Y'all Magazine – February 2005 by Yall Magazine

PAT CONROY | 50 YEARS OF MEMPHIS MUSIC | MARDI GRAS | LARRY THE CABLE GUY | GIRL SCOUTS

ʼall

FEBRUARY 2005

THE M AGA ZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

AMY GRANT GRANT Keeping the Faith

SOUTHERNER IN CHIEF

BILL CLINTON Home in Arkansas

AND “BARNEY”

www.yall.com

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005

$3.95 U.S. / $5.95 CAN

GEORGE W. BUSH

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n o c o m m e r c i a l i n t e r r u p t i o n s . n o c ab

know books.

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ble outages. no tuning in next week.

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ʼall

THE M AGA ZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE Volume 3 | Number 1

this-n-that

Peter Kramer/Getty Images

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Where Y’all?

On the Money

Bible Belt

GRITS

Cajun Humor

Cooking with Pat Conroy

Wine Down South

Cranky Yankee

Star Gazing

Blue Collar

What Southern Women Know

Capturing hot Southern stars, from Dollywood to Hollywood. Money man Dave Ramsey gets you prepared for a Total Money Makeover. Wrestler-turned-Evangelist Ted DiBiase, the “Million Dollar Man.” “Ms. Grits” Deborah Ford keeps it Southern. Tommy Joe Breaux makes you laugh with “De Exercise Class.”

Best-selling novelist Pat Conroy has his first cookbook. Discover Pat’s romantic recipe. Doc Lawrence gets you and yours ready for Valentine’s Day.

The snakes come out at night. Joe LoCicero reports from Hollywood.

Git-R-Done with Larry the Cable Guy!

Ronda Rich’s dose of Dixie wisdom.

82 Laura A. McElroy

MEMPHIS CELEBRATES 50 YEARS OF ROCK & ROLL: Back in 1954, Memphis and its musicians took the whole world by storm with a new kind of sound. From Elvis to Jerry Lee, the Bluff City celebrates the accomplishments of yore.

Rod Aydelotte-Pool/Getty Images

GEORGE W. BUSH: The South went Red on Election Day 2004 as fellow Southerner George W. Bush swept the region. Bush will be the Southerner-inChief in Washington for another four years. The President and First Lady Laura Bush have had one heckuva ride since their days in West Texas.

Dixie Destination Hit the slopes this winter at a Southern ski resort. Who needs Aspen?

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

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A&M Records

features 14

Amy Grant Hitmaker Amy Grant has conquered both the Christian and pop charts over the past two decades. Today, Grant and hubby Vince Gill balance their musical life with family.

Jimmy Dean

Manuel Fashion Designer

Jamie Denton

The country legend and sausage maker pens his autobiography, 30 Years of Sausage, 50 Years of Ham.

The South has some hot new music to listen to as you get in the mood for Valentine’s Day. Oklahoma newcomer Katrina Elam, blues singer R.L. Burnside, Southern Gospel and even O.A.R. make great options.

Mexican immigrant Manuel has designed clothing for many of the world’s most famous entertainers. The Nashvillian has quite a collection.

Clarksville, Tenn. native Jamie Denton is turning heads and breaking hearts on the hit ABC show Desperate Housewives.

44 Eva Longoria Desperate Housewives

(Eva Longoria)Evan Agostini-Getty Images

Deep South Family Barbecue

Jessi ‘s Diary

Children of the Movement

Dying South

southern sounds

The touching story of a Florida family and its love of barbecue, even in the most difficult of times.

The Southern travels of rising country music star Jessi Alexander. Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter John Blake pens a unique book touching on the impact of the Civil Rights Movement...on the children of the key figures. Is the South losing its cultural identity? Or, will “y’all” and grits be a part of the Southern experience 1,000 years from now?

A Southern Bird Hunt Politicians flock to Mississippi to help fund Field Trials.

MARDI GRAS IN ALABAMA Mobile – and not The Big Easy – is the birthplace of Mardi Gras in America. 300 years of revelry keep Alabama’s port city fired up, at least until Ash Wednesday rolls around. JANUARY/FERUARY 2005 • Y’ALL

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inside

CLINTON/BEN CHRISMAN/GETTY IMAGESM, CIARA/VINCE BUCCI/GETTY IMAGES, BOB HARPER/COURTESY OF NBC

inner VIEW Bob Harper “Trainer to the Stars” Bob Harper maintains a pragmatic, healthy life.

Bill Clinton The Arkansan returns home to Little Rock to open up his “glorified trailer,” the Clinton Presidential Library.

Ciara R&B newcomer Ciara went to No. 1 with her single, “Goodies.” Discover the Atlanta teen’s success.

PROVIDED BY KING/CONROY

UT SPORTS INFORMATION

Pat Summitt

NCAA Women’s Basketball legend Summitt has been the pillar of success for the Tennessee Lady Vols. Pat balances time on the court with her family.

Cassandra King

The Alabama novelist’s newest book, The Same Sweet Girls, hits stores. King shares her love of writing with novelisthusband Pat Conroy.

Scout Cookies 76 Girl The Southern-made delicacy is a sweet break during the winter.

In Memoriam

Chris Watson Humor

Y’all of Fame Juilette Gordon Low The founder of Girl Scouts has impacted the lives of millions of young Southern girls.

Remembering Southerners who have passed to the Great Beyond. Husbands and wives can’t get along...at least behind the wheel.

ON THE COVER:

LARRY BROWN/GABEPALACIO/IMAGEDIRECT

PRESIDENT: DUANE A. LAVERTY-POOL/GETTY IMAGES, BUSH FAMILY: BY NEWSMAKERS, GRANT: A&M RECORDS, CLINTON: JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES

JANUARY/FERUARY 2005 • Y’ALL

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yʼall

State of the South

™

THE M AGA ZINE OF

My fellow Southerners, the start of a new year is the perfect opportunity to take a moment and be proud you’re Southern. Hey, if for no other reason, it’s about 20 degrees warmer here than in other parts of the country right now.

SOUTHERN PEOPLE ™

President & Publisher Jon Rawl jon@yall.com Managing Editor Molly Fergusson molly@yall.com

VP & Associate Publisher Keith Sisson keith@yall.com

Art Director Carroll Moore carroll@yall.com

Account Executive Meredith Dabbs meredith@yall.com

(662)236-1928 Circulation Director Rachel Thompson Twiford rachel@yall.com New Media Andy Young andy@yall.com Asst. Managing Editor Mary-Kathryn Millner Copy Editor Dianne S. Fergusson Illustrators Don Maters Michael Nozinich Contributing Writers Marty Stuart Deborah Ford Pat Conroy Ronda Rich Christopher Watson Kristin Gravatt Tonya J. Powers Maria Cornelius Michelle Lindsey Sam McClatchy Tommy Joe Breaux Larry the Cable Guy Doc Lawrence Lorie Hollabaugh Dave Ramsey Annabelle Robertson J.E. Pitts Virginia Shields Jessi Alexander John Blake Vicki Brown Joe LoCicero Laurie Stieber Jennifer Russell

Editorial Assistants Jenna Blackwell Tabatha Gardner Michael Nozinich Rusty Ballentine Matthew Bandermann

Alabama Bureau Paula Sullivan Dabbs alabama@yall.com Arkansas Bureau Jason Nall arkansas@yall.com Kentucky Bureau Colleen Cassity kentucky@yall.com Tennessee Bureau Joshua Wilkins tennessee@yall.com Texas Bureau Matt Heermans texas@yall.com Virginia Bureau Clay Reynolds virginia@yall.com Publishing Consultant Samir Husni

Circulation

Y’all is published bimonthly by General Rawl Media, LLC (January/ February 2005), Volume 3, Number 1. Editorial and advertising offices at 1006 Van Buren, Suite 211, Oxford, MS 38655-3900. Mailing address: P.O. Box 1217, Oxford, MS 38655. Telephone: 662-236-1928. Basic subscription rate: 6 issues, U.S. $24.95; Canada $32.69. 12 issues, U.S. $34.95; Canada $45.80. Entire contents copyright 2005, General Rawl Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Products named in these pages are tradenames or trademarks of their respective companies. Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect that of the publisher. For subscriptions, queries, and customer service, please visit www. yall.com Y’all Magazine Business phone: 662-236-1928. E-mail us at: mail@yall.com Subscriptions: Toll-Free 1-800-935-5185 Application to mail at Periodical Postage Rates is Pending at Oxford, Mississippi and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Y’all, P.O. Box 1217, Oxford, MS 38655-1217. Printed in the USA.

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Y’all Magazine showcases the wonderful array of Southern personalities and all that makes Dixie great. Other parts of our great country are envious of our regional pride, beauty and definitely our good cooking. Up North, they pay 50 cents more for a Taco Bell taco than we do. Holy Toledo! In New Jersey, self-serve fuel stations are illegal, and there are few convenience stores in The Garden State. What? And did I mention property taxes above the MasonDixon line are through the roof, or as they say “ruf ”? Makes one almost gag on a Coney Island hot dog. The South has beautiful scenery, with plenty of wide-open spaces. In New York City, you’re lucky to see the sun amidst the gigantic skyscrapers. “The City That Never Sleeps” is like that for a reason – you can’t sleep there amongst the noise and commotion. It’s not just the North that’s envious. Out in California, their lifestyle is about 10 strange steps ahead of us. Southern novelist Pat Conroy writes in his new cookbook that when he first moved to San Francisco, a Charleston native living in “exile” there flagged him down when he saw Pat’s Palmetto State license plate. He told Pat how he couldn’t wait to escape the “hippies and wackos.” Conroy, who would return home to the South to pen best-sellers such as The Prince of Tides, Beach Music and My Losing Season, gets us prepped for Valentine’s Day with his chocolate crêpes recipe on page 65. Conroy’s much better half, the lovely Alabama novelist Cassandra King, is featured on pages 63-64. The South’s got it going on. From the Lone Star State to Old Virginia, we know who we are, where we come from and where we are going. Y’all Magazine is just so darned proud to be the magazine for “all y’all.” God Save the South. Southernly yours,

Jon Rawl

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

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where y’all? Two coaches say goodbye: Former Florida head coach Ron Zook (R) and former South Carolina head coach Lou Holtz embrace on November 13, 2004 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Fla. Florida defeated South Carolina 4814. (Photo by Jeff Gross/ Getty Images)

Reality Bites: Austin, Texas’ native actor Ethan Hawke attends the Comedy Central Election Night Party at The Park in New York City.

The King: Richard Petty attends practice for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Mountain Dew Southern 500 on November 13, 2004 at the Darlington Raceway in Darlington, S.C. (Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images)

(Photo by Peter Kramer/Getty Images)

Shrimp Boat: Lindy LeBouef of Mississippi Gulf Outlet, La. puts out his shrimp net for a day of shrimping aboard his boat. Shrimpers from Gulf States such as Louisiana, Texas, Alabama and Florida are facing increased difficulty surviving due to imported, farm raised shrimp from Thailand, Vietnam and other countries that are being imported into the U.S. Market. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)

Greg Lancaster and Stephen Moore of Oxford, Miss., show off a successful day of goose hunting in Taylor, Miss. (Photo provided by Clay Black)

CMA Red Carpet: Faith Hill (top) arrives at the 38th Annual CMA Awards at the Grand Ole Opry House on November 9. CSI Miami Star Emily Procter, a North Carolina native, also attended the Nashville show. (Photos by Rusty Russell/Getty Images)

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 • Y’ALL

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where y’all?

Back at the Alma Mater: Actor and University of Missouri alumnus Brad Pitt speaks in Jesse Auditorium on the Mizzou campus in Columbia. (Photo by Chris Detrick/Getty Images)

Black Cowboys: Steven Gabriel of Houston, Texas burns a glove with a sticky rosin to prevent him from coming loose from his saddle during his bronco horse ride at the National Black Rodeo Finals at the CenturyTel Center in Bossier City, La. Gabriel was among 350 cowboys from Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas who competed for prize money at the 17th annual rodeo finals. (Photo by Mario Villafuerte/Getty Images)

London Calling: Usher visits DJ Johnny Vaughn on the breakfast show at Capital Radio to celebrate a million copies sold of his album Confessions on November 22nd in London. (Photo by Dave Hogan/Getty Images)

Moving On Up: Condoleezza Rice speaks after President George W. Bush announced her nomination to be the next Secretary of State on November 16, 2004 at the White House in Washington. Rice is a native of Birmingham, Ala. (Photo by Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty Images)

What a book!: Southern author Tom Wolfe signs copies of I Am Charlotte Simmons at Duttons Books in Brentwood, Calif. (Photo by Karl Walter/Getty Images)

We’d love to hear from you! Letters should include the writer’s full name, address and daytime phone number and may be edited for clarity and space. 10

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Seg-way to go: Tour guide Mark Foxenberg (L) leads a Segway tour on the grounds of Capitol Hill in Washington. Tourists can now rent the two- wheeled, gyroscope-balanced scooter for sightseeing in the U.S. capital. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

TO CONTACT THE EDITORIAL STAFF Write to us: Y’all Magazine Editorial Dept. P.O. Box 1217 Oxford, Mississippi 38655

Call us: 662-236-1928 E-mail us: editor@yall.com

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

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reviews

music

katrina elam

Katrina Elam’s been singing for much of her life. At 20, this small-town girl has recorded a very mature debut album. The album displays her voice in every way, from slow, soft ballads (“I Won’t Say Goodbye”) to fast-paced rockin’ tunes (“Drop Dead Gorgeous”). And this Oklahoma beauty has a lot to

showcase- these songs have a strong country base while they also blend just the right amount of pop and rock to make each song unique. The blend of instruments including fiddle, mandolin, banjo, violin and guitar provide a solid base for Elam’s voice. This may be her first album, but expect many more to come. She was the youngest person to win the Oklahoma Opry’s Entertainer of the Year award and has performed with Reba McEntire and Vince Gill. Katrina was also proud to sing the National Anthem at the Pittsburgh Steelers home game against the New England Patriots. You can also catch the video for her first release, “No End In Sight,” on Country Music Television.

Close Harmony, A History of Southern Gospel Music. Volume One; 1920-1955 This collection of songs is a look into the past, at the emerging gospel music scene in the South, and contains classic songs based in Christian inspiration. This CD is the first in a series being released by Dualtone Music Group. The Southern Gospel album features a collection of songs by the Chuck Wagon Gang, the Blackwood Brothers and the Stamps Quartet, among others. These songs are the musical companion to a book compiled by Dr. James R Goff, who also provides a detailed history of Southern Gospel and its importance in the CD jacket book. The songs have been restored to the best music sound possible – yet still retain an antique feel in their quality. A portion of the proceeds from the album’s sales will go to the Southern Gospel Music Association, which maintains the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame at Dollywood in Tennessee. This collection is an historic look at the songs of inspiration that led to the development of the modern gospel scene. reviews by Kristin Gravatt 12

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O.A.R. 34th & 8th The seed of O.A.R. began growing in Maryland and blossomed at Ohio State University with friends and bandmates Marc Roberge, Chris Culos, Benj Gershman, Richard On and Jerry DePizzo. Now, with their fifth album, O.A.R. has grown into much more than just another college band. Constant touring has gained them a huge crowd following and many great reviews in their years together, and this talent fully displayed in 34th & 8th, recorded live at that location, the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. While it is a perfect display of their talent and crowd appeal (the audience sometimes sings louder than Marc), it only brings two new songs, “Wonderful Day” and “Patiently,” to the many fans awaiting new tunes from the band. For the new fan, the album is a great collection of tunes spanning the group’s entire collection, all the way back to the favorites from the original album the group released while still in high school, The Wanderer. A collector’s edition of the album includes the two-disc CD set along with a DVD with tour film footage and seven live songs. This record has a talented band performing at its best, conveying their inviting rhythm and inspiring lyrics, which makes it the next best thing to catching O.A.R. live.

R. L. Burnside A Bothered Mind He may look like a kindly old gentleman, but one listen of the latest album from blues legend R.L. Burnside and you will know he still has a fiery spirit within. Burnside spices up many of his classic hits, like “Shake ‘em On Down” and “Rollin’ and Tumblin,’” with lively beats and fierce guitar riffs. The album begins on this note, with the short intro song “Detroit Boogie Part 1.” Crazy guitar riffs layered over Burnside’s laughter set a playful tone for much of the album. By contrast, the classic songs “Shake ‘em On Down” and “Goin’ Down South” both have a slower, more peaceful rhythm than when they were previously recorded. They also sound quite tame in comparison with the versions made popular by the North Mississippi All Stars. A surprise guest appearance by Kid Rock spices up the aptly titled “My Name is Robert Too.” Burnside’s bothered mind is still thinking up great ways to entertain his audience. If you don’t have a Burnside album yet, and even if you have them all, this one is definitely a must-have.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 • Y’ALL

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music

Amy Grant:

“Life is a gift” by Michelle Lindsey

t’s been said that we get out of life what we put into it. For Amy Grant, that sentiment has come full circle. Her musical journey, composed of mountains and valleys - which began over 25 years ago and has garnered 5 Grammy Awards, 20 Dove Awards, and countless hit albums and singles - has carved out a legacy, following, and glowing reputation that is unmatched and unsurpassed in Christian music (not to mention an adoring public in the pop genre as well). She’s worked hard, kept her faith, and been true to her God-given gifts. Her music has touched many hearts and continues to inspire people around the world. Amy recently took time out of her busy schedule to talk about the release of her latest

album, as well as her family and her faith (which are paramount in her life), her friendship with the Bush family, and reflections on her remarkable career. Sitting in her Nashville, Tennessee home and wearing workout clothes – which Grant, 44, says she puts on “every morning on the off-chance that I will exercise” – she is taking a break from a round-the-clock schedule that began with the alarm at 5:45 a.m. and will continue at a nonstop pace throughout the day. “A couple of things are shaping these days right now. One is home schooling; that has a big impact on every day of the week. And the other is that I’m in the middle of a record project.” The home schooling is

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All photos provided by A&M Records

One of the hymns on the new record will be a personal favorite of Amy’s - “Oh Master Let Me Walk with Thee”

for Amy’s son, Matthew, who is a high school junior. “It’s exciting and challenging. He has some hobbies that are hard to pursue in light of a school day. So, this is a new experience for us.” The new recording project is a second album of classic hymns, tentatively scheduled for release in early 2005 (Amy released the record Legacy Hymns & Faith in 2002). “I love doing these records,” Amy enthused. She went on to preview the upcoming album. “The songs on this next record are slightly more obscure, but that’s just because we’ve already done one hymns album, and the first 15 songs we would have selected have already been chosen.” One of the hymns on the new record will be a personal favorite of Amy’s, “Oh Master Let Me Walk with Thee.” She confesses, “I love that one.” The record-buying public loves Amy Grant. Her upcoming album will undoubtedly feature songs that will be added to the “favorites” list of people around the globe. Already included on such lists are songs which are not only Amy’s biggest hits, but some of the most popular contemporary Christian and pop music hits of the 1980’s, 1990’s, and now the new millennium. Among the illustrious and endearing highlights are Amy’s recordings of: “Father’s Eyes,” “Sing Your Praise to the Lord,” “El Shaddai,” “Breath of Heaven,” “Heart in Motion,” “That’s What Love Is For,” “Baby Baby,” “Find a Way,” “House of Love,” and “Tennessee Christmas.” Her wonderful album Simple Things continues to gain in popularity among Christian and mainstream music audiences. Amy’s 19th album – a greatest hits collection – was released in October. Filled with hits from her A&M label records, as well as two new songs, the project is an exciting one for Amy. She says that it’s “a great walk down memory lane.” When asked if she had a personal favorite album or song from her repertoire, she explained that there are aspects of each record that are special to her, but that “the two most beautiful songs I’ve ever had the chance to sing are ‘El Shaddai’ and ‘Breath of Heaven’.” Focusing on her many albums, she continued the thought, saying: “I feel like, because of the production, ‘Behind the Eyes’ is going to wear well. If I had to choose the ones that I feel like are the most timeless, they would be Christmas records, because we weren’t trying to hit the pop scene. And I feel like probably, for its time, the most magical would be ‘Heart In Motion’.” Other special career moments are the times when she and second husband, Nashville recording star Vince Gill, have the opportunity to work together. “We love working together. Not just because we enjoy each other’s company, but also in a work setting we really respect what the other brings to the JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 • Y’ALL

