Y'all Magazine – December 2005

y

JOHNNY CASH SALUTE | JAKE DELHOMME | BILL PAXTON | GASTINEAU GIRLS | BILL ENGVALL

ʼall

DECEMBER 2005

REESE WITHERSPOON’ WITHERSPOON’ S NEW ROLE AS JUNE CARTER CASH IN WALK THE LINE

THE M AGA ZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

THE AMAZING

NANCY GRACE WAFFLE HOUSE

TURNS 50!

galsls

Nashvill ville e So PATTY LOVELESS & MARTINA MCBRIDE ym1A.indd 1

www.yall.com

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005

$3.95 U.S. / $5.95 CAN

10/18/05 7:51:16 AM

Discover Gatlinburg again and again.

Think you’ve seen everything Gatlinburg,Tennessee has to offer? Look again. With more than 500 restaurants and shops, countless attractions and a vibrant arts & crafts community, it’s impossible to experience all of Gatlinburg in just one trip.

Call for your free vacation guide.

1-800-565- 7329 www.gatlinburg.com

ym2-3.indd 2

10/18/05 7:52:41 AM

In my south…strangers are treated like family.

And family is treated like royalty.

– Angela Bassett St. Petersburg, Florida

TM & © 2005 Turner South. A TimeWarner Company. All Rights TM & © 2005 Turner South. A TimeWarner Company. All Rights Reserved.

ym2-3.indd 3

10/19/05 8:47:16 AM

y

ʼall

THE M AGA ZINE OF

Y’

SOUTHERN PEOPLE Volume 3 | Number 6

this-n-that Y’all?

9 Where Capturing hot Southern stars, from Dollywood to Hollywood.

36

Martina McBride & Patty Loveless

ym4-7.indd 4

On the Money

34

Cranky Yankee

48

Max’d Out

58

Star Gazing

65

Cajun Humor

66

Wine Down South

67

Blue Collar

68

What Southern Women Know

Money man Dave Ramsey gets you prepared for a Total Money Makeover.

This ain’t New York City! Laurie Stieber shares her new life Down South.

Pigskins are in the air, and Max has his bowl picks for the South’s college elite.

Joe LoCicero reports from Hollywood, with pointers on throwing a great bash.

Lawd have mercy, dat Tommy Joe Breaux dun brought a nodder humorous look at life down in Breaux Bridge, La. Doc Lawrence breaks out the good holiday wines for Y’all.

Funnyman Bill Envgall has taken his act from Texas to Hollywood, teaming up with Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy.

Ronda Rich’s dose of Dixie wisdom.

Grizzard -ALL NEW 69 Just Legendary Southern columnist Lewis Grizzard may be gone, but his words will live forever in a new column for Y’all Magazine.

TOP& COVER/ANDREW ECCLES BOTTOM&COVER/TRACI GOUDIE

Country music divas Martina McBride and Patty Loveless have made millionselling albums, No. 1 smashes and garnered countless awards - all the while juggling life on the road with family life back in Nashville. Discover the rise to fame of two of Music City’s leading ladies.

33

70

GRITS

76

In Memoriam

“Ms. Grits” Deborah Ford shares her take on Southern hospitality.

Remembering Southerners who have passed to the Great Beyond.

South 78 Festive Turkeys, Christmas Trees and New Year’s brings out the festive side of many of the South’s towns and cities.

10/18/05 7:57:24 AM

Y’ALL OF FAME Johnny Cash

“The Man in Black” and his music will live on, despite his passing.

Read about the Arkansas native’s impact on music, culture and his legacy. J.R. Cash, the newest installment in the Y’all of Fame.

24 features

17

Nancy Grace

22

Joe LoCicero

She’s a long way from her days cutting collard greens in the fields of Macon, Ga. Today, Nancy Grace “graces” the airwaves of CNN, Court TV, and has penned a new book, Objection!.

Y’all’s “Practical Whimsy” columnist Joe LoCicero teamed up with his brothers to write a practical new book to help all of us idiots.

14 4

southern sounds

JOHNNY CASH/COURTESY OF CASH FAMILY, GRACE: COURTESY OF GRACE, WITHERSPOON: FRAZIER HARRISON/GETTY IMAGES

30

ym4-7.indd 5

Reese Witherspoon Nashville girl Reese Witherspoon plays the role of June Carter Cash in the new Johnny Cash biopic, Walk The Line.

Witherspoon aims to maintain a normal life, even when it comes to getting behind the wheel.

The South has some hot new music to listen to as you get ready to buy those holiday gifts. New Orleans band Son Volt has a new compilation CD, while MercyMe frontman Bart Millard releases his first solo effort, Hymned.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

5

10/18/05 7:57:39 AM

ym4-7.indd 6

10/18/05 7:58:00 AM

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, this New York mother-daughter duo has taken over E! Entertainment TV with their own reality show. Part of the charm mom Lisa and daughter Brittny share is Southern-based. You see, these gals both crossed the Mason-Dixon and went to the University of Alabama. Roll Tide!

Jake Delhomme

55

The Carolina Panthers are in a quest to return to the Super Bowl. Southern-boy Jake Delhomme is determined to lead the NFL franchise to the promised land.

Catch up with the “Ragin’ Cajun” and his life back in Breaux Bridge, La.

FOOTE: FREDERICK M. BROWN-GETTY

74 ym4-7.indd 7

Waffle House

The South wouldn’t be the wonderful, unique place it is... without Waffle House. The Southern landmark turns 50 this year.

52

Christmas at Old Waverly

Each Christmas, folks gather at this Mississippi golf resort to enjoy a Victorian Dinner. We’ve got the pics!

61

Bill Paxton

From Twister to Apollo 13, Texas native Bill Paxton has kept movie viewers glued to their seats with his captivating roles. Bill’s got a new role, directing.

L TO R: JONATHAN FERREY/GETTY, KEVIN WINTER/GETTY, (BELOW)SEE PAGE 72

50

Gastineau Girls

GASTINEAU GIRLS: GEORGE DESOTA E! NETWORKS

inside

72 Home Makers Girls rule, at least on this show! Turner South’s new homeimprovement show let’s this Charlottebased cast of laborers transform a home into a castle.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

7

10/18/05 7:58:16 AM

yʼall

My Hometown:

®™

Biloxi, Mississippi

THE M AGA ZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE ™

President & Publisher Jon Rawl jon@yall.com Managing Editor Molly Fergusson molly@yall.com

VP & Associate Publisher Keith Sisson keith@yall.com

Art Director Carroll Moore carroll@yall.com

Circulation Director Rachel Thompson Twiford rachel@yall.com New Media Andy Young andy@yall.com Art Assistant Maria Augustine Photographer Chad Mills Asst. Managing Editor Tabatha Hunter Copy Editor Dianne S. Fergusson Illustrators Stephen J. Enzweiler Don Maters Contributing Writers Lewis Grizzard Deborah Ford Ronda Rich Kristin Gravatt Tommy Joe Breaux Bill Engvall Doc Lawrence Dave Ramsey Joe LoCicero Max Howell Katie Batte Kristin Frost Kathleen Poe Matthew Heermans Annabelle Robertson Carrie Gerlach Cecil Aleta Payne Alabama Bureau Paula Sullivan Dabbs alabama@yall.com

Account Executive Meredith Dabbs

meredith@yall.com

(662)236-1928 Arkansas Bureau Jason Nall arkansas@yall.com Florida Bureau Mark Cook florida@yall.com Georgia Bureau Laurie Stieber georgia@yall.com Kentucky Bureau Colleen Cassity kentucky@yall.com Louisiana Bureau Clay Reynolds louisiana@yall.com North Carolina Bureau Jason “Pig” Thompson northcarolina@yall.com Oklahoma Bureau Lee Cartwright oklahoma@yall.com Tennessee Bureau Joshua Wilkins tennessee@yall.com Texas Bureau Matt Heermans texas@yall.com Virginia Bureau Linda Sassorini virginia@yall.com Publishing Consultant Samir Husni Circulation

Curtis Circulation Company Phone (201) 634-7416

Y’ALL (ISSN 1557-2331), November/December 2005, Volume 3, Number 6. Published bimonthly by General Rawl Media, LLC. Editorial and advertising offices at 1006 Van Buren, Suite 211, Oxford, MS 386553900. Mailing address: P.O. Box 1217, Oxford, MS 38655. Telephone: 662-236-1928. Basic subscription rate: 6 issues, U.S. $19.95; Canada $32.69. 12 issues, U.S. $34.95; Canada $45.80.

Entire contents copyright 2005, General Rawl Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Products named in these pages are tradenames or trademarks of their respective companies. Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect that of the publisher.

For subscriptions, queries, and customer service, please visit www. yall.com Y’all Magazine Business phone: 662-236-1928.

E-mail us at: mail@yall.com Subscriptions: Toll-Free 1-800-935-5185 Application to mail at Periodical Postage Rates is Pending at Oxford, Mississippi and at additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Y’all, c/o Magazine Processing Center, P.O. Box 0567, Selmer, TN 38375-9908.

Printed in the USA.

8

ym8-15.indd 8

I grew up in Biloxi. It was my home until I moved to Oxford, Miss., in 1997. My grandfather retired at Keesler Air Force Base in 1967 and stayed.

My dad worked in law enforcement and later in the gaming industry. My parents met there. Our family business was there. My roots were there, and despite losing everything to Katrina, my family’s future will continue to be in Biloxi. To understand the aftermath, you need to understand the days before the storm. I was on The Coast the days before Katrina. Katrina hit land on a Monday. The previous Thursday night at the “Biloxian Made Good” banquet, there was no mention at all of a possible hit from the hurricane.

The next day, at Friday night’s Biloxi High School football game there was no concern that class may be cancelled on Monday. Saturday, people began to get a little more interested in the growing storm. Sunday it turned toward Mississippi and my family and many others evacuated.

I was the first member of my family to return after the hurricane. I left Oxford late Wednesday night with a friend to deliver supplies to her family in Pascagoula. While on the coast we traveled to check on my house. It wasn’t what I expected on that early Thursday morning. My house was a half shell of a brick structure with the soaking remains of what once was my mom’s spotless and always proper home décor. But I was lucky, the wind and tide that ripped the inside of my house completely erased homes down the street from me. One house has only a chimney remaining. At least we would have the opportunity to sift through the rubble and find the few things that weren’t destroyed.

Katrina wasn’t the type of hurricane that I remembered from growing up in Biloxi. Hurricanes used to be fun. In 1985 during Hurricane Elena, school was cancelled, we camped out in the living room, bathed in the pool, and ate beans from cans. It was a cool experience for a six-year-old. There was another hurricane when I was in high school. That time my girlfriend evacuated to my house for a few days. Those experiences made me not fear hurricanes. And it was that attitude that resulted in so many people staying behind and riding out this storm.

My mom didn’t want to return to see our destroyed house. After contemplating it for a few days she decided that Scarlett went back to Tara, so she should return to Biloxi. Since then we have salvaged everything worth keeping in the house and removed all of the debris. My mom and dad are living at my grandfather’s house, which works out well for my grandfather; he claims that he gained a cook, a maid, and a lawn boy. My parents are still without work and like so many people are waiting to hear from their insurance company. We will rebuild and like Biloxi we will rebuild better.

Biloxi is an historic town, one of the oldest cities in the nation, and the evidence of that history has been erased. Only a few historic structures remain. Our light house that has served as a beacon on the coast since 1848, now serves as a reminder of our past and as a beacon of hope--a hope that a better Biloxi is in the future and that one-day soon I will be able to drink an ice cold Barq’s Root Beer, eat a pressed and dressed shrimp po’boy and a cup of seafood gumbo in my rebuilt hometown. Let’s get to work!

Keith Sisson Associate Publisher, Y’all Magazine P.S. Thanks to all who have offered help to my family and all the families affected by this past hurricane season. The news cameras have long left, but the tragedy still remains. Keep us in your prayers.

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

10/18/05 7:59:53 AM

where y’all?

Mississippi Rising

A Star-studded night: Above (L-R)

actresses Alison Sweeney, Sela Ward, Delta Burke and Deidre Hall pose for photos with other performers at the Mississippi Rising concert, a benefit for Hurricane Katrina victims, held Oct. 1 in Oxford, Miss.

Left (Clockwise) Laurie Smith, Jason Alexander, Ray Ramono, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, Morgan Freeman and Macy Gray were among the many stars to come to Ole Miss for the benefit, produced by former William Morris Agency exec Sam Haskell.

(All photos by Marianne Todd/Getty Images)

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

ym8-15.indd 9

9

10/18/05 8:01:24 AM

where y’all?

Red Carpet Roundup

Corpus Christi actress Eva Longoria, of the nominated ABC’s Desperate Housewives, took a moment to smile for the cameras at the 57th Annual Emmy Awards.

(Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Houston actor Isaiah Washington of Grey’s Anatomy, at the Entertainment Weekly Emmy Pre-Party in the Cabana Club, Hollywood, Calif. (Photo by Stephen Shugerman/ Getty Images)

RIGHT: Memphis actress Ginnifer Goodwin at the HBO Emmy After-party held at The Plaza in the Pacific Design Center, West Hollywood. (Photo by Stephen Shugerman/Getty Images) FAR RIGHT: Texan

Jennifer Garner at the 57th Annual Emmy Awards, held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

ym8-15.indd 10

10/18/05 8:01:46 AM

Memphis boy Justin Timberlake on the red carpet for the TIFF gala screening of the film Edison in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Donald Weber/Getty Images)

(L-R) Texas actress Jill Marie Jones, Hill Harper and Gabrielle Union during the Entertainment Weekly Emmy Pre-Party.

(Photo by Stephen Shugerman/ Getty Images)

Mississippi troops in Iraq love their Y’all Magazine. Y’all be safe!

Jennifer Love Hewitt (L) , of Waco, Texas, and Aisha Tyler at the premiere screenings of CBS’s Ghost Whisperer and Threshold at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles.

(Photo by Kevin Winter/ Getty Images)

Actor and Florida native Shawn Pyfrom at Twentieth Century Fox’s Beverly Hills premiere of In Her Shoes. Pyfrom will star in the 2006 comedy Shaggy Dog, alongside Southern star Kristin Davis and Tim Allen.

(Photo by Stephen Shugerman/Getty Images)

ym8-15.indd 11

10/18/05 8:02:06 AM

where y’all?

WINNER

Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, filming an upcoming NASCAR comedy, at the Talladega Superspeedway.

Left: Dale Jarrett, of Hickory, N.C., took the checkered flag at the October 2nd race at Talladega. Y’all was in the pits to catch all the high-octane action.

12

ym8-15.indd 12

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

All photos by Chad Mills

10/18/05 8:02:45 AM

ym8-15.indd 13

10/18/05 8:03:00 AM

reviews Son Volt: A Retrospective: 1995-2000 These guys have been gone for a while, but not forgotten. From their inception in 1994 to the beginning of their hiatus in 1998 (yes, hiatus), this band captured the attention of fans around the country with three critically acclaimed albums full of powerful country-rock songs and soft, sweet ballads.

Blending top hits and fan favorites from the albums Trace (1995), Straightaways (1997), and Wide Swing Tremolo (1998) along with five previously un-issued tracks, the band seeks to commemorate their past while they work out a new future. Son Volt announced a reunion in 2004, with a new album expected this year.

Son Volt founder Jay Farrar may sound familiar from the now-disbanded Uncle Tupelo. After the break up of Uncle Tupelo, Farrar and drummer Mike Heidorn teamed up with brothers Jim and Dave Boquist to form Son Volt in New Orleans in 1994. Even before their first release, the band had built up a strong fan base through constant touring. They stayed on the road throughout their time together, eventually leading to a well-needed break announced in October 1998. Farrar didn’t miss much work, releasing a solo album, Sebastopol, in 2001, and other solo projects.

Now, seven long years since their last gig, Son Volt is committed to putting out more great music for their fans.

This retrospective album has original classics like “Drown,” “Windfall,” “Route,” and “Too Early,” along with some rare finds and unreleased tracks. One standout song is Townes Van Zandt’s “Rex’s Blues,” which combines Farrar’s vocals with the soft croons of Kelly Willis. A live acoustic recording of “Medicine Hat” is on the 20-track disc, along with the four-track demo recordings “Tear Stained Eye” and “Loose String.”

For any old fan looking to reminisce before the new and improved Son Volt makes its premier, this is a great way to catch up with the band’s past. If you’re a new fan, you can listen to Son Volt by visiting www.rhino.com and listen to some.

2006 Farmer’s Almanac In the 1970’s, when Bob Farmer was working for a Kentucky bank that bought farmer’s almanacs each year, he forged a friendship with The Geiger family, owners of the Farmer’s Almanac, and the funnyman Farmer soon became the spokesperson for one of the oldest publications to date.

A little history: “From 1818 until the 1980s, the almanacs were just given away by sponsors: banks, insurance companies. Then the retail book came out, with ads and stuff like that. So, there are two different versions of the book that come out every year. The newsprint version,

the backbone of the almanac which is weather and the astronomy and interesting stories and stuff and the retail version has, of course, the ads with some more interesting stories,” offers Bob Farmer who describes his job as the “privilege of going around and talking about the farmer’s almanac and entertaining folks – a little Jerry Clower and Garrison Keeler rolled up into one.”

