and quick to spend time in any part of the country. Our borders are shrinking. Even reality TV programs have influenced our perceptions of those from other regions. We see that people from the South, or North, or East, or West are not that much different from ourselves. Same desires, same emotions, same interests. The internet also has contributed to the homogenization of our society. As on this forum, we can interact with people all over the country with similar interests and discover we aren't that much different.

But that said, I feel a much closer kinship to someone from MS than from San Francisco.

Whatever

We may be a more homogenized society except in NY. I feel a much closer kinship to someone in San Fran than Ms.

Don D

the reason I might not feel kinship with a New Yorker is because I've never been there, with the exception of changing a flight once. And I have no working knowledge of the people there, except what I read and what I experience on the Forum.

I suspect Whatever, a noted and admitted liberal, has never been to the South, much less to Mississippi. And all I know about San Francisco is the tremendous amount of negative stuff I've seen, read and heard about it over the years.

Maybe all of that is bogus information. But we form our opinions based on the information we have available to us, don't we.

rad

New York is a wonderful city, you should visit.

Aside from vacations in Florida, I have never been down South. I did have a stop over in the Houston airport once and that was lots of fun. I found a bar, a group of guys in cowboy hats willing to buy my drinks and had a great ole time. :DD

Whatever

Don, you are right, I've never been to Mississippi. I do have relatives in Birmingham and have been there often. Growing up, I spent part of each summer either there or with relatives in Atlanta. One of my children was for a period of time in school in Huntsville. I, also, have relatives in Florida.

You should come visit both New York and Boston. We are great cities.

You shouldn't believe what you see and read. After all, think of the image of the uneducated southern cracker with the illicit still or the tobacco chewing, overweight town police chief.