Gone With the Wind
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Lauri Anne Jacobs
Oh, I wish I was in Dixie, away, away. In Dixieland I’ll take my stand to live and die in Dixie. For Dixieland I was born early Lord one frosty morn. Look away, look away, look away Dixieland. That’s a few lines from the song American Trilogy. Those few lines got me thinking about our southern heritage age, southern traditions and how they are slowly fading away soon to be gone with the wind. Factors like urbanization, increased migration from other regions of the country, and evolving social norms have influenced this shift in our culture.
Some of our traditions experiencing a decline with the younger generation are the southern drawl, front porch sitting, formal manners like yes ma’am and yes sir, church dinners, or dinner on the grounds, and family reunions. When the Baby Boomers of the church are gone, I worry the church dinners will die out, too. There are few Sunday family dinners where the whole family gathers after church to eat and fellowship. Some of my best childhood memories come from Sunday dinners after church at my grandparents’ house playing with my cousins till time to go home. That brings up the debate of what we call mealtimes. In my southern family, we call it breakfast, dinner, and supper. With the heavy influence from city slickers, it has evolved to breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I like what my Daddy says about it; he said, “In the Bible it’s the Lord’s Supper not the Lord’s dinner, and if it was good enough for the Lord it is good enough for you.”
In our small pocket of the Bible belt in the deep south, most of these traditions live on, but are still slowly fading, just not as fast as in larger towns. As regional migration increases, our southern drawl and manners are decreasing. I notice people and their behaviors, for instance, many children do not say yes ma’am, yes sir, and no ma’am and no sir like they used to. It is all I can do not to correct children I do not know on this matter. Another thing that puts a burr under my saddle is that men used to take their hats off when they sat down at the table to eat or came into church; now they leave them on in church, at the dinner table, and they even pray with them on. The Bible says, in 1 Corinthians 11:4, Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonoureth his head. Southern manners and the Bible are still very important and should be taught.
I can see urbanization and the concrete jungle slowly creeping into the rural south with developers buying up rural land to develop overcrowded housing subdivisions and shopping centers. I know we cannot stop progress or change, but we can dig our heels in to slow it down. I feel like Lynard Skynard did in their 1976 song All I Can Do is Write About It. It says, “Lord, I can’t make any changes, all I can do is write ’em in a song”, or in my case, an article. I pray it is a long time before all our southern culture, heritage, and history are gone with the wind. It is a beautiful way of life, lived at a slow pace with a slow southern drawl. A way of life that is widely misunderstood and underappreciated throughout the country.