Almanacs came from England, and have always been annual publications. In the past, printing was so difficult; it took a year to type the almanacs. People placed their almanac next to their Bible.

Ben Franklin’s almanac (1730-1750) was called Poor Richard’s. He used a pseudonym, because almanac makers would get in trouble. Two almanac makers had predicted Great London fire of 1666 and in 1667 were hanged in the strong suspicion that they started the fire.

“Even Christopher Columbus used the almanac to get what he wanted from the Indians, knowing that there would be an eclipse the next day,” adds Farmer.

Used to help predict the weather, to know when to plant certain crops and also to entertain, the Farmer’s

reviews by Kristin Gravatt and Tabatha Hunter 14

ym8-15.indd 14

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

10/18/05 8:03:19 AM

Bart Millard’s Hymned No. 1 If you think this release from MercyMe front man Bart Millard is just another collection of classic gospel renditions, you’re way off. A listen to just one of the tracks shows you this album is unlike many other gospel covers. It puts a unique sound and flavor to the music that passes beyond the church choir and into mainstream music. It also contains a DVD side, with the entire album in enhanced stereo sound, a making of the album feature and behind the scenes footage.

The only original track of the album, “MawMaw’s Song (In the Sweet By and By),” shares the singer’s inspiration for this solo debut disc. It chronicles the Texan’s introduction to gospel from his grandmother, kindling a lifelong love for the musical expression of his soul’s devotion.

With the first track you can sense something is different about this collection, with an upbeat piano-filled rendition of “Just a Closer Walk with Thee.” It continues with the upbeat “Have a Little Talk with Jesus,” then slows down for a jazzy “Precious Lord, Take My Hand,” which captivates with a building beat and choir. But unlike other gospel performances, Millard lets the emotion in his voice dominate, rather than having a strong choir to help him. The choir is a softer presence in the background, like an instrument backing his powerful voice. “Softly And Tenderly” has a modern feel, with a slow and steady beat punctured by a variety

Almanac is usually (right on the money) with an accuracy rate of 78-82 percent. “Sometimes we get it right on. We say that a hurricane will hit in a specific location. When it happens, we call that a direct hit and we send out news releases. If not, we just kind of forget about it.”

Curious about how accurate the Farmer’s Almanac was for 2005?

It predicted that there could be hurricane activity for the Eastern U.S. in late July, while the Gulf Coast could be adversely affected during the third week of August and again in the second week of September.

ym8-15.indd 15

of vocal styles, from Millard’s emotion-packed voice to contrasting background male and female vocals ranging from soft crooning to passionate crying outs. “Sweetest Name I Know” has a jazzy, almost rocking beat that captivates those listeners who would otherwise not be interested in gospel songs. Strong bass blasts with scatlike jamming solos will keep any worshipper rocking in their seat or raising their hands in praise.

With such a fresh take on classic songs, this disc is sure to captivate a wide audience. Whether looking for a modern way to express faith or interest a younger audience, Millard has definitely succeeded with Hymned No.1. Hopefully there will be plenty more numbers to follow.

Farmer’s Almanac Trivia The longest lived Atlantic hurricane was Hurricane Ginger. It lasted 31 days, from September 5 to October 5, 1971. During its 31 day lifespan, Ginger was a full-fledged hurricane for 20 days.

According to Folklore, persimmons can foretell the severity of a coming winter. If the seed is spoon shaped, a harsh winter is in store with wet, heavy snow. Fork shaped, a mild winter with light powdery snow. Knife shaped, an icy winter with biting winds.

Crickets are known as the “poor man’s thermometer.” You can determine the exact temperature by counting the number of chirps the cricket makes during a 15 second interval, then add 37 to the number to get the correct temperature in degrees Fahrenheit.

10/18/05 8:03:31 AM

16

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym16, 22-23.indd 16

10/18/05 8:05:01 AM

Nancy Grace America’s

Legal Eagle G

rowing up outside of Macon, Ga., Nancy Grace had never been exposed to violence or any of the darker sides of the world; in fact she had what she refers to as a very idyllic Southern childhood.

by Tabatha Hunter

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

ym17-21.indd 17

17

10/18/05 8:06:55 AM

Keith and Nancy

“We lived so far out we did not have city water. My grandfather dug a well. He was a well digger among many other things. He drove an ice truck. He farmed. My mom would get up

in the morning and cut collards and turnips and wrap them in a mess and load up his truck to go sell at the farmer’s market. In fact, we grew up on weekends picking our own produce,” Grace remembers. “There was nothing to see as far as the eye would go except soybean fields and pine trees.”

Today, Grace, 47, has become arguably one of the nation’s top legal minds and the host of her own self-titled shows airing on CNN, Court TV, and CNN Headline News (weeknights 8/7C).

When Grace went to college, she did not go to become an attorney, in fact that was the farthest thing from her mind when she first attended Valdosta State. Nancy went to school to become a Shakespearean English professor, fell in love with a fellow student and was soon engaged and happy. It was not until Keith Griffin, her then fiancé was murdered that Nancy began to see another side of the world. “That really changed my world because not only did all my plans disappear, but my whole view of the world. Evil and hate, I did not really know anything about that.”

With Griffin’s murder, Nancy fell apart. She dropped out of school and moved back home with her parents. She stopped eating, she could not think. “It was terrible. My parents flew me

“When Grace went to college, she did not go to

become an attorney, in fact that was the farthest thing

from her mind when she first attended Valdosta State.”

18

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym17-21.indd 18

10/18/05 8:12:22 AM

“My favorite book was “To Kill A Mockingbird” and it just dawned on me that I would go to school and be like “Atticus Finch.’”

to Philadelphia where my sister was a college professor at the Wharton School, and I stayed there for a while.” It was during her stay in Philadelphia that Nancy realized what she needed to do, “I was sitting on a bench one day watching people go by and it dawned on me. My favorite book was To Kill A Mockingbird and it just dawned on me that I would go to school and be like “Atticus Finch.” I would put bad people away so that they could not hurt anybody else.”

Grace then put herself through law school at Macon’s Mercer University, where she made the prestigious Law Review while working two jobs. “I worked at a law firm and a family shop the whole time I went to law school and I studied all the time to try to keep up.

I would even sneak my law books in church sometimes.”

Upon graduation, Nancy went to work as a clerk with a federal judge in the Northern District of Georgia before going to work for

The Grace Family

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

ym17-21.indd 19

19

10/18/05 8:12:35 AM

the Federal Trade Commission’s anti-trust division. It was not until after she had a couple of cases in Florida where she was able to stop some “bad guys” that Grace finally got the job she has been waiting for. “I wanted a lot of volume of violent crimes. I picked the murder capital of the world, which was Atlanta at the time. For the next 10 years I tried all felonies, and after about three years I got named special prosecutor.”

It was while working for the District Attorney’s office that Grace was noticed by CNN and asked to comment on some criminal cases.

“Then I was sitting on a panel of so-called legal Grace and former co-host Johnnie Cochran experts one time and I fortuitously sat between Johnnie Cochran and Roy Black. Cochran was straight off the Simpson victory and Black was straight off the William Kennedy Smith victory, so they were feeling pretty fine and of course the three of us got into a major fight about the law. They were B.S.-ing and, of course, I was calling them on it.”

It was that evening that the founder of Court TV said, “Let’s do a show.” On January 6, 1997, Grace started her new career. She moved to New York with two boxes of clothes, a curling iron and $200 in her savings account.

Although she has not been in a court room since 1997, Grace still misses it. “I miss it a lot because you have the immediate satisfaction of knowing that you have done something good.

“Then I was sitting on a panel of so-called legal experts one time and I fortuitously sat between Johnnie Cochran and Roy Black.”

20

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym17-21.indd 20

10/18/05 8:12:55 AM

“I used to look out on pecan trees and now I look out on the Empire State Building and

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF NANCY GRACE /(AT RIGHT)PETER KRAMER/GETTY

CitiCorp,” Grace laughs.

I guess I help differently now. I go all over the country speaking for free on victim’s rights. After Hurricane Katrina, we managed to reunite many of the people torn apart by Katrina; and we do a segment almost every night called

“APB, All Points Bulletin,” trying to capture fugitives – and we have managed to do quite a bit of that. So that makes me feel really positive about the show.” Nancy adds, “It is a lot easier looking at one camera than looking at a jury or a judge.”

Grace penned her first book earlier this year, Objection! (Hyperion), which takes on a host of controversial topics, including the “blame the victim” defense, the imperiled jury system, the inescapable effect of “celebrity factor” on trials, and the debate surrounding the death penalty.

A Southern girl through and through, Nancy still goes home to Macon at least once a month to visit her folks, and she can be found most Sunday nights cooking collard greens she’s smuggled back in her luggage, and watching Desperate Housewives. “I still go to a Methodist church up here. Oh, and cheese grits, cannot live without that!”

“I used to look out on pecan trees and now I look out on the Empire State Building and CitiCorp,” Grace laughs.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

ym17-21.indd 21

21

10/18/05 8:10:54 AM

Richard, Joe and Kenneth LoCicero

SOUTHERN SIBLING AUTHORS:

CLEAR THINKING TIMES THREE

by Carrie Gerlach Cecil

A

s I write this, I’m juggling two TV script deadlines, I’m waiting to hear if American Airlines can help me get me, my seven-month old, and my Shih Tzu named “Max” through security for a flight to LAX

tomorrow …and at some point I’ll have to dash out for baby food, which I always seem to be out of. Heap that on top of running a household (not very well), prepping for a quartet of meetings next week, and picking out a gift for my Mom’s birthday and it’s enough to send me scrambling for cover under the cozy comforter on my bed. At least that’s how I felt until three sibling brothers--an MD, a PhD and a creative type-came into my life and let me in on achieving a little thing I like to call clear thinking.

22

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym16, 22-23.indd 22

10/18/05 8:05:26 AM

While my particular set of circumstances may be different from yours, let’s face it: we’re all struggling to clarify, prioritize and organize. Whether you’re 17 or 37 (like me) or 57, we all have a lot on our plate. In the crush of information overload today, navigating the influx of personal and professional choices, cultivating healthy relationships, figuring out which politician’s saying what, we just want to clear our heads and say “Enough already! Can I get a little help here?�

With Joe, Ric and Ken LoCicero, I found that help‌ in a book they’ve written called The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Clear Thinking. Joe’s an L.A. TV writer-turned-lifestyle entrepreneur, Ric’s a Gainesville, Ga.-based oncologist, and Ken’s a marketing VP with a PhD, who lives in an Atlanta suburb. Now, that might seem like an odd combination of talents and backgrounds, but for the many facets of clear thinking, it’s actually quite perfect.

They’ve funneled a unique, three-pronged approach into the book that covers all the thinking bases. For instance, Ric (the smart one), delves into how specifically the left and right sides of your brain work together. Ken (the funny one) takes on, for starters, how you can set aside emotions to gather info and make a decision. Joe (the touchy-feely one) gives pointers on brainstorming to launch that money-making idea of yours.

Taken together, they’ve created a seamless, practical tool for use in living a more orderly, organized, time-saving, and--in the end-- fulfilling life. Like men tend to do, Joe (the long-haired one), Ric (the blonde) and Ken (the trim cut) want to “fix� things. In the case of clear thinking, theirs is a quest to fix on many fronts.

After meeting them, I’m struck by their commonalities as much as their differences. That’s because their unity was probably honed growing up in a robust and rousing Stone Mountain, Ga., household that prized all kinds of pursuits. “We and our sister had tons of activities going on,� Joe says, “with piano lessons and basketball practices, science experiments and art classes. I think what our parents instilled early on was that cool, critical thinking is never just confined to a classroom.�

Ken adds, “Sure, clear thinking’s useful if you’re trying to get through Chemistry 101, but when you apply it the right way, it can also whip up a wicked meal or plan a tremendous vacation or help get along with relatives.� Ric says,�Clear thinking’s that all-purpose trait that--to really work optimally--has to work on physiological, psychological and creative levels. That’s what we wanted to bring across in this book.�

That being the case, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Clear Thinking relishes instances where people are faced with problems to solve and decisions to make: a “case study� that poses how Delta’s Song might have come up with Kate Spade-designed uniforms for its flight attendants is particularly entertaining. Aside from guiding readers through fact-gathering, sorting truth from opinion, and giving the lowdown on logic, they also take a smileinducing tour through thinking impediments, like wily urban legends (did you hear the one about the $250 Neiman-Marcus cookie recipe?), viral web warnings (beware the exploding cell phone at the gas station), silly superstitions (if your palm itches,

money’s coming) and fake statistics (silver cars are safest) that can muck up clarity.

As to how I’m implementing clear thinking in my life, take a look at a few of the guys’ prime pointers for clear thinking. ■Always ask yourself, "What's the big picture?" and "Why is this important?" Doing so will prevent you from becoming mired in details or minutiae rather than being focused on the end goal. ■Be willing--and brave enough--to gather enough information. ■Make a list; prioritize the optimal choices, solutions, thoughts, decisions, etc. ■If the issue brings emotional components, consider your response as if you weren't involved in it. Try and think about it as an "outsider." ■Sleep, eat, work, play (in any order).

And while I’ve got to be better about using all their clear thinking advice on a daily basis, I also know I’ll be better off if my friends and relatives read this, too. So, I’ll definitely be giving this book out to Mom and everyone else when their birthdays pop up. That way, we’ll all be on the same page.

Splitting time between L.A. and Nashville, Carrie Gerlach Cecil is the author of Emily’s Reasons Why Not, a novel-turned-ABC comedy series starring Heather Graham that debuts in January. Carrie’s husband, Chuck Cecil, is a defensive coach for the Tennessee Titans.

+JNNZ 3FFE TQFOU IJT CPZIPPE ZFBST PO %VOMFJUI 1MBOUBUJPO "GUFS DPMMFHF BOE NJMJUBSZ TFSWJDF IF SFUVSOFE UP NBOBHF UIF DPUUPO GBSNJOH BOE HJOOJOH PQFSBUJPO BOE BT IF TBZT i MJWFE UP UFMM BCPVU JU w 3FFE T VOJRVF TUPSZUFMMJOH TUZMF HJWFT SFBEFST B IVNPSPVT IFBSU XBSNJOH MPPL BU MJGF JO XIBU IBT CFFO DBMMFE UIF NPTU 4PVUIFSO QMBDF PO FBSUI UIF .JTTJTTJQQJ %FMUB 5P QVSDIBTF B DPQZ PG UIF CPPL QMFBTF WJTJU UIF GPMMPXJOH XFCTJUF XXX KSFFECPPLT DPN PS DPOUBDU + 3FFE #PPLT --$ 1 0 #PY 0YGPSE .4

PÄ‹ DF

DFMM KSFFE!KSFFECPPLT DPN

#PTT +BZCJS E BOE .F

FCC<:K@ FE (= ,?FIK ,?

FIK ,KFI@ <J â?&#x2013; â?&#x2013; â?&#x2013;

+JNNZ 3FFE !RT BY *OE 3EAW

RIGHT

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 â&#x20AC;˘ Yâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ALL

ym16, 22-23.indd 23

23

10/18/05 8:05:38 AM

yʼall

of fame

“Hello, I’m Johnny Cash.”

A more fitting introduction could not be made - a straightforward, honest statement from a man who epitomized these qualities.

24

LEFT: MARVIN KONER/CORBIS, 20TH CENTURY FOX, COURTESY OF CASH FAMILY

by Matthew Heermans

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym24-29.indd 24

10/18/05 8:14:08 AM

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

ym24-29.indd 25

25

10/18/05 8:14:26 AM

night, he played with guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant (the Tennessee Two). Cash worked up the courage to visit the Sun Records studio, hoping to garner a recording contract. Sun producer Cowboy Jack Clement met with the young singer first, and suggested that Cash return to meet producer Sam Phillips. After auditioning for Phillips, singing mainly gospel tunes, Phillips told him to “go home and sin, then come back with a song I can sell”.

His first recordings at Sun, “Hey Porter” and “Cry Cry Cry”, were released in 1955 and were met with reasonable success on the country hit parade. Cash’s next record, “Folsom Prison Blues”, made the country Top 5, and “I Walk the Line” was No. 1 on the country charts, making it into the pop charts Top 20. In 1957, Johnny Cash became the first Sun artist to release a long-playing album. The following year, Cash left Sun to sign a lucrative offer with Columbia Records, where his single “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town” would become one of his biggest hits. In 1955, his daughter, singer Rosanne Cash, was born. Though he would have three more daughters with his wife, Vivian Liberto, their relationship began to sour, as Johnny was constantly touring. It was during one of these tours that he met June Carter, whom he married in 1968.

Although he carefully cultivated a romantic outlaw image, many fans are surprised to learn that he never served a prison sentence, though his wild activities and misdemeanors landed him in jail seven times,

LEFT: MARVIN KONER/CORBIS, 20TH CENTURY FOX, COURTESY OF CASH FAMILY

Cash was born J.R. Cash in Kingsland, Arkansas in 1932, the son of poor Southern Baptist cotton farmers, Ray Cash and Carrie Cloveree Rivers.

His family soon moved into a farm in Dyess, Ark., which was provided at little cost by the government as part of the New Deal. Cash’s father had a severe drinking problem and was physically and emotionally abusive to his family. By age five Cash was working in the cotton fields, singing along with his family as they worked. Cash was very close to his brother Jack. In 1944, a tragic incident occurred that affected Johnny Cash for the rest of his life: Jack was pulled into a whirring table saw in the mill where he worked, and almost cut in two. He suffered for over a week before he died.

