The Southland

Earlier this week we took my mother-in-law's sewing machine to the local sewing machine shop. She graciously hauled it up here from Kentucky last month (for me to use...on some unnamed, unplanned sewing projects in my future) , and I am finally getting it out of our garage to check it out. Since my knowledge of sewing machines is pretty limited, I figured I needed to take it into a place to see if it is in working condition.

The gentleman at the shop was so kind and informative. He has been working in the sewing machine business since he was 21 years old. He is now 83. You do the math, the guy knows his sewing machines!

It was a thrill to enjoy a lengthy conversation with such a wise sewing-machine-man and longtime Wisconsin native. The machine we brought to him is pretty dated, Mr. H said it was his mother's very first sewing machine (is that really true?)--which would place it in the 70's.

The brand is "Atlas". Upon seeing the aged sticker with the brand name, the kind gentleman commented "ah...Atlas...these were sold in The Southland..."

Mr. H assumed he was talking about some area of Wisconsin that we were not yet familiar.

I knew what he meant, and it made me smile.

He used the term a few more times "down in The Southland", and Mr. H caught on as our conversation continued. He was talking about the southern U.S.--'the south' as we can often be heard explaining where we are from--but neither of us had ever heard it referred to as "The Southland".

And it was fabulous.
Honestly, I have been giggling about it for days.

It sounds like it's own country or island...straight out of an adventure novel: "The Southland".

So here we are in The Great White North, far away from our beloved Southland. Our conversation with our new friend reminded me of little things I miss from The Southland.

Here are just a few (in no particular order):

• being waved at as we pass cars on the street (no, we don't know them, we just wave back!)
• seeing tobacco barns dot the country landscape
• the sweet, slow-flowing accents*
• old fashioned Dairy Queen (where you have to walk up to the counter)
• Krogers, Cato, & Cracker Barrell
• fireflies
• friends & family
• super green, very thick summer grass
• real bbq

There are also a few things I don't miss:

• the humidity
• the humidity
• the humidity**

So, barring the humidity, I do miss The Southland...which missing I expect to grow exponentially as the winter approaches. Stay tuned!

*On the subject of accents. We are still misunderstanding some who speak very fast with very thick accents--nodding & smiling usually works just fine. I still laugh when I am asked to repeat myself...

**Speaking of weather, this summer in Wisconsin has been amazing. We haven't turned our A/C on once! We do have our Hawaiian Breezes fan at our disposal, but haven't used it much since the week of this post.