Outsider's Look at the South

I got this pic off the internet

I am watching Hart of Dixie over again.  I watched the first season or so when it first came out, but then I dropped out of the show.  Of course, that was back when I lived in Maryland and didn't know we would be moving here.

It's about a heart surgeon who moves from New York City to Alabama to practice medicine.  The culture shock is the premise of the whole show.  We watch her clumsily assimilate, eventually meeting boyfriends and friends.

As a woman who moved from the Baltimore Washington metropolis area to a small-ish town in Alabama, I think this show is even funnier this time.  Here is what I see this time that I didn't see last time.  Just a few episodes in, these things crack me up because they are spot on.  Well, except the accents.

I can tell almost everyone has fake accents.  They used to all sound the same to me.

"Roll Tides" are sprinkled everywhere.  Like 5-10 times every episode.  On cars, in stores, spoken in town, on clothes.  That is exactly what it looks like here.  Even their town bar/grill is called the Rammer Jammer, which is an Alabama football thing.

High school football is supported by the whole town, with "Go Cats" signs everywhere - in stores, in restaurants, and tons of people who aren't even in high school wear shirts supporting them.  (This one is my town.  The show does this stuff too.)

Confusing expressions that don't make sense.

Snake bites, tick bites.  The doctor on the show has no idea how to treat these, and I had no idea how to look for snakes in the woods.  I am learning.  Now that bears are moving in, I am looking for them too.

Double first names.  For boys and girls.  I thought this was a new thing, but according to the show, it's an old thing that is coming back.

Alabama / Auburn rivalry.  Enough said.  It is everywhere here.

It's October and there is ANOTHER heat wave.  I have witnessed it being Christmas and we had another heat wave.

Grits are beloved.  Not.  Sure.  Why.  They taste like rice and have no nutritional benefit.

On Sunday everything is closed, the town is deserted, and everyone is at church.

Fishing / boat trailers everywhere.  Water everywhere - lakes, rivers, creeks.  And fishing on every bit of it is what everyone does.

Sweet tea is incredibly sweet.  The New Yorker spit it out it was so sweet.

Deer and plenty of other wildlife everywhere.

Somehow there are pies and cookies and barbeque and tons of fried food around, yet the women are thin and gorgeous.  (The men aren't, but no one cares.)

In 90+ degree heat, women are wearing full makeup, plus sweaters over their summer dresses, AND their hair down.  I know they may be filming in a cooler location, but that is what southern women do.  How do they not sweat off the makeup?  How does their hair not frizz and stick to their sweaty faces?  I do not understand.  I feel like I have acclimated to the heat, but that just means I am used to sweating nonstop.

All the people I meet here are from here, or from just one town or one state over - so still from the south.  All of this is normal to them and they don't know a life without it.  Now that we are two weeks away from living here three full, wonderful years, it's my life and my home too.