The South is Going to do it Again

morgan, Charleston, SC, USA:

It's been a while since I have been in the South East. Flew into Tampa, FL and spent a couple of days an hour north with family in Homosassa, FL. Drove to St. Augustine, FL to spend a couple of days with close family friends (great beach city), lunch in Savannah, GA on our way for a one night stay in Charleston, SC. Then inland to Raleigh, NC for a couple-o-day family visit before heading to the outer banks of NC for a family reunion. Then I have to somehow get to New York City.

Anyway, as a New York yank- and I don't mean a member of the baseball team but a non-southerner- I have stereotypes of the South that I am truly trying to see beyond but they keep surfacing. Of course, we are traveling relatively quickly down here and as I am not writing an in depth story or shooting a documentary, my interactions are fairly surface level, but they persist. Two observations that are omnipresent, from Florida to South Carolina, where I am currently, are the overwhelming "Southern" hospitality and the ever present Confederate flag. The third, slightly less obvious, but to the watching eye prolific, is the support for our war in Iraqi. Though this is a blog, I'm not going to spout about my opinions on these observations (at least not yet), just that I experience them everywhere I turn, and despite the row after row of chain store malls that are stripping American towns and cities of any unique flavor (there's an opinion for ya), there still are differences between us, thank the gods.

Oh, and there are lots of really big (personal) trucks and many very good looking woman.