Last night we had a sociology professor come in from a university that shall not be named to talk to us about the nature of the South and why it is a distinctive region of the country.
Here are a few of the reasons I found most fascinating:
•certain plants like kudzu are only found in the area we think of as the South
• most of the cotton grown in the US is also found here
• the South also has the most rural poor of any part of the country—fortunately this characteristic of the South is disappearing
• you really can only find grits as a menu item in this part of the country
• the South has really low rates of beer consumption as a result of the high number of Southern Baptists
• this is the only part of the entire world where Southern Baptists are in the majority
• very few cremations are done in this region
• the number of executions is higher than in other parts of the country
• the South lays claim to the highest number of professional football players
• the South has the highest rates of soft drink consumption per person. Remember: Coca-Cola started here. Perhaps Southerners were looking for something to replace the fact that they wouldn't drink beer!
Asheville doesn't necessarily feel like the South, but the South sure is a unique place—especially according to our speaker last night. I wish you could have seen all the maps he showed us to display the statistics above. Amazing!
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