 One bare foot follows the other down the steep, dirt, mountain road. It winds like a ribbon, rising and falling between the trees and hills. Here we follow a small, thin, girl in a sack-style cotton dress as she follows this road. Its twists and turns are familiar as she passes the rural cottages dotted along the roadside. The ground beneath her feet is the same her great grandmother once walked as she too hummed childhood tunes, stopped to watch drops of dew slide down a petal and pretended she knew what the birds were saying - and sometimes maybe she did. Some technology may have changed but grandmother and grandmother's stories have not. The girl’s mind slips away, passed the tops of the trees while her feet beat the dusty road in a timeless rhythm. In her mind she sees warriors and dragons, princesses and witches, demons and angels. Her thoughts are as light as the breeze and wave with a purpose and almost mathematical flexibility, like stalks of grain in the summer sun. And here, in the place of her whimsical mind, her life and her path unfolded like that ribbon road, like the first uncurling of a small plant sprout as it slowly looks up toward the sun for the first time. The week before Easter, Americans and Japanese learned that we both give our sprouts, our little children, the same nourishment as they grow - and through that, both heritage Americans and Japanese have cultivated very similar "gardens," or in other words, very similar community values.
Twitter's recent automatic translation of English to Japanese and vice versa gave both communities instant access to one another's innermost thoughts and reflections - and shockingly, we found them not foreign. What began with posts of Japanese people longing to try Texas BBQ quickly spiraled into a cultural exchange of Japanese children excited about Marvel movies and American children showing off their favorite Anime collections. The American South featured prominently as Japanese friends posted about Elvis and Buc-ee's and longing to sit around a campfire and share some of their rice in exchanged for authentic Southern vittals. Now, everyday, there seems to be a new theme as Americans gush over Japanese cherry blossoms and show off their large dogs. Today, rice cooker pancake recipes became all the rage, and my personal favorite is reading the pure poetry Japanese parents write upon the birth of a baby, describing them in angelic terms. But it wasn't just the food, the movies and the love of nature, it was what clearly lay beneath that which had Americans and Japanese so excited for this new cultural exchange - it was the values these things expressed. Let us return to the little girl on the country road. Is she Japanese or American? The truth is, she is both. This child we began with lives in a society, built by her ancestors, which values social cohesion and high trust. A world where strength is seen in a sense of duty to others and proper justice for those who will not do their duty. This is a reality where power is not found in being the strongest physically or in attaining the most material goods (like war lords or tyrants) but instead in how we treat others and our ideas of real fairness. We both emphasize respect for our elders and those who carry out important, brave or vital social roles such as police, military, and clergy. It's understood that what we want as an individual, our immediate gratification, is not as important as that little girl on the road and the life she leads. So we bear our crosses. We do what's right. We choose the hard thing because it's the better thing, and we try with all our strength to discipline our minds and hearts so that we may live up to our responsibilities well. It's an idea of honor which balks at unearned handouts and those around us who will not follow the rules and norms. We push back against a notion of social "progress" because allowing those sweet and beautiful spaces to surround us - spaces in which our minds can quietly reflect and our hearts can dream, is what holds the highest value for both of us. So when we hear Japanese blue grass bands singing "Country Roads" by John Denver we know it’s more than just a song to both Americans and Japanese. It reflects a shared spirit that now unfolds before us like the winding, ribbon road, and I for one am excited to see where it takes us both.