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Kevin Winter/Getty Images

music table. Right now, we’re in the studio; I’m doing another record of old hymns, and he’ll sing on those. And then we’re doing a sixcity Canadian tour. We’ve also done a three week Christmas Tour.” Amy and Vince also performed together at the Washington, D.C. Independence Day celebration, “A Capital Fourth,” as well as a 50year tribute celebration for the legendary George Jones. When not working, Amy divides the free hours between her family (she has three children from a previous marriage - Matthew, Millie, and Sarah - and a daughter with Vince Gill, baby Corrina, born in 2001) and a number of worthy causes and organizations to which she donates both her time and her money. Her civic efforts have been recognized with numerous awards and tributes, including the Outstanding Tennessean Award, the ASCAP Voice of America Award, the Pax Christi Award, and the Nashvillian of the Year Award. Amy has also been presented with the Sarah Cannon and Minnie Pearl Humanitarian Awards for her work with the Minnie Pearl Cancer Foundation and her dedication to helping others. Music aside, Amy’s life and career have been blessed with a number of diverse experiences and honors. A few years ago, Amy starred in a highly acclaimed made-for-TV movie, A Song From the Heart, saying it was an experience she enjoyed, but that she’s not actively seeking future film roles. “So far it’s a one-time experience. It was a great time to do a movie. I was living on my own, after having been married for sixteen and a half years, and I wanted to be anybody but me. So, I could totally escape into playing the part of this woman who was a blind musician. Afterward, I had a lot more respect for actors and actresses, because it just requires so much focus, and the hours are truly insane. Right now, having so many young and teenage kids, it’s not a good use of time. But I’ve always thought that maybe when family life is not so demanding, it would be fun to have a good part in a movie with people you knew and respected.” And she knows exactly what kind of part that would be. Amy has a friend who is an old acquaintance of Kevin Costner’s, and he had a part in Costner’s 2003 film Open Range, to which Amy alluded, “Boy, if I had been offered the part in Open Range that Annette Bening had, I would have worked very hard to do a good job!” Adding with laughter, “I’ve got old fashioned hair!” Another illustrious honor and joy in Amy’s life has been her longtime friendship with the Bush family, predominately 16

former President George H. W. Bush (Bush 41) and former First Lady Barbara Bush, whom she first came to know during his Presidency. In 1992, after President Bush had lost reelection to President Clinton, the Bushes invited Amy to perform at a get-together at Camp David, to thank many of the people who had supported President Bush during his time in office. With fondness and enthusiasm, Amy colorfully recalls the weekend and one dinner in particular - that she, her then-husband Gary Chapman, their young daughter Sarah, and Amy’s mother shared at Camp David with George and Barbara Bush: “We sat around the table and traded stories. We asked them who their weirdest fans were,” Amy says with laughter. “You know, describe your stalkers. There was a red zone in the middle of the table, which we were mainly curious about. I remember, at one point, Gary said, ‘So does this zone like launch nuclear missiles?’ And President Bush said, ‘No, it launches Orlando,’ and he picked it up, and Orlando was the fellow in the kitchen who was serving; so he comes blasting through the door. They’re just so friendly. It’s hard to not feel like you can’t just totally be yourself. That’s a really neat memory.” Another of Amy’s fond Bush-family memories is a more recent one, when President Bush 41 & Barbara traveled to Tennessee to celebrate an anniversary. “George and Barbara came to Nashville – they love country music – and they wanted to play golf. Barbara and I wound up playing golf together, and it was in January, but it was a gloriously sunny day. And she was so funny, and her language was just salty enough that you could really take a big bite of her personality. A bunch of her kids were there, and I loved the way she interacted with them, and I loved her sense of stubborn pride about her family.” Playing politics with her music is something that Amy does try to distance herself from, however: “From the very beginning of my singing career, I just made the decision to not make my singing platform a political platform. I just feel that music should be the tie that binds and so I try to steer clear of anything that has a strictly political agenda.” While she hasn’t performed at political conventions, or events of the like, Amy has lent her musical gifts to worthy causes close to the heart of President Bush

Music aside, Amy’s life and career have been blessed with a number of diverse experiences and honors.

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“We have to be willing to see God, as best we can, for who He is, and His purpose in creating man, and how that all fits.” 41 & Barbara Bush, such as events for the former President’s library, fund-raisers, and birthday parties - including Bush 41’s 80th celebration, in Texas, this past summer. “It was just great. They’re very comfortable to be around. They just plow through and make life as normal as possible. The great thing is, whenever they have a get-together or party, I find that I always like all the people there. They surround themselves with people who are easy to be with and love life, and have great integrity.” Amy Grant’s life and career have been a joyous, at times difficult and varied journey. Born in Augusta, Ga., Amy has spent most of her life in Nashville, a life that has been shaped by her faith in God. As a little girl, Amy began her musical career by singing hymns a cappella at the Church of Christ services that her family attended. The way that her faith and her love of music integrated into each other would become defining points of her life and career. While her early tastes in music were as varied as the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Elton John and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. It was the hymns she learned in church that influenced her the most: “It was the whole body of hymns that I listened to that had an impact on me. Just the beauty of music and harmony and the teaching.” The impact of Amy’s faith in God has touched countless individuals and is the central theme of her life. “Faith that you’re created with a purpose, and for pleasure, and with value is a big underlying and overlaying theme. I wake up in the morning, and I am grateful for the day, because there’s meaning in it, even in the mundane things. And I look at the parts of my life that are disorganized. When I feel like I’m at the bottom of the avalanche and I think, ‘I know God began a work in me and all the circumstances in my life are going to help bring about finishing that work,’ that’s comforting. There is an overwhelming peace, even in stress, when you think, ‘My life is a small part of an eternal plan.’ I remember my former mother-in-law, who died a few years ago, saying to me, ‘Amy, when I start off the day, I always just pray, ‘God, lead me today to the people who need me, and the ones who I need, and let something that I do have some eternal significance.’

And I thought, ‘Yay, yay for simplicity of purpose!’ When you think that way, then nothing seems haphazard, and you just say life is important because it’s a gift and an opportunity; and it’s beautiful. God didn’t create all this so that we could all be set up and He could rip the rug out from under us. He did it so that we could have a relationship with Him, and enjoy each other and learn to work together. Faith shapes how you feel about yourself and how you feel about other people. I have to look at somebody who might be so frightening or offensive to me and say, ‘No matter how I slice it, Jesus died for that person.’ And somehow that has to incorporate into how my mind wraps around that person. In the end, everything will be made right.” “I think it’s impossible to have any kind of a world view, or a life view, or a view of the future, and expect hope apart from an understanding of God’s purpose when He created the world and mankind,” says Amy. “We have to be willing to see God, as best we can, for who He is, and His purpose in creating man, and how that all fits. And the extreme lengths He went to in order to redeem us and give everybody a future and a hope, even if that’s just in life eternally. It’s powerful and it does affect the way you live out your days. And even though you don’t want to have to go through them again, it’s the hard things that do the most for you. I have had – all things considered – a life without a lot of hardship. I have worked hard. Even if you have not immediately had a tragedy, you still are influenced by the tragedies of the people around you - and hopefully influenced for good.” Influencing and inspiring others for good, through her music, humanitarian work and her faith is the essence and epitome of the life and career of Amy Grant.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 • Y’ALL

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the president

GEORGE W. BUSH

above: President Bush takes “Barney” along for a ride at the ranch.

In November, George W. Bush won both the popular vote and electoral vote to be re-elected President of the United States. The South helped him win that vote and is the place he calls home. by Eleanor Stuart

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

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“I’m an emotional person…” George W. Bush came to Texas with his parents when he was two years old. He grew up in Midland and Houston while his father worked in the oil business. After receiving his undergraduate degree from Yale and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard, Bush moved back to Midland to work in the energy business. It was there he met his future wife, Laura. In 1977, while attending a gathering at a friend’s house, George W. met Laura Welch and was smitten. “She was not only a beautiful person to look at, she had an internal beauty,” the President has said of his wife. Bush proposed about five weeks later, and the two were soon married. “We had known each other about 2-1/2 months,” Laura recalls, “but I knew I wanted to marry him.” Bush recalls that time and a promise he made to her then. “When I asked Laura to marry me, she was a public school librarian. She said she didn’t particularly like politics -- and she didn’t like politicians.” Bush promised her she

would never have to make a political speech. Though that promise has long since been broken, Laura has said of their marriage, “George and I have learned one important thing: whatever happens in life, we handle it.” The couple had been interviewing to become adoptive parents when Laura became pregnant in 1981. Five weeks before she was to deliver, Laura developed the life threatening condition toxemia. By emergency Caesarean section, she gave birth to twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna, who were named for their grandmothers. 1981

“I was in the operating room,” George W. said about the birth of his daughters. “I’m an emotional person. I got weepy, and then I realized our life had changed forever, in a positive way.” While raising their daughters, Bush continued to work in the energy business in Texas. He moved the family to Washington for 18 months to work on his father’s successful 1988 Presidential campaign, and shortly thereafter returned to Texas where he put together a group of investors and became the general manager of the Texas Rangers. Bush enjoyed working with the Rangers and going to the baseball games soon became a family affair. In an interview with fellow Texan Dr. Phil McGraw, Bush said of the family trips to the Rangers games, “It was like the equivalent of a camping trip. We’d go out together and hang out at the ballpark and have a meal.” In 1990, Bush decided to run for Governor of Texas. His wife was reportedly not behind the idea at first. “She wanted to make sure this was

(L TO R):Duane A. Laverty-Pool/Getty Images, BY GETTY IMAGES, BY GETTY IMAGES

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the president

“When I’m not in Washington, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll find me on our place something I really wanted to do and that I wasn’t being drug in as a result of friends or ‘Well, you’re supposed to do it in order to prove yourself, vis-a-vis your father,’” Bush told an interviewer. “That’s why she was the last person to sign on.” Laura Bush did sign on and – with her support – he was elected the 46th Governor of Texas in 1994. The family moved to Austin, and in 1998, Bush was re-elected, the first Governor in Texas history to be elected to four-year consecutive terms. Bush’s political ambitions did not stop at Governor, and in 1999, he began campaigning for the Presidency. After a hotly contested election in 2000, George W. Bush was declared the 43rd President of the United States. That same year Jenna started college at Yale and Barbara at the University of Texas in Austin. Both girls graduated in 2004, just in time to help their father with his campaign for reelection. In accepting the Presidency for the

second time, Bush acknowledged the importance of his family. “There are many people to thank, and my family comes first. Laura is the love of my life. I want to thank our daughters who joined their dad for his last campaign.” While his primary residence is the White House, Bush often retreats to his home in Crawford.

in Crawford, Texas.”

Laura, Jenna and Barbara Bush at the President’s victory speech, Nov. 3, 2004

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

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Sometimes referred to as the “Texas White House” or the “Western White House,” the 1600-acre ranch in Crawford is where the president spends a lot of his time. President Bush says, “When I’m not in Washington, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll find me on our place in Crawford.” The ranch itself, eight miles northwest of Crawford, is in an area known as Prairie Chapel. On the property is a creek, a canyon, waterfalls, and meadows

where cattle and deer graze. An avid fisherman, Bush added a private fishing lake stocked with bass. He spends his time fishing, exercising and working on the property. “This is our home. It’s a wonderful place to come to. It’s a place where we can relax,” Laura says. Adding to that sentiment, the President added that after spending time in Crawford, things seem a little different.

“You just get a new perspective. Things are different after a quick period of time here on the ranch. In other words, the problems are still the same, but you’re able to look at them in a little different light.”

(L/R): MARK WILSON/NEWSMAKERS, MIKESIMONS/GETTY IMAGES, ALEX WONG/ GETTY IMAGES, ROD AYDELOTTE-POOL/GETTY IMAGES, ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 • Y’ALL

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Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

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Y ʼA L L M A G A Z I N E

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William Jefferson Clinton, aka “Bubba” and the 42nd President of the United States, returned home in November to Little Rock, Ark. to open an impressive library of his eight years as the nation’s chief executive. Leaders – past and present – from around the world came to The Natural State to salute the Southerner. Clinton’s comments at the library’s dedication are in InnerView. Clarksville, Tennessee’s Bob Harper headed west to California to get Hollywood stars the likes of Julia Roberts and Reese Witherspoon in shape. Today, Bob’s known as “The Trainer To The Stars” and appears regularly on NBC’s The Biggest Loser. Discover more about Bob and his tips for Southerners to stay in shape. But can you still munch on fried chicken? Ciara Harris rose to the top of the charts last year with her debut, “Goodies.” The teen R&B star was born in Texas and grew up as a military brat, before settling in The ATL, where Ciara was a cheerleader at Atlanta’s Riverdale High. Find out more about this rising Southerner, dubbed the “First Lady of Crunk & B.” To find out the facts and information you’d like to know but don’t, turn to InnerView.

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inner VIEW

Bill Clinton

42nd President

Eighty million documents, 21 million e- mails (Clinton laughs that two of them were his), 2 million photographs and 80,000 artifacts are all in the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock.

DONALD B. KRAVITZ/GETTY IMAGES

Y’ALL: Why did you choose to put this library in Little Rock? CLINTON: I very much wanted this library in Arkansas and turned down massive sums of money offered by two other states to locate it there. I thought I owed it to the people of this state. Y’ALL: Arkansas has been important to your success… CLINTON: I want to thank the people of my beloved home state for your support, for your love, your friendship, the trust, the sacrifices you so willingly made when we worked together here and when you carried me to the White House.

Y’ALL: After being out of office for four years now, what do you think of when you look back on your eight years as president? CLINTON: I liked the slogan we had way back in 1992, “Putting People First.” Because, in the end, I always kept score by a simple measure: Were ordinary people better off when I stopped than when I started? I grew up in the pre-television age in a family of uneducated but smart, hardworking caring storytellers. They taught me that everyone has a story. And that made politics intensely personal to me. It was about giving people better stories.

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LEFT TO RIGHT: SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES, ALEX WONG/GETTYIMAGES, AFP/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

1963

Y’ALL: Why should Americans flock to Little Rock? CLINTON: The thing I want most is for people to come to this library, whether they’re Republicans or Democrats, liberals or conservatives, to see that public service is noble and important; that the choices and decisions leaders make affect the lives of millions of Americans and people all across the world. I want young people to want to see not only what I did with my life, but to see what they could do with their lives. Because this is mostly the story of what we the people can do when we work together. Yes, this library is the symbol of a bridge, a bridge to the 21st century. It’s been called one of the great

achievements of the new age, and a British magazine said it looked like a glorified house trailer. Y’ALL: What is your reaction to the accomplishments of Senator Clinton? CLINTON: She [Hillary] has all the power in our family. But she’s proving what I always said: She has the best combination of mind and heart, conviction and compassion I’ve ever encountered. Though I must say Chelsea is giving her mother a good run. Y’ALL: What is your take on President Bush? CLINTON: I remember the first time I ever heard George W. Bush give a speech in Iowa, and I called a friend of mine and I said: “My God, that guy can beat us. He is a good politician.” He has been very kind and generous to my family, and I thank him for that.

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inner VIEW

Bob Harper

Trainer to the Stars

Bob Harper (far-right) and the cast of The Biggest Loser

to get people to figure out ways that they can still enjoy what they are eating, but cutting some of the calories out of it.

Top Photos: Provided by nbc.com

Y’ALL: How did you get started in the training business after growing up on a farm near Clarksville, Tenn.? HARPER: It’s a funny story. When I was living in Nashville, there was this exercise studio right on West End Boulevard. I lived just a couple of blocks down the street, and I remember always going past this place and seeing everyone going in and out and I just thought ‘Wow, it looks like a fun place,’ so its one of those things that I just stumbled upon it. Next thing I know, the owner said that I should be the teacher, I had a way with people and could motivate them, and she kind of gave me my start that way. I went from teaching these classes, to helping her manage and run business, and that’s when I made the leap to Los Angeles (in 1992). Y’ALL: What is your take on Southern cooking and staying in shape? HARPER: Well, this is what I have to say: Because I preface this by saying that I love Southern cooking. In moderation, its great. It’s not the healthiest food out there. It’s like with Maurice [a Nashville native on The Biggest Loser]. When it comes to Southern cooking, I try 26

Y’ALL: What about greens? That’s another love of the South. HARPER: Greens are a great thing. It’s just when people throw a lot of butter and lard on them, that’s not so healthy. I am a big vegetable eater (at age 39). My whole thing is if it grows out of the ground or you can pick it off a tree, then its good for you. Y’ALL: You’re known affectionately as the “Trainer to the Stars.” How did that originate? HARPER: Well, I got lucky. When I first moved into Los Angeles, I think that a lot of the celebrities just kind of took to my Southern way. There is calmness to a Southerner, and it’s comfortable. Southerners are easy to be around. I think that the honesty that I kind of brought in – and that whole authenticity – so many celebrities seem to respond to it. Y’ALL: What’s it like now to be doing something unique on a major network? HARPER: I feel very fortunate and lucky that I have such a big outlet to show people what I love to do. I get people stopping me all the time now. It’s so funny. They love the fact that I am from Nashville, that’s the first thing. I love Southern people. If I hear someone in Los Angeles with a Southern accent, I know that they are going to be good.

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inner VIEW

Ciara

R&B Hitmaker Y’ALL: Your first single “Goodies” went to No.1. How does that make you feel? CIARA: I’m so happy I wrote ‘Goodies.’ I pray everybody gets it the way they’re supposed to [in the hook, Ciara warns, ‘If you’re looking for the goodies keep on looking ‘cause they stay in the jar]. I think we all run across this problem. A guy thinks you’re gonna be with him because he’s got the iced out chain, he’s popular and all that. But that ain’t it. That ain’t gonna make me give you my number and that’s definitely not gonna make me go home with you. It’s the truth. Y’ALL: How do distinguish yourself from other popular acts like Brandy and Beyonce? CIARA: Well, obviously people compare and always will. They are all beautiful young women and I take it as a compliment to be compared to them. I just want to keep throwing out the positive messages to my fans and hopefully they can gain something from it. Y’ALL: What best describes your personality? CIARA: I consider myself a ‘round-the-way girl,’ down to earth and basically the kind of guy I like is like this guy who pulls up in the F-150 pickup with the crazy banging system. He’s a ‘round-the-way’ dude, kinda ‘hood; but I’m like really into him.

Left to Right: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images, Vince Bucci/Getty Images

Y’ALL: What best describes your music? CIARA: The songs are very catchy. They’re for all demographics, all age ranges. But they’re not as personal as I want to be. I’d rather be more personal on the second album, once I grow a little more. Y’ALL: How do you balance being a star with being a teenager? CIARA: Throughout life I’ve experienced a lot more than the typical 18-year-old has. And being in this industry makes you develop more quickly than a typical child would. You mature faster. I remember watching Destiny’s Child perform on TV one day. That’s when I made up my mind: ‘Hey I wanna do this.’ I watched my peers around me and they were worried about who’s wearing what, going to school, trying to talk to somebody and I was like ‘I’m trying to be somebody. What can I do to get there as soon as possible?’

Y’ALL: Did you always know that you wanted to be singer? CIARA: I wrote down on paper that I had a goal to be a professional singer and I wanna be there soon. I had to sacrifice a lotta things and I think that was the key thing to get me there. I cut out going to the movies. I cut out hanging with my friends. I actually told some of my friends, ‘This month we’re not gonna hang out or talk on the phone.’ I don’t have too many friends anyway - less is better for me. I cut out the boyfriend - actually I had my heart broken so I was really like, ‘I’m ‘bout to do this. I’m ‘bout to be on top.’

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 • Y’ALL

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! Jimmyy De Jimm Dea an by Tonya J. Powers

Mention the name Jimmy Dean to someone and you could get any one of three answers: “Oh, I love his sausage!”, or maybe “Big Bad John” was one of my favorite songs,” or it could be “I loved him in that James Bond movie.” And they would all be right.

“People have been after me for 30 years to write a book,” Jimmy says, so he has.

