The Region and Me

The Mid-South

If one begins on the Mississippi River at Cairo, Illinois and draws an imaginary line eastward to the junction of the Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia borders; then south to a point on I-20 just west of Augusta, Georgia; then westward to Birmingham, Alabama; and finally northwestward back to the Mississippi River just south of Memphis, Tennessee, the area enclosed is roughly the mid-south region of the United States.

This is a unique area.  The people are unique. They are a mixture of "bubbas and brothers", "good old boys and rappers", "rednecks and poor white trash", "preppies and sophisticates", "country hicks and city slickers", "mountain folk and river rats", "overalls, jeans, and suits".

There are doctors, lawyers, teachers, mechanics, storekeepers, craftsmen, tradesmen, salesmen, beauticians, waitresses, farmers, and farmers' wives. 

There are high powered women executives; single mothers, struggling and being successful; and "stay at home" moms (soccer or otherwise).

There are Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Church of Christ, Church of God, Catholics, Nazarenes, Jews, Muslims, and, of late, Mormons.

There are pimps, druggies, thieves, and murderers. There are the white collar thugs and rogues that never get caught.

There are providers, prostitutes, and prima donnas. There are gold diggers and lazy men who live off the labor of their wives and girlfriends.

There are gays, straights, and others.

There is an over abundance of "smart-alecks" and a number of "Yankees", with a lot of money, who have come south for the climate.

Then there is that vast number of hardworking, God-fearing, people, who want no more than to have a good life and to raise their families with the hope for a better future.

Finally, there is the Mid-South Philosopher.

The Mid-South Philosopher

"Everybody has to be from somewhere!"

I am a native to this region; a product of the "sharecropper" legacy of northern Alabama in the 1920's and 30's, mixed with a strong "southern mountain tradition" out of Middle Tennessee, and, to add spice, a sprinkling of Sicilian blood from that great-great-great- grandfather "Vito" Tyler, who first came into Tennessee after the War of 1812.

In many ways I am a mixture of the people of the mid-south. Many of their traits are my traits, but some are not.  Sometimes, I have trouble knowing just quite how I fit into the scheme of things.

I am an observer, a thinker, and a speculator.  Over the past 50 or so years, I have seen much, learned much, and come to realize that there is so much more to learn. The purpose of the site will be for me to express my thoughts about some of what I have learned. If you like my ideas, well and good.  If you do not like them, then in the words of that noted columnist and author, the late Lewis Grizzard, a great philosopher in his own right, "Delta is ready when you are!"  Or to use the more modern terminology, "surf on to another site."