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 The price of everything has drastically escalated in the past few years beyond what frugal penny pinching can account for. Many are wondering what they can do to gain some financial stability in these challenging times. I would propose we are asking the wrong question. When we look at finances alone we are missing the larger picture that our ancestors saw quite clearly. In today’s world we rely on cash money for nearly everything we do. Certainly it’s not our fault. We don’t live in feudal England. We don’t have the bartering opportunities they did. We must operate within the system which currently exists around us. But is there a trick we can find to ease the current burdens we face? I would suggest yes. One answer to our current woes is to see cash money as only one leg of the table of our general stability. A stable life is truly supported by four things: good relationships, spiritual grounding, housing and utilities, and food and materials needed to sustain life. Anyone who attends an Ivy League college will tell you that their career, and therefore their income, is less dependent on what they directly learned at the school but rather who they met. Their social connections more likely got them their employment and elevated their status after college than whatever the books actually taught them. So we “peasants” should be applying a similar principle to our lives - do we get along with people? Can we build lasting relationships and friendships which are mutually beneficial to our stability? In the past, most of our ancestors would have lived on an estate. A manor. These estates were nearly entirely self-sufficient and depended on a variety of people such as gardeners, cooks, carpenters and masons, to keep the manor functioning and everyone taken care of. There was little room for drama. By necessity you had to get along with your family and with your neighbors and co-workers. I think this lack of attention to a healthy, stable, social life harms us financially in ways we may not see. We miss tremendous opportunities to work WITH others to accomplish the goals of keeping our basic needs met. In short, network. Treat everyone you meet with kindness and generosity. Don’t burn bridges with people you don’t care for - just politely make different choices. Don’t embarrass, argue with or heatedly debate your family, friends, fellow parishioners or colleagues. Don’t make slanderous posts online about people you feel have wronged you. Even if you’re right about them, it harms your reputation in the eyes of others. Taking this a step further: If you have the opportunity to share land, housing, a business or resources with others, this will greatly improve your overall stability. When my husband and I were a young couple with two small children ages 4 and 1, we rented a farm house for a time with another couple who had a young daughter. We literally divided the 4 bedroom house in two and shared the kitchen. The arrangement was quite easy so long as we didn’t allow ourselves to be irritated by the small issues like dishes left in the sink or a crying child. This gave both families a larger spring board from which to plan our lives. We had access to greater gardening space, better homeschooling opportunities and overall more leisure time because we were paying what we might have paid for an apartment but we got a large farm house on rural property. Both families were able to save money during this period and share resources and babysitting, making our lives much easier and giving us better opportunities when we parted ways. Both couples also grew better standing within our social community because it doubled our social circle overnight, leading to better job prospects for both husbands. None of this could have been accomplished if we allowed ourselves to become upset about what food each other cooked, what messes they left or priorities they had which felt unnecessary to us. Had we gossiped about one another it would not only have not expanded our social circle and hence our financial opportunities but would have harmed and limited them. Get along with people. It’s really that simple. One of the best social opportunities today remains your local church - which brings me to the next pillar of stability - being spiritually grounded. Ancestral estates have always included a chapel, parish or church where those who live there can gather and worship. Church wasn’t simply a place to meet people - for our ancestors it was a weekly or monthly reminder of what truly matters. It’s easy to get caught up in attaining more stuff, but are you regularly dedicating time and space to ponder why? Most of us aren't. We all need a regular break and a check-in. What is this all about? What are our earthly goals? Why are those our goals? How are we achieving those goals? How are we treating others in that pursuit? What would God think of our efforts, or lack thereof? To achieve a stable life we must have our spiritual pillar firmly rooted. That isn’t to say that attending church once a week will magically answer all of the above questions but it does mean you are working out your salvation with fear and trembling, and that will always lead to the best possible outcome God has for you. Okay, so we have a network, and we are praying. But hey, we need food and a roof over our heads, right? Aren't those are some pretty fundamental basics of a stable life? Of course! We must be producing something either on our own or with others. If we have the start-up funds we could actually buy an estate with tenant housing and form a straight up old fashioned ancestral manor, but most of us can’t begin that way. So what can we do? As mentioned before, we can share housing. We could allow our grown children to stay at home longer while they get established in life. We can let our single sister or brother live with us in exchange for business or personal help. We can begin a business with friends or