But his latest effort wasn’t the first run he made at it. When he was with Sara Lee Foods (the parent company of Jimmy Dean Sausage), the company sent a writer to his home to pen his autobiography. “They paid him $50,000 to write this book, and he wrote some stuff I didn’t like worth a damn. It just stayed there on the paper, there was no life in it. My world may not be very exciting but it had some life in it.” Later on, his wife Donna Meade Dean talked Jimmy into doing a book about his life. Jimmy says it was JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 • Y’ALL

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legends

Plainspoken is one of the words he’s been called and he’s just fine with that description. “I am who I am.” simply talking to her with a tape recorder at the kitchen table that turned into what is now Thirty Years of Sausage, Fifty Years of Ham: Jimmy Dean’s Own Story. “I had forgotten how much I had done; the people I had worked with, and the people I had started in the business.” That list reads like a who’s who of country music and pop icons. Roger Miller, Patsy Cline, and Jim Henson’s Muppets are among them. Dean says it’s a kick to do. “That’s one of the good things, and the fun things about it, being able to kind of kick-start somebody and watch them go on to great things.” Plainspoken is one of the words he’s been called and he’s just fine with that description. “I am who I am.” It was words of wisdom from his grandfather that have helped guide him through life: “Be yourself, because if the people don’t like you as you are, they’re not going to like you for who you’re trying to be.” Jimmy was born in Plainview, Texas in 1928, and he and his brother were raised by his mother after his father left them. He calls Ruth Taylor Dean the single most influential person in his life. In fact, his last hit song was a tribute to her. He cowrote it in the 1950’s, but it took 20 years to get it recorded. It was originally pitched to Mitch Miller, but he wasn’t interested, saying the song was too long. So it sat in a file cabinet for over two decades. It was Jimmy’s secretary who suggested he take it 30

to a recording session in Nashville in 1976, and he did. “I.O.U.” sold a million records in three weeks. He hasn’t performed the song since his mother passed away in 1982. Jimmy’s life has included TV stardom, million-sellers on the music charts, and movie roles as well. The latter came when he starred in the 1971 James Bond movie Diamonds are Forever. So what was it like to work opposite actor Sean Connery? If you’re expecting to hear stories of how he gave Jimmy great acting advice, you’d be wrong. “He did more for my golf game than any pro that I ever went to,” according to Dean. Connery kept a net behind every set where the two worked and they’d hit practice balls during breaks, with Dean getting pointers. “He’d stand there and work with me, and say (in his best Connery accent) ‘No, good God no, man, get your big ruddy right hand out of it’ and chastise me severely,” Dean says. He adds by the time they’d finished the picture, he was good at the game. His role in the sausage business came about for one simple reason: mistrust of show biz. “I never had any faith in the entertainment business,” Dean says. He says he invested time and energy in other business ventures to avoid ending up installing irrigation wells in Plainview. “I didn’t like it when I was 16, and I knew I wouldn’t like it when I was 70,” he says. Again, his mother’s words would ring in his head, this time pertaining to financial diversification. “My mother said, ‘Put

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Jimmy’s life has been one great story after another, and nobody tells it like he does.

some away for a rainy day,’ and I did that.” He bought into a hog farm in 1965, and two years later started making the sausage that still bears his name. Dean stayed with his company even after he sold it to Consolidated Foods in 1984, which would become known as Sara Lee a year later. That’s where Dean’s fond memories of the sale started to go downhill. Disputes over marketing, product line, and treatment of longtime JD employees left a bad taste in his mouth, so he cut ties with the company for good in 2003. “It’s very difficult for me to have spent half my life building something, and then see a bunch of, for lack of a better word, ‘know-it-alls’, that are gonna show you how to do it,” Dean explains. “I think they’re betraying the loyalty of a bunch of people that have been awfully good to me and the product. There’s an old saying that goes, ‘Don’t forget to dance with the one that brung ya,’ and I think they’re forgetting a lot of good people.” Jimmy’s life has been one great story after another, and nobody tells it like he does. He had a show in Vegas in the late 1960’s, around the time another music icon performed down the street. When Elvis was working the Hilton, he would call Dean before he did his last show for the night at the Desert Inn and ask him to hang around so they could sing together. “Anybody that told you that he couldn’t get away without that entourage was a liar. ‘Cause he would come to that stage door and there would only be a driver and him,” says Dean. “Elvis was a nice man, a good man. Unfortunately, I don’t think he had the mentality to cope with the degree of success he attained, and I don’t think I would have either. It was larger than life, you know?” If there’s anyone who’d know about being larger than life, it’s Jimmy Dean.

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Manuel Cuevas

The King o

Photo by Alan Mayor

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g of Flash

y hometown is Philadelphia, Miss. When I was growing up, Saturday was my favorite day of the week for two reasons: it was the one day of the week that my Daddy didn’t have to go to work, and, starting at by Marty Stuart about 4:00 p.m., my Daddy and I shared a common Country Music Star bond – country music television entertainment. Manuel Collector In our home we had a black and white Motorola television set that brought us the syndicated shows out of Nashville: The Wilburn Brothers, The Porter Wagoner Show, The Ernest Tubb Show and Flatt & Scruggs. Daddy and I sat close and loved listening to the fiddle and banjo music, the vaudeville-style country comedy, the pretty girl singers, and, of course, the gospel songs. However, beyond the music, the thing that caught my eye was the costumes the performers wore. Even in black and white, they sparkled. It seemed standard that if you were to have a true country show, rhinestones were required. I couldn’t help but wonder from where these costumes came from. JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 • Y’ALL

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Manuel sews inside his Nashville office.

I saw cowboy clothes, in person, for the first time when Ernest Tubb and the Texas Troubadours came to Philadelphia to play at our county fair in the summer of 1967. They rolled into town in a green Silver Eagle bus stenciled,

The Ernest Tubb Show And His Texas Troubadours Stars of WSM’s Grand Ole Opry and Decca Records The band stepped out of the bus for the evening’s performance wearing matching red cowboy suits, boots, belts, buckles, and ties. When Ernest appeared, he was wearing a black and white pinstriped suit with red piping all over it. In his snowwhite Stetson crown, he appeared twelve feet tall. The costumes had a power that transformed the musicians into larger-than-life characters. When they started playing, the music disappeared and I was speechless. I only saw the cowboy clothes. It was the first time I’d ever seen those clothes in color, and the rhinestones put a spell on me. It was showbiz, it was magic, it was wearable art, and it 34

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changed my life. Five years later, at the age of thirteen, I landed a job at the Grand Ole Opry with Lester Flatt. In those days, Nashville still had the aura of “Hillbilly Hollywood” around it; everybody dressed the part, and the music was real. The people of country music still possessed an immeasurable amount of character and were one big family. When the Troubadours came through town or Porter and Dolly’s show stopped by the Opry for a visit, I made it a point to ask the musicians questions about where they got their clothes. Lester’s band took on a more conservative Kentucky gentleman approach, nothing flashy. I wanted to know where to buy some flash, however, and I was told to go to Nudie’s Rodeo Tailors, located on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood, California. The word around the Opry was that Nudie was supreme, but there was a designer that worked there named Manuel that everyone was gravitating toward. He seemed to be in keeping with the Roy Rogers tradition, while attracting clients like John Lennon, Bob Dylan, and Salvador Dalí. In factual terms, he was the new western couture star, combining traditional western styles with a rock ‘n’ roll sensibility. All of a sudden Gram Parsons, the Byrds, Emmylou Harris, the Grateful Dead, the Flying Burrito Brothers and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young all looked like rock stars with a cowboy flair. They were the bad kids of the fashion industry. Although Manuel’s artistry was on fire, he didn’t receive a lot of credit at that time. But the subculture knew whom to call. My first trip to California was in 1974. I finagled a way to get dropped off in front of Nudie’s store while the rest of the band had a meal down the street. I had saved $250 to buy a

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Visit the Manuel: Star-Spangled Couture at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville, now through March 13, 2005. A comprehensive selection of Manuel’s textile-art creations will be displayed for the first time, including his 50 States collection. suit that looked like Porter Wagoner’s. When I walked in and pointed to the suit I wanted, Nudie put it on me, but it was ten sizes too big. He said, “That’s not a problem. We can make it fit you.” When I asked how much it was and he told me it was $2,500, my heart sank. I pulled the coat off and handed it back to him. An unfamiliar voice then said, “Hey kid, what is your name?” I answered, “Marty,” and then he stuck out his hand and said, “My name is Manuel. Some day you will come in here and buy every suit in the store. Today, you get a free shirt.” That was the beginning of a lifelong friendship that has since passed into the deepest realms of family, making us brothers and soul mates. When I was on tour in the early 1980s as a member of Johnny Cash’s band, we played a concert in London. Isaac Tigret, one of the original owners of a new establishment called the Hard Rock Café, took me on a tour of the first restaurant. The walls were filled with gold records, memorabilia, costumes, guitars, and assorted artifacts all concerning rock ‘n’ roll. I thought, how wonderful that someone has the interest and foresight to preserve and protect this avenue of pop culture. It also made me think that Nudie and Manuel suits, famous country guitars, and country memorabilia in general should be found and saved in the same way. This was the urban cowboy period, and rhinestone suits were an embarrassment to most people in Nashville. They were hidden in the backs of individual’s closets or being pawned, sold at yard sales, or to vintage clothing stores. I saw it as a tragedy. Instead of buying stocks and bonds, I went after this segment of America’s culture. I became a crusader, saving the work for which Manuel and his colleagues were often disregarded. My collection now consists of approximately 3,000 pieces. They trace the evolution of American cowboy culture – the tailors, the fabrics, the durability and timelessness. Perhaps, other than the cowboy hat and Levi’s jeans, the edgy dreams and visions of Manuel are among the most notable

and original contributions to the international fashion stage that America has had to offer. Cowboy clothes are not always the most popular, but they are always present. It’s a fact that Manuel’s creations are timeless art, worthy of museum display. For many

years has been a Nashville resident. Manuel is the undisputed King of Cowboy Couture, image maker to the stars, a Mexican-American original. With love to you, Manuel. Congratulations. Finally, Nashville sees you as the treasure that you are. I love you dearly, Marty Stuart

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 • Y’ALL

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There are places where the conversation always comes easy.

B B a n dT. c o m © 2 0 0 3 B B &T M e m b e r F D I C

We think your bank should be one of them.

Our one-on-one approach to banking hasn’t changed much since we star ted back in 1872. Perhaps that’s because we’ve maintained the belief that you are an individual, not an account number. And that when it comes to your banking, you should be able to feel as comfor table talking to us as you would any of your other neighbors.

You can tell we want your business.

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12/8/04 6:00:10 PM

on the money

JJUST UST SAY NO T STUDENT TO LOANS L LO by Dave Ramsey

Dave Ramsey is a financial counselor, host of the popular syndicated radio show “The Dave Ramsey Show,” and author of the New York Times best-seller The Total Money Makeover. His columns appear regularly in Y’all.

Many of you have been wringing your hands while we walked through four Baby Steps and have not saved as much as a dime for your little cherubs. You got your budget worked out and saved $1,000 for emergencies. Then you paid off all your debts – starting with the smallest. Then you finished your emergency fund and now have money to cover three to six months of expenses. Then you started your retirement investing. Now, you will continue to save toward retirement while you start saving toward your child’s college education. My wife Sharon and I have explained to our kids that if they don’t go to college, we will hire people to do mean things to them until they go. Seriously, a solid education to begin your adult life and your career will add to the quality of both. However, we have sold our young people so hard and so long on college that we have begun to accept some scary myths about college degrees. College degrees do not ensure jobs. College degrees certainly don’t ensure success. College degrees do not ensure wealth. College degrees only prove that someone has successfully passed a series of tests. We all know college-educated people who are broke and unemployed. They are very disillusioned, because they thought they had bought a ticket and yet were denied a seat on the train to success. You must mix knowledge with attitude, character, perseverance, vision, diligence and extreme levels of work. Only then will your college degree produce for you. We have placed a dangerous responsibility on that thin little sheepskin framed in the den. We have asked that it do things it cannot do. I have been a millionaire starting with nothing two times before I was 40, and I attribute about 15 percent of that to college knowledge and zero percent to the degree. We need to be sure that we look realistically at why we want our kids to go to college in order to set goals about saving for school. In other words, if you don’t expect quite as much from the degree, maybe you won’t break all the branches in your family tree getting the kids into someplace you frankly can’t afford. College is one of the first luxuries on my list, but not before retirement, not before an emergency fund, and certainly not as a reason to go into debt. Here’s the rule: if you or your children are going to college, then PAY CASH. Student loans are a cancer. Once you have them, you can’t get rid of them – or it is at least a long and bitter process. We have spread the myth that you can’t be a student without a loan. USA Today says that in 1992, 42 percent of students took loans, while in 2000, 64 percent of students took loans. Student loans have become normal and normal is broke. But college can be done without student loans, and you are going to prove it. Baby Step Five: Save for College. When you save for college you have to factor in saving at seven percent interest to keep up the increasing costs of college due to inflation. Baby life insurance, like Gerber or similar programs claiming to save for college, is a joke, averaging less than a two percent return. I suggest funding college, or at least the first step of college, with an Educational Savings Account (ESA), funded in a growth-stock mutual fund. The Educational Savings Account, nicknamed the Education IRA, grows tax-free when used for higher education.

If you invest $2,000 a year from birth to age eighteen in prepaid tuition, that would purchase about $72,000 in tuition. Through an ESA in mutual funds averaging twelve percent you would have $126,000 tax-free – obviously a better choice. The ESA currently allows you to invest $2,000 per year, per child, if your household income is under $200,000 per year. If you start investing early, your child can go to virtually any college if you save $166.67 per month ($2,000/year). For most of you, Baby Step Five is handled if you start an ESA fully funded and your child is under eight. If your children are older, or you have aspirations of expensive schools, graduate school, or Ph.D. programs that you pay for, you will have to save more than the ESA will allow. I would still start with the ESA if the income limits don’t keep you out. If you want to do more than the ESA, or your income rules you out, you may want to look at a 529 plan. These are state plans, but many allow you to use the money at any institution of higher learning, which means you can save in New Hampshire’s 529 plan and go to college in Kansas. There are several types of 529 plans, and you should stay away from most of them. The “life phase” plan performs poorly because they are very conservative. The “fixed portfolio” plan yields better returns, but gives you less control – still something to take a pass on.

“

My wife Sharon and I have explained to our kids that if they don’t go to college, we will hire people to do mean things to them until they go.

”

The best 529 plans available, and my second choice to an ESA, is a “flexible” plan. This type of plan allows you to move your investment around periodically with a certain family of funds. You are stuck in one brand, but you can choose the type of fund, the amount of each, and move it around if you want. This is the only type of 529 I recommend. Regardless of how you save for college, do it. Saving for college ensures that a legacy of debt is not passed down your family tree. Sadly most people graduating from college right now are deeply in debt before they even start their “real life.” If you start early or save aggressively, your child will not be one of those people who are still paying off student loans in their forties. If you only have a couple of years before your child goes off to college, then you may need to revisit your goals. Plan on your child attending somewhere that is cheaper, living on campus and eating the cafeteria food. Knowledge is what you are after, not a pedigree. If you walk your way up these Baby Steps, you can send your kids to school without debt. Even if you start late, perseverance and resourcefulness can get them through school. If you want to go to college badly enough in America today, you can. The good news is that those of you who have a Total Money Makeover will likely not only pay for your child’s education, but also – by teaching your children to handle money, and by becoming wealthy – send your grandchildren to school debt-free. JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 • Y’ALL

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bible belt

Ted DiBiase

by Sam McClatchy

Wrestling with his Faith As “The Million Dollar Man,” Ted DiBiase went toe-to-toe with the wrestling world’s greatest talents: Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant and “The Macho Man” Randy Savage,” but DiBiase’s greatest struggle occurred outside the ring.

Five years ago, the long-time Mississippi resident left the limelight of the professional wrestling business to heed another calling, not the roar of cheering fans, but the call to evangelism. Throughout his career, DiBiase, 50, struggled with his faith, finding that the glamorous lifestyle of a professional wrestler often led him to compromise his values. But after more than three decades in the business, the former World Wrestling Federation champion and 3-time tag team champion made the transition from the squared circle to the pulpit. In 1992, seven years after accepting Christ into his life, DiBiase quit the sport and founded Heart of David Ministries. “If you’re a believer, it’s not something you decide to do,” he says. “It’s something you’re led to. Being an

ordained preacher is the last thing I thought I would do with my life.” As a wrestler, “The Million Dollar Man” was a notorious heel, often eliciting angry outbursts from fans, when he swaggered down to the ring with a wad of bills in hand. With a derisive laugh and a few cocky gestures, “The Million Dollar Man” could rile a crowd like no other. DiBiase continued to irk fans as a manager and ring announcer after retiring from the ring itself. But DiBiase’s ringside persona stands in stark contrast to the man himself, a devoted family man and a straightforward orator compelled to share the word of God with whoever will listen. “I figure people will see me and say, ‘If he can do it, I can do it.’” While he may have shed his bad-guy persona, as an evangelist DiBiase has not tossed his former occupation aside and

currently utilizes his old trade in what he calls “wrestling crusades.” To DiBiase, wrestling is just another method of getting his message across. And apparently the method works. DiBiase’s wrestling crusades attract crowds upwards of 3,000 people. “We set up a ring in the church,” says DiBiase about the wrestling crusades. “What we give them is classic wrestling. In the South we call it ‘wrasslin,’ just good guys and bad guys.” DiBiase sees his wrestling crusades as a return to the good, old-fashioned form of pro-wrestling and a departure from the sex-andsensat iona lismsaturated World W r e s t l i n g Entertainment federation that currently controls the pro-wrestling market. “I don’t promote the WWE,” said DiBiase, “ I

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“

… as DiBiase’s wrestling crusades attract crowds upwards of 3,000 people. ‘We set up a ring in the church,” says DiBiase about the wrestling crusades. ‘What we give them is classic wrestling.

think it’s disgusting, vulgar and demeaning to women. It’s shock value television. ” Though his wrestling crusades are squeaky clean compared to the WWE, DiBiase’s unconventional approach to evangelism has raised a few incredulous eyebrows, instigating some Christians to question the authenticity of his unorthodox methods. “Some think it’s not godly,” said DiBiase, “but God said, ‘I will take the foolish things of man and confound the wise.’” Having grown up in a wrestling household, his stepfather being the legendary “Iron Mike” DiBiase, and a wrestler since the age of 21, DiBiase’s career path seems inevitable. But despite his upbringing, DiBiase’s path in life wasn’t a straight shot. “I had to face some adversity, my father died when I was 15 years old and my mother subsequently became an alcoholic.” Having overcome these obstacles in his young life, DiBiase went on to attend Arizona State University on a football scholarship before leaving to pursue a career in professional wrestling in the 70’s. DiBiase signed on to the Mid-South Wrestling Federation in 1982 and was soon becoming a star of the league.

It was during this time in his life that he settled down and focused on his career. DiBiase’s wife Melanie, a native of Atlanta, Ga., had family in Mississippi, prompting the DiBiase family to pack up and move to the Magnolia State when “The Million Dollar Man” landed a job with the Mid-South Wrestling Federation. “I love it here; it’s a slower pace of life. I don’t like the rat race and the big city,” DiBiase says of his Clinton, Miss. home. “My brother came over a couple of years ago, and while he was here one neighbor came by asking to borrow some sugar and, at the same time, another neighbor stopped by. My brother looked at me and said, ‘You live in Mayberry.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I do and I love it.’” DiBiase served as a mainstay of MidSouth wrestling until being picked up by the WWF in 1987. It was at the pinnacle of his popularity at the WWF in the early 1990’s that DiBiase found himself facing a moral dilemma, battling both his ego and the lavish lifestyle that accompanied his success. “I let it go to my head. I was out on the road drinking beer and chasing women, all with my loving wife at home,” said DiBiase. DiBiase says that it was a pastor friend that helped steer him around from the decadent lifestyle he was living, encouraged him to be honest with his wife and helped instill in him the faith that would heal his marriage. “Because of my wife’s faith and the change she saw in me, not only

”

are we still married, but we’re happier now than we’ve ever been,” he says. As a speaker, DiBiase brings his life experiences into play as he dispenses marriage advice to troubled couples, lectures to crowds of college students, and speaks to prison inmates, drug addicts and alcoholics. In his evangelism, DiBiase encourages individuals to allow their religion to take a more active role in their daily lives. “Church has become like a country club. People come in every week, tithe, and then rush home to watch football and get on with their lives; it’s a habit. But Christianity is based on a relationship with Jesus Christ and you can’t have a relationship with somebody if you don’t talk to them.” Finding the ideals of wealth and physical prowess hollow in comparison to his relationship with God. DiBiase attempts to steer men away from the trap of these stereotypically masculine goals. DiBiase says that men are taught in this society to never admit fault or cry, and to measure their worth in terms of financial success, both concepts he strongly disagrees with. “The measure of a man is not the size of his bank account or the size of his biceps; it’s the size of his character, integrity and ability to keep his word,” he declares. Reflecting on the unexpected turn his life has taken, DiBiase believes he made the right choice. “I’m not ‘The Million Dollar Man.’ I’m not a millionaire by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m happy, I’m secure with my family and my needs are met.”

