Why is social drinking frowned upon in Miss? (Hattiesburg, Tupelo: transplants, sales)

[Tama]

Originally Posted by Listener2307

Are you trying to say "disingenuous"? Just before you said undereducated?

That makes two errors-one factual and one spelling in this post---so maybe the poster went to school in Mississippi?

[GrandviewGloria]

You've just described one of the GOOD things about Mississippi. If you're careful, you can surround yourself there, with people who don't drink. And if you live in the right part of Jackson, you can go for days without seeing a Smoker.

It seems nobody drinks or smokes in my new Oregon neighborhood. But they're all rich, and the ones who aren't Scientists are Physicians. There has been no room in their lives for dissipation. In Mississippi, even Modestly educated people of modest means are often Temperance-minded. It's part of the state's wonderful Scottish Protestant Heritage. That heritage, if you ask me, is the state's most valuable asset.

I came from a distinctly non-Scottish 'community', in a remote corner of the state. Booze, Ciggies, Drugs, Camaros, Incest, Used Doublewides, Obesity... Those were givens where I grew up. How wonderful it was to move, fresh out of College, to Fashionable Northeast Jackson, and to be surrounded by people who didn't do self-destructive things. Instead, the people in our new world worked on having perfect bodies, perfect interiors, perfect lawns, perfect relationships with The Saviour. They were kind. They were polite. They were there when you needed them, and swooped-in, out of nowhere...their blonde ponytails bobbing, as they scooped-up my little brown children before they could run into the street.

Call them names if you want to: but it was like being in Heaven with the Angels. And I don't remember seeing booze in their houses.

Mississippi seems sharply divided. On the one side there are the wholesome, Church-going, perfectionist, Achievers. On the other side are the broken people, the substance-users, the losers, the freaks. It reminds me, actually, of the divide described in Hermann Hesse's book, Demian. The narrator, a child, describes the dark world of the losers. If I can remember back that far, light is used as a Metaphor....the Child living in the light, but being in peril of being dragged into the world of darkness.

In Mississippi, you kind of have to choose between walking in darkness, or living in the light.

It is too poor a state for most people to have decent lives, if they are weighted down by substance issues. The costs associated with Smoking or Drinking are usually the difference between a respectable Middle Class life, and a desperate, impoverished existence.

One illness can be the difference between being a family of means, and being renters. A decade of smoking is the difference between driving an old Taurus, or a new BMW. One accident due to being a bit tipsy.... one careless word uttered in drunkenness ...one trip to the Emergency Room, because Bubba hit Tawnya because they were drunk....

There is not enough money in the state, for mistakes to be 'absorbed'. One mistake can ruin a family for generations. One mistake, or one bad habit, can be the difference between upward mobility and class stagnation.

So, beyond the tendency among Protestants, toward Temperance, there is the fact that drinking is both expensive and unwise. Mississippi has not, traditionally, been a state were people could afford to be unwise.

I knew a young couple who moved from Mississippi to the Rust Belt. They were not Protestants; nor were they Founding Stock. They were amazed by the write-ups and photos of fabulous Mississippi weddings. They concluded that it must be a state full of rich people. I had to explain that those weddings represented decades of savings, and huge amounts of effort. Most of those people were not wealthy. But they saved. They scrimped. They did without.

When 'doing without', one naturally does, first, without Alcohol.

[rhymetime]

Originally Posted by Alluvial

Regarding bringing wine: Wine is supposed to be 'paired' with the food you eat, so a random bottle you've brought is seen as a gift to be served at some future time. Otherwise you are screwing up your hostess' meal flavors.

Social graces generally override gastronomical rituals. Especially in an ettiquite-driven society, as the south tends to be. When someone brings a bottle of wine, it's supposed to be opened at that event unless there are clear reasons not to do so.

What the OP has been observing is most likely due to bumping into Baptists, which are pretty numerous in Mississippi and the rest of the south.

[blueberry54]

'scuse my ignorance (i'm from Down Under) but what is a "Used Doublewide"????

[GrandviewGloria]

Originally Posted by blueberry54

'scuse my ignorance (i'm from Down Under) but what is a "Used Doublewide"????

I provide a link which reveals the sort of homes of which my Mom dreamed. "Some day" we were gonna move out of that abandoned Sharecropper's Shack, and into a "nice, Used Doublewide".

I know you were hoping it meant a Divorcee who requires two Barstools. But no: a 'Used Doublewide' is a form of Luxury Housing in Rural Mississippi. The New Ones are for rich City Sophisticates up in Jackson and Little Rock. They get shipped over, along with the used Crown Victorias, when they git to saggin'.

I think my Momma was disappointed, when I moved her into a "Fine Brick Home" with "Real Columns" (pron: 'Kawl-yums'), considering she'd been yearning for a Doublewide, lined with 'Pecan' paneling, and plush with a nice Hi-lo Shag. Oh well...

