31 Days of Hospitality: Day 13- Southern Hospitality...

 Southern Hospitality.  Just the sound of it is nice.  It conjures up visions of men holding doors for ladies, people smiling and saying 'hi' on the sidewalk, men giving up their seat on the bus for ladies and welcoming new neighbors to the neighborhood.  Just all around being polite and friendly.

After living in the south for much of my life, I guess I just took that all for granted.  Moving to the Southwest was a real culture shock - and not just the summer heat!  I'm not sure if it's because most Arizonans moved here from somewhere else - being the 48th state admitted to the union means most of us aren't 'natives'.  Since it's kind of a 'melting pot' there's no southern hospitality, Yankee ingenuity, Midwest values; just lots of everything from everywhere. 

No one's grandma has lived her for all of her 90 years (at least not in our town).  An 'old' house was built in the '60's, not 1910.  There's not that same history that you have in Savannah or Charleston.  I have never heard a child say 'yes mam' to his or her mother.  My own daughter looks at me like I'm off my rocker when I tell her to say yes mam or yes sir (a real work in progress).  It's just different.  And not always in a good way.

Southern Hospitality is a good thing.  It's nice for people to be friendly, bring us a muffin basket when we move into the neighborhood, hold the door as we're leaving the bank.  Unfortunately, it happens all too seldom.  Even southerners may have noticed a change over the years.  But I hope not.  I still like to think that ideal is still alive and well in Dixie.

If you have missed any of my 31 Days posts you can find them here.  The rest of the 31 Dayers are listed here.