Just a Pinch of South

New York has always had its restaurants. The South has always...

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:35:35 -0400

New York has always had its restaurants. The South has always had entertaining at home. It is simply what one did.

My paternal grandmother kept a record of what she served when she entertained. I find it fascinating. This isn’t “good old Southern cooking.” The dishes are aspirational, of-the-moment (gelatin was big mid-20th century), and practical. Most of the food was able to be prepared ahead so that the hostess was able to entertain her guests without disappearing into the kitchen. This was the era before “open kitchens” and “casual entertaining.” She wasn’t having a few friends to lunch. This was a luncheon.

I can only imagine how hot it would have been in our family’s house in Atlanta in August. At lunchtime. Without air-conditioning. This kind of entertaining is not for the faint of heart.

In case you can’t read her writing, here’s the menu:

Molded vegetable salad (individual on each plate)
Chicken Loaf with Irish potatoes around it (passed)
Creamed asparagus with cheese (passed)
Hot rolls
Iced tea
Ice cream served in merangue [sic] shells

I spent this past weekend with college friends in North...

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:28:07 -0400

I spent this past weekend with college friends in North Carolina. I used this as a perfect excuse to stop for barbecue along the way. I chose a slight detour to an Albermarle, NC institution called Whispering Pines just a few miles from my intended route.

Like all BBQ joints, it’s not much to look at. I sat inside at the counter, and it wasn’t but a few minutes till this gentleman and I struck up a conversation. Turns out he’s a farmer with 400 acres of land. I noticed he is missing a finger on his left hand which I am guessing this came from some sort of bailing accident years ago. He told me he’d bailed 4 acres of hay that day. Is that a lot? A little? I told him I was a city girl who didn’t know much about farming. I allowed that I was from Atlanta, but I live in New York City.

That’s when some of the other restaurant patrons jumped in. We all got to talking so that I had trouble taking my leave after I had consumed my pulled pork, hush puppies, and Cheerwine. From traffic to crime to the Statue of Liberty, we covered a lot of ground. Of course the farmer did ask me, “What possessed you to leave North Carolina,” (because I had gone to Duke), “and move up there? What’s so great about New York City?”

Well, if you have to ask, then my answer probably isn’t going to ever satisfy you.

Of course, as great as New York is, I must admit you don’t ever encounter nine-fingered hay farmers in the big city. Nor can you find Cheerwine. Or such friendly company. I give Whispering Pines high marks in all departments.

But like the farmer said to me about New York, I’ll say about Albermarle. A nice place to visit, but I’m can’t imagine living there.

I’m heading to the lake in North Carolina this weekend to...

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:27:37 -0400

I’m heading to the lake in North Carolina this weekend to hang out with college friends. Can’t wait!

Jason Harrod is a musician friend of mine who lives here in New...

Mon, 13 May 2013 19:31:05 -0400

Jason Harrod is a musician friend of mine who lives here in New York City. He grew up in Durham, North Carolina and he writes and sings folk/acoustic music.

This is a Woody Guthrie cover with a whole new melody.

Here is his bandcamp page if you like what you hear.

Remembering my mom today. She was pretty great. I might be...

Sun, 12 May 2013 17:00:57 -0400

Remembering my mom today.

She was pretty great. I might be biased and everything, but lots of people who knew her tell me they think so, too.

35 Easy Ways To Identify A Southern Woman

Sat, 11 May 2013 12:17:35 -0400

35 Easy Ways To Identify A Southern Woman:

Looks like @Buzzfeed has been reading Just A Pinch of South. Thanks y’all!

On May 8th, 1886, the first Coca-Cola fountain drink was sold at...

Fri, 10 May 2013 15:01:22 -0400

On May 8th, 1886, the first Coca-Cola fountain drink was sold at Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia. (from the Atlanta History Center)

My first thought on reading about this was to wonder what kind of ice it was served with. I hope it was crushed ice. I really do.

In New York it is in style to serve cocktails and liquors with big ice cubes. That’s wonderful because it doesn’t water down your bourbon.

But it’s a totally different thing with Coke, in my opinion. Crush the ice. It should almost be soft it is so finely crushed. Practically snow for there is intense pleasure in chewing Coca-Cola flavored crushed ice.

For the record anyone from Atlanta can detect the presence of an “off-mix” of a fountain Coke within half a sip. It is not acceptable, and we might be bold enough to tell the restaurant’s proprietor of this sensory offense. But keep in mind, we’ve had a head start. We’ve been drinking fountain Cokes since 1886.

Next weekend I’m getting together with college friends for...

Thu, 09 May 2013 12:37:26 -0400

Next weekend I’m getting together with college friends for our annual weekend at Lake Badin in North Carolina. I just found out today that one of my dearest friends, who lives in Apex, NC might not come because of her “chicken eggs/baby chick situation” which makes me laugh. But it would bum me out if she can’t make it on account of poultry.

It makes me laugh because she and her husband are from Baltimore and did NOT grow up with livestock. This is a total hipster acquisition. I didn’t, either, but I did “chicken sit” for some neighbors down the street when they would go out of town. So I can judge, right?

