*A Visit To the South......by Jamil Shawwa

I live, and reside in the capital of the south, The Commonwealth of Virginia, so I am considered a southerner. I love the south; I think it has class, tradition, sometimes too much tradition. However, my southern style is combined with being adjacent to our nation's capital, Washington DC, so I am a southerner with a northern style; like both but happy to be closer to the north. The south of the United States is historically referred to those states that were hardheaded in regard to abolishing slavery, and that hot or hardheaded mentality lead to the civil war between the southern states I.e., Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, etc and the north which represented The Unites States. The war ended-thanks God- with the south being defeated and the rebirth of this great nation, The USA. The southern states still with variations here and there cherish the memory of the civil war and in some pockets, some put the confederate flag- the symbol of the south during the civil war- side by side with the US flag. Having said that, America has come a long way since then, continued to grow, indulged and opened its borders to tens of millions of immigrants that made the US demography right now the country of all with no specific dominance of a particular ethnic group. I like southern food, mainly fried, sometimes too fried and greasy for my taste, but I like it. If you drive a little deeper into Virginia, 30 miles south and above from Washington DC, you will see the rural areas, the farms, the mountains and the more laid back people, the closer you get to DC, like any metropolitan area, the closer you get to the high rhythm of life, the traffics, the speed, and the hustle and bustle of the city. Today was the day for me to go to one of these country style southern eateries, I do not want to say restaurants, because really you feel as if you are going back in time when people used to put their horses out side these saloons or eateries. I went inside and was greeted with a nice little old lady, around 75 years young, and was seated. When I ordered Earl Grey Tea, the whole place looked at me, maybe because I was loud or something or maybe because they felt that this person does not belong here, he should have ordered an all-American coffee not tea. Any way, I ignored the looks and ordered my other favorite breakfast, Pancakes, oh, my God, I can eat pancakes every morning; one of the venues to my heart-there are many venues- is an old fashion freshly prepared hot off the griddle pancakes with maple syrup and real butter. Pancakes came and I thought that I would have a breakfast of a lifetime but I was disappointed, it was greasy, as if it was fried, those southerners, and not flat put on a flat surface to be prepared slowly. I ate it and looked around and I asked the server, the seventy-five years young little old lady if the owners are still running the place, and she answered no, but it is now part of a chain. That is it, part of a chain, basically as McDonald, a factory that mass-produce things for the people just to get full. I finished my food, and my Earl Grey tea, paid my bill, left a decent tip and went out, I looked back, gave another look and said goodbye to the old south. America now is not south and north, and I like it the way it is now, America is everything and everybody, America is all faiths and religions,. America is all styles and Shapes. Anyone that thinks otherwise needs to go to that restaurant and witness the abolishment of the old south.




* Some of the best and the brightest that America brought came from the south. The heart and soul of the US military reside in the south. This article is looking at an angle in the south but it does not represent the completely rich southern experience.