Are Grits Groceries apparently had parents who weren't primitives. These good god fearing folk tried, but it seems that they pampered their little angel a little too far when they gave it MAD magazine.
Thu Jun 20, 2013, 03:04 AM
Are_grits_groceries (12,751 posts)
Growing Up Sideways In The Straight And Narrow South
Last edited Thu Jun 20, 2013, 04:30 AM USA/ET - Edit history (1)
(I am reposting this from a couple of years ago. There are many people in the South who aren't Rethugs. They have constantly worked for change and are still working. It isn't easy and never has been. Despite all that has happened and is happening, the work continues.
A lot of people have the same story as mine with their own distinct variations.)
Your right, a lot of the democrats, old and new are racist. I've always walked my own way. I was the first Republican in my family. I was warned repeatedly about "marrying a girl that wasn't white". The blacks I knew voted for the most corrupt politicians imaginable because "he represents us", the democrat politician was black and notoriously corrupt.
Growing up in the South can be an odd and peculiar experience. You don't realize how odd until you venture into other places and meet other people. When you are kids, you may think everybody has the same experiences. Hell, I know adults who believe that.
Gee, I thought other places were odd and peculiar when I encountered them. Kids simply have no idea how others grow up.
Imagine my shock when I found out that people didn't know all the battles of 'The Great Unpleasantness' in order and the bios of all officers. Didn't everybody have a picture of General Robert E. Lee hanging with all the family pictures. We called him Uncle Bobby for years.
We didn't, than again my grandfather was Finnish.
Then there was CHURCH. We had to go to church no matter where we were. If I was visiting relatives, we went to their church. We were members of the Methodist Church which is a mild version of faith where I lived. When I would visit, I went to a lot of churches with a variety of styles. I never really connected the fact the that they were all Christian.
They all read from the same bible, and not every sermon is the same. You couldn't figure that out. Try being raised bouncing between Baptist and Pentecost.
For as long as I can remember, I never liked church or any of it's auxiliary activities. I didn't want to be wearing a dress and listening to somebody wail about going to hell if I wasn't good. I figured my place in the Netherworld had been booked for a long time. There wasn't anyway around that. I didn't worry about the afterlife and decided to get my money's worth if I was spending eternity in the tropics.
Yeah, they required work and a belief in something higher than you. DUmmies don't really do either.
I wasn't the typical Southern child to say the least. There was a group of five of us who spent a lot of time growing up together, and none of us fit the model of conformity. We got a good dose of church and local mores, but we never quite stayed in line or kept the right step. Our parents tried, but they wondered if we were changelings.
Ask everyone else that you think you were so different and apart from. Is it still rebelling if everyone is thinking the same thing?
I believe there were 2 major factors that directed our lives away from the norm when we were little. First of all, we got it honest. Several of my aunts, uncles, and other relatives jumped off the beaten path from time to time. Some stayed off of it. So we not only had a variety of role models, but also a streak of independence in our DNA. Our parents would conveniently forget about any of these people.
In other words your aunts and uncles involved themselves in things detrimental to their health. You thought it sounded like fun.
The second thing that lead us further astray was 'Mad' magazine. There was little or no access to a variety of views growing up. Rocky and Bullwinkle were great teevee models. Mr. Bunny Rabbit on the Captain Kangaroo was a budding rebel. Beyond that, we were on our on.
Then came the great unveiling. A freckle-faced kid with buck teeth and a bad haircut descended from on high on uttered the words we were to learn as holy. The heavens rolled back and the groung shook as he spaketh, "What, me worry?"
Our parents did vary from many in that they bought comic books for us, and they assumed that 'Mad' was just a larger type. Little did they know that it was a veritable gold mine for wayward youths. We learned Phd level snark and mockery from 'Mad'. Nothing was sacred, and that was fine with us. That magazine looked at the world sideways, and we adjusted our sight lines accordingly. They stayed that way.
We prostrated oursleves before our new lord and wept and prayed openly, rejoicing that a new god had emerged that would teach us to view the world as a joke. A god that viewed only snark as sacred.
The five of us were a tribe of independents within a culture of lockstep belief. As soon as we got out from under our parents, we never set foot in a church again. We didn't openly rebel earlier at going because it wasn't worth the hassle. We went and listened to the rhetoric and compared it to reality. That honed our sharp view of religion.