Cash always talked of the horrible guilt he felt over this incident because he had gone out fishing that day. On his deathbed, the young man had visions of Heaven and angels before he died.

Almost 60 years later, Johnny still talked of looking forward to meeting his brother in Heaven.

His early memories were dominated by gospel music and radio. He began playing guitar and writing songs as a young boy, and in high school sang on a local radio station.

He was dubbed “John” upon enlisting as a radio operator in the Air Force, which refused to accept initials as his name. Thereafter, he was known as Johnny and sometimes as John R. While an airman in West Germany, Cash wrote one of his most famous songs, “Folsom Prison Blues” after seeing the B-Movie Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison.

After his term of service ended, Cash moved to Memphis, Tenn., where he worked selling appliances. At

"Every man knows he is a sissy compared to Johnny Cash."

— Bono 26

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym24-29.indd 26

10/18/05 8:14:41 AM

"In plain terms, Johnny was and is the North Star; you could guide your ship by him — the greatest of the greats then and now.” — Bob Dylan

all for one night. His most serious run-in with the law occurred while on tour in 1965, when he was arrested by the narcotics squad in El Paso, Texas. Though the officers suspected that he was smuggling heroin from Mexico, he was actually smuggling illegal amphetamines inside his guitar case. He only received a suspended sentence. He was also arrested the next year in Starkville, Miss., for trespassing late at night onto private property to pick flowers. More notably, he voluntarily entered several prisons to perform a series of concerts for convicts, for whom he felt a great compassion.

Cash dealt with drug and alcohol addiction throughout the 1960’s and early 70’s. After he quit drugs, he rediscovered his Christian faith, taking an “altar call” in Evangel Temple, a small church in the Nashville area. This re-emphasis on his Christian faith resulted in a successful stint in the gospel music genre, further proving his versatility behind the microphone and broad appeal to different segments of the population.

During the 1970’s, he galvanized his persona as “The Man in Black.” Johnny wrote the song “Man in Black” to help explain his dress code: “I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, / Livin’

in the hopeless, hungry side of town, / I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime, / But is there because he’s a victim of the times.” Cash continued to make music and influence others in the business until his death.

His final hit song, “Hurt,” was fittingly written by Trent Reznor of the rock group Nine Inch Nails. The fact that this is a song that really has no genre or specified place in the music world fits “The Man in Black” like a glove. Was he a country artist, a rockabilly artist, a storyteller or just a singer? While there is no cubbyhole within which to place such a man, the best way to describe Johnny Cash is simply as a musical phenomenon.

In 2003, after countless hit records, widespread musical influence and an unmatched career in the music industry, J.R. Cash succumbed to complications due to his diabetes just months after his wife, June Carter Cash, had passed on.

He was interred adjacent to her at the Hendersonville Memory Gardens near his home in Hendersonville, Tenn. He was 71.

In many ways Johnny Cash was a true rebel. He unapologetically voiced his disdain for the Nashville status-quo, Johnny and wife June Carter Cash photos from Cooking in the House of Cash (Premium Press America)

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

ym24-29.indd 27

27

10/18/05 8:15:28 AM

"Johnny Cash transcends all musical boundaries, and is one of the original outlaws." — Willie Nelson

ALL AT LEFT: S. TANNER 20TH CENTURY FOX, RIGHT: COURTESY OF CASH FAMILY

embraced criminals living their lives in prisons and shunned the attempts to label his style. He was also the epitome of the heartland American who was the product of extremely humble beginnings and was able to pull himself up by his own bootstraps on several occasions. He struggled as we all do. Drugs, failed relationships, career ups and downs and personal tragedy all took their turns shaping and molding his personality and lifestyle. Johnny Cash won 13 Grammy awards from 1968 to 2003. He sung rock and roll, country, folk, blues and gospel music. From his early days as a pioneer of rockabilly and rock in the 1950s, to his decades as an international representative of country music, to his resurgence to fame as both a living legend and an alternative country icon in the 1990s, Cash influenced countless artists and left a body of work matched only by the greatest artists of his time. Upon his death, Cash was revered and eulogized by many of the greatest popular musicians of our day, whose comments on the man and his work reflect something of the esteem in which he was held.

Joaquin Phoenix portrays Cash in the new biopic Walk the Line. Reese Witherspoon is June Carter Cash (pg. 30).

28

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym24-29.indd 28

10/18/05 8:15:49 AM

(1932-2003) These quotes by other notable musical performers show a level of respect and admiration that is rarely seen on any level, not only in the musical community, but by anyone, anywhere at any time: ■ "Every man knows he is a sissy compared to Johnny Cash." — Bono ■ "In plain terms, Johnny was and is the North Star; you could guide your ship by him — the greatest of the greats then and now.” — Bob Dylan ■ "Abraham Lincoln with a wild side.” — Kris Kristofferson ■ "Johnny Cash transcends all musical boundaries, and is one of the original outlaws." — Willie Nelson ■ "[Cash] took the social consciousness of folk music, the gravity and humor of country music and the rebellion of rock 'n' roll, and told all us young guys that not only was it all right to tear up those lines and boundaries, but it was important." — Bruce Springsteen What we have in Mr. Cash is a unique quantity - a legend, an outlaw, a tragic hero and a musical virtuoso in every sense of the word - a no-nonsense product of this wild land we call America. Johnny Cash is not only a country icon, but a national treasure, the likes of which comes along far too rarely.

Johnny Cash, welcome to the Y’all of Fame.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

ym24-29.indd 29

29

10/18/05 8:16:17 AM

N

30

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym30-45.indd 30

10/18/05 8:17:38 AM

NASHVILLE

girl

Laura Jean Reese Witherspoon captured the nation’s heart as “Elle Woods” in Legally Blonde and she has been box office gold with movies like Sweet Home Alabama ever since. This year is no different as “America’s Sweetheart” takes on a role playing a ghost in Something Like Heaven and as the famous “June Carter” in the Johnny Cash biopic, Walk the Line. The 29-year-old Nashvillian was at home making this movie about her fellow Southerner.

Y’ALL: Do you think that your status as a role model affects the way you pick your movie roles?

WITHERSPOON: Yeah, definitely, I think as soon as I became a mother, I felt the responsibility of becoming a role model. I mean that’s just the nature of becoming a mother. As soon as they come out, you realize ‘oh no, this person is going to look up to me. I better clean up my act.’

up being here today and talking about me being in a film.

So I think a lot of stuff is sort of out of our hands. It’s a result of the actions and choices that you make, the action you take and the choices you make in your life. But, I do think a certain amount of it is fate and I certainly think I was fated to meet my husband.

LEFT: EVAN AGOSTINI/GETTY, RIGHT: DONALD WEBER/GETTY

Y’ALL: You’re a mother of two, Deacon and Ava Elizabeth. How do you balance your jobs as a mother and as an actress?

WITHERSPOON: Very carefully. I just try to take care of the kids first. I try to sort out their lives and their school and make sure everything is good with them. If the kids are happy, then the parents are happy. So once I have all that kind of sorted, it’s much easier to get on with my life and that kind of thing.

ym30-45.indd 31

Y’ALL: How hard was it for you to sing for Walk the Line?

WITHERSPOON: Nearly impossible, so I just tried to be the best version of what I could be because it was just impossible to emulate her [June Carter] and I’m sure Joaquin’s part was pretty difficult to emulate Johnny Cash. But, we trained for five months and learned to play instruments and record an album and work six or seven hours everyday for five months on it.

So you can’t say we didn’t try.

Y’ALL: Do you still believe in fairy tales?

WITHERSPOON: Yeah, I mean it’s my perspective that a lot of things that are sort of meant to be in life, happen. I would never expect being a little girl in Tennessee growing

10/18/05 8:17:50 AM

Reese portrays June Carter Cash in the new movie, Walk the Line.

Y’ALL: Was it ever hard for you in the beginning?

WITHERSPOON: I had some really bad audition stories. People checking their cell phone messages while I’m trying to do my thing.

Y’ALL: Did you ever think you had a job and they yanked it away from you?

WITHERSPOON: Oh yeah, or you think you’re going to get a job and you’re the second choice and they make you wait for two months and then they call you and tell you someone else got the job and you’re just crestfallen.

Y’ALL: What kept you going back in?

WITHERSPOON: They didn’t know what they were missing. I just had a determination to make people understand that I was really good at what I did and I would work really hard, but they had to give me the opportunity.

Y’ALL: Is there anything unglamorous about being an actress?

WITHERSPOON: Long hours.

Y’ALL: How’s your driving?

WITHERSPOON: I usually have two kids in the car so I’m pretty focused. I have a rule that I don’t talk on the cell phone unless it’s absolutely imperative that I make that call. I used to be a great driver when I was 16 years old. I ran over a shrub once. Tore up the bottom of my mother’s car.

Source: movieweb.com and ifilm.com

32

TOP: 20TH CENTURY FOX/BOTTOM: KEVIN WINTERS/GETTY

Y’ALL: Now is the time for you to throw down and say this is how it is.

WITHERSPOON: It’s really long hours.

Sometimes it’s 18-20 hours a day. I would say on average it’s 16-hour days particularly for a woman because you have all that hair and makeup and fuss and it’s long – for like three or four months – so you choose your roles very wisely because you spend a long time away from your family. I have to do the whole day’s work and then I study for the next day.

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym30-45.indd 32

10/18/05 8:18:29 AM

on the money MONEY MYTHS:

The (Non)Secrets of the Rich

by Dave Ramsey Dave Ramsey is a financial counselor, host of the popular syndicated radio show “The Dave Ramsey Show,” and author of the New York Times bestseller The Total Money Makeover.

His columns appear regularly in Y’all.

We all yearn to become healthy, wealthy, and wise with no effort and with no risk, but it simply will never happen. A price has to be paid, and there are no shortcuts.

Most Money Myths have to do with a lie about a shortcut or a lie about our safety.

This issue we’ll go into myths based on risk denial, thinking total safety is possible and likely.

Myth vs. Truth Myth: Everything will be fine when I retire. I know I’m not saving yet, but it will be okay.

Truth: Ed McMahon isn’t coming.

How can I put this delicately? There is no shining knight headed your way on a white horse to save the day. Wake up! This is the real world where sad old people eat Alpo! Please don’t be under the illusion that this government, one that is inept and dim-witted with money, is going to take great care of you in your golden years.

That is your job! This is an emergency!

The house won’t be FINE! Do you get the picture?

We live in the land of plenty, and that has lulled a large percentage of Americans to sleep, thinking everything will be “okay.”

Things won’t be okay unless you make them that way. Your destiny and your dignity are up to you. You are in charge of your retirement. You need to be 100 percent convinced that this area deserves your full attention right now – not tomorrow or pretty soon. Personally, I don’t want to work at McDonald’s when I retire – unless it’s the one I own on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Myth: I don’t have time to work on a budget, retirement plan, or estate plan.

Truth: You don’t have time not to.

Most people concentrate on the urgent in our culture. We worry about our health and focus on out money only after they’re gone. Dr. Stephen Covey’s book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, examines this problem. Dr. Covey says one of the habits of highly effective people is that they begin with the end in mind. Wandering through life aimlessly will bring you much frustration.

Covey says to divide activities into four quadrants. Two of the quadrants are Important/Urgent and Important/ Not Urgent. The other two are “Not Important,” so let’s skip those. We take care of the Important/Urgent stuff, but what is Important/Not Urgent in a Total Money Makeover is planning. You can pay the electric bill or sit in the dark, but if you don’t do a monthly spending plan, there is no apparent immediate damage.

John Maxwell has the best quote on

budgeting I have ever heard. I wish I had said it: “A budget is people telling their money where to go instead of wondering where it went.” You have to make your money behave, and a written plan is the whip and chair for the money tamer.

Earl Nightingale, motivational legend, said that most people spend more time picking out a suit of clothes than planning their careers or even their retirements.

What if your life depended on how you managed your 401k or whether you started your Roth IRA today? Actually, it does – because the quality of your life at retirement depends on your becoming an expert in money management today.

Estate planning is never urgent until someone dies. You must think long-term to win with money, and that includes thinking all the way through death. We’ll continue with more myths rooted in risk denial next issue, but in the meantime just remember, everyone must budget, plan retirement, and do estate planning – everyone.

Myth: I can’t use cash because it is dangerous; I might get robbed.

Truth: You are being robbed every day by not using the power of cash.

We teach people to carry cash. In a culture where the salesclerk thinks you are a drug dealer if you pay with cash, I know this suggestion may seem weird. However, cash is powerful. If you carry cash, you spend less, and you get bargains by flashing cash. Linda e-mailed my newspaper

“ ” You have to make your money behave, and a written plan is the whip and chair for the money tamer.

column, complaining that she would get robbed if she carried cash. I explained to her that crooks don’t have X-ray vision to look into her pocket or purse. The crooks assume that your purse is like all the others filled with credit cards that are over the limit. Look, I’m not making light of crime.

There’s a chance you may get robbed, because people do get robbed – whether they carry cash or not. And if it happened to you, the cash will be taken. But, trust me, you need to be far more worried about the danger of using credit cards than the danger of being robbed while carrying cash. Carrying cash doesn’t make you more likely to get robbed; on the contrary, the mismanagement of plastic is robbing you every month. Cash will actually enable you to say no to yourself.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

ym30-45.indd 33

33

10/18/05 8:18:46 AM

cranky yankee CABIN GLEN PART ONE

by Laurie Stieber

Laurie Stieber is an Atlanta-based entertainment attorney and freelance columnist. The New York City native can be reached at yankee@yall.com 34

Doc and I are making the right hand turn onto the long and winding road that leads to Cabin Glen’s door. When John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote “The Long and Winding Road,” and included the lyrics, “I’ve seen that road before,” they were certainly not being sensitive to Yankee girls like me.

We have East Dublin, Georgia dirt road dyslexia. In New York City, streets, avenues and even naughty peep shows are named and numbered. Trying to reach your destination by finding the correct lil’ old graveled, sanded or plain doggoned washed away dirt road in East Dublin is like trying to find the right tiny blood vessel at a nationwide varicose vein convention.

I am very proud of my husband, Romanian bredneck Doc’s, sense of dirt road direction. He is most certainly on my “Good List” - for now. It is five seconds later, and “now” is officially over because I remembered the gift that Doc insisted upon choosing for Cabin Glen. It’s in the trunk of the monster Avalanche we are driving.

“Honey,’ I plead, ‘can’t we turn around and buy something else for Glen in town? I don’t like what you picked out.” “He’ll love it! And will certainly appreciate that it was made by my own hands.” “You mean it was shot by your own hands!” “Yeah, and that varmint deserved it. Thinking he can mosey into our house through the cat door and eat up poor “Pandora’s” Kibbles n’ Bits. I whacked him once between the eyes when I caught him starting to push his felonious head through “Pandora’s” door. Pow! Like a rocket, that trespassing raccoon blasted straight onto the deck, flat on his back and out for the count - permanently.”

My parents did instill in all of their children never to go empty-handed into someone’s home when you are an invited guest. Furthermore, they qualified it with the reminder to select a gift the hosts would enjoy. In other words, don’t bring a box of chocolates to a known diabetic

just because you would like to eat a piece or two after dinner. So, maybe Doc is right. Perhaps Glen would be thrilled to add a flash frozen raccoon to his cabin decor. But if Doc’s name and mine are signed on the gift card, how do I explain my contribution?

Think like the lawyer you are, Laurie.

All lawyers have the innate ability to be sincerely insincere, but Southerners do it so much better than Yankees.

Southern attorneys are charming and as smooth as Mint Juleps in July. Hey, I live in Atlanta and I’m a quick study, too. I can be minty and juleppy when I explain the stiff raccoon to Glen.

I’ve got it! Bless you dear patron saint of unscrupulous attorneys for letting the words flow through me. I will smoothly tell Glen that the flattened out, spread eagled, raccoon with a neat little bullet hole between his eyes, is an art noir mini area rug from the new Quentin Tarantino Design of Home Accessories

“

He is most certainly on my “Good List” - for now. It is five seconds later, and “now” is officially over…

”

for Target Stores near you.

Doc parks the truck a few yards away from a charming little wooden building with lots of clever license plate type signs for sale and plenty of pet bugs in jars hanging from the porch beam to surprise your kids with. “Wow, honey!

You didn’t tell me that Glen also owns a souvenir shop. That is so cool!” Doc knows that I am not kidding, because he saw me pack stiletto heels for dinner at Hooter’s in my overnight bag. I see uncharacteristic beads of sweat on Doc’s forehead. “What souvenir shop?” I point to it. “That, sweetheart, is Glen’s cabin.” Shalom, Y’all.

To be continued …

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym30-45.indd 34

10/18/05 8:19:06 AM

When we started in 1982, polite women

didn’t speak the words “breast cancer.”

so we shouted them instead.

It’s hard to fight a disease people won’t even mention in public. One of our earliest efforts was getting the subject out in the open, so we could confront breast cancer head on. Our success at raising public awareness of the disease paved the way for education programs and treatment innovations. Today, we discuss breast cancer the same way we fight it: with commitment, energy and passion.