family. Back in the day, a manor might have produced crops, textiles, wood or pottery. Some of us might be able to do that today and sell our goods at a Farmers Market. But most cannot. So what are the things we can produce that are actually valuable resources that could provide some cash stability to add to our lives? Some “modern manor” ideas might be; opening a deli, bakery or food truck, lawn care, concrete, construction, carpentry, plumbing, handy man or other services through a small business. You can also make baked goods or home care products for sale like lotion or all natural cleaners. You could buy and sell antiques, sew or knit clothing, make furniture or wooden goods like toys or brooms, etc. These sorts of independent businesses aren’t known for raking in billions of dollars, but they provide basic goods and services that hold up well in a variety of economies. They give you direct and total control over your finances, how much you work and who you work with. They have nearly unlimited expansion opportunities based on your work and availability. Pair these with a more traditional living situation and networks of good people working together in your life, and these businesses become a viable way for you to support yourself. Despite our modern system, the basics of how a human being survives has actually changed little. It's just that we’ve overwhelmingly forgotten that. We are bombarded by the idea that we have needs we don’t really have. Do we need preschool, or do we need a grandma or big sister? Do we need a grocery store trip every week, or do we need to grow some potatoes and turnips in the front yard to mitigate that expense? Do we need our own home or can we share at least for a while? Do we need to do life all alone and buy everything to supplement what our ancestors naturally had through a shared system with others? Obviously I would say no. So pinch those pennies and keep saving for that down payment, but in the meantime, maybe cut some big corners by taking a few lessons from our great great great grandparents who lived on an ancestral manor.  Paper was readily available and could be easily crafted into decorations. Common items included paper chains, paper snowflakes, and angels made from materials like old Reader's Digest magazines. Families gathered items from nature, such as pine branches for garlands and wreaths, pinecones (sometimes dipped in glitter if available), nuts, and berries.  Strings of popcorn and cranberries were a popular, inexpensive way to decorate a Christmas tree.  Old clothing, feed sacks, and fabric remnants were used to make quilts, stockings, and small ornaments. Some companies began printing feed sacks with colorful patterns to encourage reuse.  Buttons were considered valuable and saved in "button boxes" to be repurposed for various crafts and mending. Scraps of string and elastic were saved and reused.  Families saved candle stubs and re-melted them to make new candles. Uncoated wax candles were also used on Christmas trees.  Ornaments were often handmade, such as felt birds, or simple stars made from sticks.  Small, simple cardboard houses, known as Putz houses, were often made as a family activity and placed under the Christmas tree.   Part of the Southern tradition has always been doing more with less. We don’t sacrifice class, grace or beauty just because our cash flow is low. With Christmas rapidly approaching, here’s a collection of last minute gift ideas that can get you a baronial feel at dirt floor prices. Bookmark this post for birthdays and anniversaries too! Let’s first define some general aesthetics…
Pictures shown are for examples only. If you track down these specific items I don’t know that you can get them shipped before Christmas. Get out to your local shops and hopefully buy directly from them. JEWELRY Pearl earrings (start at ~ $100) Gold lockets (~ $100) Vintage watches, chains and such can be picked up at antique/vintage stores for less than you might find new. These are not “used." These are HEIRLOOM.   VINTAGE JEWELRY BOX (In the South we pronounce that “jury box.”)  CLOTHING For Her: Eyelet lace, real linen, silk or cotton. Fresh themes with pastel colors and fruit. For Him: Wool tie, real leather belt, family tartans, cashmere scarf.    REAL BONE CHINA Real China, even just a few pieces, is a timeless, elevated gift. Did you know most patterns have backstories and themes? You can pick a theme based on their ethnic heritage, where they honeymooned, their family name, etc. You can add to their collection by buying new pieces every year.   FOR KIDS Real leather shoes A hardcover Christian kids book with Grund stuffed animal theme High IQ board games Real art supplies     ART Buy a vintage postcard or picture that relates to them. Some of my favorites to look for are the church where they or a family member were baptized, married or buried. A church with their name or patron Saint. Frame it. Gift it.  QUALITY COOKWARE Some of my favorites are Salad Master pots and pans and enamel tea pots. Cast iron is also a great choice.   FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS Some of my favorite picks are real butter shortbread cookies and organic teas.  VINTAGE OR FIRST EDITION BOOKS These pictured are soft cover but buy hardcover when available.  CHILDHOOD TOYS One summer I asked everyone in my life what their favorite childhood toy was and I bought them all a gift on that theme. For example, my brother-in-law said “Super Mario Brothers” so I bought him handmade SMB coasters from Etsy. This also works for favorite childhood TV shows or movie.  LAMPS A good gift idea for men but also women is an antique brass desk lamp. Add an amber bulb for the perfect touch. These are super affordable too.   FAMILY HISTORY Use a service like Family Search or Ancestry. You’ll need to know their parents names and rough idea of birth date and place but if you put in a few hours you can find an interesting ancestor of theirs and maybe even snag a picture. Type up the story & frame it.  