Great Mobile Homes of Mississippi - The Trailer Park (http://www.drbukk.com/gmhom/park.html - broken link)

If you follow the above link, the photo below the happy Confederate Couple features some Doublewides. Further down the page, the lady in the Magenta Mumu is standing before an early version.

[poletop1]

Originally Posted by Listener2307

Are you trying to say "disingenuous"? Just before you said undereducated?

FYI: the last lynching in the U.S. was in 1964 - 47 years ago. 2 white people were lynched that year. 1 black person.
Lynching Statistics by Year

47 years ago. So bring forward all those people you say endorse lynchings. We would all like to know who they are.

Jesus christ, right off the bat James Byrd proves that wrong. Way to whitewash history.

[Listener2307]

Originally Posted by poletop1

Jesus christ, right off the bat James Byrd proves that wrong. Way to whitewash history.

Take it up with UMKC (University of Missouri, Kansas City) Law School. They provided the figures.

If we are able to count James Byrd, may we count Todd Gunter?...............WHAT??!! You never heard of Todd Gunter??!! Are you trying to Blackwash History??!!

[blueberry54]

Thanks GG for your entertaining post and link! It's brought a smile and a laugh or two on this cold and frosty morning. I'm coming to Mississippi in October. Looks like i've got a lot to learn. A whole new language! among other things.

[WestbankNOLA]

Originally Posted by GrandviewGloria

You've just described one of the GOOD things about Mississippi. If you're careful, you can surround yourself there, with people who don't drink. And if you live in the right part of Jackson, you can go for days without seeing a Smoker.

It seems nobody drinks or smokes in my new Oregon neighborhood. But they're all rich, and the ones who aren't Scientists are Physicians. There has been no room in their lives for dissipation. In Mississippi, even Modestly educated people of modest means are often Temperance-minded. It's part of the state's wonderful Scottish Protestant Heritage. That heritage, if you ask me, is the state's most valuable asset.

I came from a distinctly non-Scottish 'community', in a remote corner of the state. Booze, Ciggies, Drugs, Camaros, Incest, Used Doublewides, Obesity... Those were givens where I grew up. How wonderful it was to move, fresh out of College, to Fashionable Northeast Jackson, and to be surrounded by people who didn't do self-destructive things. Instead, the people in our new world worked on having perfect bodies, perfect interiors, perfect lawns, perfect relationships with The Saviour. They were kind. They were polite. They were there when you needed them, and swooped-in, out of nowhere...their blonde ponytails bobbing, as they scooped-up my little brown children before they could run into the street.

Call them names if you want to: but it was like being in Heaven with the Angels. And I don't remember seeing booze in their houses.

Mississippi seems sharply divided. On the one side there are the wholesome, Church-going, perfectionist, Achievers. On the other side are the broken people, the substance-users, the losers, the freaks. It reminds me, actually, of the divide described in Hermann Hesse's book, Demian. The narrator, a child, describes the dark world of the losers. If I can remember back that far, light is used as a Metaphor....the Child living in the light, but being in peril of being dragged into the world of darkness.

In Mississippi, you kind of have to choose between walking in darkness, or living in the light.

It is too poor a state for most people to have decent lives, if they are weighted down by substance issues. The costs associated with Smoking or Drinking are usually the difference between a respectable Middle Class life, and a desperate, impoverished existence.

One illness can be the difference between being a family of means, and being renters. A decade of smoking is the difference between driving an old Taurus, or a new BMW. One accident due to being a bit tipsy.... one careless word uttered in drunkenness ...one trip to the Emergency Room, because Bubba hit Tawnya because they were drunk....

There is not enough money in the state, for mistakes to be 'absorbed'. One mistake can ruin a family for generations. One mistake, or one bad habit, can be the difference between upward mobility and class stagnation.

So, beyond the tendency among Protestants, toward Temperance, there is the fact that drinking is both expensive and unwise. Mississippi has not, traditionally, been a state were people could afford to be unwise.

I knew a young couple who moved from Mississippi to the Rust Belt. They were not Protestants; nor were they Founding Stock. They were amazed by the write-ups and photos of fabulous Mississippi weddings. They concluded that it must be a state full of rich people. I had to explain that those weddings represented decades of savings, and huge amounts of effort. Most of those people were not wealthy. But they saved. They scrimped. They did without.

When 'doing without', one naturally does, first, without Alcohol.

[brachiomorph]

Mississippi ranks near the (top #45) for smoking rate, with about 22% of the population sucking down the cancer sticks (according to the CDC).

Anyone know where they rank as far as alcohol consumption? They don't call it a "baptist's closet" for nothing....

If you want healthy, non-naughty-things people, Mississippi isn't for you. Try Utah.