The trigger, the last straw

So, how long have I lived down here. Well all my life. "All your life", you might say, "Then doesn't that make you a southerner?" Well, no, while the south has been my environment, it surely has not been my upbringing. Both my parents are from Buffalo, New York. Me and my sister are the first generation from either side of my family to live below Pennsylvania. We were raised by two northern parents, in a very northern way. The music around my house was not country, the accent was not slack-jawed, the food was not deep fried, and hunting deer was not taught as a semi-religion.

Ever since I was old enough to know better, I always felt as if I was a stranger in a strange land. I might as well have been walking on Mars instead of my hometown. No one around me was Catholic like I am. No one around me talked like I did. At the Boy's Club they chewed tobacco (sick). I wanted a bowl of oatmeal and got "grits". I could get all the BBQ I wanted but couldn't get a brat (bratwurst) to save my life, not to mention, kielbasa, pirogi, or a good beef-on-weck. The only thing I knew that when I would vacation in Buffalo to see family, ESPECIALLY when I got older, things just suddenly made, sense!

I have harbored reservations for the south, especially the state I live in, Arkansas. But I find that over the last few years these reservations have morphed into deep seeded resentment for being exiled down here. Are there good things about where I live, oh, sure, a few, but the things that are not so good. HOO! yeah, a touch overshadowing.

That is why I started this blog, even if no one ever notices it, or reads it, it will be my outlet, my railings, my manifesto against all things so, so, so, so very wrong about this area of the country. And for those of you who think I just need a change of attitude, I say I will change my attitude the second I change my latitude! And it all started this morning, this morning is when I knew I had to put these thoughts down on electronic paper or they will succeed in eating away at my brain until it imploded on itself. I call it "The trigger, and the last straw"

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