YEARBOOKS If you can find out when and where their parents or grandparents went to school you might find their yearbook on eBay! I did this for my father one year.  COATS For her: thrift shop wool coat For him: vintage military coat from Europe Both of these coats pictured retail for $2 used!   Remember it isn’t “used” - it’s HEIRLOOM. 😉 And write that on the card! “Enjoy this heirloom such-n-such, and Merry Christmas!”  The only way forward is small. Those words might seem an odd contradiction in a world that seems to be growing ever larger. The Internet sprawls across the globe connecting tiny villages in rural India to mighty skyscrapers in New York City and everywhere in between. Populations are bursting at the seams. Homes are larger. Big box stores loom and crowd out mom-and-pop shops in the world we know. Corporations like Black Rock gobble up the globe with increasing speed, and it seems we are on a lightening-fast path to bigger, bigger, bigger - one huge united globe. One large undefinable mass. Our news has expanded too. Gone are the days when you would sip your coffee over a few local articles in the newspaper. We hardly even gossip about our neighbours anymore. Now we check our social media and become delighted or outraged at things happening all across the globe. But all of this is ultimately an illusion. It’s a modern day Tower of Babel with classic Tower of Babel results. When Louis and Clark explored the West they would often have to pass through five or more translators to reach an Indian who spoke French and then a Frenchman who spoke English. Anyone who has been to Walmart lately can relate to this. No one speaks the same language. Yet unlike those Indian tribes Louis and Clark encountered, who were totally independent and interacted with other tribes mostly for either trade or war, we must somehow navigate this huge confederation of countries living in our backyard and on our tiny screens daily. Suddenly, election results in New York don’t feel so far away. If China manufactures all our antibiotics, I suppose we are forced to care about what’s happening in China. It’s all connected. We are living in the Tower. We are consumed by it. But the Tower of Babel didn’t last and neither will its current incarnation - because no matter how advanced humans become, we simply cannot out-pace God. The Tower will come down. The answer to the question of when or how or where is a mystery to us, but its ultimate collapse is assured. Terrific! We didn’t want it anyway. In fact, I hear you ask, "Can I do anything to give that collapsing devil-tower a push?" Yes. Simply remember who you are. Remember who God created you to be. He created you to be part of a family. “Nation” comes from the root “natal” meaning to give birth. Many of us don’t feel like birth-buddies with a Somali living in Minnesota or a Sikh living in London. We don’t share common values, histories or future goals. "But my family is awful!" I hear some of you say. "I have nothing in common with them either. They don’t share my values, history or goals. I hardly see them." Sadly, in the Tower where everyone speaks a different language, this is the reality we confront. The consuming mass of chaos resides in our own flesh and blood. So where is your family of common values? Your nation? May I propose it is to be found in your parish or church. Long ago in the Southern United States, we had things called plantations. They functioned like small, self-sufficient towns. The owner and his family lived in the main house. Workers (yes, and slaves) had their own homes and small communities dotted around the acreage. The plantation grew its own food, produced its own wool and cotton for clothing, typically had a cash crop and yes, it had a parish. Everyone would gather on Sunday mornings. Perhaps several nearby plantations would share a central parish. A priest, reverend or preacher would be hired for the parish or perhaps would travel among several parishes in the area. People attending these churches knew exactly who they were and what they were working towards. They weren’t just Americans, they were, for example, Virginians or even more specifically residents of the King plantation, and naturally, the parish found there. For generations they lived like this. They had a common language, a common history, a shared faith and they shared goals for the future. Perhaps their goals were expanding the cash crop, patching the roofs or opening up more space in the graveyard. This identity and total independence from the outside world was a way of life these people were willing to die for when the North infringed on it. The Confederates were famously outnumbered by the North but never out-fought. Behind the Confederate army lay their homes, their family and their parish. "Okay, but we don’t have plantations anymore," you say. Yes, but we have parishes. We have people we see every week who share our history, our language and our goals. This is where our family is and our focus should be there too. And I don’t mean exclusively our spiritual focus. Our friendships, business endeavours, hiring pool, trade center, and so forth, should exist within the hundred or so people we know in our parish.  This legend is linked to a real-life event in the mid-1800s involving Texas Rangers Bigfoot Wallace and John McPeters, and a horse thief named Vidal. After killing Vidal, they decapitated him and tied the headless body to a horse, with the head attached to the saddle. The horse was then released, starting the legend of El Muerto. The ghost of El Muerto is said to ride the roads of South Texas, particularly in Jim Wells, Duval, and Live Oak counties, terrifying those who see him. The legend persisted even after the horse and rider were eventually captured, and Vidal's body was buried. The phantom rider continued to be spotted, leading some to believe that the curse had a life of its own.  What can we, as individuals, do about mass immigration?