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12/7/04 1:24:23 AM

ms. grits

THE LEAVES OF SOUTHERN FRIENDSHIP by Deborah Ford

Friends matter. They are the butter that makes our grits so savory – and the pepper that gives them kick. They are the heirloom china that makes our parties so much fun. They are sweeter than a Southern accent and more refreshing than iced tea on a sunny veranda. They are the jokes that make us laugh until we cry, and the music that stirs our hearts. Often, they are the difference between living and just getting by. And in the South, we all know we want to really live. I like to compare our friendships to the leaves on a tree, ancestors to the roots, the trunk to our immediate family and the limbs to our extended family. While the roots give us strength in tradition, the trunk provides stability and support, and the limbs allow us to reach out to expand our lives. Like our friends, the leaves soften, shade, and shield us in both good and bad times. They add color, depth and help shape every aspect of our lives. The leaves of spring are soft and full of new life. The leaves of summer are deep green and in full strength. The leaves of autumn flare out in a brilliant wash of color, while the leaves of winter fall down gently to provide a blanket of warmth for our roots. (All Southern girls know the real meaning of roots!) Every season is wonderful in its way; every season brings change, just like every friend is different and loved in her own way and with each season of her life. Female friendships, whatever the season, are celebrated in the South. We value our friends and know that we couldn’t get by without them. One way to show your friends your love and appreciation for them is to plant a tree in their honor. Do you have a friend whose helped plan your wedding or gotten you through a divorce? Whose helped you lose those last few pounds or brought you a bowl of grits with extra butter to help you gain them? Whose held your hand through labor pains or kept your kids just to give you a much-needed break? Maybe she spent an entire day or weekend helping you organize all of your closets. Plant a tree in her honor to let her know how grateful you are for her friendship. If you treasure your friends as much as most Southern women, you may end up with a wonderful friendship garden.

Deborah Ford is the author of the bestselling GRITS, Guide To Life, and Puttin’ On The GRITS, a Southern Guide to Entertaining, coming in hardcover Spring 2005. Contact “Ms. Grits” via email at msgrits@yall.com 40

If you don’t want to get those manicured hands in the dirt, there are many other ways to nurture your friendships. Surprise her with a box of delicacies or take her a beautiful arrangement of flowers. Southern girls know that our most important accessory is our fragrance, so send her a

bottle of her favorite perfume. There are endless ways to show your friend you love and appreciate her (while having fun). My friend Sandy and I are single mothers, and we always send each other something both for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day! Always remember, men may come and go, but a friend is…forever!

Reasons Southern women are like trees… 1. We may look beautiful and graceful, but those big old strong roots make us something to contend with. 2. Those autumn leaf peepers just can’t get enough of us; they know we’re even better as we mature. 3. We love to nurture. Squirrels, and even the occasional cat, shelter in our branches and people rest in our shade. 4. You don’t have to be a tree hugger to appreciate us 5. We make everything around us look better. 6. We love our land and hold on tight to even the sandiest soil. 7. We require regular maintenance and attention. 8. We may add a new ring every year, but extra padding makes us look more majestic. 9. We don’t mind dabbing a little color to make us more beautiful. 10. We may get a little cranky with age, but we’re always graceful.

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12/7/04 1:24:32 AM

cajun humor

by Tommy Joe Breaux

“De exercise class” Hello dare, yʼall. I just want to share this story wit yʼall. I talked to my cousin Elmo de odder nite an he tole me dat his wife Marie had decide to join one of dem, how you call, exercise classes, to try and lose a few pound. Elmo tole me, “Tommy Joe, I was sat on de sofa watchinʼ de football game an in come Marie from her first class at dat exercise class. An boy, she was sweatinʼ like she been in a oven.” Den Elmo said, “Tommy Joe, I look over dare at Marie an tole her, ʻCher, it look like you gone gots serious ʻbout dat exercise. You look like you have a real good workout.” Elmo tole me dat Marie look at him an said, “Elmo, I bent, twisted, jump up an down, laid on my back, my belly an even on my side, BUT by de time I gots dem leotard on, DE CLASS WAS OVER!”

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Handsome, straightarrow leading man or twisted, devious villain, Jamie Denton can play it masterfully either way, bringing something different and a little interesting to the table in either case. But then, he is a Southerner....

by Lorie Hollabaugh

ABC/Mosche Brahka

housew h

orn and raised in Goodlettsville, Tenn., right outside of Nashville, Denton left a promising career in sales at 28 for his love of the theater and a shot at the brass ring, and has never looked back. And though the name might not be familiar, the face surely is. He’s probably best known as the deliciously evil “Mr. Lyle” on the long-running NBC series The Pretender, where he spent years playing nemesis to main character “Jarod” and perfecting the creepiest demeanor this side of Vincent Price. Those who didn’t follow The Pretender might have caught his guest starring roles on JAG, Ally McBeal, or The Drew Carey Show; his appearances in films like That Old Feeling, Face/Off, or Primary Colors; or his action-packed stunts during his stint in the recent ABC series Threat Matrix, where he portrayed FBI agent/everyday hero “John Kilmer.” But no matter how deeply ingrained into the Hollywood scene he gets, Denton isn’t likely to forget his Southern roots anytime soon, and furthermore, he doesn’t want to. He enjoys calling Tennessee home and gets back several times a year to visit family who still live in the area. “It was a lot of fun growing up in Goodlettsville. It was a great town in the 1970’s, because Nashville hadn’t grown quite so much then. We only had 500 people in our high school. You went to Goodlettsville Elementary first through sixth, then high school seventh through twelfth, so you knew everybody pretty well. My dad was a dentist there for almost 40 years. He started building sets for the local theater group, the Mansker Players, as a hobby and acted in their shows as well.” With Nashville just down the road, one wonders if Denton, 42, ever thought about pursuing a career as a singer, but he insists that was never his calling – though he did date singer Deana Carter, who went to his high school. “Her dad [Fred Carter] was one of the best session guys in town at the time, so I was around it quite a bit back then. I do play guitar some. I think everybody who grows up in Nashville plays guitar, don’t they?” he adds, smiling. “You have to, I think. They issue you one at birth there. But

I’m very average. I’ve been playing for years for fun. I did write a little bit of music in Chicago for a couple of plays I was in, but that’s the most I ever did with it.” Attending Aquinas and then Belmont University as a basketball player, Denton eventually transferred to the University of Tennessee to finish his degree in television/journalism and landed in advertising when a professor enlightened him about the difficulty of finding jobs in his chosen major. While working in sales, he was approached to play “George Gibb” in Goodlettsville’s production of “Our Town” for the Bicentennial celebration, and soon began appearing in numerous other local theater productions. And despite a burgeoning career in TV advertising, he eventually decided to take the plunge headfirst into acting to see what would happen. “I was really progressing in sales on a steady track,” recalls Denton, “but I realized I couldn’t do a hobby as time consuming as theater and have a sales job. I was single, it was my life to screw up, so I investigated and found Chicago had the best opportunities for theater if you’re willing to work for free. So I packed my stuff and drove to Chicago, even though I had never even been in the city limits. And I checked into the Hotel Lincoln and started looking for auditions.” It turned out to be a good gamble for Denton, who began to get cast in plays at night while doing commercials during the day. He soon became the face for Old El Paso Salsa, Aquafresh, Tylenol, Buick and even Kentucky Fried Chicken. “There was one point in Chicago where I had 11 commercials running. I had a conflict with virtually every product, so I couldn’t really audition because I had so many running at the same time! But it enabled me do what I really wanted to at night.” A friend of acting manager John Crosby caught Denton’s performance in a play and recommended Crosby contact him. Soon Denton found himself with an L.A. manager and a shot at a sitcom, when Paramount flew him out to the Coast for an audition. “My actor friends who had gone

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ewives wives hunk JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 • Y’ALL

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Above: Stephen Shugerman/Getty Images Right: ABC/Mosche Brahka

rising south to Los Angeles had been pretty beaten up and couldn’t even find agents,” recalls Denton, “so I was in no hurry to leave a good situation in Chicago. But Paramount flew me out – it was pretty unheard of, a real stroke of luck. That whole experience helped set me up to meet agents and look more in demand than I really was and enabled me to get off the ground in a great way.” Soon Denton landed guest starring roles in shows like Sliders and JAG, and when his agent snuck him in for a reading for the Carl Reiner film That Old Feeling; Reiner himself took a shine to Denton, who he said reminded him of a young Dick Van Dyke. He got the part, and was soon acting opposite John Travolta in Face/Off and Primary Colors (which also gave the actor a chance to get back in touch with his Southern roots). And though he auditioned for the lead role of “Jarod” in the NBC series, The Pretender, Denton found it was ultimately much more fun playing the bad guy “Mr. Lyle” in the clever, offbeat series. “He was a great sociopath,” admits Denton, “and that was really a lot of fun for me. But I have to admit there was a time when I thought I was only going to get to play bad guys, and it was a little disconcerting, because I didn’t think that was where I was going to make a living.” A romantic lead role as a judge with a crush on star Kim Delaney in the short-lived ABC series Philly ended those fears, and allowed Denton to show some of that Southern charm he was innately endowed with, although the charm wasn’t quite enough to sustain the show’s success. Denton’s debonair Cary Grant-type looks soon landed him another leading man role, this time in the timely drama Threat Matrix. The role is hands down Denton’s favorite and the closest to himself he’s played in his decade-long career “He’s a role that any actor would kill to play – he’s ‘Captain America,’ he’s the guy you want walking your kid to school. He wasn’t perfect… a little bit right wing, a little bit of a steamroller. But that was his job. There’s a lot of me in him…he’s a little more conservative than I am, and a little less tolerant, hopefully, but there was a whole lot of Kilmer in me, especially when you get into his flaws.” The role also allowed the athletic Denton, who still plays basketball in a league in L.A., to do his own stunts. It provided plenty of action and he was there until the lights were turned out at the studio every night. When the show (which dealt with timely topics relating to terrorist threats, the intelligence community, and national security) was cancelled after going head to head with Survivor and Friends week after week, Denton found he had more time to root for his beloved White Sox and spend with his wife, Erin,and infant son, Sheppard. But it wasn’t long before he was tapped to appear in the ABC series Desperate Housewives, as “Mike Delfino,” the only single guy on a block full of frustrated married women. “We have Mark Cherry from The Golden Girls, who is a really great writer for women, and the role is great because I move onto the block as the only single guy and cause a little trouble among the women. It’s a really fun show.” Fans can catch Denton on Desperate Housewives on Sunday nights on ABC to see what kind of mayhem he stirs up on the show. But don’t expect him to cause a ruckus in real life. As a true Southern gentleman – after all – it’s not the way his parents raised him. “I do think Southerners in general have an easier way about them, in the way we talk, the way we operate. I was raised Conservative, Republican, Southern Baptist. I had good manners drilled into my head by my parents at an early age. Those are the kinds of things I associate with being Southern. And I think it reads on television and in film when actors are from the South. They have an easier, more natural way about them. You can just tell there’s just something a little different because they’re not like everybody else.” 44

Southern Beauty on Desperate Housewives

Eva Longoria Born: Eva Jacqueline Longoria on March 15, 1975 in Corpus Christi, Texas Education: Texas A&M-Kingsville, B.S. Kinesiology Height: 5’3” Accomplishments: Miss Corpus Christi USA - 1998 Personal: Married General Hospital actor Tyler Christopher on Jan. 20, 2002. The couple has filed for divorce. Resume: Carlita’s Secret - “Carlita” Desperate Housewives - “Gabrielle Solis” Dragnet (TV) - “Det. Gloria Duran” The Young and the Restless - “Isabella Williams”

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My South

uses knives and forks, but biscuits finish the job. In My South, if you wouldn’t want your momma to hear it, you don’t say it. My South is on Turner South.

Weekdays at 8AM ET

For the Best of Rick & Bubba Volumes 1 & 2 DVD set and other Turner South merchandise go to TurnerSouth.com!

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Deep South Barbecue Triumph, Tradition and Tragedy in Florida

When Clay Greer refers to duty, he knows what he’s talking about. their meals. Greer also grew annoyed at the offensive language the He saw heavy combat in Vietnam, as a member of the 1st Battalion, girls often overheard while eating out. So he decided to open his 5th Marine Regiment – the same regiment that seized control of Iraq own restaurant. two years ago, after a bloody battle with the Iraqi Republican Guard Being a lifelong Southerner, he opted for barbecue. and Fedayeen militia. “Barbecue is the central gathering point when it comes to food Like most who fought in the Vietnam War, Greer saw close friends in the South,” Greer says. “Very few people will invite you over wounded and killed. But, unlike many, he for a spaghetti party or Chinese food. It came home alive – to Brooksville, Fla., a encompasses the entire family because kids small town located near Interstate 75 just of every age can participate.” north of Tampa. Greer sold his equipment company and It was there, he said, that he discovered purchased a small building under an old what it really means to serve. oak tree near the highway, where tourists After the war, Greer started a business, pass every day on their way home from the married and had children. But 14 years beach. He renovated the structure, added after his wedding day, tragedy struck. a swing-set and picnic tables then enclosed Greer’s wife Karen lost her battle with the area for security. His daughters, Shelbi breast cancer, leaving him to raise their two and Karli, pitched in and began running the daughters alone. place along with their father. Greer did the only thing he knew how to They named it Deep South Barbecue and do. He picked up the mantle once again. displayed a sign with the new company motto. “Maybe it’s a Marine thing, but I’m still Donum amoris matris nostrae suturum, it read. going over the side of the Mike boat to face “Our mother’s gift of love, the future.” life head on,” he says. “After my wife died, I People came. Soon, diners were driving wasn’t like Job – I was hurt and scared. But I from as far as two hundred miles away for told the girls that God had chosen us to walk Greer’s ribs and baked beans, which earned a path and that, as long as we walked with a reputation for their unique flavor and Him beside us, we were safe. No matter ingredients. what happens, we’ll be okay. And they “We make a lot of Depression-era food believed that.” here, like fried-green tomatoes and collard As co-owner of a successful medical Shelbi and Karli at Christmas after Chemo greens, which have fallen to the wayside equipment company, Greer worked long today,” Greer says, after admitting that he is hours, but always managed to help the girls still surprised when parents try to order a hotdog, French fries and with their homework. He attended every play, every dance recital, soda for their children. “It’s kinda’ heart breaking, but a lot of young every soccer match. As time wore on, however, Greer realized they adults aren’t taught the skills of cooking nowadays, so they resort to needed a change. fast food. The pizza, fried chicken and hamburger industries have Part of his ritual with the girls was eating in restaurants, but done real well. But folks – to get home cooking – they come here.” cigarette smoke had made it increasingly difficult for them to enjoy In 2000, two days before Thanksgiving, life took another turn.

Alex Wong/Getty Image

by Annabelle Robertson

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ue Shelbi, Clay and Karli

Shelbi and the mobile cooker

The restaurant burned down, leaving Greer without a business. To his amazement, his neighbors turned out and insisted on rebuilding the place. “The story I want my girls to tell their grandchildren is about a little town down in Florida that had a barbeque place that burned down,” Greer says, trying not to choke up. “The community said, ‘We’ll help you build it back,’ – and they did.’ A lady wearing a suit showed up the morning after the fire and helped us tear down the burned wood. I told her to watch out, that she was going to get dirty. She turned to me and said, ‘These clothes will wash, but I won’t get the opportunity to help my neighbor again.’” Greer raises his eyebrows and looks away. “That’s the story I want to tell,” he says softly. It’s the same story, he insists, that is repeated all around the South, generation after generation. “Being Southern means being an example of chivalry, being a gentleman, being an example for younger generations to look at and say that there is such a thing as politeness and kindness,” he says. “It means representing not just myself, but my heritage – all the people who came before me.” Part of that example is blessing those who blessed him, Greer says. So, every year at Christmas, he and the girls serve up to 600 meals to local firefighters and their families, as a way of thanking them. It’s become an annual tradition in the community. But another unfortunate path came to the Greer Family. Shelbi was stricken with cancer, and continues her fight against the disease today.

Clay realizes his path has been tough, but doesn’t regret his choices. “It’s like that Garth Brooks’ song: ‘If you know the future, you might not want to go to the dance,’” he says. “As my life revealed itself and unexpected events occurred, you go back to the roots that you’re given.” Those roots go back to 1846, when Greer’s family moved to Brooksville. They’ve been there ever since. “Being a Southerner is like living in a nation within a nation,” he explains. “If you’re a Southerner and you love your country like I do, it’s easier to face death than be dishonored. Death before dishonor – that’s the Marine Corps’ slogan – and that’s what I live by.” It’s the end of the day, and Greer is closing up shop. After wiping down the counters, he steps outside the screened-in porch of the restaurant and sits a spell, reflecting on the past. “During Civil Rights, a lot of people thought we were heathens and barbarians, but we weren’t raised to hate,” he says, leaning forward. “That’s important to a Southern gentleman – we don’t want to hate people, and it’s important to us to get away from those stereotypes that make the whole world look at us like a barbarian nation. That’s not us.” “There’s no such thing as facing defeat if you have breath,” he adds, as the Florida sun begins to set behind the pines and the cicadas start to sing. “Life is like an ant eating an elephant, one bite at a time. You just keep going and hopefully, somebody will stand up at your funeral and say, ‘He cared.’”

“Life is like an ant eating an elephant, one bite at a time. You just keep going and hopefully, somebody will stand up at your funeral and say, ‘He cared.’”

