Thursday, March 30, 2006

Hello

Welcome to our new blog! There are three of us who will contribute our ideas about life in the South and many other things that occur to us as we go. So now I'll introduce myself with a little background.

I'm the oldest of the group and the one who encouraged the others to contribute to this blog. I was born in Alabama while Daddy was working at a chemical plant during WWII. He was also born in Alabama but moved with his family to Tennessee when he was in 7th grade. My mother was born and grew up in Middle Tennessee. They met in high school since they were in the same class. Mother won the county-wide spelling bee when she was in 8th grade. Daddy used to say he was valedictorian of his 8th grade class but neglected to mention that he was the only 8th grader in the one-room school he attended. They were class officers and married several years after Mother went to comptometer school and worked at DuPont and Daddy went to the University of Tennessee at Martin. She was a beauty queen and he a football player which is royalty in the South. They had a mixed marriage since Mother was a Methodist Democrat and Daddy a Baptist Republican. It was important to them that they go to the same church as a family, so as Mother says, Daddy joined the Methodist people. I'm glad it happened that way and that I was brought up in the Methodist Church. They always cancelled each other's votes, though, and made sure they voted. It's an important part of being an adult, and when I was sick, Mother made sure I voted and drove me to the early voting place. She's an amazing 85 years old and sharp mentally and physically active. Daddy died much too young at 56, and I still miss him.

Stay tuned. There's more to come.