Originally Posted by
bbattle
Franklin is a very nice suburb of Nashville and has a very nice LBS that sells the crap out of Orbeas. Franklin is a historic town but also home to a monster mall on I-65 for all the suburbanites. Real close to Nashville, which is HUGE.
Lots of very nice riding in Tennessee. Lots of hills, too.
I live in Huntsville, Alabama; just down I-65.
People in the South are very nice and friendly; it freaks Northerners out at first. You'll notice a lot more churches; churches everywhere. Everywhere. And football, particularly college football, is the most important thing in the world; absolutely rabid fans down here.
Don't be offended if somebody calls you honey or sugar or yes ma'am, no ma'am. Or holds the door open for you or carries heavy stuff for you
And it's hot and muggy for 7 months out of the year, nice cool mornings and warm afternoons for 3 months and about a month or so of what we call cold weather. Like it gets below freezing a few times.
edit: I hope you like fried food.
And grits. mmmmmmmm, grits.
Also, when people in the South say they are fixing to do something, it means they are about to do something. As in: I'm fixing to go to town. You need anything?
And all soft drinks are "Cokes."
Order iced tea, and you'll be asked, "Sweetened or Unsweetened."
Like everywhere else, be nice and people will be nice to you.
And please don't use the word "redneck," unless you absolutely know who you're talking to. I moved to Nashville twenty years ago from Minnesota, and though there's still some culture shock -- religion is much more of a social force here -- people here really aren't that much different from anywhere else. Many people from elsewhere in the US are laboring under Southern stereotypes taken largely from Gomer Pyle and the Beverly Hillbillies. I know people who are still pretty "country," but overwhelmingly everyone here wears shoes and knows how to read.
The biggest thing that could damage your welcome is to assume those stereotypes are true and act accordingly.
You will be the new arrival, and your job is to adapt to your new environment, not to compare it to where you came from or to try and change it.