The black sheep of the nation

All families have a "black sheep." In America, the whole south is the "black sheep." The south & I have a love/hate relationship. I love the south because of so many things. A lot of the things I love the south for are wonderful, but were born out of hatred. You may disagree and say "how can something wonderful come out of hatred?" Let me tell you. God takes things that were meant for bad and turn them into something good. Black people were wanted here but not welcomed. We were the first minorities in America to take lemons & make lemonade. Now you might say "hey what about Native Americans"? Well the poor Native Americans were all but wiped out. They have very little influence on the south. Black folk gave this whole country culture. If it wasn't for us America would be England without the royal family, but that's another topic altogether. I love the south because you are free to be as eccentric as you want. In fact, I know entire families that are nuckin' futs and if a person meets one of them for the first time and says something about their personality or demeanor,etc., to someone else that knows them, the explanation is "he's a Smith", & the other person says "ohhhh now I get it." I love that if we're talking negatively about somebody, we can end the sentence w/ "poor thing" and whatever was said is instantly okay. I love that nobody else in America or the entire world cooks the way we cook. Brian's cousins grew up in Connecticut and all 3 of them chose to go to colleges in the south, none of them had ever heard of biscuits & gravy or chicken fried steak. No other area in America had thought to take some steak, batter it and drop it in some grease. I bet if you go to Wisconsin and ask them what chitlins (chitterlings) are, they would have no clue. That's a black southern thing though. I don't like them myself, but that's one of those things that black folks made "lemonade" out of. I love that I can pull up in front of my daughter's school & if she doesn't see me, I can let the window down, holla her name and the teacher will see me and wave. I love that we don't lock or "sanity challenged" relatives up in a home. That crazy uncle of yours stays in the back of your mama or your auntie's house. I love that even white folks still whoop their kids here. We do have those that don't believe in it, but we have a lot more who do. I especially love that you can legally own a lion or tiger in Texas. Now I wouldn't do it, but if I wanted to I could. I just know that you wouldn't be able to do that in Rhode Island. I love that grown men here are still a little afraid of their mothers. Finally, I love that in the south we're nice & spread out. We don't have to live on top of each other like in New York. Now non southerners think that we're bass ackward and strange & we probably are, but if we're so strange, why do so many people from other regions retire to the south?