Finch may have been a brilliant lawyer but about this he was wrong. But we are her granddaughters in every way that counts.Ītticus Finch said in To Kill a Mockingbird: “You can choose your friends but you sho’ can’t choose your family.” The fictional Mr. Not in a signing-legal-documents kind of way. Because of quarantine, visitors were limited, so the various nurses would ask if we were related to Nanna. ![]() Nanna had some problems during COVID and was hospitalized. Kazek and her daughter found Nanna, her daughter’s caregiver as a child, when Kazek was a single mom. READ MORE: Memories of a Southern Christmas at Granny's Once the tree was completed, my brother and I would lie on our stomachs on the floor, bathed in red, green, blue, and yellow lights, and flip through the Sears catalog that held all our hopes and dreams between its covers. That week before Santa came seemed longer than a Baptist tent revival. That’s when time slowed and the real wait began. When school finally let out, with students poised in their desks like they were starter blocks for a race, we shed the smells of paste and musty Dick and Jane readers and ran for home. They all play as an 8mm reel through my mind, set to the songs of my mother’s Christmas albums – Elvis, John Denver and Bing – that played on the console stereo. ![]() Looking in the rearview mirror, I see the joys of my childhood Christmases, as scattered and plentiful as pecans dropped from a tree. That’s why adults find less joy in the season, I suppose. What made our childhood Christmases special.Ĭhristmas miracles are like haints in a way – you can’t see them if you don’t believe. READ MORE: Some of our favorite Southern grannyĤ. If you want to be a jerk, go live on a mountain in Tibet. We need one another to survive and thrive. Sure, it would be nice if we only had ourselves to consider, if we could drive anywhere we wanted on the roads and parking lots, or if we could sneeze on someone next to us and they’d be like, “Thanks! That was refreshing.” But human beings were created to work together. We do not live in a world where our actions do not affect others. Southern grannies are filled with wisdom, such as the excerpt below: The South's most accurate weather forecaster: Granny A true Southerner would feed anyone who walked through the door into a blissful stupor of banana pudding, sweet potato casserole, and pecan pie. But I believe in this South – this hopeful South – one whose motto should be “Peace, Love & Biscuits.”įood is comfort. Some might say that’s a naïve view based on history and on modern headlines. My South is a place of inclusion and of kindness. It’s a place where grandparents are treasured for their wisdom, their stories, and for instilling in each new generation the importance of manners. It’s a place of porches dotted with step-over dogs and fly swatters hanging on nails. ![]() Where our definition of a fine cuisine is Vienna sausages and saltines, and a science experiment consists of throwing all the leftovers into a bowl with cream-of-something soup and calling it a casserole. My South is a place where people greet one another – even if it’s with a finger wave popped up from a steering wheel – pull over for funeral processions, and don’t mind their business. The South is more than the stereotypes used to define it. Here are 12 things you’ll learn about the South in the new It’s a Southern Thing book. In this book of columns written for It’s a Southern Thing, award-winning humorist Kelly Kazek evokes the beauty and quirky character of the South that raised her. But, in some indefinable way, we are a family. We don't all think the same, or look the same, or have the same genes. ![]() Some people wonder, what makes the South the South? Is it the borders of a group of states? The food? The mindset? Why do we Southerners think of ourselves as having an “otherness,” a sense of togetherness, that no other region in the nation can match?
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