He declared, "Arise, my followers, go forth and snark." We were freed from the shackles of a god that commanded us not to sin. We listened to preachers and compared them to our new god. Slavishly Alfred E. Newman was praised.
Off we have gone in many ways since we were little. None have been on the beaten path. My brother informed me that he was a Druid. I informed him that I could care less, but that Mama might be a twee bit unsettled. And so it goes.
That's because your brother is an even bigger moonbat than you.
There are many little tribes like this that have grown up down here. Many have lead to people dedicated to change. Some have lead to people such as Stephen Colbert who is dedicated to snark. Some of us are dedicated to both.
Yeah, I know your type. I grew up in the South. You ever stop to wonder why your neighbors can't really stand your sanctimonious ass.
It is the Bible Belt, but a belt can only hold up so much.
Well doesn't this little snowflake think he is unique.
Half-Century Man (626 posts)
2. Spent 8(+) years in the south due to MSgt Dad's duty stations
Being jewish in the south in the 60s was interesting. We didn't hold ourselves apart, but were set apart by the locals when we had to live off base.
My 4th grade teacher in Selma Ala. didn't know quite what to do with me. She held me tenderly at arms length, like a was an extremely greasy/ dirty kitten. I got corporal punishment (10 strokes) in Fla cause I went home during school hours, over choir songs I refused to sing.
Mad Magazine was great, so were those buns they served at lunch in school (I remember them from Selma Ala, and Biloxi Mis).
Now some of this may actually be true, but I don't recall anyone being forced to sing songs.
Response to Half-Century Man (Reply #2)
Thu Jun 20, 2013, 09:08 AM
LuvNewcastle (3,484 posts)
5. Y'all were probably better off being set apart.
I had a friend named Jeremy when I was in junior high. We were in band together and we used to hang out and eat lunch together and talk. I was a misfit and Jeremy was a bit of a nerd, so we were a good match as friends.
I knew from our many conversations that Jeremy's family were Jews and they attended the Unitarian church. I didn't know much about Jews or Unitarians. I did know that they weren't Christians, but that was a plus as far as I was concerned. I was already at my wit's end with Christians by then, and it was a relief not to hear someone talk about church.
I don't remember the reason for it, but Jeremy came home with me after school one day. I didn't usually have friends over. I didn't want them to get the 20 questions from my parents. Well, what do you know, one of the first things my mother said to him was, "why don't you come to church with us?" I told her Jeremy was Jewish and she said, "so, he can still go to church." I don't know why my mother did that. I swear, religion to her was like a product that she was always trying to sell to everybody. She had never embarrassed me so much in front of my friends, and I got Jeremy the hell out of there.
I apologized to him over and over after we left. He was really cool about it. He told me to forget about it. He got a lot of respect from me after that.
We eventually moved away from there and I changed schools. I lost track of Jeremy, but I think about him every now and then. I hope the Baptists didn't get him.
So your mom invited your friend to church and those was a horrid slight? I'll let you in on a secret, I've attended mass (not a catholic) and sermon in a synagogue (not a jew). Your friend wouldn't have caught fire upon walking in.
madokie (36,956 posts)
3. How I became an atheist
Growing up I was raised in the southern Babtist Church. I remember once asking my dad if it was ok if I went to church with my new friends. He said son you are free to go to any church you want to go too but I'm here to tell you you won't like it. It being Church of God. I accepted the invite and away we go to my friends church. Every thing was fine, some pretty girls I'd not met yet yada yada and the sermon was pretty much what I was used to, hell fire and brimstone and all that. The singing was pretty much the same but when my friends mother started talking in what later I was informed was 'talking in tongues' or some such, anyways and the Preacher pulled off his shoe and started the wailing and beating on the pulpit with his shoe and 'talking in tongues' I couldn't get out of there fast enough. I was just a kid mind you and I ran back home. When I got home my dad said, I told you so. At the Baptist church the message always was that if you weren't Baptist you were going to hell and at the friends church the message was the same if you didn't belong to that church you were going to hell. So I lost my religion right then and there, been atheist ever since. Don't bother with with a sermon as I won't listen. Done heard all that I care to hear.
I've had many Assembly of God pastors and many Baptist pastors through the years. I only ever encountered one that said you have to be a member of his church to get to heaven. I left his church. What almost cost me my faith was being told that church doctrine couldn't be questioned.
