Author talks about southern ways during Foundation of WCC event
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on October 13, 2014 1:46 PM
What it means to be Southern is the theme of a popular book series by Siler City resident Cecilia Budd Grimes.
It also provides an insight into the behavioral quirks and eccentricities inherent to those who live in these parts.
"We love our southern ways, we love our southern talk, we love our southern food. And we have a unique way of being a southerner," she told the nearly 150-member predominantly female audience Thursday at Goldsboro Country Club. "We just do all these things that southerners do and we have words that we use that sort of signal to other people that we're different in how we respond to things."
The "Lunch and Learn" event was sponsored by the Foundation of Wayne Community College.
Mrs. Grimes easily made her case, peppering her message with sayings like "bless your heart" and "old as dirt."
"We aren't careful about our grammar because it's more important to make a point," she said.
She occasionally paused to define words like "piddling" -- "You can have a piddling amount of something or you can piddle the afternoon away," she said.
Southerners also "putter," she pointed out.
"But that's not the same thing," she said. "Piddling is productive puttering."
For the uninitiated, southerners often say things that confound, she said.
"(For example), 'That makes me ill,' and they think we may be nauseated," she said, amid the steady ripple of laughter from her receptive audience. "We have words that make a lot of sense to us.
"We cut the lights on and cut lights off and we trim pencils and we bring the car around. We say these things that really don't resonate with people who are not clear on that."
Those reared in the South have been taught a myriad of rules, like being cautious about what you say about folks because "they're liable to be kin" to the one you're talking to.
Also, don't wear white shoes before Easter or after Labor Day.
And the concept of the popular confection of deviled eggs is only complicated by those who haven't had the good sense to stock at least one deviled egg plate in their pantry. Otherwise, as any good Southerner knows, they are likely to just slide all around on the plate.
"We have a word for that -- tacky," she said.
Mrs. Grimes probably could have spent an extra hour just talking about food, and the rules that accompany them.
Instead, she shared a memory from her own childhood, holding up a glass bottle containing a dark familiar liquid.
"Co-cola," she announced. "Not Coca-Cola. In the South, it's co-cola. Three syllables."
Opening up a package of salted peanuts, she poured a few into the mouth of the bottle. It began to fizz.
"That's a Southern lady's mixed drink," she said, bringing it to her lips and taking a swallow.
Royal Crown Cola is different, she said, producing a bottle to illustrate her point. Also, she noted, southerners don't call it Royal Crown Cola, but "RC Cola." And there's also an unspoken rule that everybody should know.
"You don't eat it with peanuts," she said. "You drink an RC Cola with a moon pie."