Join us by visiting komen.org or calling 1.800 I’M AWARE®.

This space provided as a public service. ©2005, The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation

ym30-45.indd 35

10/18/05 8:19:24 AM

NASHV

martina mcbride 36

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym30-45.indd 36

10/18/05 8:19:51 AM

VILLE gals patty loveless NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

ym30-45.indd 37

37

10/18/05 8:20:03 AM

martina mcbride

by Tabatha Hunter

38

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym30-45.indd 38

10/18/05 8:20:22 AM

At the tender age of four, while singing in a church Christmas program, Martina McBride learned that she wanted to be a singer.

Photos by Andrew Eccles

Today, McBride, 39, is the proud mother of three beautiful little girls ranging from a five-month-old to a fifth grader, and the owner of arguably one of the most powerful voices in music today.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 â&#x20AC;˘ Yâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ALL

ym30-45.indd 39

39

10/18/05 8:20:39 AM

Bursting onto the country music scene in the early 1990’s with hits such as “My Baby Loves Me,” McBride has left her mark on country music and her listeners by tackling the tough issues like domestic violence (“Independence Day”) through music and letting the world know that she is more than just a pretty face. “I don’t go out looking for a social issue,” she says, “but when you hear a song, you know I listen to thousands of songs for each album, and when you push play on a CD player and a song like ‘Concrete Angel” comes up, it just touched me and it was something that I could not turn down,” McBride says.

McBride was no overnight sensation, though. The Sharon, Kan., native moved to Nashville to pursue her childhood dream. To make ends meet she began working as a cocktail waitress, cleaning offices, selling t-shirts for Garth Brooks, and even worked at Dairy Queen. Her break in the music business came with a lot of hard work and persistence, and of course a little bit of luck with being in the right place at the right time.

For McBride, family is her number one priority. She schedules everything around her kids and her husband, John, and it really is not that difficult a balancing act.

“Family comes first and everything else works around that, and that has been the way that we have done it especially since the girls have started school. I have a fifth grader and a second grader and then now a new baby, so they come with us on the road. Our touring schedule works around their school schedule. We just make it work. My husband is my sound engineer and my co-manager and he is a great partner and a great dad.”

A true small town girl to the core with the manners and grace to show for it, the Kansan-turned-Tennessean is also proud of the sense of accountability and the strong work ethic that being from the South and from a small town instills in a person. This has no doubt been one of the reasons that McBride has been able to succeed in an increasingly difficult and competitive business. She adds, “The best thing about being from a small town is you grow up with a lot of freedom. We never worried about violence or anything that the kids have to worry about now. We just ran and played. Everybody knew everybody and everyone

40

Left: Rusty Russell/Right: Photos by Andrew Eccles

“I’m just happy to stay home and hang out with my family.”

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym30-45.indd 40

10/18/05 8:21:03 AM

looked out for everyone else.”

This country music diva is just an ordinary girl, though. She loves watching The Wizard of Oz., and when she is not on tour she loves to just be regular. “I love just being in my house and doing laundry. I love to cook and just being at home. I can stay home for days and days at a time and just putter around the house. I’m just happy to stay home and hang out with my family.” McBride also admits that she still gets a little giddy when she hears her songs on the radio, even after a string of No. 1 hits and three female vocalist awards from the Country Music Association.

“It’s really exciting. It’s the culmination of a lot of hard work and when you hear it on the radio you know that other people are hearing it which is exciting to know that other people are listening to all of your hard work.”

When McBride chose to remake the hits of country’s past for her new album, Timeless, no one questioned her decision. Not just any songs would do, though. McBride picked the songs that meant something to her, the songs that had touched her heart and the songs that were indeed, timeless. “This is the music I grew up with. This is just music that I have always loved. I recorded the Buck Owens classic, ‘Together Again,’ about a year ago and it sparked the idea for me to do a classics album and it just seemed like the right time.”

Timeless is indeed a terrific salute to McBride’s influences. But when you try to sum up what Martina McBride is best at, though, it seems like a rather daunting task, so perhaps she says it best herself. “I’ve always loved to sing. I’ve always felt that it’s what I was put here to do and it’s my God-given gift and it’s my responsibility to use it to make the world a better place,” she says.

And making the world a better place is something that we can always find McBride doing, through her constant charity work, her ability to speak up for what she believes in, and through her voice.

On her new album, Timeless:

“This is the music I grew up with. This is just music that I have always loved.”

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

ym30-45.indd 41

41

10/18/05 8:21:19 AM

patty loveless

by Kristin Frost

by

You may remember her as the beautiful and reserved lady with the monster voice blasting out “I Try To Think About Elvis” on your radio back in the 1990ʼs. But today is 2005, and Patty Loveless is celebrating her 20th anniversary as a recording artist. The 10-time Grammy award winner is releasing her 19th album, Dreaminʼ My Dreams. This album also marks the 20th anniversary of Pattyʼs partnership with longtime producer turned husband, Emory Gordy, Jr.

42

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym30-45.indd 42

10/18/05 8:21:39 AM

Photos by Tracie Goudie

ym30-45.indd 43

10/18/05 8:22:03 AM

Loveless is no stranger to success. She is a 16-time Country Music Association award winner, a 10-time Academy of Country Music award winner, and even performed Loretta Lynnʼs “Coal Minerʼs Daughter” at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2003. Loveless, born Patty Ramey in Pikeville, Ky., on January 4, 1957, is also the daughter of a coal miner and counts Loretta as one of her greatest inspirations. The youngest girl of seven children, Loveless grew up in the Kentucky-Virginia border town of Elkhorn City.

Today, Loveless and Gordy share homes in Nashville and Dallas, Ga. The part-time Georgianʼs most recent accomplishment is being inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, which Loveless calls, “a great honor.”

So, in honor of all the milestones in Lovelessʼ career, here are 10 things you need to know about Patty Loveless:

2. She duets with some of the best in the business.

On the new CD, Loveless duets with country music legends Emmylou Harris and Dwight Yoakam. Her musicians are also legendary in their own right. A goal for this record was to take the listener on a Sunday drive through the best contemporary country to the roots of Appalachian mountain music, blues and bluegrass that has become Lovelessʼ signature sound.

3. She is inspired but all types of music.

Loretta Lynn, Otis Redding, Little Richard, Earl Scruggs, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, the list goes on.

Loveless is not a one-dimensional artist. Her other musical

44

inspirations? “Elvis of course. And then a lot of the 60ʼs and 70ʼs country music, like George Jones and Merle Haggard and Tammy Wynette, the real early years,” she says. “Connie Smith, and of course Patsy Cline. And the list goes on of all the music I have listened to and loved over the years. Of course I did some rock-n- roll there in the later part of the 70ʼs.”

4. She wants her album to feel like a concert “What we did was merge the two forms of music into one record, electric and acoustic, which weʼve truly never done a record such as that. To make it feel like that if youʼre listening to this record that if you were to attend one of my shows that you could close your eyes and imagine that from the very first song to the last that youʼve been at a Patty Loveless concert, and I feel that weʼve accomplished that feel” Loveless says.

5. She characterizes the songs on this album as “bluegrass swing.”

“I feel that some of the songs that I cut such as ʻNever Ending Song of Love,ʼ which Dwight Yoakam sings on, we did that in an acoustic manner, with a swing feel.

Bluegrass swing is what Iʼll call it, if there is such a thing” Loveless says. She also feels hopeful that this “bluegrass

Photos by Tracie Goudie

1. She has a new outlook on recording Loveless recorded Dreaminʼ My Dreams with a younger generation in mind. Although she sticks to her roots as a blues, bluegrass and country girl, Loveless also demonstrates a contemporary edge, and deliberately so. “I feel much more confident these days in the way I approach a song,” she says. “On my last few records Iʼve just let myself feel a sense of freedom and trust. Iʼve made a lot of records and I feel fortunate to be able to continue making them. So now I think I just want to flow with it, enjoy it.”

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym30-45.indd 44

10/18/05 8:22:27 AM

“On my last few records Iʼve just let myself feel a sense of freedom and trust.”

swing” style will reach the younger generation that is being turned on to country music.

6. She loves the historical element to the lyrics on this record.

Of course, being such an accomplished artist, Loveless gets a plethora of lyrics sent her way. However, the tracks on this record she handpicked with care. “It wasnʼt like I had these songs stashed away. The publishers tend to send us songs that have been recorded and sometimes they send us songs that are newly written. The lyrics in ʻDreaming My Dreamsʼ and the lyrics in ʻNever Ending Song Of Loveʼ are timeless,” Loveless says. “And I think when you can find a song with lyrics that are timeless, that it really works in todayʼs world.

To me, that is something like history, opening a history book for these kids today to be able to experience because a lot of them were born when I was graduating form high school and have never had the opportunity to experience ʻold-timey musicʼ.”

7. Her love affair with music began when she was very young, growing up in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky.

“Music was good therapy for all of us around there because it was a lot of hard times,” Loveless says. “When I was just a little kid and I was just so intrigued by it all. Mom always loved to listen to the music and she loved dancing with the kids. So it was just a way of playtime, family time.

It was sociable. Music was very sociable for us all because sometimes neighbors werenʼt close by and for the most part when Daddy was working all the time and Mama had a little time off, she would listen to music with us kids and sing and dance with us, and thatʼs how important it was to us all.”

name was Lovelace, which she took when they married in the late 70ʼs. When the marriage ended, she decided to alter the name a bit. “Well, even though his name was Lovelace, everyone pronounced it Loveless, so whenever it was over, I thought it would be a cool name, Loveless. And it turned out to be,” she says.

9. She makes a point to not become overexposed.

“I am conservative and reserved,” Loveless says. “I think it is because there are times I look at whatʼs going on with the visual aspects of music now, and when I was growing up, you listened with your ears. For me, visually, sometimes I think it can be overdone.” She continues, “I used to love the mystery behind and artist and their music. It always intrigued me to go, “You know, Iʼd really like to know,” but a part of me just didnʼt really want to know because what I have in my mind what the song is about, what the image is. Elvis was a mystery. And now we find out so much about Elvis, to me it takes away from his music. I think sometimes today too much information about the artist overrides their music, their image. And thatʼs not what itʼs supposed to be about. The musicʼs supposed to come first, to me. Because the music is going to live from here on out, long after Iʼm gone”.

10. Her main goal is to record songs that people relate to, and she thinks this album does just that.

Loveless describes the songs on Dreamin My Dreams, by explaining, “They are songs about life. And weʼre still living them. Iʼm still living my dreams. Music has always been a dream of mine and I feel like Iʼm still dreaming, and oh please donʼt wake me up!”

8. Loveless is not her birth name, but the name she felt would make her a star.

Pattyʼs maiden name was Ramey. Her first husbandʼs last

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

ym30-45.indd 45

45

10/18/05 8:22:42 AM

MALL

1-888-679-7289

LARRY WAMBLE SOUTHERN PRINTS $45 OR FRAMED $170

(LW1)

(LW6) (LW14)

(LW7)

(LW2)

(LW8) (LW3) (LW11)

(LW9) (LW4)

(LW13)

FEATURED PRINT OF THE MONTH

(LW10)

Average Size: 28”W X 12” H

(LW5)

(LW12)

ALL LARRY WAMBLE PRINTS ARE $45.00 & FRAMED PRINTS ARE $170

YʼALL MALL ORDER FORM Name

(please print)

Address City/State/Zip E-mail

Phone Number

PAYMENT OPTIONS: Credit Card Credit Card:

Check Enclosed (Make checks payable to Y’all Magazine) AM

DIS

MC

Visa

Account Number__________________________________________________ExpDate________ Send check/money order to:

Y’ALL MAGAZINE, P.O. BOX 1217, OXFORD, MS 38655

ym46-47.indd 46

LARRY WAMBLE PRINT ITEMS (LW1) AUSTIN (LW2) BATON ROUGE (LW3) COLLEGE STATION (LW4) FAYETTEVILLE (LW5) MEMPHIS (LW6) NASHVILLE (LW7) OXFORD (LW8) REPUBLIC OF TEXAS (LW9) SEMINOLE TRADITION (LW10) ST. LOUIS (LW11) DIXIE LAND (LW12) ARKANSAS (LW13) MISSISSIPPI (LW14) THE SQUARE MISS. RESIDENTS ADD 7% TAX SUB-TOTAL TOTAL

FREE SHIPPING

QUANTITY PRICE _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________

10/18/05 8:23:25 AM

FREE SHIPPING

MALL

WHITE

T-SHIRTS (SIZES S-XL)

$14.95 COTTON HANES 100%

LADIES FITTED T-SHIRTS

$17.95

SMALL(0-4) MEDIUM(6-8) LARGE(10-12) XLARGE(14+)

AT RIGHT (SIZES S-XL / COLORS ARE PINK, LIGHT BLUE, RED AND BLACK)

YʼALL MALL ORDER FORM Name

(please print)

Address City/State/Zip E-mail

Phone Number

PAYMENT OPTIONS: Credit Card Credit Card:

Check Enclosed (Make checks payable to Y’all Magazine) AM

DIS

MC

Visa

Account Number__________________________________________________ExpDate________ Send check/money order to:

Y’ALL MAGAZINE, P.O. BOX 1217, OXFORD, MS 38655

ym46-47.indd 47

BELL A 100% COTTON P RE-SHRUNK MORE Y’ALL ITEMS SIZE QUANTITY Y’ALL T-SHIRT ($14.95) ________________ LADIES Y’ALL PINK T-SHIRT ($17.95) LADIES Y’ALL LIGHT BLUE T-SHIRT ($17.95) LADIES Y’ALL RED T-SHIRT ($17.95) LADIES Y’ALL BLACK T-SHIRT ($17.95) Y’ALL MAGAZINE 1-YEAR SUBSCRIPTION ($19.95)

PRICE

MISS. RESIDENTS ADD 7% TAX _____________________ SUB-TOTAL _____________________ TOTAL _____________________

FREE SHIPPING YʼALL CALL 1-888-679-7289 TO ORDER

10/18/05 8:24:02 AM

max’d out

FALL IN THE SOUTH

W

by Max Howell

MAX’d OUT can be heard on many radio stations across the South. www. maxhowell.com, HookedonDestin. com, and Kickoffzone.com, the show is streamed live daily M-F, 9-12 Noon CT

48

hen the leaves begin to turn red and gold and the morning becomes a little cooler, most of our attention is focused on Saturdays…It’s football and food…that’s what we are all about.

As I sit here on the beautiful beaches of Destin, my new home, I began to reflect on just how fortunate many of us are and how so many are troubled, broken, down trodden, and displaced. Before I continue, just a writer’s note to those mentioned. Yes, we saw all the homes, the hurricane and wrecked lives along the Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana coast.

Yes, we saw families lose loved ones, property destroyed, and lives changed forever. We saw a city of over one million people destroyed. The recovery will take years and billions of dollars. But, we have the resolve, the will, the determination and what it will take to put their homes back in order.

Because of the travesty we all just witnessed, this fall did not start with much excitement for me as the last few decades.

It did – however – give us all a little relief from the continuous hours of coverage from the TV and newspaper. It was only after the first week’s game in Louisiana and South Mississippi were either canceled or rescheduled that the

following weeks put us back into the college football mode. That being tailgating, visiting with friends and family and just plain relaxing.

Football Saturdays are filled with fun, food and good friends.

Not only the game, win or lose, but the friendship, the love and passion of college football.

Whether you are a Tiger, Rebel, Hog, Gator or Bulldog…the event is what is important. You might be headed to Tuscaloosa (stop by Dreamland); Fayetteville (cook those tasty Razorback Ribs); Auburn (a visit to Toomers corner); Athens (Atlanta’s extension of The Varsity is a must); Gainesville (Bring your own swamp juice); Lexington (a mint julep is what I’m looking for); Baton Rouge (Bring your own food to the Stadium Club); Starkville (Abner’s Fried Chicken for this cookout); Oxford (anything in The Grove, best tailgating in the South); Columbia (a relaxing meal in one of the Cockabooses); Knoxville (It’s Calhoun’s on the River); Nashville (The Stockyard, before or after is the place to be). Now

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym48-53.indd 48

10/18/05 8:27:39 AM

BOWL PREDICTIONS ROSE BOWL

National championship USC vs. Texas

ORANGE BOWL

Ohio State vs. Va. Tech

FIESTA BOWL

Purdue vs. LSU

SUGAR BOWL

Florida vs. Louisville

OUTBACK BOWL

Iowa vs. Tennessee

CAPITAL ONE BOWL

Georgia vs. Michigan

GATOR BOWL

Florida State vs. Auburn

COTTON BOWL

Texas Tech vs. Notre Dame

LIBERTY BOWL

Southern Miss vs. Clemson

L TO R: DON EMMERT/AFP/GETTY, UTSPORTS INFORMATION

as you see, I could go to every college town in America and give a recommendation…but sometimes you just need to go on your own and search out these fine havens.

By the time this article is printed it will be midseason…the national rankings for college football will be stable and you will have a good picture of how your team is doing… still we will gather in droves across the South and express how we are No. 1, we should be No. 1 or why we will fire the coach. You gotta love it.

Winter will bring the holidays, more football and a longing for spring. One major reason this writer moved to Destin; we have eternal spring here.

Thoughts to ponder for the Bowl season (see right).

