Southern Hospitality
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5/4/2007
It really isn't just Memphis--but if you are not from the southern town or city you live in, prepared to be on your own. Southerners are very family-oriented. Family and church, the extended family, take up much of their week--Sundays, Wednesdays and depending on the group, probably some other time as well. Southerners are hospitable, but what does that actually mean? It means a kind of superficial "happy to see you," "never met a stranger" attitude. But the welcome ends if you are not of the group, not a member of the family or the extended family. Do not make the mistake of making eye contact or of speaking with a stranger because it is clear, after 30 years among them, that for southerners, eye-contact or casual chatting is a "shooting offense." This is even supported by clinical evidence--this is the code duello part of the world after all.
Need help? Southerners are there to help. Want to make friends who will invite you over for a holiday or respond to your invitation if you are not related to them? Forget it. To live among them is to be fairly lonely if not downright rejected on a daily basis.
Eric | Memphis, TN