How to Carry on Southern Culture to Future Generations

In last week's episode on storytelling, we learned from Donald Davis, that there are identity cultures and fortune cultures. We have a heart to see the good parts of our southern identity go on to future generations. But how do we do that? Join us at the table as we discuss how to carry on that culture. 

I'm Lainie, and I'm Laura Beth, and we are Steel Magnolias,

the strength of steel with the grace of a magnolia. We are here to have uplifting conversations about life in the south. And we've got plenty of room at our table, so pull up a chair.

 Welcome back to the table, Steel Magnolias podcast here, with my sis Lainie, and before we jump in, I haven't asked in a long, long, long time, but it still holds importance. If you're enjoying this podcast, would you pause just for a second and give us a rating and review in the app that you listen in? Just like five stars, I love this podcast, whatever. Just one little nugget is all it takes for somebody to have enough to go Oh, yeah, people like this. I should like this. Anyway, the last review we got is from June, and it's almost October. So we need we need a fresh one. It helps people find us. Yeah. And so yeah, if you would do that, that lets people know, should they hit play or not? We think yes, we need y'all to say yes too. 

Okay, this topic is the heartbeat of this podcast. And I don't know, remember back four years ago, when we first started talking about a podcast? I'm looking at you like as if you don't? Well? Of course you do. So I thought I would just name real quick, some of those reasons. Just even before we jump into how we're going to answer this question, which neither of us have talked about our notes as to how you answer this question and how I answered it. So it's gonna be very interesting. But some of the reasons we initially started this podcast four years ago, were number one, we had an influx of new people in our town, and in our state, that were not familiar with some of the customs and the culture here. So they weren't foreigners to the from other countries, but they were from other parts of the United States, where culture really was quite different from here. And there, were scratching their head, or they were taken aback or whatever. There just was some gap there. And so we thought, oh, let's do a podcast. We love talking about this kind of stuff. Like, yeah, and we love this format. We listen to podcasts. So we thought, well, we could actually do one. Yes. And so that was another reason we saw podcasts as like a growing medium. So we thought this was the right way to communicate that. So those are two reasons. The third reason would be we couldn't find another podcast at that time that was talking about Southern culture regularly, that had the history, food travel, college football, you know, had the very well rounded or we hope it's well rounded, looks at culture. You know, there's some really good food podcasts out there. There's some really good travel podcasts out there. There's some really good things you should have learned in history class, sort of podcasts out there. But we really did want to focus on the southern United States. And so we were having a hard time finding that regional kind of thing. Yeah. And then finally, I was ready to start something new. I was a year into being a new mom and I was kind of ready to work on a project. And so anyway, all of those things led to Steel Magnolias podcast.  Exactly. Now, as we said in the intro, this is a great episode to do on the heels of last week storytelling culture episode, if you haven't listened to that interview, we did with storyteller Donald Davis, definitely go back and check that out. He had a what we call a mic drop moment. First. Two minutes into the episode where he spoke about storytelling cultures, being prevalent in identity cultures, and he lives in North Carolina, where storytelling culture is prevalent. So therefore, it must have a strong identity culture, you know, it's answering those questions of who are you? Where do you come from? Who do you come from? And I thought a lot about that conversation. Girl, I have too. I've listened to conversations differently, ones I'm a part of, and ones I'm not a part of. I even shifted one where I was just at the park with some moms and we were fortunate culture, like it was all about the housing market and just, you know, Fortune sorts of topics. And then you're like, How can I steer this? How can I

earn a fortune telling, or not fortune telling but a fortune, culture, and I really tried to steer us and start asking questions about their family. And it was just very interesting. It really is. But you know, we came from East Tennessee, that's where our family our mom and dad are from, and we're predominantly all of their family. History is from there, and then ancestrally we would be from England, Scotland, and Ireland. Yeah. And I've personally never visited those countries. But you have Lainie, and you said you felt right at home when you visited there because you saw so many similarities there to East Tennessee.  I did it was you know, especially the language some of the things I was hearing, “I reckon”. I heard that a lot. And I was like, gosh, I thought that was like a “hillbilly” thing. Even “hillbilly”. There were so many things that I was like, Oh, my gosh, this is my roots. Yeah, yeah. So just Yeah, thinking about where you come from who you come from the people, the places, and even landscapes of a place. They can begin to change over time. Yeah, I put landscapes in there because I was like, man, we're watching the landscape change all around us. There's cranes all over Nashville. There's, you know, land being flattened to build Yeah. And, but you do have, I don't mean to cut you off. But I was thinking of I actually bought a postcard in Scotland, that I framed and have hanging here that reminded me of East Tennessee because of the rolling hills and mountainous not like Swiss Alp, kind of mountains right, but like the mountains we have, and I thought No wonder those people felt at home in North Carolina in East Tennessee, it looks like that. Yes. No wonder they make whiskey here. That's what they did. They're like, all those kinds of things. Yeah. Where it's like, well, they just came and did what they knew. Yeah. In a place that looks similar. Exactly. Yes. So the question on the table, you know, with, with things always changing around us, the people, the places the landscape? How do we preserve the stories of what was the roots of our people that are so important? We've talked even on here before that, you know, you were born into a place or a region and into a precise family, for a very unique reason. Yeah. And so embrace that. Like, if you don't know it, maybe that's a searching out for you. But from our perspective, this is, this is home to us. And so preserving this sorts of culture is really, really important. You're smiling, because I don't know what you're what you're wanting to say now. I'm just smiling because I think I have so many things running through my head one, sometimes you can feel like was I born in the right family? I feel so different than so many of the people in my family or something. But if you really, you know, step back, and God will show you, yeah, the why it's true, you know, that kind of thing. And the parts to cherish from your family and the things that you can thank him that he's brought you out of. Yes. Does that make sense?

