Saturday, September 10, 2011

Hey y'all

This is it. This is me digging down to my deep southern roots. Alright, I know I don't have any southern roots...but ever since I moved to South Carolina 4 months ago I like to pretend like I am a southerner. I am a total wannabe, a phony, a fake, an impostor...but that's OK, these people here are so friendly they don't seem to mind. There are even times when we are at a store or somewhere and I am confessing that I am really a California girl, born and raised...41 years on the west coast..yadda, yadda, yadda but then I will hit them with a 'shoot, I just love everything y'all do, I mean I ain't never lived somewhere so beautiful' and they just stand there looking at me like 'huh, wonder where that southern accent came from'.

This here blog is going to be where I come to use my best twang, talk about all things Carolina and share with you all the stories of our lives. Oh and maybe talk about my etsy business and any upcoming craft fairs I will be participating in. I hope you enjoy it.

One of the first things we learned when we moved here is that southerners take their food real serious. I mean like as serious as Italians take their food, and I happen to have some insight on that since I happen to be half Italian. Of course we want to fit in so as much as it pains us to try all this delicious, high caloric southern fare we are doing our best to eat our way through Greenville...one BBQ joint and restaurant at a time. Last week my husband and girls were out and about running errands while I was at home churning butter and taking care of the livestock...just kidding I ain't the Pioneer Woman or anything (although I wish I was, shoot that lady's got her own show on HGTV now) anyway I called my husband and asked him to pick up some lunch and bring it home. We had driven past this particular BBQ place hundreds of times and kept meaning to try it so I told him to pick up some food from there. Well friends I am here to tell you that one pork sandwich later and we were/are convinced we found the best barbecue in Greenville. It's a little place called Big Al's. It's just the cutest little building built to look like a barn. Well, here I will just show you-

I mean isn't it just darling? I have this picture because just two days after the first time we tried Big Al's I had to go back. I knew that I wanted to write about it so I went back with my camera in tow and took pictures of the place and introduced myself to the owners. Well shoot, wouldn't you know it, they are just about the nicest people you could ever want to meet. Their names are Pat and Al and they had so much pride in their place and so much love for what they do that it was just a pleasure to talk to them. I told them all about how much I love the south and how excited I was that we found them cause I plan on having them cook our Thanksgiving turkey for us (they smoke turkeys and hams for the holidays btw). I then got my pork sandwich and headed home. 

Barbecue isn't the only thing that we love about this place. We love how unbelievably beautiful it is. Everything is so green. I love how I can drive down the roads and everywhere I look there are horses and cows roaming around on farms. I mean for goodness sake who wouldn't love that. I have never in my life lived anywhere as beautiful as South Carolina.
Another thing I love is how super proud South Carolinians are of their state. Everywhere people are driving around with Palmetto tree stickers on the back of their cars (in case you didn't know the Palmetto tree is on the SC flag). The women wear shirts that declare 'Carolina Girl' real big across the back, I even have two of those shirts. Shoot I lived in California my entire life and never owned anything that told people I was a California girl. The only people who bought stuff that said anything about CA was the tourists. As locals we were entirely too cool to wear that kind of tourist ware. Here they wear it to show their pride and to make sure that everyone around knows this is where they belong. I wear mine because I want them to think I belong. I want to blend in with the rest of them. Don't get me wrong, I love California, it's my home.. it will ALWAYS be my home. It's where my family was and some of them still are. It's where all my friends are but I was so ready for a change and so in need of finding a new place to call home and well shoot I am pretty sure we found it. I look forward to sharing my journey with you here on this blog and I can't wait to share all things southern with y'all.

1 comment:

  1. Okay, I am laughing out load at this post! You crack me up, I am a total southern wanna-be as well. :) And that is okay with me. Thanks again for stopping by my blog, yours is super cute! Ya'll come back now. :)

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