Best of luck to your team and hope you have a great season.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

ym48-53.indd 49

49

10/18/05 8:25:55 AM

Y

ou may know them as the quirky mother-daughter team who happen to star in their own reality show on E! Entertainment

Television,

Gastineau

Girls. But there is more to Lisa and Brittny Gastineau than what you see on their show, billed as “The Mother (and Daugther) of All Reality Shows.”

In reality, the Gastineau ladies are New Yorkers by birth, but Southern girls by the grace of God. Both women attended the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and share a deep love of Southern traditions, Southern cuisine and Southern men.

“My favorite thing about Alabama and the South is definitely the food. Iʼm a big foodie. I think that Southern food is the best food on earth,” Brittny says. “You can not beat waking up to biscuits and white gravy. I also love the tradition.”

“Everything about Alabama is all about tradition and there are so many traditions, football being the best.

I love football. When football season comes around there’s nothing like it,” Lisa adds. “I spent a lot of time in Tuscaloosa also. Two of my favorite places there are Taco Casa and Buddy’s – the best barbecue sandwich and the best hamburger in town. I love it.”

Their hit reality show is filming its second season in New York City, and will feature the dynamic duo attending Alabamaʼs homecoming football game and reconnecting with their Southern friends.

The ageless Lisa should know her football; she was married to NFL great Mark Gastineau for 11 years (they divorced in 1991). Brittny, the 22year-old only child of Lisa and Mark, majored in event planning at Alabama, but moved back to Manhattan, and Lisaʼs home, to pursue her modeling career. (She has been featured in Stuff magazine, and walked the runways of New York Fashion Week).

Gastineau Gi 50

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym48-53.indd 50

10/18/05 8:28:53 AM

A byproduct of the showʼs success is the birth of Gastineau Girls – the brand. “Season Two is going to be about being Gastineau Girls. Whereas before, we were trying to be Gastineau Girls, now we ARE Gastineau Girls, as in a brand. So, itʼs all the good and the ugly that comes with it,” Lisa explains. “Weʼve got some really first ever things that are happening and really positive, amazingly wonderful things that are going on.

The viewers will get to see it as it is happening with us.

Itʼs unfolding before the viewersʼ eyes, and ours.”

So how did these two bombshells land their TV gig?

After all, their show portrays them as rich socialites looking for love, fame and happiness, but also already having a little bit of all three. Lisa explains: “We are not rich, we are just privileged. I would like to get a job, but a job in TV has nothing really to do with the money. Your first job in TV you might make less than if you were spraying perfume in a department store.

We always knew we wanted to launch a product brand.

We are the ultimate consumers…cosmetics, beauty products and clothing. We always knew we wanted to work together and have our own line. And we knew that we had to create a profile, and there goes the show. That was the whole premise, after watching Donald Trump and The Apprentice, we realized we could do that!”

The premise of the show has nothing to do with Lisa being the ex-wife of a football player, or Brittny being the daughter of one. “It was always about a relationship of a mother and a daughter and about two females, single in the world, with a unified interest,” Lisa explains. “Of course we donʼt always get along and we donʼt always see eye to eye, there is always GEORGE DESOTA E! NETWORKS

differences of opinion which comes with age and just being a different personality. But, the bottom line is we both have the same interest at heart which is for both of us to be happy and to excel.”

irls ym48-53.indd 51

by Kristin Frost

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

51

10/18/05 8:29:12 AM

Christmas at Old Waverly

by Jonathan Craig

W

est Point, Mississippi is the hometown of Bryan Foods, “The Flavor of the South.” A few yuletides back, Bryan Foods president George Bryan took a little money from his stocking and opened Old Waverly Golf Club as the premiere course in Northeast Mississippi. Along the way, the club has landed the U.S. Womenʼs Open in 1999, and hosts country star Tracy Byrdʼs annual Catch-A-Dream fundraiser each spring. With each Christmas, Old Waverly comes alive for a Victorian Christmas Dinner.

Guests arrive in their finest, including kilts. Old Saint Nick pays a visit, and Father Timeʼs there too. The evening is filled with great music, amazing food, and plenty of good cheer.

52

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym48-53.indd 52

10/18/05 8:30:06 AM

we honor and thank you everyday!

y

We would like to thank the brave men and women who served and sacrificed for our freedom.

See Your Local State Farm Agent For All Your Insurance Needs.

LIKE A GOOD NEIGHBOR

P02704

ym48-53.indd 53

STATE FARM IS THERE.®

statefarm.com® State Farm Insurance Companies • Home Offices: Bloomington, Illinois

04/02

10/18/05 8:30:22 AM

There are places where the conversation always comes easy.

B B a n dT. c o m © 2 0 0 3 B B &T M e m b e r F D I C

We think your bank should be one of them.

Our one-on-one approach to banking hasn’t changed much since we star ted back in 1872. Perhaps that’s because we’ve maintained the belief that you are an individual, not an account number. And that when it comes to your banking, you should be able to feel as comfor table talking to us as you would any of your other neighbors.

You can tell we want your business.

ym54-61.indd 54

10/18/05 8:32:10 AM

Carolina j Cajun

CHRIS GRAYTHEN/GETTY

by Tabatha Hunter

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

ym54-61.indd 55

55

10/18/05 8:32:32 AM

56

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym54-61.indd 56

10/18/05 8:32:59 AM

L TO R:NICK LAHAM/GETTY, STREETER KECKA/GETTY

17

Born and raised deep in the heart of Cajun country in Louisiana, Jake Delhomme has become a force to be reckoned with in the NFL. “The Ragin’ Cajun” joined the NFL straight out of Southwestern Louisiana in 1998 as a member of the homestate New Orleans Saints, before moving to the Carolina Panthers in 2003 and taking his team to the Super Bowl in 2004 as its quarterback.

Talent is a word that frequently follows Delhomme, 30, everywhere he goes – from his high school years at Teurlings Catholic High School to college, to NFL Europe, and now to the NFL. He has the chops to show anyone who doubts him why he is the man to watch in the NFL. Forget Michael Vick and Brett Favre, Delhomme and his Carolina Panthers are the team to keep your eyes on this season.

Although the Panthers fell to the New England Patriots in 2004’s Super Bowl XXXVIII, Delhomme remains optimistic.

“No. 17” acknowledges that loss and all losses sting, but it’s a good team that learns from mistakes and tries and get a win the next Sunday. “In college, you sometimes know when you’re going to have a game you’re going to win. In the NFL, you don’t. You have to come and play every week. It’s evident. You have to be ready to play in this league every week. Everybody is on an even keel in this league,” Delhomme says.

The Breaux Bridge, La., resident lists horses as his first love. In fact, Delhomme shares a thoroughbred horse training business with his father and brother. He and his wife, Keri, have one daughter, Lauren, and they live in Breaux Bridge during the offseason.

When the quarterback heads back east to Spartanburg, S.C., for Panthers Training Camp each summer, he knows that it is important for The Cats to get back to the way they were playing in 2004 because “it was a fun time” and he wants to lead his team to victory in the Super Bowl in the near future.

“I think if you talk to anybody who lost a Super Bowl, it WILL sting, especially when it went down to the wire. You can say it’s over and done with, but I’ll always have that memory,” he says.

“It was a great memory, no doubt, but at the same time it wasn’t, because we lost the biggest game when we were so close.”

After hurricanes ravaged the Gulf Coast this year, Delhomme saw firsthand the power of the forces of nature and what a tragedy like Katrina does to people. “The hurricane is a tragedy, and there’s no doubt that is ongoing. I know these areas you see on TV well. It hits you right in the heart. …I’m lucky. My family is lucky,” he says. “It’s depressing when you see footage of New Orleans. It really is. I’m not the kind to get emotional about stuff like that. But when I saw New Orleans, just some of the aerial shots, you know those places. You see how torn up they are. It’s sad.”

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

ym54-61.indd 57

57

10/18/05 8:33:17 AM

star gazing PRACTICAL WHIMSY southern hospitality hollywood style

by Joe LoCicero

Georgia-bred and L.A.-based lifestyle expert Joe LoCicero has worked in the entertainment industry for the past dozen years as a TV writer, marketing consultant and pop culturist. He began the PRACTICAL WHIMSY movement in 2003.

His next book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Clear Thinking (Penguin) hits bookstores in December. For groovy goods and hip tips, visit PRACTICALWHIMSY.com.

58

S.T.U.D.-WORTHY: All I learned about parties, I learned from TV. Okay, that’s not entirely true. But parties have made — and will always make — for memorable, pivotal moments in sitcoms and dramas. The doyenne of bad parties was Mary Richards on the classic sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show: after making only six servings of an entrée, she had seven guests show up, and Lou Grant took three helpings; when she threw a surprise party, the guest of honor fled; and another party was darkened by a blackout.

And recently in watching — sometimes with raised eyebrows — the second season of MTV’s My Super Sweet 16 series, I’ve seen you can pick up a few pointers for good parties. Each episode of the series chronicles a rich girl’s lavish ode-toherself, with deep-pocketed parents providing oodles of cash, if not always taste, decorum and self-respect. And be warned: exact replications of the parties presented will probably need to be re-fashioned to fit your budget. (For instance, in one episode, it’s amazing what a hula theme, an appearance by R&B hitmaker Ciara and, oh yeah — $203,000 — can do to a storefront nightclub in Central Florida).

With that episode, I remembered a few cha-ching! moments at some Hollywood parties I’ve recently attended. The favor that was a speciallycommissioned Jonathan Adler pieceof-art pottery, and another that was an engraved Tiffany crystal candy bowl.

The “entertainment” that was a live performance by The Goo Goo Dolls.

A network’s 20th anniversary party that was – quite literally – a time traveling trip back to 1985, complete with walls of album covers from that year (Wham! and Pat Benatar anyone?),

a lounge bedecked in New Wave and punk patterns, and — also quite literally — stars from Taxi, Cheers and Dynasty making guest appearances.

But if you don’t have a huge cash infusion, what makes a party pop, particularly during the holidays?

I find it comes down to PRACTICAL WHIMSY’s STUD method… a decidedly non-discriminatory approach. My wife will vouch for this: it works just as well for Studettes, too. Ask yourself if your party plan celebrates with these components.

S=Showstopper What’s the one thing — that you’ve planned — that will have people talking about your party after it’s over?

A “Pirate” party with an inside-thehouse treasure hunt, or a build-yourown-sundae bar, with several different varieties of wild-flavored ice creams and over-the-top toppings.

T=Theme Give your party a unified look with a theme that runs through the food, music, favors and atmosphere. We had a “Rock Star” party that featured faux leopard fur-laced invites, “dressing room” food, and guitar-shaped cakes.

U=Unique What’s at your party that some guests may have never seen, tasted or experienced before? In L.A., I love serving Red Velvet Cake, where it’s still a largely unknown treat.

D=Dessert Never, ever skimp on dessert. And serving up a low-carb, non-fat or South Beach diet-approved sweet will be a guaranteed downer for guests, who may suddenly think your party is when they should ditch your wellconceived menu and start counting calories. Caramel-dipped apples to triple-chocolate fudge brownies… just

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym54-61.indd 58

10/18/05 8:33:43 AM

Impressive-Yet-Inexpensive Holiday Parties find one that fits your menu.

With that four-tier approach as inspiration, consider these ideas for your holiday gathering.

Dream About A White Christmas For this one, invite your guests to wear only white, then let that color inform all your decorations: Christmas trees sprinkled with fake snow, twinkling white lights threaded through snow-flecked garland and placed on mantles and over doorways, clear bowls of opalescent ornaments.

For the menu, you could go the all-dessert route with vanilla custard, cheesecake, rice pudding, and Snowballs, big round cake confections, lathered in white frosting and rolled in coconut. If you’d rather beef up your buffet, consider fettuccine alfredo, cream of mushroom soup and white asparagus.

July in Christmas It may seem like a dichotomy to dress up a tropical look in Christmas accoutrements, but a tropical feel turns wintry woes into sunny propositions instantly. Add some holiday cheer in the form of island fare such as Guava Glazed Pork Chops, Hawaiian PecanPineapple Pie, Macadamia Nut Cookies, and a “pupu” appetizer platter of Coconut Shrimp and Mini Crabcakes. Bedeck your party place with decorations in tropical shades of ruby-red, coral and jade-green for wreaths, trees and leis.

I had a fraternity brother at the University of Georgia who did a mean — if wacky — version of “Mele Kalikimaka.” (It’s a Hawaiian Christmas song, first made popular by ‘50’s era singer/ actor Bing Crosby, and mimicked

“I find it comes down to PRACTICAL WHIMSY’s STUD method… a decidedly non-discriminatory approach. My wife will vouch for this: it works just as well for Studettes, too.”

ever since). Even if the words are messy to pronounce, the song can’t help but make for a memorable karaoke performance or sing-along. And in that vein, complement your atmosphere with such CDs as “Christmas on Big Island” by Blue Hawaiians, and the compilation CDs Hawaiian Style Christmas and Ki Ho’alu Christmas: Hawaiian Slack Key Christmas.

Mix It Up: It’s a Merry Chrismukkah On the irresistible FOX series The OC, high schooler Seth Cohen decided that his interfaith household deserved its own holiday and thus “Merry Chrismukkah” was born. Meshing both Christmas and Hanukah traditions gives a party giver twice the fun and double the ideas for celebration.

Imagine: potato latkes and mashed potatoes with gravy, kugel and macaroni and cheese.

For invitations and favors, check out the “Chrismukkah” goods at both Chrismukkah.com and TheOCInsiderShop. com. At the party, a “MakeYo u r - O w n - C o o k i e ” bar could feature both snowman and dreidelshaped cookies, with plenty of different colored frostings, nonpareils, jimmies and candies for decoration. Plus, Music from The OC Mix 3: Have a Very Merry Chrismukkah provides a groovy soundtrack for the dual celebration.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

ym54-61.indd 59

59

10/20/05 6:15:27 PM

DIXIE Destination

BIRTHPLACEOFTHE

NAVY FROGMEN T he ground on which the Navy SEAL Museum rests in Fort Pierce, Fla., is recognized as the birthplace of the U. S. Navy Frogmen. From 1943 to 1946, thousands of brave volunteers were trained as members of Naval Combat Demolition Units and Underwater Demolition Teams. The World War II Frogmen have evolved into the most elite fighting force in the world, the U. S. Navy SEALs. The Mission of the Museum is to preserve the legacy and history of these “Teams”.

The Navy SEAL Museum was formally dedicated in November of 1985. Since that time a continuous stream of history and artifacts has returned home to Ft. Pierce. The exterior exhibits include Apollo training crafts, a Vietnam-era ”Huey” helicopter and unique watercraft and support boats. Some of the last remaining beach obstacles used for training during World War II have been recovered from the ocean depths and now rest on the museum grounds.

Inside, visitors can learn the history of Naval Special Warfare including the beginnings of Underwater Demolition training in Ft. Pierce, exploits in the Atlantic and Pacific war theaters of World War II and histories of the various units told with photographs and artifacts of the period.

The North Gallery tells the stories of the modern era from Korea through Afghanistan. The Frogmen and SEALs have operated in almost every environment imaginable; hot, humid jungles, arctic waters and a space station orbiting the Earth.

Come witness the declassified stories that can be told. Learn about heroism under fire from every conflict from Korea to Desert Storm.

The Ship’s Store is stocked with fine gifts, memorabilia and educational materials relating to Naval Special Warfare.

3300 N. Hwy. A1A Fort Pierce, Florida 34949 772-595-5845 Open Tuesday – Saturday 10 AM to 4 PM And Mondays (January – April) 10 AM to 4 PM All Sundays from 12 Noon to 4 PM Closed on Major Holidays Adults $5.00 Children 6-12 $2.00 Under 6 FREE

60

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym60, 72-75.indd Sec1:60

10/18/05 8:36:39 AM

INTERVIEW WITH

KEVIN WINTER/GETTY

by Annabelle Robertson

Onscreen, actor Bill Paxton hasnʼt been the luckiest guy in the world. Heʼs been killed by a Terminator (1984), an Alien (1986) and a Predator (1990).

Of course, heʼs also survived countless tornadoes (Twister) and miraculously landed a malfunctioning rocket from outer space (Apollo 13). Not bad for a Southern Boy. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

ym54-61.indd 61

61

10/18/05 8:31:40 AM

So overall, this native Texan has had it pretty good.

He’s been married for 19 years – to Louise, whom he met on a bus in London – and has two kids he adores. And now, in addition to starring in some very successful films like Titanic and A Simple Plan, Paxton is also directing a major feature film.

Based on the book by award-winning television writer and novelist Mark Frost (Hill Street Blues), The Greatest Game Ever Played stars Shia LaBeouf (Holes). It tells the story of Francis Ouimet, a working-class immigrant kid who challenged Harry Vardon, a U.S. Open winner and six-time British Open champion, to become America’s first golf hero, nearly a century before Tiger Woods.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Paxton, 50, grew up chasing balls on the golf course near his home in Ft. Worth, Texas, and even caddied for golfing legend Ben Hogan. Because of those connections, he met a lot of celebrities as a teen and, after high school, headed to Los Angeles, where he took a job as a set dresser for Roger Corman’s New World Pictures. He studied acting under Stella Adler at New York University and appeared in a slew of low-budget films and television shows.

