I hope everyone has had a great week so far and that you all have something fun planned for the weekend! I'm running ragged trying to clean the house, get ready for Christian's squadron's Change of Command Dinner tonight and leaving for New Hampshire tomorrow! We just got back around 6 p.m. yesterday and we're leaving around noon tomorrow! Ahhh! But, I can't complain b/c I love this.
We had a good time in Virginia Beach this week. I got to hang out with one of my best friends, Christina. It's so nice to be around really good friends! Christina is just such a genuine person who I can be totally honest with and neither of us have any qualms about the way either one of us acts. Good friendship is great! She and I went to the Williamsburg Winery and did a tour, tasting and had lunch. That was pretty fun and we tasted some great wines! Here's a picture of me and her with our tour guide-
Virginia Beach is an interesting place. The reason I titled this post "North vs. South" is to give you a little bit of insight into what life is like in the northeast versus the good ol' south.
First, let me give a disclaimer: I am in no way trying to offend anyone with the rest of my post. Nor am I trying to sound like I know what anyone goes through on a day-to-day basis. I'm just stating my personal observations and opinions. Now that that's out of the way, here it goes (yikes).
One thing I noticed when we first moved up here to Pennsylvania is that, first off, there aren't many black people where we live or in the surrounding towns. Secondly, the black people that we do see seem to be educated, well-dressed and overall pretty normal (take that last word as you wish). I have always been of the mindset that there is class and trash in any race that occupies space in our great country. We whites have plenty of white trash and blacks of plenty of black trash. I'm not racist at all but I will make my opinions known if I think someone (white or black) is acting ignorant or trashy. What I've found up here is that most of the rough ghetto-type areas are in close proximity to Philadelphia. It's the typical inner-city, crime-ridden areas you probably hear about on the news when crime in Philadelphia is mentioned. We live about 15-20 miles north of the city and when I ride the train into the city, we go straight through some of these areas and they're pretty impressive. It's beyond rough... beyond anything I've ever come in contact with. So, the blacks up here around the big cities aren't just simply dressing a certain way or acting a certain way just because it's the cool thing to do or what they see in rap videos. It's a way of life.... Like I said, it's rough. It's the revolving cycle that comes with life on the streets. I hate to make this comparison b/c it makes me really sound like I don't know what I'm talking about but when you watch the First 48 (show on A&E about the first 48 hours after a murder being the most important when it comes to catching the murderer). The First 48 is a reality show that follows police and homicide detectives on the goose chase through gang lands and inner-city crime scenes. They then show the interrogation of the men (and sometimes women) who are the prime suspects. And it's so evident that it's the pressure of the streets, the revolving cycle of crime that is so hard to escape when it's all you've known.
To go back to the beginning of that last paragraph, the black people that I've seen outside the city are, like I said, classy. I make this statement again to emphasize the difference between the suburban black people and inner-city black people. When I remember the south, Pensacola to be specific, there aren't a whole lot of what I now call "suburban blacks". The majority (majority does not mean ALL, so please don't take it that way) of what I ran into during my twenty-five years of life along the border of Alabama were low-income, gangster-ish black people. But, let me also point out that Virginia is technically the south. Christian and I went into a WalMart while we were down there and the first thing we said to each other was that we missed the northeast because the patrons (white trash and black trash) that were all around WalMart were the low-income, illiterate folks that we were used to seeing in the Mobile Highway WalMart in Pensacola. There's just such a noticeable difference now that we've lived in both areas. We just don't see that kind of stuff around here.
Yes, I understand there are actually gangs in south and there are large cities in the south that have the areas that I described above. But, there has to be a missing link. Why is it that the south doesn't have as many suburban black people. Why is it that there is so much more racism in the south? Why is it that an interracial couple can act as any other couple in the northeast, but not the south? Why does it seem that the average person up here has more education (or maybe more life experience/street smarts??) than the average southerner? All of this is very interesting to me. I'll admit, I'm uneducated when it comes to civil rights and the history of the north and south and slavery and all that jazz but it's extremely apparent that there is a difference when it comes to North vs. South. If anyone has any insight on this, please post comments to this post!!!
Ok, I just had to get that off my chest. Anyway, I need to head downstairs to finish the chicken salad I'm making for our trip tomorrow (Thanks to Aunt Patty for the inspiration since the chicken salad she made for my shower was AMAZING). We now cook stuff or make sandwiches to take on road trips (since we do so many of them). It saves money and it's far more healthy! Plus, I'm at three months with NO FAST FOOD! Yahooo! I'm so proud of myself for that. Especially given the fact that I used to eat fast food about two times a week... Yucko!
I hope everyone has a fantabulous weekend and go do something fun (take a day trip, go to the book store, listen to some great music, etc)!!!!!!!! I love all of you and I'll talk to y'all soon!!!
Stay tuned for my second North vs. South post: Southern Hospitality: Is it really all it's cracked up to be?
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