We talk about it openly so people know they aren’t alone in their feelings. We normalize hating immigration. We make radical changes to our spending habits. We do not support businesses that hire immigrants and we tell them so. In my area that’s really hard because it means no fast food ever, no Walmart, etc. I have to source our food from local farms and find small businesses to purchase things like birthday gifts. Mostly it means we do without often. To whatever legal extent you can, don’t work with them or serve them. Don’t take their opinions into account at the HOA. Dismiss them entirely. Make it not an advantage to live here. Take up space for Christianity and patriotism online and in real life. Bumper stickers, buttons, pins, leave flyers on windshields. Don’t be afraid to be bold. Push back on corporations and government. Recently, for example, I found out that my favorite American organic grocery service (@AzureStandard) outsourced some jobs to Mexico. I raised hell online and let people know. They lost a lot of customers and potential costumers and were told exactly why. Recently we saw Cracker Barrel do a complete 180 on their remodel because of the outrage. Outrage has power. Get involved in your community in any way you can. Run for school board. Lead a Scout troop. Become a cop. Join ICE. Report people to ICE. Network with other patriots nearby. Picket and protest where you can. Support candidates with your values with your time and money. Door knock. Raise hell. Keep the pressure on until the laws change and we can physically round people up and put them on planes or in jail. Don’t be afraid to go to jail, lose your job or even to die. This is the hardest one, but we have to fight this with literally everything we have. That means you might get shot while innocent, like Charlie Kirk. Stop caring about that. We are in a war.  There are some simple, practical steps you can take to start saving the West, today:
Pray. Be humble and grateful. If you’re able, get married, have children, and teach them your values. Volunteer with a community-building organization such as a church, 4-H, Trail Life, etc. Boycott, as much as you can, the businesses and services contributing to the problem. Learn to live simply. Speak out. We currently have an administration in America that does respond to social media pressure. Add your voice to the choir. Let them know. Support your local candidates willing to change things. Get involved with local politics, the school board, etc. Become proficient at one old fashioned skill. Maybe it’s just growing and drying mint on your apartment balcony. Maybe it’s carving wooden brooms. But do something to build up local food, local tools and local natural medicine supplies. Get a minimum of 30 minutes of sunlight everyday. And read some classic literature while you’re at it. Stop doom-scrolling, and do manual labor - whether for work or around your house. Keep your home clean. (Or in other words, make your bed!) Don’t expect immediate results. We are planting the trees under which our grandchildren will sit. Don’t black pill. We are going to make it!  I was recently asked about the ways that Appalachian culture, with a Scots-Irish foundation, is different from lowland Southern culture, which has a more English foundation with African-American influences. I'd love to share my answer. First, the entire South has a few things in common. Unlike the industrial North that was established to be Puritan and to center around shops, factories and the sale of goods, the South was set up like English and French baronial estates. Most of the South was created to be an all-encompassing, self-sustaining series of micro-communities. There were the Lord and Lady of the manor house, and then the indoor servants, grounds keepers, farm labor, etc. They had their own church onsite, as well as their own school. They produced their own entertainment as well. This led to a very self-sustaining community view in the South, which helped give us our well-known good manners and kindness. We are used to working together, but not needing anyone or anything outside our own community. In contrast, the North needed trade and harsher manners towards others (who were your competitors instead of your community) to sustain their system. Northerners had rules that applied to everyone instead of respecting how individuals choose to run their own materials and time. The culture of each area in the South (the art, music, stories, etc.) were heavily influenced by their founding population: Scot-Irish for the Appalachias, French for the Louisiana area, English for Virginia and coastal Carolinas, Spanish and German in Texas, Spanish and Greek in Florida, etc. Geography played a role too. Most notably, in the Appalachias we did have baronial estates, but we were limited in our amount of flat land. So over the generations, families spread into the hollers and settled in more mountainous areas. This meant we became more clan-like as in Scotland. Small communities formed, mostly closely-linked family groups, living in one holler. So we became more feisty and independent than other folks in the South. Our diet changed to be what we could grow on a mountain side which was mostly corn and apples. Both crops were hard to carry down a mountain so we quickly learned it was easier and made more money to make the corn into moonshine. Selling moonshine made us more anti-authoritarian than the average Southerner. It pitted us against lawmen and drew us closer to our families than average. It also led to us developing car racing as we learning to outrun the law men while trafficking liquor. Our isolation in the Appalachias also meant we were poorer than the average Southerners and we were less dependent on slave labor - and less slaves meant less influence from slave culture. For example; think of how voodoo or rock-and-roll came from Haitian and African traditions in places like Memphis and New Orleans. We didn’t have that. We clung closer to churches, and therefore our music, until only a few decades ago, was primarily hymn-based. We had less material goods and relied more heavily on faith and family. We made our own instruments, our own crafts, and spent a long time becoming master craftsmen. (For example, some of the best furniture ever crafted came out of Southwest Virginia.) This isolation led to a very unique culture which only existed in these mountains.  