62

His minor role in The Terminator soon led to Paxton’s memorable performance as “Private Hudson” in Aliens. Paxton then gained a cult following after playing “Wyatt’s” sadistic older brother, “Chet,” in Weird Science.

Apollo 13 (1995) was a huge step forward for the actor. But Paxton’s biggest break came with the critically-acclaimed film noir, One False Move, in 1992, which led to supporting roles in Tombstone (1993) and James Cameron’s True Lies (1994).

The Greatest Game Ever Played isn’t Paxton’s first directorial project. He wrote, directed and produced several awardwinning short films, including Fish Heads, in 1982, which aired on Saturday Night Live. More recently, Paxton directed the horror film Frailty. Set in Texas (but filmed in Los Angeles), the gothic horror flick starred a trio of actors from that state: Paxton, Matthew McConaughey and Powers Booth.

After Paxton completed Frailty, he compared the process to a doctor completing his first surgery.

“I was looking for something original, and I love gothic horror,” he says. “I grew up as a Goth myself. My favorite movies were Invaders from Mars, Night of the Hunter and Harold and Maude.”

Although significantly different from these films, The Greatest Game Ever Played had a script, Paxton insists, that attracted him.

“I could relate to this kid growing up in the shadow of a kind of Camelot and dreaming of the tournaments, of having his own caddie, of being a knight in his castle in a way,” he says. “I saw it as an incredible fairy tale that Francis made come true through his own determination.”

“It’s also a classic tale of an American underdog,” he adds. “Here was an immigrant kid growing up in

L TO R: PETER KRAMER/GETTY, GETTY ENTERTAINMENT, PHOTO BY GETTY IMAGES

“I’ve got Southern roots that go way, way back. My great, great grandfather was Elisha Franklin Paxton, a Yale graduate who died in the Battle of Chancellorsville…”

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym62-67.indd 62

10/18/05 8:41:35 AM

APOLLO 13 ( 1995)

TWISTER (1996)

Brookline, Mass., at the turn of the century – a time when if you were born working class you stayed working class. There was no crossing over into another social class because it just wasn’t done. But Francis Ouimet decided to do things his own way and he changed things for everybody. He showed that it wasn’t about how much money you had or who your father was. It’s who you are inside that really counts.”

According to LaBeouf, however, it’s Paxton who has the real character.

“I learned a lot about humility from Bill,” says the young star. “He’s the consummate gentleman – a Texan gentleman. He’s very shy, always nervous, never good enough, a family man who honors his parents and himself.

He has integrity, he’s trustworthy. He’s an amazing man.

He was my Harry Vardon. You have to understand what kind of discipline it takes to make a film and not put yourself in it. He could live very well being an actor, but he chooses not to.”

Interestingly, Paxton landed this directorial position

with Walt Disney Pictures by framing The Greatest Game as both a fairy tale and an old-style Western shoot-out.

“My concept was to see the match between Francis and Harry as a kind of cowboy showdown between two men of great honor who are equally invested in winning,” he says. “There’s a little bit of a Tombstone vibe to the whole story in that you have all these characters coming together for the one event, like it’s the OK Corral gun fight, and the feeling that it is going to change everything that comes after it.”

“When Bill came in and started talking about the golf sequences, all of a sudden my ears perked up,” says producer Larry Brezner. “He said, ‘I’m going to shoot this like it’s a Western or a Godfather movie. You’re going to see shoot-outs in this thing.’ That sold me on several levels. One, I realized this is a guy who thinks out of the box. And two, I felt confident that he was going to make a movie that I was really going to enjoy watching.”

A Western shoot-out? Well, Paxton is from Texas.

“You can take the boy out of the country, but you can go hog wild in the city,” he agrees. “I’m very proud of my Texas roots. I’ve got Southern roots that go way, way back. My great, great grandfather was Elisha Franklin Paxton, a Yale graduate who died in the Battle of Chancellorsville and rode with Stonewall Jackson, who was in the same parish.”

Paxton also credits his Southern roots when it comes to creating a successful marriage.

“My private life has been good because I live outside of the Hollywood community,” says the actor, who lives outside of Los Angeles. “But I’m on the road a lot, which is hard. I’m not one of these guys who wears a Confederate flag, but I miss the South. I’m a Southern boy.”

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

ym62-67.indd 63

63

10/18/05 8:41:55 AM

Southern a Reunion with the Mother Tongue

by Aleta Payne

After a young life in Virginia, I spent six years in California. The malls were great, the guacamole superb, and the people a rich mosaic.

But I returned to the South starved for my mother tongue, both the way we talk, and, even more, the way we speak.

We talk with an accent, all elongated vowels and endings faded to transparency.

We speak in a sublime and peculiar assortment of similes, metaphors and non-sequiturs that make perfect sense to us.

A lyricism that ranges from elegant to earthy. A language all our own.

We can turn a phrase distinctive as the sweet saltiness of country ham or give a girl baby a last name as a first name back before everyone else was doing it. It’s the sort of thing you don’t appreciate until you’re missing it and cannot possibly translate for those who find it “quaint.” They either get it or they don’t. And when they do, the words more sharply define a thought and colorfully paint an idea than any soft focus, sepiatoned description.

As she watched her youngest daughter tear around the fellowship hall of our church, a friend declared the child “wild as an outhouse rat.”

On a particularly good day, a co-worker will announce she’s “fine as frog hair split two ways.” Hope you are.

And a local civic leader once described a crooked rival to me by saying “he’d rather climb a tree and tell a lie than stand on the ground and tell the truth.” More vivid than “very” on a dishonesty scale.

They are expressions that stand up surprisingly well to time, like Great Aunt Marie’s bone china tea cups or a generations old pound cake recipe. And while we sometimes lean to the

64

outrageous with our words, at others, we stab with a pointed understatement or a compliment that isn’t.

She’s putting on airs, my mother would have said 40 years ago of a woman who wore a new hat to church every Sunday.

Now, I’d say it of an acquaintance who reports through her family’s Christmas newsletter the twins’ perfect SAT scores, her husband’s latest promotion, and the amount of her annual bonus. And did she mention the dog won best in show?

He’s done well for himself, our parents might have said of a ne’er do well who’d been promoted in his daddy’s company despite a six year degreeless stint at the local community college, a notorious losing streak when betting on ACC football, and a fondness for bourbon. Now, it’s the young golf pro recently married to a much older, much wealthier widow.

Although the way we speak may be timeless, it has a unique sense of place.

I don’t know if people in Minnesota have enemies so hateful that they wouldn’t spit on your head if your hair were on fire.

I suppose parents in New York have days packed with so many meetings, orthodontist appointments, soccer practices and clothes dryer repairmen that they feel busier than a onearmed paper hanger.

Can they be happier than a pig in slop in the Pacific Northwest? Possibly, as long as there’s a Starbucks nearby, which is, almost certainly, the case. I mean, around there, you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting one.

Life was good in California, but I was glad to return home.

Here I found the mother tongue that I’d felt lost without.

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym62-67.indd 64

10/18/05 8:42:28 AM

cajun humor De Coffee Maker

by Tommy Joe Breaux

Humorist Tommy Joe Breaux has been delighting the South with his cajun stories for years. Breaux has numerous tapes, videos and books available at www. tommyjoebreaux.com.

De odder day I was in church an Father Scott Tole a real cute story I jus Had to share wit my readers. Dis couple had jus come back from Mass an de husband said, “I really like de readinʼ an sermon today ʻbout de wife beinʼ submissive to her husband an takinʼ care of all his needs. I also got to tinkinʼ bout how Iʼm de one who gots outta bed every morninʼ an make de coffee. Dat sermon convince me dat YOU gonna did dat from now on.” De wife said, “Hole on dare. You are de first one up in de morninʼ. Why do I gotta made de coffee?” De husband say, “Well, itʼs in de Bible “YOU GOTTA BE SUBMISSIVE”, an dats your duty, so from now on Iʼm gonna woke you up to go made de coffee while I took a shower, shave, an shampoo. An YOU gonna have MY coffee waitinʼ on me wan I gots finish. Its in DE BIBLE, so you canʼt argue wit me.” De wife say, “Right, Iʼm gonna show you sometang in DE BIBLE dats says YOU be de one who suppose to made de coffee.” De wife went an gots de BIBLE an come shove it in de husbands face an say, “Look, dey done devote a whole chapter to dat subject in DE BIBLE an lets see YOU argue wit dat.” Wid dat de wife den turn to all dem page in DE BIBLE dat read, “HEBREWS.”

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

ym62-67.indd 65

65

10/18/05 8:42:54 AM

wine

down south THE PERFECT SEASON FOR WINE

by Doc Lawrence

Southerners have partying in the DNA. Everything wonderful now converges near year’s end. Celebrations even beyond Thanksgiving feasts and December’s holiday soirees are priorities. And there are enough sports compressed in the last two months to fill a year. Almost every weekend, we observe the sacred ritual of football tailgating before a college game or kickoff at a Falcons, Titans, Saints, Bucs, Jaguars or Panthers contest. Beer and hard booze once dominated late year events, but the evidence is strong that the times are a-changin’.

Bourbon and beer have their place, but taste terrible with delicate food and lack the celebratory character of fine wine.

I examined the revealing conclusions from a recent survey about tailgating beverage preferences among Southern college football fans. The ACC, to no one’s surprise, is the wine consumption leader, a statistic bolstered no doubt by Boston College and Miami’s admission to the conference. I can verify that Virginia and North Carolina are coming on strong as wine producers, and Georgia wineries are making loud noises. Little wonder that tailgating on Tobacco Road campuses and Carolina Panther and Atlanta Falcon games are no longer safe harbors for Bud Lite and Jim Beam aficionados.

SEC games are part of the South’s landscape and few pre-game festivities anywhere equal those in Oxford, Knoxville and Athens. Along with Columbia, Tuscaloosa and Gainesville, these sports shrines are strangers to wine no more.

Gourmet delights from barbeque to grilled shrimp go down much better with the right wine. A shot of Jack Daniels will trigger a gag response with homemade coconut cake while Champagne gently washes it down.

For the few who resist the notion that wine fits in the sports culture, I ask: when was the last time you saw a can of beer or a bottle of scotch poured over someone’s head during a post victory locker room celebration?

Whether it’s the Atlanta Braves clinching a title or a Southern-headquartered NFL team headed to the playoffs, the bottles of bubbly are all over the TV screen.

Speaking of Champagne, it remains

unchallenged as a hallowed holiday gift.

Many were introduced to it at wedding receptions and still drink it for meaningful toasts. Since Thomas Jefferson was president, it has been our quintessential before dinner beverage. We even christen new naval ships in Norfolk with it. But, as the holidays allow for new things and for holiday parties, I suggest as an alternative to Beaujolais Nouveau, Mionetto Prosecco, a delightfully dry sparkling wine from Italy that works magic and is easy on the wallet. It pairs beautifully with Smithfield ham, tastes great with roast turkey, oyster dressing, seasoned collard greens and sweet potato soufflé and is delicious on its own when you’re watching college or NFL games. And if you haven’t heard, Australia is getting its red sparkling wines on the retail shelves now. The nose tickle from neon pink bubbles while the wine goes down can cause rejoicing. Have a glass just prior to singing holiday songs.

Dumb people make wine rules. Down South, we learned in Sunday school that for every law, there’s an outlaw. We drink wine that tastes good and give wine to friends and lovers. It’s okay if it’s inexpensive. Cheap, though, isn’t a synonym for inexpensive.

Cheap wine is the liquid counterpart to cubic zirconia. So, gentleman here instinctively honor beautiful ladies by giving them real Champagne and brilliant diamonds.

The best gifts combine Champagne with other treasures. A box of Cabernet Sauvignon-infused hand crafted chocolates, an amazing mingling of wine and fine chocolate from Lecia Duke’s renowned Fredericksburg, Texas gourmet store, Chocolat, along with a copy of Wine & Food Pairing, the impressive and useful work by Tony Didio and Amy Zavatto (it demonstrates convincingly how combining a great dish with the right bottle is like finding the Holy Grail) bundles into some lasting precious memories when opened.

Whether enjoying sports, observing Thanksgiving or celebrating December’s joys, the unique flavors in our heralded and spectacular food soar mighty high when delicious wine is served alongside.

Doc Lawrence writes about wine and Southern cuisine from his homes in Atlanta and Fort Lauderdale. Doc is 2005 Chairman, Food and Beverage Section, Public Relations Society of America and welcomes comments: doc@yall.com.

66

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym62-67.indd 66

10/18/05 8:43:28 AM

blue collar

MAKING FRIENDS

by Bill Engvall

I didnʼt really know that you could make a living at this.

When I first started, this was just a hobby. I could work at night, drink on the job and sleep-in late. That fulfilled all my job requirements. It probably wasnʼt until Hereʼs Your Sign came out that I realized, “Oh my God, I can do this and really make a living at it.”

My show is clean, and clean comedy is a challenge. It requires a little more work.

Itʼs easy to throw in a dirty word to get the laugh, but I think people appreciate it much more so. Itʼs a little more difficult, but I think the audience appreciates it. I love a dirty joke as much as the next guy, but I donʼt need to hear it nine times.

As a comic, there are days that you donʼt feel funny. Comedy is real weird in that sense. Youʼll go through two or three months where you canʼt stop writing stuff and then youʼll go through another two or three months and I donʼt care how hard you try, you canʼt say something funny to save your life. Iʼve set such a standard with my stuff being clean and funny.

And sometimes that hard work yields amazing stories. One of my favorites happened about 15 years ago. This let me know exactly what laughter does for people. I was doing a show and about a month later I got an email, and a woman said that she had come to the show that night, but earlier in the day she had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, which is about as bad a news as you can get. She said she went to the show and saw me and laughed for about an hour, and then she

went to the doctor the next day and he said sheʼd been misdiagnosed. She said that I cure cancer. I canʼt cure cancer, but I helped her forget the worst news you can get for 45 minutes or an hour. And I thought, man thatʼs the power of laughter right there. I tell people all the time, youʼve got to work at being a jackass; but being nice comes natural and I think more people should do that. Thereʼs a scientific study that shows it takes more muscles in your face to frown than it does to smile. Thatʼs how I try to live. Iʼm your friend until you do something to prove different.

To help reach new friends, Iʼve taken my standup routine to other media forms.

I wrote a book called Hereʼs Your Sign.

Iʼve always wanted to write a book, but unfortunately Iʼve got ADD so bad and I sit down to write it and five minutes later Iʼm wondering off doing something else.

When itʼs all said and done Iʼd like to be able to sit down and write a book just to tell people thereʼs some funny stuff that happens. Make it little stories about things that happened to me. Iʼm so busy right now that I hardly have time to write a check.

“ Bill Engvall, Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy star in Blue Collar TV, airing Sundays at 9:00/8:00 Central on The WB.

…youʼve got to work at being a jackass; but being nice comes natural and I think more people should do that.

”

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

ym62-67.indd 67

67

10/18/05 8:43:48 AM

what southern women

know

Y’all Drawl No. 11

by Ronda Rich

Ronda Rich is the author of What Southern Women Know (That Every Woman Should) and The Town That Came A-Courtin’.

68

It’s an unspoken rule of Southern womanhood – We stick together.

Now, that’s not to say that we might not do a little fighting amongst ourselves. In fact, there have been times when we did a whole lot of fighting amongst ourselves like the time that the quest for the local Halloween Queen title got right down and dirty. Women in town chose sides – vigorously and viciously – for the two ladies running for the crown.

It was not a pretty sight and probably not one of the prouder moments in Southern womanhood.

Still, when outsiders come against us, we unite and fight together. One of those outsiders that we have often rallied against is Hollywood and the filmmakers who enjoy displaying the South and its people as slow-talking, slow-thinking, bumbling, mumbling nitwits.

It has long been a splinter under the manicured fingernails of our women to hear such phony, over-exaggerated Southern drawls in movies and on television. One thing that those Hollywood smarty pants often miss is that there are different accents for different regions.

Now, y’all know that the West Coast folks seem to think that one accent covers all and that an Appalachian cadence sounds identical to a Southern coastal or Louisiana bayou cadence. Wrong. Wrong.

Wrong. Hollywood, if you’re going to do it, get it right, right, right.

Few things outraged the late Lewis Grizzard, Southern humorist whose columns now appear in this magazine, more than a non-Southerner pulling a drawl out of his pocket and using it.

Especially when it was done for profit. He saw it as mockery.

I do, too.

Grizzard once recounted the day when he discovered that an actor was going to narrate his latest book for the audio book version. When the actor proudly displayed his fake accent that he planned to use in the recording, Grizzard went ballistic.

Needless to say, the actor lost the job right on the spot and Grizzard narrated his own book.

That’s why I have to say this: Jessica Simpson, how could you?

The ridiculous accent she uses in the recent Dukes Of Hazzard movie is an affront to all proud Southerners, just as the accompanying music video is an affront to all decent Southerners. I know a lot of folks, most of them tithe-giving, church-going conservatives, who are appalled by the steaminess of her bikini or short shorts scene. I’m actually proud

for her. She worked hard to get herself in shape to look that good so I won’t criticize for that.

Too bad, she didn’t work equally as hard to get an accent down pat that would have sounded natural and not yet another caricature of our beautiful drawl.

