Let no one get the impression that I am unhappy here. My first move south to SC from MA opened my eyes. My values are more in line with southern culture than that of my home state. I especially like many southern foods, but I wish for their own sake, that folks here would cut back a little on fat and large portions. I will miss some of then when they predecease me.

I always feel a little out of place among people whose family bible traces back ten or more generations. 2 short anecdotes:

When I worked close to the Sevier (TN) county line, I glanced through the phone book one day to discover more pages occupied by Ogles than any other name. Someone told me 4 surnames made up 25% of the population. Tell me how you accomplish that without a lot of inbreeding?

Soon after we moved here, my 2 youngest sons came home after a Friday night at the mall with friends. I asked who they had hung out with. the youngest one told me, and added that they had incremented their crowd with several cousins of friends. "Isn't that weird", he said, "I thought cousins were supposed to live in another state."