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music

By J.E. Pitts

If the American South still stands in 500 years (and it will), what will it be? Will it resemble what it is today? Would we recognize it? The topography, of course, will have changed, due to hurricanes and industry and condominiums, but one thing will be the same: the citizens of the American South will still care passionately about music, and they will continue to create new and dynamic work in that field on a scale unrivaled by any other region in the country. Those musicians will leave behind their works for new generations to come along and find them, fall in love with them, be floored by them. It happens today. It will happen tomorrow. It is a cycle that will not end, nor do we want it to end. Memphis often comes up in conversations where progress is measured in a span, because Memphis, by its very name, is heavy with history. Named for the ancient capital of Egypt which sat next to the Nile River, the modern Memphis also sits next to a great river. Artisans flocked to the ancient Memphis, some of them

undoubtedly made music in the streets, and the Memphis of today has the same type of creative spirit. The modern Memphis even has its own Pyramid (although it is now overshadowed by the larger FedEx Forum), which cuts an impressive sight if you view it from upriver or from atop a high bridge just west of downtown. And as the ancient Memphis had a king, so does the modern Memphis. Memphis holds a particular place in the timeline of the history of rock-n-roll, and so does that young kid from Tupelo, who started it all 50 years ago. Elvis wasn’t too particular in those shy and awkward days before he put his voice down on tape for the ages. His clothes were a bit flashy, and he kept his teenage pompadour for the rest of his life, but there was no entourage at that time. The Cadillacs, the mansion and the sold-out concerts were years away. He wasn’t even choosy about the place where he would make history with his first recorded song: he simply passed by Sun Studio on Union Avenue often while he was out on his truck route,

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Sam Phillips & Jerry Lee Lewis: Photo by Getty Images, Elvis: Photo by David Silverman/Getty Images

Elvis Preseley poster on restaurant window

and one day he decided to stop in. He wanted to record some songs for his mom. Simple enough. He told the secretary at Sun that “I don’t sound like nobody” when she asked about his influences, but that famous story is both humble and deceptive. It was certainly true that he didn’t sound like anybody else, but he didn’t know that. He just knew that he could sing. Sam Phillips was the mad tinkerer and owner of Sun Studio who possessed the best pair of ears in the 20th century. Without his input and production, it’s hard to say if Elvis would have ever been discovered, and he always shrugged off the fact that he sold Elvis’ contract to RCA for a $40,000 pittance. When he appeared on talk shows late in his life, Phillips always seemed

he might make a profit on this new white blues singer. It was the music. The music is what made Sam Phillips happy in those photographs. And the funny thing is, none of it was ever supposed to happen. It was July 5th, 1954, and the town was quiet after a boisterous holiday. It was sluggishly hot, the time of summer in the South when you can actually feel yourself walking through a wall of thick air outside. Elvis, Scotty Moore and Bill Black were in the studio at Sun, cutting up and not getting a whole lot accomplished. They were new to each other, and young, and weren’t Jerry Lee Lewis

to bristle when someone like David Letterman would quiz him on the early days, about what it was like to work with Elvis, and Scotty, and Bill, and Jerry Lee, and Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash. It was almost as if those early days at Sun Studio had been some sort of experiment gone wrong that Sam Phillips wanted to badly forget, but if you look at the photographs from the early days of Sun Studio, when Elvis was around, Sam Phillips is always beaming from ear to ear, with a smile that stretches across his face. It wasn’t the fact that he was in the presence of a star in the making. It wasn’t the fact that Sam Phillips

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music

‘‘‘‘

His mother’s mansion

he had Col. Tom Parker for a manager and Ed Sullivan for a cheerleader and 52 million people watched him from the waist up on television. The nation erupted in pro or con. It was as if someone had broken the Hoover Dam with one swing of a hammer. He had lots of hits and went to the Army, and then his mother died after he had bought her a beautiful mansion in South Memphis. He sat on the front steps with his father and openly cried. After the Army he went to Hollywood and made movies, and then quit to tour the United States incessantly. He never went to Europe, lest his manager’s real name and immigration status be revealed. When it was appropriate, he would have a comeback, but it was never as if he had really ever gone anywhere. He got divorced but took it in stride, dating models or pageant queens. In his off time, he rode his motorcycle around Memphis, went to karate practice or rented out Libertyland, the local amusement park, for a night of fun for himself and his gang of friends. He died young, during a decade when the country was already anxious and confused, and his mother’s mansion became the second-most visited residence in The United States, second to The White House. Across the street from the mansion is a little complex that houses his cars and the jet that he bought and named for his daughter. Each August, thousands of faithful Elvis fans descend on Memphis to pay their respects. Impersonators make careers out of mimicking his every swivel and tic. The rest of the world watches in

bemusement and wonder. But Memphis isn’t just Elvis. The music is everywhere in the city, from the bricks of Beale Street, the clubs of Midtown, Stax and the Museum of American Soul Music to the Reverend Al Green and Justin Timberlake, who almost convinced MTV in 2004 to broadcast their music awards show from his hometown. Now that Memphis has the new FedEx Forum completed and open, there will probably be many awards shows and concerts pouring out of downtown Memphis to mix and mingle with the rest of the notes and chords that fade up out of the clubs, down the streets and into the atmosphere, to hang like balloons. It won’t be anything new for Memphis. The city has given birth to great music for a long, long time. If there are music archaeologists canvassing the American South in 500 years, they will probably gravitate towards Memphis, because Memphis is a city of gold. The gold does not run in veins under the bluffs by the river. When Hernando de Soto crossed the Mississippi near Memphis in 1541, he did not find such precious metals as gold or platinum, but the modern Memphis has produced gold and platinum year after year. A long hallway in Graceland, for instance, is lined with examples. The sounds of Memphis have been recorded, pressed, sold and played into our American consciousness over and over and over for 50 years. For that, Memphis should always get credit in the history books, even as we wait in anticipation for what new sounds will arrive in the next half-century.

Rev. Al Green 50

Frank Micelotta/Getty Images

yet superstars when Elvis began singing “That’s All Right, Mama,” and the other two came in behind him. Sam Phillips perked up and stuck his head in the room and told them to do it again. There was something in the air, and Phillips sensed it. He stood in the control room as the trio went through the number again, and the song was recorded, the record was pressed, the disc was ferried to the local radio station, it was played on the air, the requests came in and the record was played again and again. Fame wasn’t instant for Elvis, but it didn’t take long. Soon

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mobile

Mardi Gras by Virginia Shields

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Carnival Season

This season of merriment begins almost as soon as the Christmas lights are taken down and the uneaten fruit cakes are thrown out. Just when people are about to settle down to the routine of a new year, the city is turned upside down once again. Red and green decorations are traded in for purple, green and gold adornments, and Santa’s face is replaced by the faces of masked revelers. The sounds of jingle bells and angels’ voices fade out, and Cajun tunes and the music of upbeat marching bands begin to fill the streets. The partying of the Carnival Season culminates in one final day of festivity, which is Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday. When Mardi Gras is mentioned, most people immediately think of New Orleans, but this celebration is not confined only to

the streets of the famous Louisiana port city. In fact, Mardi Gras’s true origins lie about 145 miles east in another port city – Mobile. According to the Mobile Area Convention and Visitors’ Bureau, the first Mardi Gras “parade” was performed by the Cowbellion de Rakin society on New Year’s Eve in 1703. They caroused through the streets with rakes, hoes and cowbells stolen from a hardware store, and continued the party afterwards with a feast of whatever food and drink they could muster up. These early partiers are true predecessors of the first mystic societies, which were formed in the 1830s. The annual Carnival Season was put on hiatus during the Civil War, and it

wasn’t until Fat Tuesday in 1866 that the celebration was reinstated. A man named Joe Cain dressed himself in Chickasaw Indian apparel and paraded through the streets on a decorated coal wagon pulled by a mule. He single-handedly restored the wonderful tradition of Mardi Gras, and he is also responsible for founding many of the mystic societies which host balls and parades during the Carnival Season. He is honored each year on Joe Cain Day, which is the Sunday before Fat Tuesday. Today, there are around 30 Mardi Gras organizations in Mobile, all of which host a parade, a ball or both. The parades begin about three weeks before Fat Tuesday, which is always the day before Ash Wednesday (although the Carnival season has no relationship to the Catholic

Photos courtesy of Mobile Tourism Board

in Mobile, Alabama is one of the most mystical times of year. Children and adults alike are full of mischief and spirited energy as the usually sparse downtown streets are brought back to life by the continual parties and parades, and moods are enhanced by the champagne, wine, King Cakes and MoonPies.

Mobile, Alabama’s Mardi Gras Timeline 1699

1704

1793

1857

1890

1892

1893

1917-1918

This is considered the first celebration of Mardi Gras in the U.S. Pierre Le Moyne’ declares his camp “Pointe du Mardi Gras.”

Mobile is formally made the capital of the French province of Louisiane.

Mobile hosts a parade on “Twelfth Night”, by the Spanish Mystics.

A group of the Cowbellions, and Strikers, help 13 New Orleanians form the Krewe of Comus, who coins the word, for the first time, “Krewe.”

The first women’s Mystic Society, Mobile Women Mystics, holds its first Mardi Gras Ball.

Rex parade Symbolism of Colors, proclaims the Carnival colors of purple, gold and green to mean justice, power, and faith, respectively.

Mobile’s first electric streetcar begins operation.

World War I cancels most Mardi Gras activities.

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Church). Watching a Mardi Gras parade is like looking through a kaleidoscope; the floats, constructed primarily out of wire and papier-mache, are elaborately designed and decorated with amazingly bright colors. The men and women who ride in the parades dress up in shiny, colorful costumes complete with a revelers’ face mask. Before the parade begins, several bags full of MoonPies, beads, trinkets and candy are loaded onto the floats, and after the floats have woven their way

through downtown Mobile, the loot is gone – thrown away to eager parade-goers whose common mantra is, “Throw me something, mister!” Each parade usually consists of about 12-15 floats, and marching bands fill in the spaces between the floats. The already excited crowd becomes even more so when the lively music of the bands is heard, and no one can resist tapping their feet in tune with the catchy beats. After each night’s parade is over, the children compare their catch as if it’s

Halloween, and the parents spend some time socializing downtown before taking the kids home to bed. The paraders, their dates, and numerous guests attend the night’s ball, which is carried on well into the midnight hour. The night eventually draws to a close for all the parade-goers and ball attendees, but the party doesn’t officially end until Lent begins. Mardi Gras season in Mobile is full of fun and frivolity. Children enjoy watching the parades and catching as many toys and MoonPies as they possibly can, while the older children (or adults) enjoy the party atmosphere of the parades and the fancy balls held all during the season. It’s a way for the people of Mobile to appreciate their heritage, while attending a ridiculous number of parties in the span of three weeks. But more importantly, Mardi Gras in “The City of Five Flags” is a reminder that life is always full of things to celebrate!

1931

1938

1942

1949

1987

1996

1997

The Mystic Krewe, by Perry Young is published. By some in the carnival circles, it is considered the bible of research on Mardi Gras.

A. S. May founds the Knights of May Zulu Club, the first Black parading organization.

World War II cancels most of Carnival.

For the first time a women’s organization the Polka Dots, parades in Mobile.

In the midst of great religious debate over Mardi Gras’ evil influence on Mobile’s Christians, the Catholic church openly supports Mardi Gras.

Parade season attendance surpasses the 1 million plateau, estimated at 1,054,300 by the Mobile Police Dept.

Mardi Gras Archive is created, the first significant Mobile Mardi Gras website on the Internet. www..mobile.org

This continues until 1945, the end of the conflict.

The Maids of Mirth are founded.

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e i x i D s ’ i Jess

Y R A I D xander

by Jessi Ale

“There’s a back road in my mind, taking me back here everytime. And it’s all mine, it waits for me, if only in a daydream...” i Alexander, from “Honeysuckle Sweet” by Jess Records Columbia

I started singing these words to myself a couple years ago while traveling through my favorite part of the South: the Atlantic Coast. Images flashed in my mind from my summers growing up on the Tennessee River: catfish, cypress trees, water-skiing, watermelon, and of course, that sticky August heat undistinguished from the South! I worked very hard to capture my fondness for my native land through words, and later these lyrics became the titled song “Honeysuckle Sweet,” which also became the title of my debut album. The people and places I visited during my travels have provided endless inspiration and have helped to create the songwriter I am today. Three years ago, over the Fourth of July weekend, a friend and I visited Charleston. We participated in one of the many walking tours offered, and it was like taking a step back 150 years. The stories of Fort Sumter and the secession that once divided our nation were so captivating. I must also report, the pimento cheese sandwiches that we found just a few blocks away – along with a perfectly blended sweetened iced tea – was just the cure for the 100 degree July heat. Down the road about 85 miles is my favorite city in the South, Savannah! I visited with a buddy from college on our fall break. I remember the overwhelming sense of familiarity and magic when I first stepped foot on those wonderful cobblestone streets. I hit that town with a hunger to learn and a desire to experience everything it had to offer, and I climbed on the first historic trolley tour I could find. Having never seen European architecture, I was mesmerized by the houses in the historical district with their brilliant shades of colors and shapes creating tiny town squares.

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Photos courtesy of Laura A. McElroy

After the tour, I stumbled into photographer Jack Leigh’s gallery, whom you may know from the cover of the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. I’ve never seen anyone capture the spirit of the coastal South like Jack Leigh. Except maybe Pat Conroy, who achieves the same brilliance creating pictures with words in The Prince of Tides. While we were in Savannah, we had dinner at a great jazz club to experience the Savannah music scene. As we were enjoying the meal and the music, we noticed a gentleman sitting at the table next to us who was getting quite a bit of attention. People were approaching him with money, and signing some sort of list. After about an hour, curiosity got the best of us, so we decided to find out what he was up to. We learned this man was giving a ghost tour at midnight for a pretty reasonable price. We thought it sounded like an adventure! After a couple of hours, as well as a couple drinks, we gathered around our fearless leader and waited to start the tour. Before long, we were heading out on foot, down the sleepy streets of Savannah. Our first stop was an old Irish pub, where we were encouraged to buy a drink and listen to the tale of how the ghosts of pirates haunted the guests. Half an hour later, we continued the tour, stopping occasionally to hear another ghost story as we approached yet another old pub. I’m sure you can see where this was going. Yes, five pub stops and three hours later, our 40 some-odd boisterous troop was a sight to see. As the tour continued, it seemed our group got smaller, yet louder. Even our guide, began slurring his stories, and soon our drunken laughter filled the empty streets. Those characters and the electricity of the magical city of Savannah still bring a smile to my face. And heck, they may even wind up in a song of mine someday. Another place that has provided much inspiration, is tucked away in the Appalachian Mountains, called the Balsam Inn in Balsam, N.C. This inn was built at the turn of the century for families suffering from extreme Southern humidity, and who had the need to cool off for the summer. It has since been renovated, yet it has kept its unmistakable charm with breathtaking views, offering no phones or televisions to distract you. On Saturday nights, they entertain their guests with music from the best of Nashville songwriters, while serving a five star meal. It’s hard to write a piece on the South without mentioning Atlanta! It seems every time I go there, I find yet another great place to visit. For example, right there on Peachtree Street is Margaret Mitchell’s house, where she penned Gone with the Wind, and they have now

turned it into a wonderful museum. Whenever I feel writer’s block, I go there to be reminded, it took her almost ten years to complete her only novel, and she didn’t even think anyone would read it!!! Her story fascinates me, and I feel we are in some way kindred spirits, both loving to write about the South, hoping to give people an inside look at its depth and beauty. No tour of the South would be complete with out a stop in my childhood playground, Memphis. It was on the legendary Beale Street that I got my first taste of sweet soul music, while watching Albert and B.B. King perform. Through my eight-year-old eyes, I watched those larger-than-life musicians place an intoxicating trance on the audience, and I was forever converted as their Delta disciple. There is such an amazing blend of country, rhythm and blues and gospel music ascending from that city. From Al Green’s church on Sundays, to the King’s palace, Graceland, you can’t help but feel the strong roots of American music. Wanting to be close to the place that was my first muse, I had to record my record at Ardent studio. I hoped Memphis would offer me the same pure, timeless sound that resonated in the R&B recordings of the 1950’s and 1960’s. We stayed at the Peabody Hotel, and between breaks from recording, we made frequent stops at one of my favorite meat and threes, the Cupboard. It was also inspiring everyday to drive by Sun studios where Elvis, Johnny Cash, and Carl Perkins recorded, not to mention the Stax Records museum right down the road where artists such as Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding recorded. That was an endless place of inspiration after a long day of work. If I could, I would eat, sleep, and breathe the South. It’s who I am and where I come from. I am now traveling all across the country and overseas, and although I love experiencing new places and different cultures, there is nothing like looking out the window of an airplane, and seeing the unmistakable rolling hills of the South. It’s Honeysuckle Sweet, y’all!!!! __________________ Jackson, Tenn. native Jessi Alexander is a recording artist for Sony Music Nashville’s Columbia Records. Jessi enjoys Southern literature and history. Her Southern-themed debut CD, Honeysuckle Sweet, hits stores in March.

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history

CIVIL RIGHTS CHILDREN I’ve long been troubled by what many consider as the most inspirational image from the civil rights movement. I’m talking about the 1963 March on Washington.That’s the moment when Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stood before an exultant crowd at the Lincoln Memorial and told them about his dream. by John Blake Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter and author

hat moment troubles me not because I question its significance. It’s simply lost its power to inspire for me after repeated showings. I was born in 1964. I don’t remember the “For Whites Only” signs or King’s assassination. I know the movement primarily through the ritualized observances every January of King’s birthday: the “we must not forget” speeches, commemorative marches, and the inevitable singing of “We Shall Overcome.” It seems to me people are losing their ability to speak about the movement in fresh and powerful ways. Each generation has to find their own way to punch through the civil right clichés and discover for themselves how the movement can speak to them in their circumstances. I tried to do this by literally talking to the children that King alluded to during his dream speech - his children and all the other children of the biggest names from the civil rights movement. For two years, I tracked down and interviewed the sons and daughters of leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael and others for my book Children of the Movement (Lawrence Hill Books). I wanted to know if they dreamed too. Were they trying to change the world? And how were their lives shaped – for good or bad – by their parents’ activism. But I broadened my search to include the children of the segregationist leaders that opposed King’s dream: the sons and daughters of politicians such as former Ala. Gov. George Wallace and Miss. Gov. Ross Barnett Sr. Were they

ashamed of their parents’ segregationist stance? Did they have to go through life continually apologizing and compensating for their parents’ reputation? Were they racist? I finally decided to talk to those civil rights parents who are still alive. I wanted to know what had happened to them since they had tried to change the world as young men and women 40 years ago. Did they still believe, “We Shall Overcome?” Some of what I found was expected, but most of it was shocking. In the back of my mind, I’d hoped to collect a string of inspirational profiles along the vein of The Greatest Generation, Tom Brokaw’s best-selling book on the World War II generation. But the stories I uncovered ended up being so much messier. They ranged from uplifting, tragic, darkly funny and just plain strange. For one, I was surprised to learn that many of the kids didn’t

Andrew Young (right), with son Bo and late wife Jean Childs Young. (courtesy of Bo Young)

know about the significance of their parents. They learned about their parents’ civil rights past through others or by accident. Ilyasah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, met students during her freshman year that wanted her to regale them with stories about her famous father. But she had none. She grew up in upstate New York as a sheltered, middle-class kid who loved Madonna. She had actually had to go out and buy her father’s book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and enroll in a college course to learn about him.

The daughters of Malcolm X: Atallah, Malaak and Ilyasah (courtesy of Ilyasha Shabazz)

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into his father’s era. During our interview, he told me he’s used the word “nigger” but he wasn’t a racist; blacks were treated well during slavery and Viola Liuzzo came to Selma to sleep with black men. He said it all during our face-to-face interview with a jovial smile. Thankfully, there were plenty of children who were inspiring. There was Maisha Moses, the daughter of SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) leader, Bob Moses. She was smart, warm and found a way to carry on her father’s legacy by working at his side today. There was Ouida Barnett Atkins, the daughter of former Miss. Gov Ross Barnett Sr., who had renounced her father’s segregationist ways. She teaches today at an allblack inner-city school. And then there were the movement children like the author, Naomi Klein, who say the civil rights movement has evolved into a worldwide movement against corporate domination. The Seattle protests of 1999 were their defining movement.

Other kids followed the same pattern. Bokar Ture, the son of Stokely Carmichael, grew up in West Africa with his father. He was bewildered when he moved to the U.S. to learn that his father, the man who coined the term, “Black Power,” was a symbol of black militancy. He never saw his father with a gun. He actually thought his father was too nice to people. Some of the children, though, knew only too well about their parents’ work in the movement. They suffered because of it and tried to forget. So many of the children I talked to had distant relationships with their parents. The daughter of Rev. James Bevel, King’s best organizer and tactician, told me she grew up in poverty rarely seeing her father who belittled her for not being dedicated to the movement enough. “He doesn’t know my favorite food... where I went to high school, what my college degree is in. He doesn’t even know when I was born,” she told me. Bevel’s response to the animosity of his daughter: “Bull Conner hated me but I loved him, too.” Some of the most touching stories came from children whose parents became civil rights martyrs. It was heartbreaking to hear Angela Lewis, the daughter of James Earl Chaney, one of three civil rights

Left: Ouida Barnett Atkins, daughter of former Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett (courtesy of Lawrence Hill Books)

Right: Bokar Ture, son of Stokely Carmichael. (courtesy of Bokar Ture) Far right: Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), holding infant son Bokar, and wife Marlyatou. (courtesy of Bokar Ture)

workers murdered in Mississippi during 1964, describe how she was born only a week after her father was murdered. She grew up shielding her identity from virtually everyone – even when she accidentally met one of her father’s suspected killers one day. As I talked to the children of famous civil rights martyrs, a pattern emerged. The loss of their parents sent many into an emotional tailspin from which some have never recovered. Penny Herrington, the daughter of Viola Liuzzo, a Detroit housewife shot to death in Selma, shared harrowing stories about how the country turned against her family because of her mother’s activism. She said people sent pictures of her mother’s bloodied body to her home writing “nigger lover,” and “whore” on the pictures. A cross was burned on her family’s lawn. Her family was destroyed by the criticism they received - and by later learning later that the FBI was complicit in their mother’s murder.

