Southern culture confuses people in Los Angeles. The differences between Southern California and the deep south are surprisingly many. Here are only six of the things that either bother people here, blow their minds, or make them utterly confused.
1. Why I’m always talking about BBQ, Cracker Barrel, Zaxbys and Sweet Tea
Trying to explain the glory of BBQ back home is like trying to explain to someone on the west coast how I’ve never had an In-N-Out Burger. There are great cheap BBQ joints everywhere in the south. Full Moon BBQ, Sonny’s, Jim N Nick’s, Miss Myra’s, Johnny Ray’s and my favorite, Golden Rule. Each are great and inexpensive. In LA, there is an incredible lack of BBQ joints and the ones we do have simply aren’t as good and are way more expensive.
Also, if you haven’t had Cracker Barrel’s chicken and dumplings or Zaxby’s chicken, you can’t call yourself southern. Not to mention that every time I go to a restaurant that doesn’t have sweet tea as a drink option, a little piece of me dies. Hint, none of them do and adding sugar to cold brewed tea isn’t sweet tea.
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2. Why I love college football and not professional football
I get this a lot. “You’re not in college. Why would you watch college football?,” “Why wouldn’t you like a professional team? They’re so much better” and “Stop saying Roll Tide so much, you sound like an idiot.”
College football in the south is our culture, it’s our life, it’s our obsession. We wait all year for it and when it comes, every weekend is an excuse for a party and some BBQ. In Alabama, we don’t have a professional team, so even if we wanted to watch one, we wouldn’t know who to root for. The Tennessee Titans? A Vol’s team? No thanks. The Atlanta Falcons? Don’t make me laugh.
3. Why I keep opening the door for people
The first time I opened the door for a lady friend here, she called me sexist. “Are my arms are broken? You think I’m so weak I can’t open a door on my own?” Ummm no. I just do this cause that’s what my momma told me to. Also, I respect women and like to show them that through simple gestures. So, you know, the opposite of what you said.
I was taught to have manners. When a lady gets up from the table, I stand up. If I get my food before everyone else, I don’t eat till they get theirs. I call anyone older than me Sir or Ma’am. This isn’t because I think you’re old, it’s a sign of respect.
4. How I could miss the rain
Every day between 3 and 5pm in Florida, it rains. It doesn’t just rain, it pours. It’s a big thunderstorm that lasts about 20 minutes, then stops completely. In Alabama, there are huge thunderstorms that happen a few times a month. Sometimes they last over a week.
The best sleep you’ll ever have is in a thunderstorm in a house with a tin roof. There’s something so amazing about it. Here, it “rains” a few times a year and it’s always light and never a thunderstorm. Besides my family, that’s probably what I miss the most.
5. Leaving our doors unlocked
There is a weird feeling of safety in the south. You often leave your doors unlocked, which you definitely shouldn’t, just because it feels safer.
In the first few months of living in LA, we had a deranged woman beat on our door screaming about being quiet (We were indeed already asleep and had been for hours). She left a scathing note that made zero sense. That would never happen in the south. It just safer there.
6. Distances
Here it can take an hour and a half to get 5 miles in heavy traffic. Without traffic, it’s at least 30 minutes. Back at home I got from my place to Warrior, Alabama which is about 50 miles in about 50 minutes.
Moving here is suchhhhh a culture shock. You learn very quickly that here you don’t talk directions in miles but in time. “Yeah, take the 405 to the 101 and get off at Vine. Should be about an hour.”