Maybe not, but that’s where we are these days. We’re eating turnips and get all giddy over ramps and insist on organic quinoa. If you told my hot dog and twinkie eating eight year old self about this, she would scoff and then say something like, “gag me with a spoon.” (That was mostly because it was the 80’s)

Apex, NC, for the record used to be the reddest of redneck towns. They been raisin’ yard birds in Apex for many a year. But now it’s the ex-burbs of the Research Triangle Park. In other words, chock full of first generation chicken raising Yankees who might or might not be in over their heads.

Maybe she’ll bring her chickens to the lake on a leash or something. Or does anyone know the name of a good chick-sitter? He/she will need references.

Can you be fiercely loyal to where you were raised, and also...

Sat, 04 May 2013 23:10:45 -0400

Can you be fiercely loyal to where you were raised, and also love this?

Is that a contradiction?

I don’t think it is. Not for me, anyway.

I’m gonna be real honest, y’all. It’s been a...

Fri, 03 May 2013 14:45:24 -0400

I’m gonna be real honest, y’all. It’s been a rough work day. Lots of time spent on the phone with multiple banks and insurance companies. There was a even a webinar.

I think I’ve earned some of the above, and it ain’t even 3 o’clock yet.

wonderfulpalmettolife: Mint Julep at the...

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 09:54:03 -0400

wonderfulpalmettolife:

Mint Julep at the Greenbrier

Wonderful. But why the straw?

If you gaze at this picture and veg out while listening to...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:30:24 -0400

If you gaze at this picture and veg out while listening to R.E.M.’s album Life’s Rich Pageant (go now and turn it on), you’ll pretty much feel exactly like I did every afternoon of 8th grade.

(Oh, and don’t try and figure out what Michael Stipe is singing about that will only distract you, but instead, give the lyrics your own personal meaning, trust me on this.)

RIP George Jones. He was country, and pretty bad assy. This is a...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 11:00:04 -0400

RIP George Jones. He was country, and pretty bad assy.

This is a medley of duets with Tammy Wynette live.

Meet Roscoe + Helen \\ Story Portraits

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:17:00 -0400

Meet Roscoe + Helen \\ Story Portraits:

Read about Roscoe and Helen on my friend Lydia’s blog. Roscoe met Helen when they were living at the Barium Springs Orphanage in North Carolina in the 1930’s. They’ve been married for 63 years.

Oh to be a kid again, and get to do this. My only real run-in...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:45:17 -0400

Oh to be a kid again, and get to do this.

My only real run-in with “the Law” was for standing up in the back of a pickup truck driving down Highway 41 when I was 14 years old.

But Creedence Clearwater Revival was playing. Who could blame me?

For no particular reason, I’d like to give it up for North...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:01:11 -0400

For no particular reason, I’d like to give it up for North Carolina today.

I’d be happy to be eating some Eastern NC barbecue right now if I could.

I’m not a North Carolinian, technically, but my people go way back in The Old North State.

To be, rather than to seem.

Novelist Eudora Welty's Cover Letter for the New Yorker

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:30:30 -0400

Gentlemen,

I suppose you’d be more interested in even a sleight-o’-hand trick than you’d be in an application for a position with your magazine, but as usual you can’t have the thing you want most.

I am 23 years old, six weeks on the loose in N.Y. However, I was a New Yorker for a whole year in 1930-31 while attending advertising classes in Columbia’s School of Business. Actually I am a southerner, from Mississippi, the nation’s most backward state. Ramifications include Walter H. Page, who, unluckily for me, is no longer connected with Doubleday-Page, which is no longer Doubleday-Page, even. I have a B.A. (’29) from the University of Wisconsin, where I majored in English without a care in the world. For the last eighteen months I was languishing in my own office in a radio station in Jackson, Miss., writing continuities, dramas, mule feed advertisements, Santa Claus talks, and life insurance playlets; now I have given that up.

As to what I might do for you — I have seen an untoward amount of picture galleries and 15 cent movies lately, and could review them with my old prosperous detachment, I think; in fact, I recently coined a general word for Matisse’s pictures after seeing his latest at the Marie Harriman: concubineapple. That shows you how my mind works–quick, and away from the point. I read simple voraciously, and can drum up an opinion afterwards.

Since I have bought an India print, and a large number of phonograph records from a Mr. Nussbaum who picks them up, and a Cezanne Bathers one inch long (that shows you I read e.e. cummings, I hope), I am anxious to have an apartment, not to mention a small portable phonograph. How I would like to work for you! A little paragraph each morning–a little paragraph each night, if you can’t hire me from daylight to dark, although I would work like a slave. I can also draw like Mr. Thurber, in case he goes off the deep end. I have studied flower painting.

There is no telling where I may apply, if you turn me down; I realize this will not phase you, but consider my other alternative: the U. o N.C. offers for $12.00 to let me dance in Vachel Lindsay’s “Congo.” I congo on. I rest my case, repeating that I am a hard worker.