Just when the stories seemed to have become too grim, I would meet some movement children who made me laugh. Hearing Ralph Abernathy III explain away his brushes with the law (this was a man who led police on a highspeed chase on his way to give an inspirational speech to elementary school students) was funny in a pathetic way. And I’ll never forget what Bo Young, Andrew Young’s son, an entrepreneur whose heroes are millionaires not activists, told me when I asked him if he still believed in integration. His booming response: “I want to integrate the money.” Perhaps the most shocking interview of the book took place when I talked to Stephen Smitherman, the son of a segregationist leader, Joe Smitherman, the former mayor of Selma, Ala. Smitherman, who called King “Martin Luther Coon,” opposed civil rights marchers who descended on his town in 1965. Stephen sounded like he would fit right

Yet despite those stories there is an undercurrent of melancholy that runs through much of the book. It’s sad to hear how so many of the children are so much more cynical about changing the world than their parents. They saw how much their parents suffered with so little in return. Yet there’s still a part of them that wishes to experience transcendent moments like King’s “I Have a Dream Speech.” They want to believe. As Ericka Abram, the daughter of Elaine Brown, a Black Panther Party leader, told me one day: “If you’ve been told all your life that you were born for the revolution, what do you do with your life when the revolution never comes?” Like many children of the movement, Ericka is still searching for the answer to that question today.

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Southerners: A A

Confederate re-enactor and site director of the Confederate Memorial Park in Clanton, Ala., Bill Rambo lives his Southern heritage at work and at play. “I don’t remember who said it, but it’s certainly true that the South is a place; the North is just a direction,’’ says the 55year-old Alabama native who has never lived outside the region and proudly calls himself Southern. Dr. Jimmie Lewis Franklin, a Mississippiborn black man who spent much of his working life in the West and Midwest, has one thing in common with Rambo. He considers himself a Southerner and came back partly because he “...had a sense of place, I understood the nuances of the language and culture.’’ Divergent backgrounds aside, neither Southerner was surprised by the findings of a University of North Carolina sociologist that those proud to claim the label might be a dying breed. “We’re losing the South, losing the Southern flavor. I attribute it all to television and Hollywood,’’ says Rambo, whose days are awash in the culture of the old South at the park which was the site of Alabama’s only Old Soldier’s Home for Confederate veterans. He says movies

and television shows have broadcast the image of racist, redneck Southerners – stereotypes people reject. Dr. Larry Griffin, who headed the study by researchers at Vanderbilt University, thinks those negative stereotypes might be one factor. Researchers found the number of people in the South who answered yes to the question “Do you consider yourself a Southerner or not?’’ dropped by 7.4 percentage points in 1991, from about 78 percent to 70 percent in 2001. The 19 Southern Focus Polls done by the University of North Carolina’s Center for Study of the American South polled 17,600 randomly selected people who live in 13 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. “We found that in virtually every single category—male, female, black, white, young urban, lowland South, highly educated, poorly educated—we see the decline. It’s not limited to Democrats or newcomers; it’s pervasive,’’ says Griffin, a self-identified Southerner who grew up in Mississippi and is now a sociology and history professor at the University of North Carolina.

Only three categories bucked the trend – self-described political conservatives, Republicans, and the top income level (defined as those earning more than $60,000 in annual income). Republicans stayed about 74 percent, the rich at 69 percent, and political conservatives at 78 percent. Those three categories are connected, too, Griffin says, since people with higher incomes are more likely to be Republican and conservative. “It’s not inconceivable that these folks still believe the South is theirs. Rich people have a hell of a lot more say about what goes on in the South than poor folks,’’ he adds. Pollsters looked at 46 groups and found not a single group that increased its identification with the South, Griffin says. No one knows if similar declines could be found in the West, New England, or the Midwest. “Nobody’s ever done this kind of study with any region we know of,’’ Griffin says. “That itself is telling—Southerners are peculiar, different.’’ The findings on Southerners suggest a “homogenizing of America,’’ Griffin says, since the South was for so long “the alien member of the family: the outsider, the

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s: A Dying Breed? different one, the problem child.’’ Urbanization and increased mobility may be partly to blame, the researchers said. “People who move to the South from other regions tend to be less Southern. They are very significantly less likely to self-identify than lifelong Southerners,’’ he says. And while some will be assimilated into the culture, others will not. And the polls found that even lifelong Southerners decreased in how strongly they identified themselves as Southerners (2.1 percentage points for lifelong Southerners, compared to a 4.5 percent decline for those living in the South less than 10 years). “I wasn’t surprised at the decline, but the pervasiveness across categories did surprise me,’’ Griffin says. Still, by far the single strongest factor in Southern identity is how long someone has lived in the region. About 93 percent of lifelong Southerners have declared their Southern identity in every poll. Contrast that with only 26 percent of those who have lived in the South for 6 to 10 years considering themselves Southern. And newcomers from outside the South affect those who live here. “We’re interacting with different folks more than we used to. They are bringing pieces of their culture into the South and

transforming the Southern culture,’’ he says. “It’s easier in many places to find a Mexican restaurant than a place where you get turnip greens and peas.’’ Although many of the negative stereotypes of the South stem from racism, 78 percent of blacks in the region consider themselves Southerners, compared to 75 percent of whites. “African-Americans

Fewer residents identify with the South, but lifelong Southerners hanging onto label may mean something different,’’ says Griffin, who adds that he’d like to get funds to explore what is meant by the label Southern and why people answer as they do. Some, he says, may simply believe that they live in the South, so they are Southerners, without attaching any cultural significance to the label. Franklin, a professor emeritus at Vanderbilt University and former president of the Southern Historical

Association, believes black and white culture in the South always intersected at many points—for instance soul food and Southern food are nearly the same thing. But the politics of race tended to obscure that, Franklin says, adding that Jim Crow also created the perception that the South was evil. “Changing the Jim Crow culture helped to create a healthier view of the American South,’’ Franklin says. And even if regional differences are diminishing, Franklin says the South will always exist. “The manners and morals are different. There’s a politeness that you don’t witness in New England, or certainly in urban centers,’’ he adds. Franklin and Griffin agree the increased mobility of Americans is probably a factor in fewer people identifying themselves as Southern, as well as mass media. “We all watch Seinfeld, Cheers, all listen to the same music and go to the same movies,’’ he says. Griffin says he lived outside the South for 20 years, but still considers himself Southern. “It’s the culture I know most,” he says, “the way I talk, much of the food that I eat.’’

by Vicki Brown

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2004 2005 • Y’ALL NOVEMBER/DECEMBER

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sports

Pat Summitt Thompson-Boling Arena is quiet one November evening, except for the steady voice of Pat Summitt. In what is quintessential Summitt, she methodically shows three of Tennessee’s freshmen some of the intricacies of the Lady Vols offense. A former player now on Summitt’s staff, her nephew who is also on the staff and Summitt’s 14-yearold son fill out the basketball court.

Center photo: Sara D. Davis/Getty Images Remaining courtesy of UT Sports Info.

he rest of the women’s team has completed practice and headed to the locker room. Summitt’s voice when they were on the court was considerably louder. There was no doubt Summitt was in charge as she patrolled the perimeter of the practice floor. But in a role that is part coach and part mother, Summitt walks the freshmen through the offense and smiles softly as her son Tyler knocks down three-point shots. “I go to every practice that I can get to,” says Tyler, who plays for the eighth-grade team at Webb School of Knoxville. “It’s fun to learn from my mom.” Tyler’s mother has been enshrined in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville as part of the inaugural class in 1999 and in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., in 2000, the first year she was eligible on the ballot. She has taken Tennessee to the NCAA Women’s Final Four on 15 occasions and has come away six times with the national title. Entering her 31st season for the Lady Vols, Summitt had tallied 852 wins. She will soon claim the record for all-time wins in college basketball history, surpassing the 879 wins of Dean 60

Smith, the now-retired coach of North Carolina. Summitt could hit the milestone in March if her 2004-05 team, which started the season No. 1 in the polls, performs as expected. Summitt will praise Smith, “I’ve admired him for years. He’s one of the best to ever coach the game,” but she’s not interested in talking about her place in hoops history. “I want to live in the moment,” Summitt says. This moment is a rare off day in the

preseason at her lake house just outside of Knoxville, along an offshoot of the Tennessee River. It is home for the Summitts: Pat, 52, her husband R.B., 53, their son, and his dog “Sally Sue.” “It’s very private,” Pat Summitt says. “I love the water. Tyler has his own little fishing boat. It’s fun to watch him grow up as a ‘river rat.’ It’s great to come home.” They are all Tennessee natives. Pat was born in Henrietta and R.B. in Sevierville. They grew up in rural areas and learned how to work the land, whether it was baling hay (R.B.) or milking cows (Pat). Tyler was born in Knoxville, though his birthplace hung in the balance. The harrowing tale of Pat going into labor with Tyler while on a recruiting trip to Pennsylvania has been told many times, though not from R.B.’s point of view. Pat was determined to have her son in Knoxville; she forbade the pilot to land in Virginia, even though she was in severe pain and close to giving birth, because she wanted her son to be born in Tennessee, with her husband in the room. R.B. was against the trip but gave in when his wife’s doctor granted permission. When Pat called from Pennsylvania to tell him that

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Graduation Day 2004: Tasha Butts (l) and Ashley Robinson (r), thank The Coach.

by Maria M. Cornelius Knoxville, Tennessee

6 National Titles her water had broken, R.B. calmly closed the bank – his family operates Sevier County Bank – called for an ambulance to stand by the airport and waited for his wife. “I wasn’t going to panic,” he says. R.B. stayed calm until the ambulance driver asked for directions to a local hospital. He then threatened to drive the ambulance himself. “As the good Lord would have it, Tyler’s head was turned a little,” R.B. says, and that prevented the baby from popping out. Tyler was born at the hospital moments after arrival with R.B. in the delivery room. Tyler is truly a child of the South. Ask him what he likes about living here, and he rattles off a list of things from fishing early in the morning to playing football on hot summer nights. He takes his dog, a yellow Labrador retriever, with him everywhere. “I go outside and lie with ‘Sally’ and look up at the sky,” Tyler says. “It’s really

peaceful.” Despite the hectic schedules of the family – Tyler is active in sports and school; R.B. is the CEO of the bank; and Pat is the CEO of Tennessee women’s basketball – the family always tries to eat supper together. The television is turned off, and they take turns discussing their day. “I think there’s a lot of Southern traditions that our families instilled in us,” Pat said of her family, the Heads of Henrietta in Cheatham County in Middle Tennessee; and R.B.’s family, the Summitts of Sevierville in Sevier County in East Tennessee. “His mother cooks for the family at noon every day. That’s just tradition for them. We didn’t miss church, we didn’t miss school, and we didn’t miss a meal.” R.B.’s mother, Mae Kimbrough Summitt, is a Southern matriarch who can “handle herself inside and outside the house,” he says. “I knew I wanted somebody like that – independent and headstrong.”

R.B. met Pat in 1977 through a mutual banking friend, Marcia MacGregor (nee Barron). They dated for three years before marrying in 1980. By tradition he asked Pat’s father, Richard Head, for permission. R.B.’s voice can often be heard at Lady Vols basketball games where he shouts encouragement and challenges referee calls. He is content, though, to let his wife of 24 years have the accolades. “I’ve never had a problem with Pat being a strong woman, accomplished and successful,” R.B. says. His enlightened view is being passed to Tyler. The teenager is learning to cook. He is a well-mannered and respectful young man, who peppers his conversation with thank you and yes ma’am. He doesn’t hesitate to say how much he loves his parents. “You have to let someone know you love them,” Tyler says. “You need to let them know you’re there, and you’ll always be there.” The Southern notion of family extends to the basketball program at Tennessee. On the bench for the Lady Vols are two former players who are now assistant coaches, Nikki Caldwell and Holly Warlick; a former player who is now a graduate assistant, Tasha Butts; and Pat Summitt’s nephew, David Head, who is also a graduate assistant. “With Pat you can see the discipline in her as a coach, as a mom, as a wife, being committed to the things that matter the most to her,” Caldwell says. “She’s been a very responsible person for a long time. She knows how to make you responsible, how to make you accountable. Our core of this program, our foundation has never wavered.” The Summitts often host the team and assistants at their lake house for dinner, and Pat’s reputation as a cook of fine Southern food – especially fried chicken – has received mention on national television during broadcasts of Lady Vol games. It’s well deserved. “As we say in the South, she can throw down,” Caldwell says. JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 • Y’ALL

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books

by Annabelle Robertson

Interview with

Cassandra King If you’re from L.A., says novelist Cassandra King, you’re Southern through and through. After all, you can’t get any further South than Lower Alabama.

AboveRight: photo credit Tamara

“I was raised on a farm in South Alabama, and I’m a product of the South,” King says, in an accent as flavorful as the peanuts her family used to grow. “I’ve never lived anywhere else. I am absolutely Southern from the top of my head to the tip of my toes, just though and through.” Like many authors, King incorporates her roots into her writing – something that wasn’t part of her life until several years ago. Kind of like her husband, Pat Conroy (visit page 66 for a feature on Pat’s new cookbook). The two married six years ago. It is Conroy’s third marriage, King’s second, but King had put pen to paper long before

she met the literary icon. Her first book, Making Waves in Zion, was published by a small press in 1995. King was attending a reception for Conroy when someone mentioned that she was a writer, and the two struck up a conversation. They began dating the following year, after King’s 24-year marriage collapsed, then wed in 1998. The best-selling couple live on Fripp Island, S.C. King was reticent about exploring her past through writing, but Conroy saw fertile ground in his wife’s experiences. “Pat asked me why I had never written about my previous life [as] a repressed minister’s wife,” she says, with just a hint

of mischief in her voice. “And you know Pat. That’s all he’s ever done! I keep telling him that he should try fiction one of these days! I said that I couldn’t – that I didn’t want people to know that stuff about me. But he said that this was the manuscript I needed to be working on.” King heeded her husband’s advice. The result was a semi-autobiographical novel, The Sunday Wife, about a Methodist minister’s wife. Published by Hyperion in 2002, it tells the story of a dulcimerplaying orphan named Dean, who finds relief from an egocentric, prideful husband in unlikely friendships. To King’s surprise, The Sunday Wife hit the best-seller lists. JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 • Y’ALL

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home cooking

Chocolate Crêpes

Recipes of My Life by Pat Conroy

When I first got to Atlanta in the early seventies, there existed a trendy little restaurant called the Magic Pen, which specialized in the preparation of crêpe dishes. I even went through my own crêpe period later on in the decade, specializing for a time in a seafood crêpe that contained morsels of crab, shrimp, and scallops. I have always been one of those cooks who over watches the batter then worries it in the pan when it should just be cooking. FOR THE CRÊPES 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus additional 2 large eggs 1 tablespoon Pinch of salt 1 cup whole milk ¾ cup all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon hazelnut liqueur (optional)

PHOTOS COURTESY OF TURNER SOUTH

FOR THE FILLING 9 to 10 ounces bittersweet chocolate (such as Scharffen Berger) Confectioners’ sugar for sprinkling

Pat Conroy is the best-selling author of The Prince of Tides, Beach Music and My Losing Season. Conroy lives on Fripp Island, S.C. with his wife, Cassandra King Conroy.

1. To prepare the crêpe batter: Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. 2. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar, and salt together. Add the milk to the melted butter and pour half the milk and butter into the eggs. Sift in the flour and whisk, then add the remaining milk and butter. Whisk in the hazelnut liqueur, if using. When the mixture is smooth, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight to let the gluten expand. Bring to room temperature before using. 3. To make the crêpes: Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a nonstick sauté pan over medium-high heat. Ladle about two tablespoons of batter into the hot sauté pan and quickly tilt the pan so the batter spreads evenly. When little bubbles appear on the surface and the edges begin to brown, about 1 minute, lift the edge of the crêpe with a spatula and flip. Cook for another 30 seconds (the second side will not brown as much as the first side). 4. Invert the sauté pan over a plate to remove the crêpe. Continue cooking the crêpes between paper towels or wax paper and keep warm. 5. To make the filling: In a double broiler over hot but not boiling water, melt the chocolate just until soft enough to stir. The consistency of the melted chocolate should be thick, not runny. 6. To assemble: Spread the warm crêpes with a generous tablespoon of warm chocolate. Roll, sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar and serve. Recipe reprinted with permission. From The Pat Conroy Cookbook (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday)

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“I thought it would be very limited, in focusing on a minister’s wife,” she explains. “However, I found out from so many wives that it’s not just the ministers’ wives who have problems with their identities – especially in the South, where so many people feel that way. So it did strike a chord that I was not aware of.” After the success of The Sunday Wife, King’s publisher re-released her first book under a shortened title, Making Waves, last summer. And in January, her third novel, The Same Sweet Girls, the story of six women who grew up together and continue to meet, year after year, will be available. The novel – not surprisingly – also has strong autobiographical elements. “I belong to a group called ‘The Same Sweet Girls’ and I have been threatening for years to write a book about them,” she says. “Of course, none of us are girls anymore and none of us have actually ever been that sweet, but we still call ourselves that. We went to school together and we’ve been getting together for many, many, many years.” Author Anne Rivers Siddons, whose endorsement appears on the book’s cover, says, “If anybody has written a better book about the power of women’s friendships, I haven’t read it. The Same Sweet Girls is tender, funny, heartbreaking, and astoundingly unsentimental. Over all their lives together, these women have felt everything for each other but regret. I really, truly love this book.” When asked why the Conroys tend to write so much about their lives, King laughs and replies, “We just can’t resist, I guess. There’s so much material out there.” Like many authors, King credits geography as a source of great inspiration. “The South is like another character in my books,” she explains. “I can’t write anything but Southern fiction, because that’s all I know. It’s the only experience I’ve had in my 39-plus years.” A mother of three boys and grandmother of two (not counting Conroy’s two children), King agrees that dysfunctional families

(Left to Right) Pat Conroy and Cassandra King, Pat and Cassandra with the “real” Same Sweet Girls, & Cassandra with three of the Same Sweet Girls. certainly give Southern authors a lot to write about, but thinks it’s more about culture than location. “It’s the same thing that makes everyone dysfunctional – just being human and not knowing how to deal with our humanity – not dealing with things honestly,” she says, with a shrug of her tiny shoulders. “But we also have the whole Southern male thing, where you’re raised to perform a certain way. You didn’t discuss things. It wasn’t proper to talk about too much drinking at a party. Southern ladies never talked about their sex life. Or, they didn’t have sex, so they couldn’t talk about it! We found our kids under the cabbage leaves.” King describes her mother as the classic belle who did everything she could to turn her three girls into Southern ladies. “She totally failed, bless her heart, but it’s not because she didn’t try,” she says, with another amiable laugh. When it comes to the enduring popularity of Southern writing, however, King grows serious. “I’ve asked myself that question a lot,” she says, tilting her head. “Sense of place and family is strong, but we’ve also had a colorful background. We’ve had tragic pasts. We’ve lived in a war zone, been a defeated part of the country and had civil rights issues. With all that as a part of our past, it’s pretty rich.” So in many ways, it is this – the South – which drives King’s writing, as much as her own history. “The South is not just a place but a frame of mind,” she says. “It’s the oral tradition of sitting on a porch fanning and drinking mint juleps – if you’re lucky – or iced tea, and telling stories. It has so much to do with the weather, too. It’s not the South if it’s not hot – miserably hot. That makes you move slower, think slower, react slower and be more laid back. You’re raised hearing these stories of your family and … it’s too tempting not to [write about it.]” Fortunately for millions of fans, both Conroys continue to give in to that temptation.

“The South is like another character in my books,” she explains. “I can’t write anything but Southern fiction because that’s all I know.”

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G N I H S E R F A RE TAKE NEW -LIME N O M ON LE PEPSI, SIERRA MIST, and DIET SIERRA MIST are registered trademarks of Pepsico, Inc.

