Nashville,
the state capital of Tennessee, has a small
town feel with cosmopolitan
diversity. Perhaps you have heard Nashville or Tennessee
called "Music City USA", "Athens
of the South", "Buckle
of the Bible Belt", "City
of Parks", "Nash-Vegas",
"Protestant Vatican",
"Hog & Hominy State"
or the "Wall Street of the
South". All of these names reflect a different side to
Nashville's personality. It attracts music fans, history buffs,
sports enthusiasts, businessmen, southerners, tourists, religious
people and even the curious.
NewsChannel 5's
SkyCam on top of the tallest building in Tennessee, the BellSouth
tower, can give you a stunning view of Nashville. Take the pictorial
tour.... it shows an interesting view of Nashville.
Nashville
is my hometown.... an All American City! God's Country! Dixieland!
And it's southern to the bone! I love it! I have lived here all my
life, and never want to move.
Western cowboy attire and
business suits, antebellum plantation homes and skyscrapers, dogwood
and magnolia trees all blend into familiar sights around Nashville.
Southern drawls are more the accepted way of speech, so if you have a
yankee twang, expect to hear "You ain't from around here, are
ya?" Folks are gracious and friendly. Children are taught to say
"ma'am" and "sir". We believe in southern
hospitality as a way of life.
Just so we do not have any
misconceptions of what is sacred in the South, here's a few facts.
Lot of families do call the siblings "bubba" and "sissy".
Double first names are more common than hyphenated last names. Duct
tape really does fix everythang. Kudzu grows faster than grass.
Waffle houses are our equivalent of coffee houses. There's always
room for one more at the dinner table.
Some people visualize
Southerners dressed in raggedy overalls chomping on a moon pie, which
actually was first concocted in Chattanooga, and swigging RC Cola,
which we never call "pop". Most Nashvillians enjoy good
downhome cooking and scrumptious soul food with either homemade
biscuits or skillet cornbread. A true Southern homemaker owns at
least one cast iron skillet and a rollin' pin. Fish is always served
with hush puppies, and almost any food can be battered with beer.
Country ham and red eye gravy is the start of a great breakfast. To
some folks, squirrel, possum, pig's feet, or chicken gizzards are a
delicacy. And yes, we do eat grits, chitlins, and turnip greens,
usually not together tho.
Tennessee does happen to be the
only state where it is legal to gather and consume "roadkill"
(legislation introduced by Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Knoxville and Rep.
Tommy Head, D-Clarksville). That sure makes for a diversified
menu!
The
weather is generally mild, although it can get up to the humid 90's
in the summer. Folks grow their own garden patches to share tomatoes,
cucumbers, okra and squash. Barefoot neighbors sit on their porch
sippin' ice tea, and anybody with any sense would rather have dinner
bbq'ed outdoors than cook in the kitchen. 'Sides a lot of men like to
be chefs of the grill. 'Bout the only drawback is skeeters
(mosquitoes to foreigners).
Nashville sees very little snow,
maybe a few sprinklings of several inches annually. Some people swear
that the weather forecasters are in the pay of the food stores,
because there is an accepted notion that a snow prediction requires a
trip to the grocery for milk and bread. Krogers always has a stampede
of folks stocking up at the first snowflake. The young at heart are
ecstatic to throw a few snowballs, but blizzards are unlikely. Dang
good thing since most of us can not drive very well in the white
fluffy stuff. And no, the majority did not learn on a John Deere
tractor. 'Course if you do get stuck in the icy ditch, some good ol
boys in a pickup truck with four wheel drive will happen along to
pull you out with chains. That's southern hospitality.
Nashville
is much more than meets the eye as our approximately six million
annual visitors and tourists discover.
Tennessee
is bordered by eight states, Kentucky and Virginia (N), North
Carolina (E), Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi (S), and Arkansas and
Missouri (W).
State
Tree: |
Tulip
Poplar |
|
State Songs: |
ROCKY TOP (1982) |
|
TENNESSEE WALTZ (1965) |
||
State Motto: |
Agriculture and Commerce |
|
State Slogan: |
"Tennessee - America at it's best!" |
HoneyHoney's Favorite Webrings
HoneyHoney's
Country Girl
Hullaballoo
http://www.geocities.com/bornhoney/