C. L. Bledsoe “Stray” [2007 revisited]
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I grew up on a catfish and rice farm in eastern Arkansas. I must admit, I will take biscuits and gravy over grits any day, though.
Annette Cooper: “The Red Crochet Skirt” from Oct 2000
The Red Crochet Skirt When I found the faded photograph of me taken forty-something years ago wearing the red crocheted skirt, I remembered the balls of red yarn bought one a time from Newberry’s Five and Dime. I remember the...
John McCaffrey “Clamming in January” [2007 revisited]
As for my southern legitimacy: sweet tea. Once, when visiting family in Mocksville, North Carolina, I drank so much during the week that I had something akin to the sugar DT's when I got back north. Snapple can not compare.
Celia McClinton “About Dr. Smilnik” [2007 revisited]
Celia is southern. She knows it, we know it... and Mule readers of our previous 10 years of literary excellence know she's southern.
“Life Story” by Lauren “Elyse” Phillips (58 word micro-fiction) 2007
As for Southern Legitimacy: I couldn't possibly be more Southern. Paw-Paw is a cotton farmer, Aunt Jean's favorite phrase is "for cryin' in the cow butter!", and the little old ladies in the grocery store used to run up and touch my head so they wouldn't give me "ojo." If the preacher's sermon went long, he'd apologize for holding up dinner. "Kudzu," "The Lockhorns," and "Tumbleweeds" were all staples in the morning paper where I grew up, though I've never seen mention of any of them elsewhere until now. I left home, but it's shaped me, and most of what I write is about the love/hate relationship I have with my Southern past.
“Searching for Amy Spain” by Merry Speece [2007 revisited]
From the summer of 1989 to the summer of 2001 I lived in South Carolina. Before moving there I had not heard of the Gullah language and many other things. For the first eight years that I lived there, I read regional histories, old letters, diaries, cookbooks, etc., and took notes. Then I spent the next two years arranging the notes. The result was my Sisters Grimke Book of Days, which was published by Oasis Books (England) in 2003.
“Christmas I-55” by John Calvin Hughes
Southern Legitimacy Statement:
I’m John Calvin Hughes, son of a son of a preacher chased out of Mississippi for plucking the flock. I’m a southern (if I spell it southren you’ll get it, right?) boy who moved south and found himself surrounded by Yankees. I’m in Orlando. There's not a hill in sight and the restaurants that specialize in “Real Southern Cooking” put sugar in the cornbread. I'm making my own red eye gravy
Gideon Kennedy: Blast from the Past
By Gideon C. Kennedy The Desire of Wrestling A southern experience “Weighing in at 250 pounds and hailing from Shermer, Illinois, The Nature Toy Devin Desire!” The goateed ring announcer directs the audience’s attention to one of the...
Barbara Conrad “Scar Tracks” from 2000
My daddy got branded on a day in a southern summer hot enough to make a plow mule kick, and that’s just what happened along a dusty old road, Daddy out to fetch the mail with my uncle marvin, his...