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wine down south

V Valentine’s Day Bring the wine

by Doc Lawrence

(Above) Andrea Immer Robinson is the most prominent TV wine personality today and a 4-time New York Times best-selling author.

alentine’s Day in the South is a magnified celebration when wine is included with a romantic dinner or combined with roses and chocolates as a gift. Let’s face it: Southerners enjoy the delights of love with wine. Rhett Butler, our heroic lady’s man, likely risked his life smuggling in scarce bottles of Champagne. A lover’s toast requires a glass of bubbly and down here, is a hallowed tradition. During a winemaker’s dinner in the majestic Driskell Hotel, the Austin, Texas, landmark, I asked Susan Auler, who along with her husband Ed owns the highly regarded Fall Creek Vineyards, which wines she thought were romantic. “Our Meritus (Fall Creek’s Bordeauxstyle exquisite red wine) is enchanting with a rack of lamb,” she told me, “...and you won’t find a more versatile white wine as an aperitif or with seafood than our Chenin Blanc.” After enjoying a few glasses with gourmet dishes prepared by the Driskell’s esteemed chef, David Bull, the wine and food writers from Baton Rouge, Birmingham, Atlanta and New York City smiled approvingly. Andrea Immer Robinson, the bestselling author of Everyday Dining with Wine and host of the television series, Simply Wine on the Fine Living Network, is one of the today’s wine superstars. Ms. Robinson, who speaks highly of the ascent of Texas wines, shared some insights about wine and Valentine’s, specifically romantic dining. “A rose champagne is just made for romance,” she told me. “The color is gentle and lovely and it is well suited for salmon, tuna or duck. With some baked oysters--and February is a perfect cold water month for harvesting them--there are some exciting aphrodisiac possibilities.” Can I get an Amen?

Dinner at Atlanta’s heralded South City Kitchen with Sonoma-based Rodney Strong Vineyards’ proprietor Tom Klien was a Deep South feast. His highly regarded wines were paired with pork chops, cheese grits, flank steak and pecan pie. Klein, who believes the region is experiencing a wine explosion, opened his Rodney Strong 2002 Russian River Pinot Noir, a near perfect wine for colder weather that fits nicely with New South cuisine. Virginia’s luxury resort, The Homestead, features legendary Master Sommelier Barbara Werley, who, like Andrea Immer Robinson, is one of only 13 women on the planet awarded this distinction. Ms. Werley came to Virginia from Caesar’s Palace and offers a spectacular wine seminar. She visits every table during dinner, gently offering wine selection advice. Ms. Werley is also a Fall Creek wine fan. “I served their outstanding Sauvignon Blanc during the 2000 inaugural celebrations for President Bush in Washington,” she revealed. The late Southern humorist Lewis Grizzard confided that, like thousands of other men, he regretted never having met Marilyn Monroe. Long after Lewis’ death, Marilyn is back-sort of. She adorns a peel-off wine label on a namesake bottle with images from the 1949 Red Velvet Series. Winemaker John McKay created the impressive blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah. Through the grapevine, I heard that a few bottles are available for Valentine’s. Is there one original and meaningful wine appropriate for this special day? Ms. Robinson responded: “Yes. Saint-Amour says it all with a magic French name. It’s a great red wine for all popular Southern cuisine, and you can chill it a little on a warm day.” Combine Saint-Amour with a box of Lecia Duke’s port-centered chocolates from her fabled Fredericksburg, Texas store, Chocolat, and you launch the thrill of love. Whether Saint-Amour, a sparkling wine or regal Champagne, the glory of the grape belongs in the celebration of love. Why wait for Valentine’s? A well-chosen wine with romance in mind opens the stairway to heaven.

Doc Lawrence writes about wine and Southern cuisine from his homes in Atlanta and Fort Lauderdale. Doc is 2005 Chairman, Food and Beverage Section, Public Relations Society of America and welcomes comments: doc@yall.com. JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 • Y’ALL

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BIRD HUNT

Lt. Gov. Wilder of Tennessee and Gov. Barbour of Mississippi

Fitch Farms in Holly Springs, Miss. hosted the National Championship Hunt November 4-8, 2004. The event brought dignitaries such as Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, U.S. Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi and Tennessee Lt. Gov. John Wilder out to raise funds for the National Field Trial Championship, and the Bird Dog Foundation and Hall of Fame in Grand Junction, Tenn. The quail hunt on the historic 7,000 North Mississippi plantation also educated and brought awareness to “The Southern Gentlemanʼs Sport.” The 106th National Field Trial Championship, known as the “Super Bowl for Bird Dogs,” will be held at Grand Junctionʼs Ames Plantation throughout February. 68

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Confederate Gen. Nathan B. Forrest’s original 1840’s home was preserved when Bill and Joan Fitch moved it from Hernando, Miss. to Fitch Farms in Holly Springs, Miss. The home has been completely restored, with each hand-hewn log and brick meticulously replaced. www.fitchfarms.com

What’s a Field Trial?

“It’s all about the dogs,” that’s a common phrase one hears at field trials. Actually, hunting quail involves three animals: the hunted (quail), the hunter (dog) and the transporter (horse). Oddly enough, at field trails no birds are actually shot. The birds are strategically placed, where the bird dog roams the countryside searching for the scent. When he finds the covey, he’ll start howling and firmly point his tail until his master calls him off. The master follows the dog-hunting-quail scenario on horseback. Judges rate the dog for his discovery skills, length of point, obedience, etc. Bird dogs often cost in the six-figure range, proving it’s definitely “about the dogs.”

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Photos by Chad Mills JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 • Y’ALL

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cranky yankee Wild Animal Kingdom in Atlanta by Laurie Stieber

Laurie Stieber is an Atlanta-based entertainment attorney and freelance columnist. The New York City native can be reached at yankee@yall.com

Like most kids growing up with National Geographic, my favorite parts of the magazine were the naked natives wearing elaborate face paint and multiple pairs of hoop earrings in places on their anatomies that did not even have ears. My other favorite part, was of the three headed wild animals, with claws growing out of their purple antlers - creatures that were certainly conceived of and illustrated by Dr. Seuss. Goose bumps are thrilling as long as they are not generated by a purple people-eating creature living in your immediate continent. In the Kingdom of New York City, where I came from, acts of nature, called animals, were safely cared for behind bars at the Bronx Zoo. Oh, of course we saw a loose squirrel or two roaming the streets and a cockroach or … three million, but it was only the huge roaches – the size of sea turtles – that Animal Rights Activists walked around Central Park on leashes. Naturally, therefore, I did not expect to find out within one week of purchasing our new home in Atlanta, that Alfred Hitchcock had designed it. Our sweet, new neighbor, Carole, had invited our then four-year-old son, Jarrett, to her son’s birthday party. When the party was over, I watched Jarrett skipping merrily home, carrying an obscenely large bag of candy and what looked like a jump rope. When he got closer to our front door, I realized that the jump rope was a snakeskin. “Wow!,’ I thought,’ Southern women are extraordinarily creative! Going to all that trouble to buy snake skins from the Fernbank Science Center as party favors.” “Jarrett,” I asked. “Did you remember to thank Mrs. Boyer for those wonderful party treats?” “Sure, he replied, ‘I thanked her a lot for the candy.” That was the moment when the foundation of my sanity instantly began to crack. “Jarrett, tell mommy where you got that snake skin.” “Right here on our front lawn. Isn’t it cool!” It took me five seconds to reach our real estate broker, Becky, by phone. “Put our house on the market this second, Becky. It’s infested with anacondas!” “Oh, Miss Laurie, bless your little heart, it’s only a critter from Nancy Creek. It’s sheddin’ season.” “Then move Nancy Creek!” Becky said, “But y’all’s the one with the connection to moving bodies

of water. Remember Moses and the Red Sea?” “I may be Jewish all right, but this is The Bible Belt, Miss Becky. Can’t you pluck a Pastor or Priest from a pulpit somewhere on the notches of this Southern belt who could drop Nancy Creek off at hmm… Capitol Hill? Seems like a much more natural environment for snakes there?” I eventually adapted to my slithery co-tenants, while at the same time adopting our indoor/outdoor cat, “Pandora” – an environmentally safe exterminator. I had never owned a cat before, since my mother declared them to be hairy vacuum cleaner stuffers and linoleum floor and wooden furniture

“” Move Nancy Creek !

demolition agents. No one told me that cats also come bearing gifts. This next Animal Kingdom trauma occurred sometime toward the latter end of the O.J. Simpson trial. As an attorney addicted to watching the trial on television, and as a mother addicted to the well-being of her children, imagine how terrifying it was that day after picking the kids up from school, entering the house through the garage and discovering a very bloody crime scene in the living room. Blood everywhere, and, a little furry tail under the kitchen table. “Children,” I screamed. “Get back into the car and lock the doors! There has been a murder here!” Just as I was grabbing the portable phone, both of my children, Alexandra and Jarrett, said, “Mom, a chipmunk has been murdered. ‘Pandora’ is still eating it. He meant to give it to us as a gift, but we weren’t here. Cats offer their owners gifts. It’s supposed to be an honor.” Still rattled and shaken – a pretty clever means of disguising embarrassment – all I could manage to say was, “The next time ‘Pandora’ wants to honor us with a gift, it had better come from Tiffany & Co., or he is going to be taking his Life Guard’s Certificate Exam in Nancy Creek.” Shalom Y’all! And stick with plastic goldfish.

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star gazing Oscar Buzzing

PRACTICAL WHIMSY southern hospitality hollywood style by Joe LoCicero

Stone Mountain, Ga.-raised Joe LoCicero is a Hollywood writer-publicist and entertaining guru whose eclectic, collective credits include Entertainment Tonight, The All-New Captain Kangaroo and Frasier. He began the “Practical Whimsy” movement in 2003. For groovy goods and hip tips, check out www.practicalwhimsy.com.

As the winter movie awards season sweeps in and takes over the studio and stars’ party circuit, images of Jude, Julia and Jamie will become ubiquitous in film ads, magazines and TV interviews, ratcheting up the excitement that culminates with the Oscars. Hollywood officially revs up for awards season as the Golden Globes lend their sparkle to an array of film and acting awards on January 16. But the Oscars – with nominations announced in the wee hours on January 25, and awards doled out on February 27 in a Chris Rockhosted ceremony – present the pinnacle of excitement. Even though I’ve reveled in being at the awards’ shows and their respective afterward soirees, seen stars get blotto (I won’t say whom), and held a winner’s heavier-than-expected Academy Award, you can’t beat your own home for the best seat to see an Oscar ceremony. There, you’re privy to perfect camera angles as well as an unobstructed view without the phenomenal – but piledhigh – Kate Winslet curls in front of you. You also don’t have to worry about what (or what not) to wear, get snarled in traffic or become embarrassed when the paparazzi turn off their cameras as you walk the red carpet because they realize you’re not an A-lister. This year’s Oscar contenders surface in a substantial – and widely regarded as well-rounded – slate with big-budget pictures like Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator and Oliver Stone’s Alexander; star-driven vehicles such as Ray with Jamie Foxx, Being Julia with Annette Bening, Closer with Julia Roberts and Jude Law, and The Manchurian Candidate with Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep; indie fare including The Motorcycle Diaries, Vera Drake, and Door in the Floor (with Georgia native Kim Basinger); quirkier movies like Finding Neverland with Kentucky’s Johnny Depp, Kinsey with Liam Neeson, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with Jim Carrey; and even the animated The Incredibles. So how about using those movies as inspiration to turn your home into your very own Oscar theater-in-the-round. Thaw the winter blahs by creating some starring roles for your friends with these ideas.

The Oscar Oglefest Spearhead your own O-Team by sending out invitations that invite guests to be party stars. Suggest they arrive wearing gold, or black-and-white, and station a Polaroid picture-taker to capture their walk down a red (vinyl) carpet (available at fabric stores) leading up to your front door. Play movie themes during the cocktail hour and – this part is essential – plan your menu by naming dishes with twists on the Best Picture nominees (or other films with nominated performances, screenplays or art direction). For instance, entrees might be “Manchurian Chicken Candidate,” “Kevin Bacon-Wrapped Scallops,” or “Finding Neverland-lubber Prime Rib”; second courses could be “Alexander the Great Greek Salad” or “Aviator Sky-High Vegetable Pie” and for dessert, there has to be room for “Polar Express Espresso,” “Ray-sin Pudding” and “Eternal Sunshine Cake of the Spotless Mind.” (For a complete menu and recipes, check out practicalwhimsy. com after the nominees are announced). Your film affair can also take a cue from an Oscar nominee for a singular silver screen experience. Consider turning your home into a mini-vineyard to mimic the atmosphere of Alexander Payne’s Sideways, host wine flights during the televised Oscar ceremony and offer vineyard staples such as cheese plates and finger sandwiches. Celebrate an international flair with a The Motorcycle Diaries-inspired menu of Cuban and South American dishes. Or let Ray Charles be your muse and honor his hometown of Albany, Ga., with a Southern-fried meal. If you’re into the indie spirit and the Mike Nichols’ acclaimed Vera Drake, try an entire Vera evening by ordering from Augusta, Georgia’s, own catering dynamo veryvera.com. Before the televised ceremony begins, distribute ballots – which will be available on-line the week prior to the awards – and have everyone cast their vote. Then switch papers – just like in school – and have party members “grade” each other’s ballots. Have prizes for those guests who made the best, and worst, choices. And with good food, a golden sheen, and the best seat in the house, make the Academy Awards an annual event of your very own.

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My South

talks about lunch at breakfast and dinner at lunch. In My South, we eat to live, and eat and live better than anyone. My South is on Turner South.

live to eat,

Weekdays at 11AM & 3 PM ET

For Marvinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new Home Plate cookbook and other Turner South merchandise go to TurnerSouth.com!

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blue collar About Larry the Cable Guy

Git-R-Done by Larry the Cable Guy

Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy and Bill Engvall star in Blue Collar TV, airing Fridays at 9:30/8:30 Central on The WB.

To make a long story long, I was born in the back of an El-Camino during a Foghat concert many years ago! My mother was a normal mother just like anybody’s. She cooked, cleaned, kissed us goodnight, and was an Elvis impersonator on weekends! She actually looked more like the girl that played “Ralph The Carpenter” on Green Acres than Elvis, but she loved Elvis and actually sounded a little like him when she sang “Teddy Bear.” She never won a contest, however, one time no one else showed up and she took third. My father saw action in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Falklands, and a Wal-Mart in Jackson, Mississippi! He lost a leg in a car accident in 1986. He rolled over three times and wound up in a ditch, and that was just walking to the car! He’s been sober ever since, and since he only has one leg, he’s been working at a brewery growing hops! I grew up in a good Christian home. I love freedom, the United States of America, Miss September and making boobs out of Playdough! I do political social commentaries on radio stations throughout America. I started on a station in Tampa Bay and have been adding more stations every year! People ask me two questions. Number one, why are you called “The Cable Guy” and number two, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie roll center? Number one, I’m called Larry The Cable Guy cause my name’s Larry and I used to install cable. Number two, 45, unless you’re Rosie O’Donnell, then you just eat the stick all in one crunch. I ran for president in 1992, 1996, and am currently running again. I also ran for state senate in Florida, but ran out of money at a strip club in Daytona Beach! I’m the only candidate that tells it like it is! I feel that if you don’t address the

problems with true talk, then nothing will ever get solved. Nowadays the candidates talk the talk, but when it comes to walkin’ the walk, they trip over themselves. I don’t believe in solving problems by throwin’ money at them. I think politically correct people are not solving problems but rather are part of the problem and creating more! I believe in less government and more state control! I believe people should take personal responsibility. I believe that we are gradually losing personal freedoms and that if this trend continues we will be living in a world of corporate socialism! I believe in a strong military and The Dukes of Hazzard. I believe the media stirs the fires of racism for ratings, and that they have sold out their soul and this country for their own gain! I believe in free speech, especially 900 numbers!

“

I’m just a concerned commentator wondering what happened to the free America that my forefathers fought and died for!

”

My fellow Americans, remember, the more we become dependent on government as mommy and daddy, the more government has power over you just like mommy and daddy! I believe in America, and I believe in the people that live in it. That’s my story and my beliefs. I’m not racist, I’m not hateful, and I’m not homophobic! I’m just a concerned commentator wondering what happened to the free America that my forefathers fought and died for! Git-R-Done and God bless my fans and this country!

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 • Y’ALL

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what southern women know

Be Sweet by Ronda Rich

Ronda Rich is the author of What Southern Women Know (That Every Woman Should). Email Ronda at sowomen@yall.com or visit www.whatsouthernwomenknow.com

I was leaving my purely Southern mother’s house the other day with a salutation of “See you later.” “Okay,” she replied. “Be sweet.” “Be sweet.” It’s the mandate of mothers across the South when sending their daughters off on a trip or social engagement. Not “be careful”, mind you, but “be sweet.” That’s because to Southern mothers, being sweet is more important than not being in an accident. “You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar,” Southern matriarchs warn repeatedly. And being the dutiful daughters of the South that we are, we practice mightily that command. Because they’re right. Numerous are the men and adversaries who have found themselves stuck-fast in our honey while non-Southern women often allow them to skid with speed through the vinegar and out of sight. Our syrupy sweet ways, on the other hand, often make escape impossible. Later, Mama was fuming over a repairman who had promised repeatedly to show up but never did. “I’ve had it!” she stormed. “I’m gonna call him and give him a piece of my mind!” I smiled and winked. “Be sweet now.” The brilliance of my advice dawned across her face. She grinned. “Right,” she agreed, nodding. She picked up the phone and used so much sugar that he was on her doorstep within a couple of hours. It was rewarding to see her practice effectively what she has preached for my entire lifetime. I’ve been thinking about the immense importance of sweetness to Southern women since I appeared at a book event with two other sweet Southern women (yes, “other” because I consider myself to be real sweet, too. I practice it routinely except when crossed one too many times or someone has been ugly to a loved one of mine or made fun of the way I talk. On those occasions, I become anything but sweet). Best-selling authors Dottie Benton Frank and Cassandra King (pg. 63) are both enveloped by passion, determination and the sweetness that Southerners demand of their women. They are my sweet friends. Cassandra King is the pen name of Sandra Conroy, who has been called “the nicest woman on earth” by husband, Pat. She has written a delightful new book – Same Sweet Girls – which is a tribute to the sweetness of our feminine Southern

ways. She agrees that the art of being sweet was necessary in her mother’s eyes and, therefore, a critical part of her Alabama upbringing. “My mother was the quintessential Southern lady and I was pretty much a disappointment to her,” Sandra admits. “I was a tomboy as a kid then a wannabe Bohemian as a teen and college student. But at least I was sweet.” “What I want to know,” began a New York publishing editor to me during a meeting about What Southern Women Know, “is how you Southern women can say anything you want to say and get away with it. You do it so charmingly. I had a boss once who was a Southern woman. She

“” You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar

could tell me to jump in the lake and by the time she finished, I would be saying eagerly, ‘Is there anything else you want?’” Then she begged. “Please tell me how to do that.” Based on that request, I wrote a chapter called Sweet As Vinegar Pie and explained. Vinegar pie, once a Southern delicacy, is made with a tablespoon of vinegar and a cup and a half of sugar. It’s so sweet that your jaws ache when you take a bite. That’s how we do. We take a little tartness and wrap it in sugar. A Southern woman will give you two compliments, slip in the criticism then wrap it up with a compliment. “Leave ‘em feeling good,” is our motto because we’re sweet. Mama is so good at this that she can slip a criticism in and it will take you two days to figure out what she said. My friend, Michelle, discovered this when Mama, a dressmaker, was taking her measurements for a bridesmaid dress. “You have the most beautiful bustline I’ve ever seen,” Mama commented. “I know women who would kill for your bustline.” Michelle smiled. “And the tiniest waist I ever saw,” Mama continued. “It’s so tiny.” Michelle’s smile broadened. Mama measured her hips and sighed woefully. “It’s your butt that’s so big.” Slight pause. “Of course, it just looks bigger because your waist is so small.” That’s my mama for you. Isn’t she sweet?

