Minnesota Country Girl

Due to the fact that I have been given plenty of crap from both Northern and Southern people alike about being country, I have decided to clarify the term country.

First off being country does not automatically make you a southerner. If you live below the mason-dixon line this does not automatically make you a country boy/girl. If you live above the mason-dixon line this does not automatically make you a city boy/girl. In other words there are both country AND city people in both the north and south. Believe me I have now lived in both north and now south, I have met the same amount of city people as country people in both places. Promise.

Second, people in the north DO have country music. Country music is not just for people in the south, we Northern people also have a genre called country and last time I checked its the same people that y'all/you guys listen to down here. Some southern people have told me that country music does not apply to those of us who come from/live in the north.....ummm guys we have trucks, beer, girls, fields and we hunt and fish as well, it's not just you guys from the south. Also if you don't listen to country music or don't like it, this does not automatically make you a city person. Country music is not the only kind of music that exists.

Now thirdly, since moving to Georgia I have been accused of becoming a southern country girl; I have also been accused of being a northern city girl. May I propose to you my lovely southern and northern friends that I am a northern country girl. (GASP) Yes I can be from the north and still be a country girl to the core, and I can also live in the south and not be southern! Ever since moving here to Georgia I actually miss the country. I miss having woods for miles and miles right outside my back door. I miss being able to bike down to the river to go swimming. I miss trout fishing in southern Minnesota. I miss hunting those pesky deer on a cold November morning. Yes I definitely miss my home in the country. I also miss the snow, the northern accent, good coffee, the many many lakes, lefse, ice skating, long car rides listening to Prairie Home Companion, and everything else northern and Minnesotan.

Although I miss my home in Minnesota I am learning to adapt to the country of the south. I now enjoy caving, fried chicken (and fried pretty much every other food), blackberry picking, camping in the south (which is different than camping in the north), and now I am ready to try chicken and waffles, and alligator hunting. Note none of this makes me southern.

Now to tell you what makes a person southern or northern and country or city. First you have to have lived in the south or the north for at least 10 years and you have to have a northern or southern accent (Of course there are variations of both but, you get the idea.) If you are northern you own at least one parka if not two or three, you say "you guys", a toboggan is something you ride on to go sledding, you usually love cold weather, you talk very fast, and you know what lutefisk is. If you are southern you talk very slowly, really hate anything cold unless it is sweet tea, a toboggan is a hat, you say "y'all", and you know what chicken and waffles is. If you are a country person you like to hunt, fish, camp, and pretty much just do anything that involves the outdoors. If you are a city person you don't mind living downtown in a big city, you could probably go your whole life without going somewhere where there in no cell phone service, and you probably like to do things that are indoors. Now you guys must realize that these are just the basics on how to tell the difference...I could keep going and going but, than this post would be more like book than just a post.

So I am proud to say that I am a Minnesota country girl. I love everything cold and everything adventures, and now I am learning how to love some things southern. But please realize that I will probably never be a southern girl and I know I will never be a city girl. I am proud of my northern self, and I love all my southern city friends, northern city friends, southern country friends, and northern country friends.