I’d like to post some of my thoughts and experiences now that I’ve been in the (quasi) South for three weeks. People are more friendly and more talkative (when they’re not behind the wheel, but more about that below). I’ve already held many meaningful conversations with grocery store clerks, cashiers, gas station attendants and a few random strangers.

Of course, after a certain point I realize that while I think the conversation is winding down and I can leave, they are just getting warmed up, ready to go for 15 more minutes. I get a very confused, and sometimes wounded, look when I abruptly end the now-20-minute-long conversation about the weather and rush out the door.

I’ve also noticed bacon everywhere. I see large containers of it sitting out in several restaurants (where I would never expect to see a large vat of bacon), on sandwiches of which I never considered bacon as a garnish, and every fast food place has SOMETHING with bacon on it. Now I like bacon, but when it becomes ubiquitous, it loses its charm.

Was there some governor of Tennessee that proposed that the turn signal was actually an invention by Yankess to cause brain damage in Southern babies so that the North could invade again? Perhaps cars sold in the south come covered with some kind of poisonous ichor. Whatever the reason, people in Nashville think that the turn signal is some kind of horrible scourge BECAUSE THEY NEVER USE IT!!!!

I’ve had 2 close calls of broadsiding someone and I’ve sat thorugh innumerable green lights thinking that the person coming the other way was going straight, only to then see them swoop to the left as the light is turning red leaving me trapped in the same spot through the next red light.

However, I’ve enjoyed the friendlier atmosphere where asking someone on the street a question isn’t returned with a derisive sneer or being completely ignored.

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