Truly yours,

Eudora Welty

Continuing with my occasional series of interviews with people...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:30:29 -0400

Continuing with my occasional series of interviews with people who embody the concept of “just a pinch of South” I had the opportunity to interview Micah Whitson from The Old Try a few weeks ago. He and his wife Marianna are Southern expats living in Boston, Massachusetts. Micah was raised in Alabama, but has also made his home in Mississippi, Georgia, and North Carolina before moving to Boston in 2007. That’s what I call Southern ecumenical.

Micah and Marianna have day jobs, but you may know them from their unique Southern inflected letterpress posters. I first fell in love with their work when I saw (and immediately purchased) their manners print. It turns out that one is Micah’s favorite, too.

Micah and I talked books, faith, and barbecue (As Micah says, “Alabama barbecue is my jam.”), but there’s just too much to include it all. Here are some highlights.

JaPoS: What do you miss about living in the South?

MW: I certainly miss the food of the South, but I think the main thing I miss is that even if it’s really, really busy back home, there’s always this feeling of the possibility of fellowshipping around the corner. You know you could just roll into someone’s house, or call up a friend, and could actually do things with them. Boston is such a scheduled and regimented place. Our best friends here we see three times a year, maybe. If we don’t work with people then it’s really hard to get time to see them. There’s just that feeling of harried-ness here. When we go back home I can call up friends in Alabama and I can say, “Hey, do you want to get a beer tonight?” and they are like, “Sure I’m not doing anything.” Here I feel like it is tough to do those things and be neighborly because you try to do it, and nobody’s got the time for it.

JaPoS: How do you think living in New England has shaped or changed you?

MW: I think the biggest thing comes from living with people who have different kinds of backgrounds. I can be a pretty judgmental person and think, “This is right and that thing is wrong,” and there isn’t any grey area. But living in New England has really allowed us to realize both as Christians and as human beings on the earth that there is a place to speak truth, and there is a call to do that with love, but at the same time, it isn’t really my place to judge. I can try to live an example, but I don’t think it is really my job to force that example onto everyone else. Living here has made us a lot more accepting. Not necessarily that we have just thrown the baby out with the bathwater, but a lot of our lives are lived in that grey area. It’s a helpful thing to have to grow and think about that and wrestle with those ideas while not being surrounded with the “group think” that says, “This is just what we do, and if you don’t do it you can just move to a different state.” Instead, by living [in Boston] we’ve really had to confront those things and live with people who believe different things. Because we are all just people, it’s our job to love one another.

I think too another thing that has changed, in part the main genesis for Old Try, is living somewhere else and then realizing that there can be a lot of shame in being a Southerner. I grew up just regular old guy in Alabama, and I feel like because of the stories that we are told and the things we read we think, “Oh man I guess we as Southerners are not as cultured as other people.” Then by moving elsewhere I’ve seen that there are just as many rednecks in Connecticut and Massachusetts as there are in Tennessee and Alabama. You get somewhere else and you realize that there are all the same kind social problems and issues that happen in the South. I’ve realized that I don’t need to be ashamed of my Southerness. I think now I can go toe to toe with a person who thinks something negative as to what being a Southerner is. I can talk about it with some amount of realism because I’m living elsewhere.

What was the inspiration for The Old Try?

MW: Several things came together. Marianna made me a letter sweater which I wore to an Ole Miss game, and everybody was kind of fired up about it. They said, “I have to know where to get one.” So Marianna and I said, “Well, let’s make some stuff that really connects people to what they are really about and where they are from.” For instance, I went to Ole Miss. But that won’t work for everyone. Let’s say your grandad went to Davidson. If you were to wear a Davidson shirt, that actually has a connection to you beyond just an arbitrary brand. But [because of the difficulty of collegiate licensing] and not knowing what the heck we were doing with fashion, we tabled it. Our name came from “the old college try” because of our original idea. So [The Old Try] sat around and languished. Then the Tuscaloosa tornadoes came through 2 years ago. Being here, away from home, seeing helicopter footage of Athens and Limestone county, and seeing buildings that had been there for years disappear, it made me miss home. After that I saw a lot of Southern designers who were living outside the South doing different designs to show their solidarity and that they were thinking of home. I was on the bus thinking of that one day, and I realized while we didn’t know anything about clothing, I knew a heck of a lot about print design and how to do that. I walked home and ran the idea by Marianna. So the iteration of Old Try as it is took place in about five minutes on the bus.

Since then, The Old Try has made numerous letterpress posters (and now t-shirts) referencing a wide range of Southern places. To create them, Micah researches history and takes little details to create something unique. No “Hey Y’all” prints from these folks. Most recently, Old Try has partnered with Union Press to produce a print with proceeds going to victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. To get one of these limited edition prints click here.

Photo Credit: David Salafia

Today is sort of a “boot day” in NYC. A little...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:00:00 -0400

Today is sort of a “boot day” in NYC. A little dreary and chilly.

But I’d just as soon be wherever these people are. I could use the smell of a bonfire right now. I don’t care if it’s spring. It’s still cold up in these parts.

Can you identify this Southern city? Tweet at me your guesses...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:16:51 -0400

Can you identify this Southern city? Tweet at me your guesses (or to demand an answer) @apinchofsouth