Someone asked me why this adventure in exploring a lifestyle was called “Southern Hooks.” Seeing as we were sitting in a boat on a lake near the home I share with a true Southern Wife/Mom and our kids, I figured I had as captive of an audience as I was going to get. That is unless they wanted to swim.  I simply stated that a hook is used to catch an object. Be it a person, a memory, a fish, or a way of life.  The hook is used to catch and hold. The Southern lifestyle is that way. There are hooks embedded in that lifestyle. We in the South are a different sort of person…we are “hooked” in the traditions and ways of the South. My friend thought a moment. I could see the line get tight in his mind and I knew he was “hooked.”

I then explained there is also another side to the name. We as Southerners are the hooks. We retain
what we have learned and grown up with and “hook” the next generation. We “hook” them on the
Southern way of life. My friend obviously didn’t know what to say as he had never really seen so deep a thought issue from my pond shallow mind. I could tell that he was a bit perplexed and obviously wanted to ask a question, but was afraid to seem less than intelligent.

I said next, “And yes it’s about fishing too.”

We are all Southern Hooks.
Pull up a seat, cast a line, and have a smile.
-JD