My goodness, the woman’s from Texas so why didn’t she just speak normally? Why didn’t she follow one of the holiest rules of Southern womanhood and stick with us and not go against us?

I am tired – to the point of reaching Grizzard’s outrage – over people who mock my words. I am livid over the folks who walk up to me and spit my words back into my face like an over-produced Hollywood parody. I figure if that many people are audacious enough to mock me face-to-face, there’s no telling how many do it behind my back.

Of course, I’m paranoid about vicious mockery – I’m Southern. We have learned the hard way.

“Where are you from?” a woman, in Los Angles., asked me once. When I told her that I’m from Georgia, she looked puzzled and shook her head. “When I first heard you,” she replied, “I thought you were from another country.”

“

That’s why I have to say this: Jessica Simpson, how could you?

”

I’ve learned to respond quickly. “How clever of you! I thought that only we Southerners thought we had our own country!”

“Do you really talk like that or is it an act?” someone else asked.

I am certain that an unladylike billow of steam escaped from my earring-adorned ears over that one.

There are a lot of enemies looming out there; that’s why we of the Southern female persuasion must always stick together. We must unite against the ones who laugh at the things we hold sacred – like our honeyed drawl. And, we must never side with the enemy.

Nothing affects me worse than an affected Southern drawl, especially when it comes from one of our Southern sisters.

Why I’d rather wear Daisy Duke shorts and parade my cellulite in public than do any such.

After all, one is just as unbecoming as the other.

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym68-75.indd 68

10/18/05 8:45:13 AM

grizzard Put Some South in Yo’ Mouth

Women Wearing Ties

by Lewis Grizzard

Lewis Grizzard (1946-1994) penned thousands of columns during his journalism career. Y’all Magazine is proud to showcase the late legend’s work in each issue. For more on Grizzard, log on to www.LewisGrizzard.com

I saw a woman on an airplane the other day who was wearing a tie. I don’t think I had ever seen a woman wearing a tie before.

I thought only men wore ties to make up for the fact we don’t have to get pregnant.

The woman in the tie looked like one of those big-time businesswomen who owns her own condo, a BMW and a fluffy cat.

“Excuse me,” I said to the woman, “I was just wondering why you are wearing a tie.”

“Why not?” the woman asked me back.

“Well,” I said, “I thought only men wore ties.”

“You obviously are one of those Neanderthal redneck men who think women have no place in your world,” the woman, obviously irritated by my comments, said.

“Not at all, madam,” I interrupted.

“I certainly believe if a woman can do the same job as a man she deserves the opportunity to do so and she should get the same pay as a man.

“The only thing I’m against women doing is voting and driving,” I went on, in jest, of course.

I forgot, however, that the feminist movement is totally devoid of a sense of humor. I should have known the woman wouldn’t take my little barb in the frivolous spirit with which it was intended.

Her eyes bugged out, her face turned red and the veins in her neck popped out in anger. She called me several unprintable names, a couple of which I had never heard before, leading me to believe women not only have equaled men in the ability to curse, but may have exceeded us.

I thought the woman was going to have a stroke, so I suggested she loosen

“

her tie. She did, and in a few minutes, seemed as calm as possible under the circumstances.

Upon some quiet reflection regarding this incident, I came to the conclusion that women certainly have a right to wear a tie anywhere or anytime.

In fact, I think it is only fair that all women be made to wear ties and allow men to stop the silly practice.

I quit wearing ties everywhere except to funerals of close friends several years ago when I decided I had had enough of being uncomfortable.

But I’m lucky. I don’t have a real job like most men, so I can get away with not wearing a tie.

Ties are detrimental to men’s health.

Men who have to wear ties all the time tend to be terribly highstrung and nervous because they’ve got this piece of cloth strung tightly around their necks. It’s ties, not cholesterol, that cause most heart attacks and strokes.

Also, besides being terribly uncomfortable and unhealthy, it is a known fact that wearing a tie eventually leads to baldness. The tie hinders the circulation to the scalp and that’s why men’s hair falls out.

You don’t see that many bald-headed women, do you? Of course not. That’s because they don’t wear ties.

But it’s high time they did. And it’s high time men were relieved of this burden.

Imagine if the tie tables were turned and it was women who had to wear ties to get into a fancy restaurant. You walk in with your lady and she has forgotten her tie.

“You may enter, sir,” the maitre d’ would say, “but baldy there needs a tie.”

What a simply delicious fantasy.

“The only thing I’m against women doing is voting and driving,” I went on, in jest, of course.

”

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

ym68-75.indd 69

69

10/18/05 8:45:28 AM

ms. ms. grits grits Southern Friendship

by Deborah Ford

Deborah Ford is the founder of Grits® Inc. (Girls Raised in the South), a multi-million dollar merchandising company. Ford is the author of the best-selling GRITS, Guide To Life, and Puttin’ On The GRITS, a Southern Guide to Entertaining.

Contact “Ms. Grits” via email at msgrits@yall.com 70

If you see one Southern woman, look closely, and you’re sure to find more gathered nearby. As every Southern man can tell you, Southern ladies tend to travel in packs. If having one GRITS (Girls Raised in the South) for a friend is wonderful, imagine being surrounded by a whole group of Southern ladies.

Southern men might think that we’re just a bunch of old hens getting together, but that’s fine with us. We don’t want them crashing our good times.

A lot of people think a Southern lady is only happy when she’s surrounded by a group of adoring male admirers; we are belles, after all. Now, I don’t pretend that I don’t enjoy a bit of masculine attention, and I can bat my lashes and flip my blond hair with the best of them, but I think it’s female friends who are truly important to Southern women.

Men may come and go, but a Southern woman knows that friends are forevah.

Southern women like to get together to work, to grow, and to love their friends.

They come together to celebrate the fact that they’re Southern. We might have been blessed to be born in the greatest part of this beautiful country, we might have adopted it as our new home, or we might be living far away, longing for a taste of home. Whatever the reason, sometimes we Southerners love to gather together and hear those sweet voices that are truly the song of the South. We know that our friends are fabulous, even if they’d blush to hear us say it, so coming together for no other reason than enjoying our Southern sisters is sometimes the best reason of all.

Southern friendship isn’t just about having fun, though. It’s also about sisterhood. Southern women have a long history of standing by our sisters – by birth or by inclination - in times of need. And in a land where we depended on the earth and the weather for our very survival, times of need came far too often. Whether it meant feeding the children of a family that had been out of work for a while, pitching in to fix a neighbor’s roof, or donating to the local church, we stood by our neighbors when they needed us, just as they stood by us.

Friendship wasn’t just about fun and flirting; it was about our very survival.

When Katrina came to the South, with Rita fast on its path, it was Southern friends who stepped up and helped. We learned that the days when we depended on the weather for our lives weren’t as long gone as we thought, and today, just as in the old days, we need our friends to survive. We hear plenty of negative stories about victims waiting for help, about looting, about bad behavior, but for every person who abandoned his fellow man or took advantage of someone in need, there were dozens of others offering a helping hand.

Families from Mississippi and Louisiana found themselves bunking with long-lost sorority sisters and cousins.

People offered beds to sleep on, clothes, food, old cars, jobs, and sometimes just a shoulder to cry on. Help and friendship didn’t come just from people who knew each other. Towns banded together to furnish trailers and apartments, complete with notes of heartfelt welcome, for their new neighbors. Families drove to shelters and took home new friends to stay with them. Southerners dug into their pockets, and their hearts, to help.

Sticking together, being neighborly, made these hard times bearable. The good men and women of Houston lined the streets in the middle of the night so that they could be there holding signs of welcome when Louisiana evacuees arrived at their shelters. They brought home-cooked meals to people who had had nothing but military rations, or nothing at all, for days. People stuck for hours in traffic trying to evacuate shared precious water, food, and sometimes just a few kind words to keep each other sane.

A hand held out in friendship is a bright thing in a world that can be dark.

Every good deed for a friend, old or brand-new, is like a beautiful, precious pearl. Lying in the mud, it doesn’t seem like much. Take that pearl, and string it together with its mates, and it becomes a thing of strength and beauty. After Katrina and Rita, there were more pearls than I can count, shining among the devastation, and giving hope when things seemed most hopeless. Thank to each and every Southern woman who made her life into a pearl, and keep on shining.

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym68-75.indd 70

10/18/05 8:45:46 AM

Co-hosts Justin Cave & Christine Pullara and their gang of guerilla gardeners ambush unsuspecting homeowners and surprise them with full-blown lawn makeovers.

All New Episodes SATURDAYS 12 NOON ET

turnersouth.com

Go to turnersouth.com/buyitnow for Cookbooks, DVD's & other Great Holiday Gifts!

ym68-75.indd 71

TM & Š 2005 Turner South. A TimeWarner Company. All Rights Reserved.

10/18/05 8:46:09 AM

Get to know the “Home Makers” Is your home so dilapidated that it is condemned?

by Katie Batte

72

J

eanene Glander and Kristin Wells headline the TV show to fix that woe. Home Makers is a daily show on Turner South, dedicated to renovating dilapidated houses. Architect Carrie Galuski, Graphic Designer Shelley Miracle, Carpenter Elizabeth Pou, and Trim Carpenter Robin Williams add to the Home Maker team to define the “style

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym60, 72-75.indd 72

10/18/05 8:37:23 AM

and sass” they build for.

The path the home makers have taken to the regional network show has been a worldwide one. After receiving a B.F.A. from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., Glander began her career as an interior designer in nearby Charlotte, N.C. Here she worked with commercial design projects while using her skills to help others, from doing relief work in Bursaw, N.C., Glander worked with the Jimmy Carter Project in Tacbek, Korea, and also took her talent and charity to Nicaragua where she helped build an orphanage.

With a lifelong love for acting and home renovation, Wells finds Home Makers to be right up her ally. She was born in Greensboro, N.C., and received her marketing and advertising degree from Portland State University.

She spent several years working as a contractor for a construction company in Portland, Ore., before she moved back to North Carolina. Once there, she settled in Charlotte and opened a general contracting business.

When she finds time, Wells works with her father buying and renovating rundown homes.

Galuski has gotten plenty of hands-on experience from building homes in North Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia. At one point she was an AmeriCorps engineer for Habitat for Humanity. She earned her master of architecture degree from the University of New York at Buffalo, and like Glander, has taken her work out of the country.

Graphic Design might be done on a computer, but don’t be fooled into thinking Shelley Miracle can’t work with her hands. Aside from working as a production assistant on the movie set, Shallow Hal, she has tackled jobs by using power tools. A graduate of N.C. State, she was the director of imaging and graphics at DMR Architecture.

Home Makers Hawaiian-born carpenter made her way to the South by way of college. The creative Elizabeth Pou earned her education from the University of South

The path the home makers have taken to the regional network show has been a worldwide one.

PHOTOS BY KYLE CHRISTY/™© 2005 TURNER REGIONAL ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK

Carolina and began her career working in her dad’s upholstery business. Later she worked as an event designer and designed custom bridal accessories. Now she works for a company in Columbia, S.C., where she designs accent pieces and fine furniture.

After studying nursing at UNC-Charlotte, Williams decided to showcase her talent for carpentry. She shows off her eye for detail in her work with mantles, stair cases, trim molding, and built-in cabinets. In addition to her work on the show, she owns her own woodworking and remodeling company in Charlotte.

On the half-hour daily series, Wells and Glander lead the team in remodeling condemned homes from top to bottom. The all-female team is comprised of contractors, carpenters, and designers. The two hosts teach viewers how to build cabinets, tear down walls, and install light fixtures. Through Home Makers, homes are restored and women are empowered.

The new season of Home Makers premieres on Turner South December 5th, and includes one episode in which a team of female volunteers builds a Habitat for Humanity home. Proving that anything men can do women do better, the gals will build the home from the bottom up by framing the walls and roof and installing dry wall. Home Makers airs Monday – Friday at 3 p.m.

ET and Saturdays at 1 p.m. ET on Turner South.

L to R: Robin Williams, Shelley Miracle (top), Kristin Wells, Jeanene Glander (top), Elizabeth Pou, and Carrie Galuski.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

ym60, 72-75.indd 73

73

10/18/05 8:37:38 AM

Founders Tom Forkner and Joe Rogers, Sr.

Waffle House

by Kathleen Poe

A

dying Georgia man gave his niece instructions for his memorial service. He wanted it outside – at his favorite Waffle House restaurant. After he passed away, family, friends and restaurant staff gathered outside a Jefferson, Ga., Waffle House, where they placed Lawrence “Tuna” Clark’s ashes on the hood of a car in his usual parking space. Inside the restaurant, his niece set his place at the high counter with a mug of black coffee and a pack of cigarettes.

The 67-year-old man was a Waffle House regular. He would drive servers and cooks to work if they had car trouble, remembers Debbie Malcom, 56, a Waffle House waitress for 30 years. “He was like everybody’s daddy and granddaddy,” she says.

This past Labor Day, Waffle House turned 50. Since 1955, the legendary Southern chain has served more than 950 million cups of coffee, 500 million waffles, 1 billion hashbrown orders and 1.5 billion eggs – and counting. Pervasive as the kudzu vine (and just as foreign to those not from this part of the country), Waffle House restaurants adorn the landscape of the American South. The yellow signs call out from highway exits 74

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym60, 72-75.indd 74

10/18/05 8:38:05 AM

50th Anniversary

PHOTOS COURTESY OF WAFFLE HOUSE COMMUNICATION CENTER/T. HEATH

e

across Dixie with the promise of “Good Food Fast.” From its humble beginnings 50 years ago, Waffle House has developed into a cultural icon, a double order of Deep South Americana.

The first Waffle House opened its doors on September 5, 1955, in Avondale Estates, Ga. Founders Tom Forkner and Joe Rogers, Sr., envisioned a quick-service, sit-down restaurant where neighborhood friends could eat and visit together. Waffle House grew slowly at first; a new location opened only when sufficient resources were available to run a restaurant the “Waffle House way.” In its first 15 years, the chain expanded to 48 locations in the Southeast; by the end of the ’70s, there were 401 restaurants. The 1980s saw the debut of signature items like Bert’s Chili and hashbrowns “Scattered, Smothered, and Covered” with onions and cheese on the menu, while the number of stores increased to 672. The 1,000th store opened in Avondale Estates, home of the first Waffle House, in 1995.

Today, more than 1500 Waffle House restaurants operate in 25 states across the country, from Phoenix, Ariz., to Clarks Summit, Pa. The family-owned chain offers all meals at all hours, sticking to a menu of short-order favorites. Many dishes have come and gone over the years, like the bacon-wrapped filet mignon and pear and cottage cheese salad from a 1957 menu, but the classics still anchor Waffle House fare; as co-founder Tom Forkner often says, “If it works, you don’t change it!” However, waffles are only the third most popular offering, ranking behind coffee – touted as “world’s best”– and their “world famous” hashbrowns.

Each restaurant is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with the same menu across the country. Yet every location has a distinct personality. “The folks that eat with us, the grill operators and waitresses and managers working 24 hours a day – they all add to the ‘Waffle House experience,’” Pat Warner, vice president of communications for the chain, says. “That’s the allure of Waffle House. There’s nothing magical about the food.”

Despite its standard greasy-spoon fare, Waffle House inspires remarkable devotion in many of its customers. The restaurant has amassed a diverse and loyal clientele, including Reese Witherspoon, Pete Sampras, Merle Haggard, Sean “Diddy” Combs and former president George H.W. Bush.

As the chain has grown, so, too, has a subculture of Waffle House fanatics. Take, for example, the Florida man who collected Waffle House menus and wallpapered his kitchen with them. Or Kamran Sajadi, 27, who created “The Waffle House Shrine” website in 1996 as a freshman at Duke University. And after the company website stopped offering them, David Younker added Waffle House web cards to his personal website; devotees could once again send their best waffle wishes to loved ones.

Elsewhere in cyberspace, Waffle House enthusiasts engage in fierce bidding wars on eBay. Since the company does not sell merchandise to the general public, eBay and similar outlets are the only way for collectors to find what they want, short of striking a deal with a waitress or walking out with their coffee mug. Items listed on eBay range from menus and pins to folk art depicting

Jesus’ last supper, relocated from a dining room in Jerusalem to the Waffle House.

Recently, a commemorative 50th anniversary Coke bottle sold for $98.97. The most popular item? According to one peddler of Waffle House wares, it’s a license plate frame that reads “Follow me to … WAFFLE HOUSE.” The frames fetch anywhere from $5 to $25.

Yet as any patron of Waffle House will attest, the “Waffle House experience” is more than food and collectables. It’s the atmosphere: the jukebox playing Elvis’s “An American Trilogy;” the line of white globe lamps floating above the high counter; the scent of hashbrowns that hangs on your clothes hours after you leave; and, most important, the people.

The unique ambiance of the eatery has set the mood for several Waffle House romances.

