Movin South... Silly yankee questions...

[clemsonfor]

That's a lot of area you are considering. What are you looking for? some of it is all swampy, a lot of it is heavy timber and rather flat, and a little bit of it is hilly to mountainous. In my area of East Texas, we are supposed to have rattle snakes, but I've never seen one. I see cotton mouths and copper heads every year. This year was a record for cotton mouths. I think we killed half a dozen and saw at least twice that many on our 60 acres. I killed two copper heads and saw one that got away. My dogs killed several rat snakes in the yard. They come around the house because we have feeders out, livestock and chickens, which all add up to lots of mice. We poison as many mice as we can and we have cats for as long as they can survive the coyotes. Some cats are better then others at killing mice, but nothing works better then constantly putting out poison. If you can keep the mice down, you will have fewer snakes. In my experience, a dog doesn't know the difference between a poisonous snake and a non poisonous one, so it's very likely that it will get bit eventually. We have clinics that are open 24/7 to deal with this. I've been twice for cats, but never one of my dogs. Once bit, they swell up quickly and wont walk on the leg that is bit. No experience with a face bit. The vets have all the stuff to treat a bite and if you get there quickly enough, it's not a big deal. For some reason, people that I know who have been bit seem to suffer more then pets.

I've never found anything in my outdoor boots and shoes. I always check them, but that's just me being scared of the unknown and an active imagination.

What you need to learn to fear and never underestimate are fire ants. NEVER walk in the grass barefoot. Never stand still without making sure what you are standing on. Keep plenty of anti itch cream on hand while you learn these lessons!!! I prefer Gold Bond Maximine Relief. Get some, you will need it.

The other thing to be VERY AFRAID of are red wasps. Also called mahogany wasps. They love the heat and living in the eaves of houses. They are very territorial and will attack for no reason, making too much noise or because they don't like you. Usually you will get one warning. It will buzz your ears. If you ever have a wasp of any kind buzz your ears, wave your arms frantically all over and run!!!!!! The next time you will get hit, and it's like somebody used a baseball bat on your head. Back of the head is the most common, but once I got it in my face, which was the worse one ever. Nothing will ease the pain, it will be a fay of misery unlike any other sting out there. All other wasps, hornets and bees are here and they will get you too if you anger them, but nothing like the red wasp. He is king!!!!

Learn what poison ivy looks like. It mostly likes shade. Three leaves grouped together. It can be red at times, but usually it's a nice shade of green. Even dead, it will get you, so always wash your hands with lots of soap if you pick up anything.

During the heat of summer, July to mid September, plan your day so you can avoid being outside in the afternoon. Heat stroke is real, and when it happens, most people don't realize it. All of a sudden, you forget things, don't know why are are doing something, or why nothing is making any sense to you. I've seen it happen too many times.

I walk barefoot all the time, just make sure you dont walk in the hills or stand near where there moving and your fine.

The wasps will get you. Got stung a few months ago just walking to a basement door under a deck where they had a nest, right over the door under the deck. Like a stick slapping me on the back of the head for sure.

And dont forget poison oak, but i think they have these up north too? I am not alergic myself so i am luky there. I can walk through it and touch it all the time without issue, maye i might get it if i crumpled up the leaves and rubbed it on my arms and the sensitive areas of my skin like face or under arms but i dont do that so i dont know

 

[2LaneCruzer]

We Northerners are at a distinct disadvantage as we have all been bamboozled by Common Core education and taught that the Civil War ended a few years ago. Now it turns out that isn't the case and when we travel down South in our civvies we can be considered spies caught out of uniform. Dang.

:laughing: I attended a seminar in Atlanta a few years back, and met a couple fellows from Alabama. The discussions eventually got around to the Civil War, and one of them asked me whose side Oklahoma was on. I told him that Oklahoma was Indian Territory at the time and that we didn't become a state until 1907. He said, "Yeah, but whose side were you on!"...and he was serious! I had to tell him that although some of the tribes were slaveholders and provided aid and comfort to the South, basically the state was not on either side. That seemed to satisfy him.

The reality of the war still lives in a lot of minds in the South. Although my family moved to Kansas after the war, it was never something that was the subject of conversation. I did ask my Grand dad one time what side we were on, and he said it depends at what time during the war you were talking about. He said his Grand dad was a cobbler, and although he started out making shoes for the South, when his area was overrun by the North, he was conscripted to make shoes for the North.

 

[clemsonfor]

There are no, or very few chiggers where I'm at. We have some ticks, but I've been places where they where a lot worse. Most years I never encounter a tick at all. From what I've been told, there used to be a lot of ticks and the chiggers where horrible, but when the fire ants took over, all that changed. I can't prove any of this, but I've heard it from so many people that have lived here forever that it might be what's happened.

