202 southern favorites

Southern Living, Spring 2002

Here are some of our staff's best-loved people, places, and pastimes.

In our years of traveling around the South, we've met hundreds of fascinating people, dined in scores of appetizing eateries, uncovered an array of interesting facts, browsed through multitudes of simply wonderful shops, and spent long weekends engaged in leisurely pursuits. While we can't list them all, here are 202 of our favorite things about the region.

1-4) Music Makers

You may know his music, but you may not know that the "B.B." in the name of Memphis legend B.B. King stands for "Blues Boy." You know Loretta Lynn was born a Kentucky coal miner's daughter, but few fans remember that her debut single, "Honky Tonk Girl," was released on Zero Records out of Vancouver, British Columbia. The first rock 'n' roll song, "Rocket 88," was written by Ike Turner in a car en route from Mississippi to Sam Phillips's Memphis studio. And while Arkansas native Johnny Cash never shot a man in Reno just to watch him die, he was banned from the Grand Ole Opry because he was so violent-- at least before he cleaned up his act.

5-8) Funny Folks

Missouri native Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) bequeathed a legacy of laughs through his classic tales, but did you know he also invented a vest strap and a board game? Satiric writer Kinky Friedman of Utopia, Texas, is best known for his mystery novels and his music, but this funny cynic turns soft over his animal-rescue ranch. Even though she is severely dyslexic and has trouble spelling, Alabama native and humorist Fannie Flagg penned such best-sellers as Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen aims for humor in his wacky novels, but scholars once judged his work serious enough to warrant a panel discussion on "The Ecothrillers of Carl Hiaasen."

9-12) Funky Festivals

In the South, we'll celebrate just about anything. Gloucester, Virginia, honors the daffodils that grow in its gardens and commercial fields every April. When they want to know if it'll be a cold winter, folks in Banner Elk, North Carolina, study the woolly worm. Caterpillar races are a highlight of the town's Woolly Worm Festival. Rayne, Louisiana, jumps off its annual Frog Festival (which features the World Champion Frog Jumping Contest) on Labor Day. It takes a big town to laugh at itself, and Wetumka, Oklahoma, does exactly that every October during its annual Sucker Day. In 1950, Wetumkans paid for a circus that never showed up, but now they laugh at being suckered.

13-19) Sport Surprises

Southerners have always loved all types of sports and broken all kinds of sports records. For instance, history's longest softball game (the 31 -inning marathon took nearly eight hours to finish) was played in Clearwater, Florida, back in 1963. Fans in Wilmington, North Carolina, remember the most famous player not to make the Laney High School basketball team the first time he tried out--Michael Jordan. Passing the pigskin is so popular with Southerners of all ages and genders that the professional National Women's Football League makes its headquarters in Nashville. And speaking of team spirit, let's hear a cheer for these great college and high school mascots-the TCU Horned Frogs (Texas Christian University), the Goucher Gophers (Goucher College, Maryland), the Fighting Blue Hens (the University of Delaware), and the Poca Dots (last year's state football champs from Poca High School in Poca, West Virginia).

20-23) Blasts From the Past

There are still plenty of places for those of us who remember drive-ins and poodle skirts. You can take in a movie in the open air at Baltimore's Bengie's Drive-In. They serve malts and floats the old-fashioned way at Old Doc's Soda Shop, part of the Dr Pepper Bottling Company in Dublin, Texas. And while we're serving up sweet memories, the Lone Star State holds the record for the most Dairy Queens in the country. Finally, in Memphis, Sun Studio (the place where many say rock 'n' roll was born) still welcomes guests to the rooms where Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and other stars recorded their first hits.

24-27) First-Prize Fairs

State and county fairs have been part of this region for more than a century. One of the oldest, the Neshoba County Fair, continues near Philadelphia, Mississippi, a July tradition since 1889. Thousands of midway fans travel to Fair Park in Dallas every autumn to check out the livestock entries, ride the tallest Ferris wheel in North America, and pig out on Fletcher's corn dogs at the State Fair of Texas. The West Virginia State Fair plays annual host to the "Best Dressed Cow Pageant." And the small town of Perry, Georgia, increases its population by more than 350,000 every fall when visitors flock to the Georgia National Fair, one of the South's largest.

28-30) Curl Up And Dye

Beauty parlors in the South are more than just places for a cut and style. At Kanette's Salon & Day Spa in Germantown, Tennessee, you can relax in a garden after a massage, and shop for outdoor and home accessories. In Fredericksburg, Texas, the Fredericksburg Herb Farm includes a day spa along with a cafe, a bed-and-- breakfast, and herb and candle shops. At Beauty and the Book in Jefferson, Texas, you can get a cut and a bestseller. Visiting authors who come to sign books get a free trim.