Sit down here with Granny. I want to honestly share with you why Southern culture is more than just “voting red,” and why outsiders who move here without understanding that are often accused of destroying our way of life. I was born a mere geographical stone’s toss from where my ancestors first settled in this country in 1605. Growing up in both the Southeast as well as the Southwest, I was surrounded by a culture of rebel mascots, Dixie and grits. As an adult I realized the culture I accepted as “normal” was not the culture or values shared by everyone in America, and so my husband and I returned to my birth place to raise our children. Unfortunately, years later, our little slice of paradise was invaded. Post-lockdowns, folks wanted to move somewhere freer that represented their values. However all conservatism is not the same. We can all agree that we don’t want the government shutting down private businesses, but how do you unload a truck? Think I’m joking? I’m not... First came the track housing. It was built, in some cases, where we locals used to throw garbage back in the day. Then, our old farm houses became hipster breweries. Annoying, but not yet encroaching. Then Yankees came for our homeschool groups. Suddenly our social outlets were filled with people telling me my grandmother’s pancake recipe was full of carbs, and turning their nose up at my Orthodox faith because it wasn’t their brand of Yankee Protestant Puritanism. And when I mean turning their nose up I mean total shunning. Over and over again, “What church do you attend?” I name my Orthodox church. They actually turn their back (sometimes in unison!) and stop speaking to me. Excuse me, Jeanie-come-lately, but the oldest church in my hometown is Catholic. My granny lived next door and until very recently you could still hear the Latin mass being sung. Next they destroyed the public pools. Non-locals (of a different race and class from the Puritan homeschoolers) flooded (pun!) our public pool. They thought displaying their bulging bosoms and their gay pride tattoos were appropriate. Their sons started grabbing local girls on the butt to the giggling delight or outright denial of their parents. Our local lake faired no better. We encountered those same characters, as well as drug users and loudly blasted rap music. So we lost that. But hey, they claim to vote for Trump, right? After this was the back biting and rumor mills in social groups. I was totally thrown for a loop! I’m sorry but in the South we either treat everyone politely in public or we plainly state our beef with them, to their face, and then it’s done. We do not hide in the shadows gossiping or plotting. We aren’t trying to “catch” someone in a trap. We are straight forward or polite. We don’t have time for anything in between. Now, you can’t trust anyone. They don’t behave in a way normal to us. Social cohesion is gone. I don’t understand it, but people who move here seem to not always know how the police work. You cannot argue. If they tell you to do something, you have to do it. You cannot talk your way out of it or change their mind. Our police are STRICT. A lot of our Southern media has stories of our thinking about those in charge, but once caught, you must comply fully even if innocent. This one actually breaks my heart because folks accustom to negotiating find themselves in jail because they don’t understand our culture. Finally, I have arrived at how to unload a truck. Yes, there is a correct and chivalrous way to do this! My family used to order all our groceries from Azure Standard. It’s a small farm, organic grocer where you order your goods online and then they are delivered by truck. Everyone in our area shows up at the appointed time and place, once a month, and picks up their boxes. For YEARS this was a quick, simple & SOUTHERN process where I lived. The truck driver unloaded the pallet and the men in the group loaded everyone’s boxes into their cars. But about four years ago, all that changed. Now women and children needed to have an equal opportunity to unload the truck for whatever reason. Now the men wait in a line with people much weaker than them and are expected to watch them struggle. Chivalry is shamed. My husband, who comes from a line of Texas Rangers, can’t stand this not only because it’s incredibly rude but it also changed unloading the truck from a 20 minute job to a two hour long task! So he jumped the line and began quickly unloading the truck properly instead if watching women struggle, only to be chastised! These are all small things but they add up to taking over your whole life. You can’t enjoy school groups, church is a wreck, groceries are a nightmare, swimming requires an hour drive to a local hole the Yanks don’t know about yet. So if you feel like you REALLY need to move to the South PLEASE observe the community around you and respect their history and their way of doing things. You moved here because it’s better and it isn’t better because it’s colored red on the TV news. |