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ina memoriam southern classic

Girl Scout G Thin mints, Tagalongs, and Do-Si-Dos all bring back great memories to many people across the United States as well as many other parts of the world. Girl Scouts bring these delectable treats each year to help fund their local troops.

irl Scout cookies had their earliest beginnings in the kitchens and ovens of girl members, with their mothers volunteering as technical advisers, according to Marion Swan, spokesperson for Girl Scouts USA . The earliest written mention of a cookie sale was that of the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, Okla., which baked cookies and sold them in its high school cafeteria as a service project in December 1917. “The first sale of commercially-baked Girl Scout cookies was in Philadelphia in 1934,” Swan says. “In 1936, the national organization, Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA), licensed the first commercial baker.” Girl Scouts cookies are produced by members of American labor unions at commercial bakers located in the United States. The two bakers currently licensed to bake Girl Scout cookies are ABC/ Interbake, headquartered in Richmond, Va., and Little Brownie Bakers, headquartered in Louisville, Ky. “Girl Scout cookies are made with American-grown agricultural products and wrapped in American-made packaging materials,” Swan said. “As with any cookie product, Girl Scout cookies are produced in accordance with FDA approved standards and regulations.” Cookie sale revenue allows councils to offer Girl Scouting to as many local girls as possible. It also funds numerous essential expenses such as insurance, property expense, maintenance and repair, program subsidies, volunteer training, printing and financial aid. Much of the money that troops raise during the cookie sale is distributed back to the local troop itself and the girls in the troop decide how to spend it. “All of the cookie proceeds stay in the community of the girl you made the purchase from after the licensed baker is paid,” Swan explains. “A portion of that money goes directly to local troops selling cookies. The remainder is used to help make Girl Scouting available to every girl in the 76

area who would like to participate. Girls benefit not only by participating in council-sponsored activities, but also by deciding what to do with the money they earned for troop/group projects. We don’t know of any other youth-oriented sale where the girls themselves decide what to do with the money they earn.” Three basic cookie varieties are sold and produced by both bakers: thin mints, shortbread and peanut butter sandwich. Each licensed baker, with GSUSA approval, chooses and produces five other varieties. Historically, the most popular cookies are Thin Mints, Samoas®/Caramel deLites® and Peanut Butter Patties/Tagalongs.® The bakers are producing many different varieties of cookies this year, including some options for people dieting. Southern Girl Scouts are no strangers to the cookie sale and enjoy being a part of the action. “I just love seeing the people’s faces when I deliver their cookies,” says Elizabeth Huneycutt, 12, of Forney, Texas. “I love getting to deal with money.” Ashley Goerke, 13, of Montgomery, Ala., said she also enjoys being active in the cookie sale. “It helps support our troop,” Goerke explains. “We use the money earned to go on neat trips and to fund our service projects.” Hailey Tibbits, 12, of Spalding County, Ga., said that she loved selling cookies because she likes the chance to get to meet new people. “It’s great knowing that you are accomplishing something,” Tibbits said. Caroline Thee, 10, of Montgomery, Ala., said she enjoys selling the cookies because of the prizes that are available to girls that sell the most. Ashley Jackson, 12, of Montgomery, Ala., agreed and said, “I like to go to the mall and sell girl scout cookies. I also like the prizes we win,

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ut Cookies especially earning a campership. I like to sell items when we do booth sales. I love to ask strangers do they want to buy some girl scout cookies. They are usually very nice to us and buy some cookies. Sometimes they even buy a box and tell us to keep them.” None of these Southern Girl Scouts can agree on what exactly is the best flavor that they have to offer. “My favorite flavor is Thin Mints, because I like minty things and they are covered in chocolate,” Huneycutt says. Ashley Goerke said she likes the ones that have peanut-butter. “I love Tagalongs and Do-Si-Dos,” Goerke reveals. All the girls agreed that they thought selling the cookies had been very beneficial to them and to the other girls in the troop. “It’s fun and I want other people to enjoy it,” says Anna Morgan, 10, of Forney, Texas. Huneycutt agreed, “I would encourage other girls to join Girl Scouts because it’s fun to sell cookies and it’s a great way to meet other girls in your community.” Many of the girls agreed that meeting people and helping people in the community are both important parts of the cookie sale. “You get an opportunity to meet other Girl Scouts,” Jackson said. “You

By Jennifer Russell

can also make good changes in the community by helping others. My mother, who also is the troop leader, likes the idea that we earn money for our troop to help us do more activities for our troop.” The Girl Scout Cookie Program is not just about cookies, according to Swan. “These annual activities offer many opportunities for hands-on entrepreneurial program activities,” Swan said. “We find that most girls, above the Daisy age level (4-5 years old) thoroughly enjoy this activity and look forward to it each year. Participation in this activity is voluntary and requires written permission by a parent or guardian.” Be Prepared.

Yʼall of Fame Girl Scouts founder

Juliette Gordon Low (next page)

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yʼall

of fame

Juliette Gordon Low (1860-1927)

Juliette Gordon Low, founder of Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., was born Juliette Magill Kinzie Gordon on October 31, 1860, in Savannah, Ga. A sensitive and talented youngster, “Daisy” Gordon spent a happy childhood in her large Savannah home, the daughter of a Confederate captain. On December 21, 1886, her parents’ 29th wedding anniversary, Juliette married William Mackay Low, a wealthy Englishman, at Christ Church in Savannah. Although the couple moved to England, Juliette continued her travels and divided her time between the British Isles and America. Before her marriage, Juliette had suffered from chronic ear infections. She had lost most of her hearing in one ear because of improper treatment. At her wedding, when she was 26, she lost hearing in her other ear after a grain of good-luck rice thrown at the event lodged in her ear, puncturing the eardrum and resulting in an infection and total loss of hearing in that ear. After her husband’s death in 1905, Juliette Gordon Low spent several years searching for something useful to do with her life. Her search ended in 1911, when she met Sir Robert BadenPowell, founder of the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, and became interested in the new youth movement. 78

Afterwards, she channeled all her considerable energies into the fledgling movement. Less than a year later, she returned to the United States and made a historic telephone call to a friend (a distant cousin), saying, “I’ve got something for the girls of Savannah, and all of America, and all the

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The Juliette Gordon Low Girl Scout National Center at 10 East Oglethorpe Ave. in Savannah is often referred to as “The Birthplace.” The home was purchased and restored by Girl Scouts of the USA in 1953. The handsome English Regency house is a registered National Historic Landmark.

world, and we’re going to start it tonight!” On March 12, 1912, Juliette Low gathered 18 girls to register the first troop of American Girl Guides. Margaret “Daisy Doots” Gordon, her niece and namesake, was the first registered member. The name of the organization was changed to Girl Scouts the following year. In developing the Girl Scout movement in the United States, Juliette brought girls of all backgrounds into the out-of-doors, giving them the opportunity to develop self-reliance and resourcefulness. She encouraged girls to prepare not only for traditional homemaking, but also for possible future roles as professional women— in the arts, sciences and business—and for active citizenship outside the home. Girl Scouting welcomed disabled girls at a time when they were excluded from many other activities. This idea seemed quite natural to Juliette, who never let deafness, back problems or cancer keep her from full participation in life. From the original 18 girls, Girl Scouting has grown to 3.7 million. Girl Scouts is the largest educational

organization for girls in the world and has influenced the more than 50 million girls, women and men who have belonged to it. Low died from breast cancer at her Savannah home on Lafayette Square January 17, 1927. by Jonathan Craig

A documentary of General Nathan Bedford Forrest featuring commentary by Shelby Foote. Presenting the first documentary to look exclusively at the life of the Confederacyʼs “Wizard of the Saddle.” This film on Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest features expert analysis from Civil War writer Shelby Foote, Gen. Parker Hills, Nelson Winbush and others. Portrayed by Stan Dalton, Gen. Forrest comes to life in this objective work by director Jon Rawl. Ride with Forrest and discover for yourself the extraordinary life, controversy and myth that surrounds this Southern legend.

by Rick Hynum m

$1995 $1495 60 min. VHS

49 min. Audio CD

log on to:

Also available is the full 49 min. audio interview CD with Shelby Foote, featuring commentary not heard in the documentary VHS.

www.RebelForrest.com

or call toll-free:

1-866-815-0872

$3 per item shipping charge. Mail check payable to Jon Rawl/ P.O. Box 1217, Oxford, Miss., 38655 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 • Y’ALL

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battle of the southern sexes “HONEY, ISN’T THAT OUR TURN?” by Christopher Watson

LEFT: KEVIN WINTER RIGHT: ROBERT MORA /GETTY IMAGES

I recently enjoyed a conversation with my wife that resulted in us not speaking to one another for most of the remaining day. This is not in itself remarkable, as any seasoned spouse knows. What’s unusual about this particular episode is the conversation’s length. Behold the verbatim transcript: MY WIFE: “That’s our turn.” ME: “I know.”

Illustration by Michael Nozinich

Five words. I’ve had longer conversations talking in my sleep. Yet the moment I spoke, I felt the settling chill of a cold war that would last hours before hope of détente. We were in my truck, heading for the local department store. I have frequently navigated to this store just fine all by myself by employing a technique known to veteran motorists as “paying attention.” When I see the turn to my destination, I take it, and soon I am there. Try it. I admit, when I’m driving with my wife, I don’t always pay attention to my route. This is because I’m paying attention to my wife, as all good Southern husbands must. Trouble is, I’m not very good at having conversations while driving. If I’m quiet because I’m concentrating on our route, my wife will think I’m mad at her. If I take part in the conversation so she won’t think I’m mad at her, I’ll invariably miss our turn, whereupon my wife will claim that the reason she didn’t point it out beforehand is because whenever she does, I always get mad at her. This is generally the point at which I turn to prayer. Of course, my wife is right, but I only get mad because her pointing out our route beforehand makes me feel stupid. While I accept that feeling stupid is an integral part of matrimony, I’d prefer she save the reminders for occasions when my pickup isn’t within earshot. Sure, I could truthfully confess to my beloved that I only missed the turn because I was paying attention to her and not the route, but this would make my mistake her fault. Any man who can’t see that wrong turn up ahead doesn’t deserve sympathy. Instead, I keep my mouth shut and take the hit for the team, advancing the runner rather than precipitating a bench-clearing brawl that’ll result in my being ejected from the game. At least until she needs me to fix something. I’m not one of those stubborn Southern

males who prefers to drive aimlessly, praying for divine providence to light the way, rather than stop and ask directions. Asking directions down South is a timehonored invitation to neighborly social discourse, no more a sign of weakness than slowing on the cement bridge to roll down the window and ask the cane pole fishermen if the brim are biting that morning. In two minutes you’ve got a fishing report, weather forecast, confirmation of mutual friends and relatives, and instructions to turn left at the crossroads a mile up the road. You take care now, y’hear? When I lived up North, asking directions during my annual Southern sojourns required a degree of theatrics. Pulling up to a whitewashed country store in a dusty pickup bearing New Jersey tags sends decidedly mixed signals. Resentment of Yankees still runs deep in some parts, and the temptation to give deliberately sketchy information can be hard to resist: “The interstate? Dawg if I ever seen it. So, you’re from up North, huh?” While I respect the game, I never felt obligated to play, especially with Mama expecting me home in time for supper. Though my parents called me their “little Yankee” as a young’un because of my

worrisome lack of a Southern accent, I can deliver on demand. A few “y’all”s and a “reckon I’m lost” delivered with the appropriate humble twang was all it took to dissolve suspicion and have the beehived matron behind the bags of boiled peanuts calling me “hon” and pointing me in the right direction in under thirty seconds. Of course, back in the truck, it takes too long to explain this to my wife. Besides, she’s still too mad at me to listen. But while the Good Lord might not have blessed me with a Southern drawl, He did provide me with patience. I know that one day soon, my wife will jokingly mention my alleged questionable navigation skills, whereupon I will smile in recognition of long-awaited opportunity and we will have the following conversation: ME: “I remember one time in Buffalo...” MY WIFE: “Shut up.” Let’s just say that when your destination is East, traveling twenty miles West to pick up the interstate when it’s only two miles from your house is seldom an efficient maneuver. Except when it’s your wife’s idea. And the look on her face when you pass your house an hour later is well worth the detour.

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

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memoriam ininmemoriam

LARRY BROWN

GABE PALACIO/IMAGEDIRECT

It hardly seems possible that Oxford, Mississippi-based author Larry Brown passed away from a sudden heart attack on the day before Thanksgiving 2004. So many things about Larry Brown leaving us so early seem unfair. Brown, 53, was a relatively young man, after all, with a large family, married for decades, kids and grandkids, solid friends, a life story that was harsh but redeeming, much like the life stories of his famous fictional characters. His career path to award-winning fiction was delayed and improbable, but he succeeded through a sheer force of will and grinding, hard work. He read and wrote whenever he had the chance, all the while working full-time jobs, not the least of which was as a captain of The Oxford Fire Department, a job that he was immensely proud of and reluctantly left only after he had published two very well-received books and his vocation as a full-time author was assured. His first book, called Facing The Music, was more than good. It was excellent, and I still believe it is one of the best books ever written by a writer from the American South. Not long after I read his debut, I met Larry. I would often see him around the Oxford Square in the afternoons; he would stop in at the bookstore where I worked and sign a few books, have a cup of coffee or a Coke, talk with all the clerks like myself as if it were the most normal thing in the world. He was always interested in what we were doing, in what we were reading, what we were writing. About his own work he would always shrug off our questions; he didn’t like to jinx it by talking it to death. If he was ambitious, he was also cautious. He took none of his books for granted. Before leaving he always reminded us of how hard it was to write well, how it was very, very hard. Later he published his first novel Dirty Work, and then Big Bad Love, another book of short stories, which was made into a 2001 film starring Debra Winger and Arliss Howard, who also directed. He wrote beautiful nonfiction about his days as a fireman in On Fire, and wrote of his love of family and of his land in Billy Ray’s Farm. There were four big, ambitious, novels: Joe, Father and Son, Fay and The Rabbit Factory, with gigantic characters and harrowing situations. Critics deemed him a pioneer of

ROBIN KENYATTA

the poorly-titled school of “Grit-Lit.” Young writers need heroes, and Larry Brown was filled with a generous, special spirit he reserved for the younger writers of Oxford and for the students in the creative writing classes at the universities where he taught now and then. He loved to discuss the merits of Cormac McCarthy, or Flannery O’ Connor, or Barry Hannah with you, but more often than not he was simply interested in you, and in your work. He knew the solitary sadness and joy that is unique to the writer. He knew the pain of rejection. Some critics say that a writer’s work is simply an attempt for that writer to record the most important things that he or she knows. If that is truly the case, then Larry Brown knew a lot. He saw a lot, lived a lot, recorded a lot. In his nine books, he showed that even the smallest interactions between people can cause great, tumultuous changes, how rifts and fissures can open between people and close, or maybe never close. I’m sure that when Larry was a firefighter, he probably had a hand in saving people, in lifting them up out of the darkness, or up and out of the houses that were fully involved and engulfed. At some point, he must have had to crash a door down, rattle someone awake and carry them away to somewhere different. His work had the same effect. It broke down the door and rattled us, it shook us, and it will continue to carry us with its honesty, even more so now, as we sit and think of the unfair things of this world, such as when a writer of simple truth passes away at the peak of his power. by J.E. Pitts

Jazz saxophonist Robin Kenyatta, known for his free style of jazz and bop, died in his sleep Oct. 26 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Kenyatta, a native of Moncks Corner, S.C., collaborated with musicians like saxophonists Archie Shepp and Sonny Stitt. An alto saxophonist, he also played tenor saxophone and flute. Born Robert Prince Haynes in 1942, Kenyatta’s family moved to New York when he was four and he began playing saxophone at 14. He adopted the name Kenyatta in honor of Kenyan nationalist leader Jomo Kenyatta. Kenyatta recorded three albums for Atlantic Records in the 1970s: Gypsy Man, Terra Nova and Stompin’ at the Savoy. He moved to Switzerland in the early 1970s, performed throughout Europe and founded a music school in Lausanne called Hello Jazz.

DAYTON ALLEN

C o m e d i a n /a c t o r Dayton Allen, best known for his work as the voice of the cartoon character “Deputy Dawg” and the grumpy mayor “Phineas T. Bluster” on The Howdy Doody Show, died after suffering a stroke on November 11 in Hendersonville, N.C. He was 85. His most notable voice work came from his longtime association with the cartoon studio Terrytoons. He provided most of the voices for The Deputy Dawg Show, a syndicated series that debuted in 1960. As a comedian, Allen was a regular on The Steve Allen Show. He spent four years on the original Howdy Doody Show with Buffalo Bob Smith, voicing such puppet characters as “Phineas T. Bluster” and “Flub-a-Dub” as well as such on-camera characters as “Pierre the Chef.” Allen lived in Flat Rock, N.C. JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 • Y’ALL

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Skiing in the South

dixie destination

The largest ski resort in North Carolina, Sugar Mountain in Banner Elk boasts a 1,200 foot vertical drop and provides 20 trails and slopes for all levels of skiers and snowboarders. Lifts and ski slopes are open 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. everyday. Passes can be purchased by the day, session or season. Sugar Mountain offers family discounts on season passes. Military and student discounts are also available. Sugar Mountain has a large selection of rental equipment and a complete repair shop onsite. Private and group lessons for skiing and snowboarding are available by the hour.

VIRGINIA Bryce Resort www.bryceresort.com Phone: 800-821-1444 Illustration by Michael Nozinich

Known as the family-oriented ski resort in Basye, Va., Bryce Resort is just a two hour drive from Washington, D.C. Bryce’s eight slopes are equally divided between beginner, intermediate and advanced levels.

Whether you are just learning or consider yourself an expert, great skiing can be found here in the South. ALABAMA Cloudmont Ski & Golf Resort and Shady Grove Dude Ranch www.cloudmont.com Phone: 256-634-4344 Located in Mentone, Ala., Cloudmont includes two one-thousand foot, beginnerintermediate slopes that have an elevation of 1,800 feet and a vertical rise of 150 feet. Cloudmont’s Ski Season is Dec 15th - March 15th. The resort is open daily during season - on weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and nightly from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. – on weekends & holidays - 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and nightly from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., weather conditions permitting. Ski passes and lift tickets are sold per day and can be purchased by day or by half-day. Cloudmont offers group and private lessons, and also rents equipment.

GEORGIA Sky Valley Ski Slopes www.skyvalley.com Phone: 800-437-2416 Just two hours from Atlanta in Dillard, Sky Valley Ski Slopes has five trails: four ski slopes and one bunny hill. At 3,500 feet elevation, Sky Valley’s longest run is half a mile with a vertical drop of 250 feet. After Jan. 2, Sky Valley will be open weekends only. Hours of operation are from 82

9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday with the slopes closing form 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. for grooming; and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., except for Sundays falling within a holiday period. Sky Valley offers equipment rental and lift tickets can be purchased by day or half-day.

TENNESSEE Ober Gatlinburg www.obergatlinburg.com Phone: 800-251-9202 Ober Gatlinburg offers eight ski trails, seven tree-lined and one open, ranging in difficulty from beginner to advanced. Runs range in length from 300 feet to 4,400 feet with vertical drops ranging from 163 feet to 556 feet. Slopes are open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and tickets may be purchased by session, by multiple sessions and by season. Special rates are provided for children and seniors. Ober Gatlinburg offers private and group lessons by the hour and rents equipment by the session.

NORTH CAROLINA Sugar Mountain Resort www.skisugar.com Phone: 800-784-2768

Bryce Resort is open Sunday and Monday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Tickets are available by day or by session and discounts are available for multiple consecutive day passes, military, children and seniors. Equipment is also available to rent. The Homestead www.thehomestead.com Phone: 800-838-1766 The Homestead in Hot Springs, Va. is a 15,000 acre resort offering nine downhill ski runs and an Olympic-sized ice skating rink at the base of the slopes. Homestead also has a half pipe and snowboard park, a top-rated Ski School, Bunny School, snowshoeing and snowmobile tours, cross-country skiing, ski equipment and snowboard rentals. Lift tickets are sold by the day and special rates are given to children and resort guests. Season passes are also available. Wintergreen Resort www.wintergreenresort.com Phone: 800-266-2444 Wintergreen Resort in Wintergreen, Va. offers 23 slopes and trails with 42 percent of the terrain suited for intermediate skiers. The remaining 95 skiable areas are evenly divided to suit beginners, advanced and expert skiers. Slopes are open daily from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and to 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Wintergreen offers lift tickets by the day or season, discounts for children and seniors.

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

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