The first reported Waffle House wedding took place in 1997 in Nashville, Tenn. The bride was a waitress, and the groom hung out at the Waffle House so often that friends offered to decorate the restaurant for them so the couple could marry there instead of at city hall. “It was kinda their gift to us,” David Williams, the groom, says. Since Waffle House never closes, they conducted the ceremony during normal hours. “Most of the people there were regular customers anyway,” Williams says. “That’s who our friends were.” At least a half dozen other brides and grooms have tied the knot at Waffle Houses in Attalla, Ala., Boaz, Ala., Lawrenceville, Ga., and Spartanburg, S.C. While taking time to celebrate its 50th year, Waffle House isn’t resting on its laurels. Warner anticipates the chain will open between 60 and 80 restaurants this year and eventually expand through upstate New York and the Midwest. Waffle House is also undertaking a long-term project of renovating, remodeling or rebuilding stores that are at least 25 years old. This entails updating the retro décor inside each restaurant, enlarging the kitchen area or even moving to a better location. But one thing that won’t change is the size of the restaurants. If a profitable location needs more seating, the company will create what they call a “double-up” – an interstate exit, for instance, with a Waffle House on both sides of the street – instead of adding onto the existing restaurant. With a maximum capacity of 44 customers, each restaurant maintains the intimate feel of sitting in mom’s kitchen.

To commemorate its golden anniversary, Waffle House planned events and special promotions throughout the year to honor the loyal customers, employees and friends who helped the chain grow into the institution it is today. “It’s just amazing how people love Waffle House,” says Warner. “This is a celebration about each restaurant thanking its community for sustaining us for 50 years.”

As Waffle House hits 50, the founders’ original vision of a restaurant serving quality food at a great price with a side of friendly conversation remains the cornerstone of the company’s success.

Let’s put our order in for 50 more scattered, smothered and covered years.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

ym60, 72-75.indd 75

75

10/18/05 8:38:24 AM

in memoriam

MILLS: MANDATORY CREDIT: CRAIG JONES /ALLSPORT, LUCAS: CREDIT: TOM HAUCK /ALLSPORT, GRANT: RONALD MARTINEZ/GETTY, LOPEZ: SUSAN GAETZ/AFP/GETTY

THOMAS HERRION Fort Worth, Texas, native Thomas Herrion collapsed and died following an exhibition game he played in for the San Francisco 49ers on August 20. He was 23. Herrion played collegiality at Kilgore JC.

CLARENCE “GATEMOUTH” BROWN Grammy-award winning guitarist and singer Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown died in Orange, Texas at the age of 81, after he evacuated his Slidell, La., home after Hurricane Katrina struck. Brown had been battling lung cancer and heart disease. He was a versatile jazz and blues artist whose career took off in the 1940s. He recorded with Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder and Frank Zappa during a career that spanned 50 years. Born in Louisiana, but raised in Texas, Brown took an eclectic approach to music drawing influence from jazz, country and Texas blues, as well as the Cajun music of his native Louisiana. The nickname “Gatemouth” derived from Brown’s distinctive deep voice. His early blues hits included “Okie Dokie Stomp” and “Ain’t That Dandy.”

1ST SGT. MARK MATTHEWS (RET.) Mark Matthews, 111, one of the last of the nation’s legendary Buffalo Soldiers, died of pneumonia Sept. 6 in Washington, D.C. Matthews, who also was the oldest Buffalo Soldier, was heir to a proud military heritage that originated with the black soldiers who fought in the Indian wars on the Western frontier. He was born Aug. 7, 1894 in Greenville, Ala.

NIPSEY RUSSELL “The Poet Laureate of Television,” actor and comedian Nipsey Russell delivered his signature four-line verse during frequent guest appearances on TV game shows and talk shows. The Atlanta native’s impromptu lines and witty quips quickly secured his place as one of the first blacks to be a regular panelist on the shows. Russell died from cancer at age 80 on Oct. 2. Russell appeared on “The Dean Martin Show,” “Hollywood Squares,” “The $50,000 Pyramid,” and “Match Game.” He also received critical acclaim for his role as the “Tin Man” in the 1978 film version of “The Wiz.” ROBERT A. MOOG Robert A. Moog invented the Moog electronic synthesizer, a keyboard that became central to rock and electronica bands of the 1960s and 1970s. He died of a brain tumor Aug. 21 at age 71 at his home in Asheville, N.C. Dr. Moog’s synthesizer appeared in 1964. It burst to prominence with “Switched-On Bach” (1968).

CHIEF JUSTICE WILLIAM REHNQUIST William Hubbs Rehnquist was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, October 1, 1924. He grew up in the suburb of Shorewood, the son of a paper salesman. Rehnquist’s strongly conservative views can be traced directly to his childhood. He served in the Army Air Corps during World War II as a weather observer in North Africa. Following the war, he attended college on the GI Bill, earning both a B.A. and M.A. in political science at Stanford University in 1948. He became a Republican party official and an outspoken opponent of liberal legislative initiatives. While campaigning for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964, Rehnquist became friendly with Richard Kleindienst, who was appointed deputy attorney general in Richard Nixon’s administration and arranged for Rehnquist to become assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. One of Rehnquist’s principal functions in this job was to screen, along with Kleindienst and Attorney General John Mitchell, candidates for potential Supreme Court positions. When attempts to find a suitable candidate to replace retiring justice John Marshall Harlan had reached an impasse, Mitchell informed Rehnquist that they had settled on someone--Rehnquist himself. Despite his relative youth (he was forty-seven), inexperience, and political views that diverged from those of many senators, his nomination was confirmed. He joined the Court on January 7, 1972. After serving 33 years on the bench, Rehnquist died of thyroid cancer at his Virginia residence on Sept. 3, 2005. He was 80.

76

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym76-80.indd 76

10/18/05 8:49:05 AM

1,242 HERRION:Jed Jacobsohn-Getty, RUSSELL:Evan Agostini-Getty), KATRINA (TOP) ROSS TAYLOR/GETTY, Win McNamee/GettY

JOE SMITHERMAN Selma, Alabama’s longtime mayor died at age 75 on Sept. 11. First elected the city’s mayor in 1964 as a segregation candidate, Smitherman became Selma’s leader during some of the most tumultuous times in Alabama history. Most infamous, of course, was “Bloody Sunday,” March 7, 1965, when voting rights marchers were viciously attacked on Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Afterwards, Smitherman survived elections and openly and successfully courted black voters, and extended his political career up to the 2000 election, when he was defeated by James Perkins, the city’s first black mayor.

ym76-80.indd 77

We remember the estimated 1,242 Southerners who lost their lives in the devastation brought

by Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita.

R.L. BURNSIDE R. L. Burnside, the Mississippi hill country bluesman and ex-con, died at a Memphis hospital on September 1 at age 78. For most of his life, Burnside was an undiscovered talent who made a living as a sharecropper, playing guitar on the side. It wasn’t until he was in his 60s that he recorded. Burnside found a whole new audience, not only outside the Mississippi juke joints where he was paid $3 and some whiskey per gig, but beyond the blues festival circuit as well.

He opened for the Beastie Boys and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and was a hit with the alternative rock crowd. After moving to Chicago at an early age, Burnside returned to live in his hometown of Oxford, Miss.

VIVIAN MALONE JONES On a hot summer day in 1963, Alabama Gov. George Wallace, feigning defiance, strode onto the University of Alabama’s Tuscaloosa campus and said, “I stand here today, as governor of this sovereign state, and refuse to willingly submit to illegal usurpation of power by the central government.” Mobile native Vivian Malone Jones pressed on that day, and was enrolled as one of first two blacks to enroll at the university. She became the first black to graduate from Alabama in 1965. She worked for the federal government after graduation. Jones died at age 63 on Oct. 13, 2005, after suffering a stroke.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Y’ALL

77

10/18/05 8:50:12 AM

festive south Nov. 3-5 Mistletoe Marketplace 2005 Jackson, Miss.

Sponsored by the Junior League of Jackson, this three-day event enthusiastically kicks off the holiday season with an exciting variety of shopping, dining, special events and entertainment. More than 155 merchants gather to offer a wonderful assortment of unique gifts and holiday merchandise to over 35,000 shoppers. 601-948-2357, www.jljackson.org, info@jljackson.org Nov. 5 Market Day at St. Paul’s Chapel Magnolia Springs, Ala. Festivities begin at 9:00 a.m. as the appetizing aromas of the Bakery at St. Paul’s Chapel fill the air. Vendors will offer books, plants, jewelry, artwork, collectibles and more. 251-965-7452 Nov. 9-13 19th Annual American Sandsculpting Championship Festival, Fort Myers Beach, Fla. The experts say Fort Myers Beach has the finest sand in the country, something master sand sculptors can’t resist as they compete to see who can create the most brilliant masterpiece from a 20x20 foot pile of sand.

Includes workshops where spectators can learn sand sculpting. 239-454-7500, www.sandfestival.com, info@fmbchamber.com Nov. 11-13 Christmas Holiday Homecoming Owensboro, Ky. One of the biggest arts and crafts shows around is held at the Executive Inn Rivermont Exhibition Center just in time for the Christmas season. You won’t be able to resist the Christmas spirit as you browse booth after booth of authentic crafts and sample holiday food with Christmas music in the background.

270-926-3661, www.visitowensboro.com, info@visitowensboro.com Nov. 11-13 Tullahoma Intertribal Powwow Tullahoma, Tenn.

November is American Indian Heritage Month and what better way to celebrate than to attend this powwow where top name entertainers, demonstrators, jewelers and craft persons will give you a taste of Native American culture.

931-455-5321, www.nativewayproductions.com, nativeway@mindspring.com Nov. 12 Heritage Syrup Festival Henderson, Texas Experience mule driven sugar cane crushing in the fall. Watch the syrup team cook the juices into a brown sugar syrup on the Depot Museum grounds.

Enjoy over 30 folk artists, food, antique tractors and entertainment. Take the many hayride shuttles to the Historic National Register Historic downtown location.

Entertainment includes: Bluegrass and County Western music, cloggers, square dancers and the antique car exhibit. Time: 9am-5pm. Location: 100 East Main Street. Region: Texas Piney Woods. Average attendance: under 250,000. For more information, call 866.650.5529. Please mention this listing when inquiring. The festival is held annually on the second Saturday in November.

Nov. 12 - Jan. 1 Tanglewood’s Festival of Lights Clemmons, N.C. Tanglewood’s rolling countryside becomes a winter wonderland of giant snowflakes and whimsical scenes through the magic of nearly a million lights. Enjoy the magic and splendor of the Southeast’s largest holiday light show. 336-778-6300, www.tanglewoodpark.org, jaykf@co.forsyth.nc.us

78

Nov. 12-13 Destrehan Plantation 34th Annual Fall Festival Destrehan, La. This restored antebellum plantation celebrates its annual fall festival with arts and crafts vendors, a Cajun and Creole food park, and an antique area inside the unique 1840’s mule barn. 985-764-9315, DestrehanPlantation.org, DestPlan@aol.com Nov. 19 Owensboro-Daviess County Christmas Parade Owensboro, Ky. This is the largest Christmas parade in the tri-state area.

This year’s theme is “Christmas International” and will feature floats, clowns, high school bands, beauty queens and more. 270-691-1288, www.ChristmasParade.net, info@ChristmasParade.net Nov. 27 - Dec. 3 Christmas on the River Demopolis, Ala. People travel from coast to coast for this event where floats really float! The week begins with concerts, plays and antebellum candlelight tours and culminates with a fireworks show and main event river parade. 334-289-0270, demopolischamber.com, dacc@demopoliscatv.com Dec. 3-4 32nd Annual Dickens on The Strand Galveston, Texas Presented by the Galveston Historical Foundation, Dickens on The Strand will take you and your family on an enchanted journey through history as a bustling 19th Century cityscape comes to life. Centered in a 10-block area of Galveston’s The Strand National Historic Landmark District, the event will include three parades and free, nonstop entertainment on the festival’s six stages, plus strolling carolers and roving street musicians, bagpipers and entertainers. Time: December 4, 10am-9pm, December 5, 10am-6pm.

Cost: $10 in advance and $12 at the gate for adults, $4 in advance and $6 at the gate for children aged 7-12. Children six years & younger, and participants dressed in full Victorian costume will be admitted FREE! Location: The Strand. Region: Texas Gulf Coast.

Tickets can be purchased online at www. dickensonthestrand.com or by calling the Galveston Historical Foundation at 409765-7834. Please mention this listing when inquiring.

Dec. 2-3 Decatur Holiday Candlelight Tour of Homes Decatur, Ga. The theme for this year’s tour of homes is “Neighborhoods,” and will feature several homes in different areas of this charming city with shuttle service to take visitors from one neighborhood to the next. 404-371-9583, www.decaturga.com, events@decaturga.com Dec. 2-3 Belhaven Singing Christmas Tree Jackson, Miss.

Each December for nearly 75 years, the Belhaven College choir treats the public to a free outdoor candlelight Christmas concert on their beautiful campus in Jackson’s historic Belhaven neighborhood.

The performance begins with a candlelight procession around the college’s lake and ends with 100 voices forming a lighted “human” Christmas tree. 601-9685930, www.belhaven.edu, belhaven@belhaven.edu

Dec. 2-4 Christmas Candlelight Tour McConnells, S.C. See over 70 costumed interpreters re-enact a multitude of holiday scenarios, including a slave wedding, 19th century dance lessons, gift preparation, carolers, and storytelling. 803-684-2327, www.chmuseums.org, hbratton@chmuseums.org Dec. 2 Christmas on Main Street Dickson, Tenn.

Always wanted to experience the Christmases of the “good ole days” in small-town America? Then head to Dickson, Tenn. for a community celebration that features Santa with live reindeer, horse and carriage rides, carolers and karaoke, live bands and lots of good food. 615-446-2349, www.dicksoncountychamber. com, rhonda@dicksoncountychamber.com Dec. 10-11 Holiday Tour of Historic Inns St. Augustine, Fla. St. Augustine’s 26 bed and breakfast inns, each paired with one of the city’s top restaurants, invite you for a merry taste of hospitality where visitors can sample specialty treats and enjoy seasonal entertainment. 904940-0902, www.staugustineinns.com, leighc@aug. com Dec. 10 Christmas on the Coosa Wetumpka, Ala. As dusk falls, Wetumpka welcomes the holiday as only a river town can. A flotilla of brightly lighted, beautifully decorated boats parade down the dark waters of the Coosa River. A spectacular fireworks show follows the parade. Also features a street parade and fireworks. 334-567-1313, wetumpkaevents@bellsouth.net Dec. 15 - Apr. 23 King Tut Exhibition Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale is the only place in the southeast where you can see this extraordinary exhibit of more than 130 treasures from the tomb of the “boy king Tutankhamun” and other celebrated pharaohs. Highlights from King Tut’s tomb include a golden crown inlaid with colored glass and semi-precious stones, one of four miniature viscera coffins, and a painted wooden mannequin of the young king.

954-525-5500, http://kingtut.org/ tickets, info@moafl.com Dec. 17 The 102nd Anniversary of Powered Flight Kitty Hawk, N.C. It lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet. Yet, it changed the course of history and reshaped the future.

The first powered flight by Wilbur and Orville Wright is celebrated 102 years later with a precision parachute jump by the U.S. Army Golden Knights, a replica of the Wright brothers’ 1903 encampment, and military and civilian fly-bys at the exact moment when the Wrights made their first flight. 252-441-1903, www.firstflight. org, firstflight1903@earthlink.net Dec. 17 Seminole Hard Rock Winterfest Boat Parade Fort Lauderdale, Fla. More than 100 decorated yachts parade along a decorated shoreline from Fort Lauderdale to Pompano Beach creating a holiday spectacular on and off the water. Festivities include a golf tournament, black tie ball, decorating extravaganza and family fun days. 954-767-0686, www.winterfestparade.com, info@winterfestparade.com

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ym76-80.indd 78

10/18/05 8:51:14 AM

y

ʼall 49%

subscribe

TODAY

and save up to

off the cover price!

THE M AGA ZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

Y 101 | DAVE RAMSE ING BANDS | SOUTH | COLLEG E MARCH OCTOBER 2005 | ROBIN ROBER TS JEFF FOXWO RTHY

1-800-935-5185 or www.yall.com YES! YES!

IʼD LIKE TO GIVE A FRIEND A SUBSCRIPTION TO YʼALL FOR JUST $12.95 MORE - A SAVINGS OF 49%

MY SUBSCRIPTION

Name

(please print)

Name Address

City/State/Zip

City/State/Zip Phone Number

PAYMENT OPTIONS:

ym76-80.indd 79

'2)::!2 $ /,5-.)34 9 !,, 3 .%7%34 #)&% /& ! ,%'%.$ ! 4/!34 4/ 4(% ,

2ISING 3OUTHERNERS

XXX ZBMM DPN 6 4 $"/

GIFT SUBSCRIPTION

Address

E-mail

,%7)3

#&3 4&15&.#&3 0$50

SEND ME 1 YEAR OF YʼALL MAGAZINE AT THE SPECIAL PRICE OF ONLY $19.95

E-mail

Bill Me

Payment Enclosed

(please print)

Phone Number MAIL TO: MAGAZINE PROCESSING CENTER P. O. BOX 0567 SELMER, TN 38375-9908

10/20/05 9:39:25 AM

Grits Friends Are Forevah

by Deborah Ford

A Southern-Style Celebration of Women

New & Exciting GRITS Merchandise Available Online

www.gritsinc.com

grits \ â&#x20AC;&#x2122;grits \n.

1: acronym for Girls Raised In The South 2: shorthand for the undeniable charm of Southern women 3: also refers to a Southern breakfast dish made from ground hominy

ym76-80_B.indd 80

10/20/05 9:32:33 AM