No woman is an island to herself

Last weekend the weather in North Georgia was phenomenal, and I had the awesome opportunity to ride up through the mountains. It was amazing. I have rarely driven north past Dahlonega, and last Saturday provided the perfect amount of sunlight for one to properly appreciate the deep colors of North Georgia.<br /> <br /> The clouds seemed endless; fluffy puffs like white cotton arranged in a translucent periwinkle glass jar of Southern sky.<br /> <br /> It was also a great day because I was with one of my best friends in the whole wide world. Trips seem so much more fabulous when you are with the ones you love.<br /> <br /> It is spiritual riding through the exaggerated s curves of Blairsville, Georgia. I found it to also become quite nauseating. I had so much quiet time which for me is rare. I was able to reflect.<br /> <br /> Only in the South will you see a side street named "Knobby Bottom" or a BBQ stand that will also sell you bait and ice. It's really a cultural icon, the South that is. The U.S. map is full of big cities like Philadelphia, Boston, New York. But in all honesty I would much rather spend a lazy Sunday afternoon at a picnic table well-worn by the high noon sun in the great Peach State.<br /> <br /> Find me a meadow full of tall yellow grass, lilacs and the faint smell of figs anywhere else on the map, and I will gladly go there and criticize the landscape until you will want to pay to have me shipped back to the South.<br /> <br /> Now don't get me wrong. I wasn't always as proud of my southern roots. As a reformed "ya'll slinger" I prefer to end my sentences with punctuation rather than prepositions these days.<br /> <br /> Maybe as I get older, I am seeing that part of the great thing about being a member of the GRITS clan, (Girl Raised In The South) is that I share some heritage with those great Southern women who came before me. Women like Margaret Mitchell, Dolly Parton and my own family members who lived in the South through the great depression, my great maternal grandmother Elizabeth Patillo, and her daughter my mother's mother, Lizzy Anlee Duncan-Lord.<br /> <br /> And then there was my father's mother. Maude Opal Manders-Ramey. Nanny "O" as we called her. She would go get a perm and then come over and sit on the floor and play with me and allow me to take a comb to her freshly permed tresses. She didn't cared that I would end up combing out her perm. My mother would scold me, "Katie stop that she just had her hair done." My grandmother's response, "Leave that baby alone. As long as she is paying me attention let her be." Now what New Yorker's grandma would subject herself to a 5-year-old with a comb in hand?<br /> <br /> I also remember that Nanny "O" would say, "A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck" meaning it was time for her to go and she wanted hugs before we parted. What a sweet sentiment, what a sweet woman. Only in the South can you find a woman with a spirit that sweet and true.<br /> <br /> I hope one day I will not be this island of woman, but be able to join hands with those who came before me and contribute to the sisterhood of raising daughters in the south.<br /> <br /> My favorite writer, Allison Glock, said it best in her article titled Southern Women.<br /> <br /> "When you are born in to a history as loaded as the South's, when you carry in your bones the incontrovertible knowledge of man's violence and limitations, daring to stay sweet is about the most radical thing you can do."<br /> <br /> Stay sweet ladies and gentleman.<br /> <br /> <i>Katie Austin is a Buford native and has been with Jacobs Media since 2006. She is involved in social media, news, and is the first person you meet at the front desk when entering Jacobs Media Corporation. Katie reports from North Georgia's newsroom, is a staff writer for AccessNorthGa.com and is also a WDUN TV newscast anchor. Contact her at [email protected] or 770-531-6500.</i>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2011/9/241827