For
those of you who haven’t already figured this out, I am a huge fan of Southern
Living magazine. In my opinion
Southern Living is somewhat of a Southern bible, and if it suggests anything of
its readers, I am the first one to preach its words to anyone who will
listen.
In
the May issue of SL they did a segment on Mother’s Day, specifically Southern
mothers, entitled “Mama always said…”.
In this article there is a sidebar written by Aaron Deal containing
eight rules every Southern woman should live by, and it is high time I shared
my favorites with you.
Number One: It’s never too soon to send a thank-you
note.
Number Two: Southerners
never put dark meat in their chicken salad and always use real mayonnaise.
Number Three: A real
Southern girl should own an iced-tea pitcher and a deviled-egg plate.
Number
one is pretty self-explanatory.
I’ve had this one figured out for a while, courtesy of my Southern
mama. She was always on my tail
after every birthday making sure I wrote my thank-yous nice and proper. Now, I will be the first to admit that
although I write thank-yous for the traditional reasons, I am not quite as
advanced in the art as some of the other Southern women I know. For example, my cousin, Amanda, has
definitely stepped it up and has taken thank-you writing to another level. She writes notes “just
because”. I think that’s the mark
of a very classy Southern lady, the kind that can make you feel special and
thought of with a few strokes of a pen and the lick of an envelope.
I
don’t have a whole lot to say about number two other than I don’t care what
kind of diet you are on, if you ain’t eating real mayonnaise, honey, the what
the heck is the point? There are
some things that are worth the calories and real mayo is one of ‘em.
Number
three is where I must make a confession.
Apparently, until yesterday, I wasn’t a real Southern girl. I know, I know; you’re all shocked. I was too. Needless to say, ever since I read this article, an iced-tea
pitcher and a deviled-egg tray have been at the top of my “need to buy”
list. It took me a good three
months to actually purchase these items, but I am now proud to say that I am a
real Southern girl (at least according to Mr. Deal)!
So
to all you so-called Southern ladies out there…make sure you’re reading your
Southern bibles. Apparently some
of us have been breaking the 10 Commandments of Southern Hospitality,
and I would hate for any of us to get talked about at the beauty salon for lacking
in certain serving dishes….
