My South

This is the poem that is featured in the new book "My South" and on the DVD.

My South has a chip on its shoulder.
My South doesn’t care how you did it up North.

My South does NOT talk funny! And no, we will not say “dawg” again just for your amusement!

My South is TIRED of y’all tryin’ to sound Southern on TV, making jokes about Rednecks and still comin’ down here every year cloggin’ up our beaches and mountains.

My South gave you William Faulkner, Pat Conroy, Tennessee Williams AND Thomas Wolfe. Whattayou got?

My South invented NASCAR and you wish you did. My South is Dale Earnhardt #3 and #8. My south is Tobacco Road and Football Friday nights. My South is Dean Smith, Hank Aaron and WOOOOO! Ric Flair.

My South is Hank Williams 1, 2 AND 3. Toby Keith AND the Dixie Chicks. OutKast AND Earl Scruggs. My South is Stevie Ray Vaughan, Waylon Jennings and By God Johnny Cash will NEVER Die as long as I’m still wearing black.

My South has attitude and a long memory. My South has learned from her mistakes. My South gave you George Wallace AND Dr. King, and my South still has that dream.

My South is my daddy getting’ up at 5 o’clock every morning, climbin’ into a log truck and workin’ like a dog past dark every night. At 75 years old. My South is still calling her “Mama” after all these years and not thinkin’ nothing about it. My South is homemade peach ice cream, cookin’ a pig for Fourth of July, cake walks at square dances and a mountain of casseroles after my brother’s funeral, because my South takes care of her own.

My South is freeways AND Dirt roads. Pig pickin’s AND gourmet cuisine. Merlefest AND Spoleto. My South revels in our contradictions and is never, EVER short on style.

My name is John Givens Hartness from Bullock Creek South Carolina and this is My South.