I hate fire ants, but after awhile, I've learned to respect them and avoid them. The war will never end with them, but given the choice of chiggers or fire ants, I'll take the ants.

There is no coraltion. We have lots of fire ants and ticks and chiggers.

 

[check]

But all of the those groups KNEW that in the end the path to success in this country was to learn the language and to assimilate. Not give up you heritage, but become part of the melting pot. Many of those families still speak their native tongue in their homes or with friends, but they don't expect everyone to cater to them in their native language when they are out of their communities. Today many of our immigrants that come in have no desire to ever learn the language or customs of this country. We are no longer a "melting pot" where each group that comes in adds a little spice to the mix. Today we are becoming the Balkans where each group wants to maintain their cultural identity unchanged and separate instead of mixing in the pot.

We have a term for it here, we call it the "cultural melting pot". Works great – especially here in Toronto, which is reputedly the most multicultural city in the world.

 

[check]

You got that right. Dam Yankees has a different meaning up here.

And up here, Yankees are what the Blue Jays use for practice during the regular season.

(I just KNOW I'm going to burn for this.)

 

[IslandTractor]

But all of the those groups KNEW that in the end the path to success in this country was to learn the language and to assimilate. Not give up you heritage, but become part of the melting pot. Many of those families still speak their native tongue in their homes or with friends, but they don't expect everyone to cater to them in their native language when they are out of their communities. Today many of our immigrants that come in have no desire to ever learn the language or customs of this country. We are no longer a "melting pot" where each group that comes in adds a little spice to the mix. Today we are becoming the Balkans where each group wants to maintain their cultural identity unchanged and separate instead of mixing in the pot.

I understand your point. However, I think the idea of a melting pot where everything is homogenized is never what really happened in the US and is not particularly desirable. I would hate to live in a community where the only restaurant types available were national chains/franchises serving "homogenized" food. I love the fact that a couple miles from my house is a taqueria that is so authentically Mexican that I have trouble ordering what I want (yo no hablo español). I love the fact that BBQ at Nell's Kosher BBQ in NC is far more distinctive than what is served at chain restaurants. I basically hate the trend towards a homogenized society and love regional and cultural differences and hope they survive. I chose to send my youngest child to a bilingual school (German/English) because I like the idea that one can communicate with others in multiple languages, not just what is spoken at home.

I may be wrong but I think that the South in general has less experience with groups of immigrants than the North. Surely that is not the case in Texas or Arizona with Mexicans but in general there have not been waves of immigrants (Irish, Italian, Polish, Chinese etc etc) coming into the South over the past 150 years. In the past couple of decades that has changed and areas of the South like GA, AL, TN seem more sensitive to Spanish speaking immigrants than elsewhere. I suspect it is simply a matter of not growing up with similar waves of immigration or the evidence that such waves had occurred in the past. Boston is today associated with Irish but that was not always the case. Irish immigrants were treated horribly when they first started coming here and there was vicious resistance (No dogs or Irish allowed signs). Immigrants represent threats to the status quo and communities often over react to perceived negatives without realizing there are positive outcomes too. Heck, we wouldn't have any law enforcement at all in Boston if it wasn't for Irish cops. And, I am very grateful that I can get authentic Brazilian, Portuguese, Thai, Japanese, Mexican, Indian, Italian etc etc food that hasn't been "Americanized" by some corporate kitchen in Van Nuys CA before being frozen and replicated in countless strip mall franchise eateries.

Yes, there will be some immigrants who remain cloistered and don't learn English very well. Those are almost always first generation older folks and their children almost always end up with American accents and US regional English as the language they speak outside the household. Why should we be bothered that languages other than English are spoken here?

Joke: What do you call someone who speaks three languages....trilingual. What do you call someone who speaks two languages....bilingual. What do you call someone who speaks only one language...American.

 

[jerrybob]

Joke: What do you call someone who speaks three languages....trilingual. What do you call someone who speaks two languages....bilingual. What do you call someone who speaks only one language...American.

Very good!:thumbsup:

 

[jerrybob]

Duplicate.....TBN error

 

[yankeerider]

I happened to mention this thread to a co-worker while explaining that my relatives from rural Vermont where my dad was born hold the same values and interests as the people I know from the rural South, and even spoke slowly, just with a different accent than Texans. I pointed out that values and interests seemed to correlate much more with country vs. city than North vs. South. My coworker was born and raised in urban New Jersey, and told me that his hometown crowd referred to everyone outside the metropolitan area, including Vermont, as "The South"!

 

[jerrybob]

What is the difference between a dead dog and a dead Northerner in the middle of a Southern road? There are skid marks in front of the dog.