It does. And I kind of get would be willing to bet that most of us point to like, the reasons why we shouldn't have been born in this time, or in this family or in this place. Yeah. It's easier to see the why we shouldn't have versus the white. We should.

That is so true. Because I've been guilty of sometimes and I'm the reason I'm saying guilty is I've felt conviction, one time of always saying oh, I should have been born in Jane Austen times, I should have been born in the 1920s I should have you know, like I've made those statements probably more than most people have. But, there was a reason yeah. And I was born for now. Yeah, certainly couldn't have had a podcast in those times. 

Yeah, very so I think

that my statement my statements like that came out of Oh, because I liked when there were formal dances and women danced more so easy, was glamorized at all. Exactly. Yeah. Oh, Depression, the depression, the Great Depression, it's very easy to forget that part.  

I know I think about, you know, we all watch Downton Abbey and wanted to live then but that's assuming you're upstairs, not downstairs. All of those kinds of things. You know, we all want to dress like Mary not like the ones in the kitchen. Yeah. Well, so I'm I'm gonna kind of toss it to you because I'm curious as to how you what your thought was in just answering this question. How do we preserve our southern culture and our southern history? 

Well, parts that we do feel like when we're and is, of course, there's things that we are glad are put to rest, right? Well, I think it's interesting, because to me, it is so deep, the question is so deep. But yet the answer is actually kind of simple.

And I want to correct something I just said, I don't mean, we just want to preserve the good parts. Because we want to, like, we don't want to rewrite history. No, no, no, in terms of preservation, I feel like felt like I said, in a way that some of

that happened, too. And that's not what we mean. Yeah.

We're just talking about how do we preserve the stories? How do we continue telling of the traditions and what's the remembrance?

So you just said it? Actually, those are the words. Okay. Okay. To me, I think of remembering, storytelling. And I actually, in thinking through some of this, I actually had a sweet time of just jotting some things down that were coming in my mind in prayer. Well, cool, because really, this is very much what God does with you look at the Israelites. That's what I kind of mentioned to Donald Davis of like, oh, as you're saying this, like you're a former minister, don't you see this in the Word of God? Like, right, where he's always having them? Remember things. Yeah. The Passover meal is a good example of remembering the story when I brought you out of Egypt. Yeah, he was always having them do like these Ebenezer stones of like, when something happened, and you put this stone, so you'll always remember that. Even communion. That's a big one, you know? Yeah, there's a reason He wants us to continue to take it on a regular basis, because we need to remember what what that was and is. And those sorts of tangible things, like the bread and the cup. are, they're visual, so that the younger generation coming up behind us, even if they're not understanding, understand the binocular of it or the the weight of it, but they see the people around them partaking of that. And so, yeah, even that, I think, is a beautiful thing when we repeat things that our elders did, yeah. Whether that and we'll get into some practicals of that. But I just yeah, as I was thinking through that, I was also thinking about how repetition, I wrote this down. And this is MUST BE HOLY SPIRIT, because I'm not that smart. Repetition makes recall easier. Because sometimes when you're forgetting who you are forgetting, you're in a shaky ground moment, and whatever. If it's really in you, like, from repetition, you can recall it even when you don't feel it. Does that make sense? Yes. And so I think about how repetition is so important, because you can rattle it off. Yeah, moment when you're not clearly knowing you are. And I think I've heard I've heard it said another way and kind of more of a psychology sort of term of like, I don't remember there's probably even some other steps into it. But kind of like thoughts lead to actions, actions lead to habits like it there's, there's sort of these steps of how you get to good character,

or bad character. Right. And it didn't just happen overnight. After thought after action. Yes. Right. So that repetition Yeah, I understand that. I was also thinking of just the importance of being firm in what you know of who you are. Not that you're not open to other people's way of doing things. I don't mean that like that. You're like, Oh, our food is the best or our music is better than yours. I don't mean that, but you're just like, No, this is who I am. Yes. Because and it got me thinking of how trees that have deep roots. Yeah, they can't be swayed very easily. If the roots are not very deep, you know, they're easily to topple over. But when roots are D It's really steady and strong wind. Yes. And that got me. I'm not gonna go into all this. But I started looking up scriptures that I wrote down six different scriptures that I found about that.

Wow, pretty awesome. Well, I can put it in our show notes if anyone wants to look that up, anyway. And also I was thinking of how another Bible reference, but in Deuteronomy 6 and 11, God's talking a lot about telling your children, like, just, you know, in your coming, and you're going and yes, telling your children about him and about who they are. That stuff's very important. Yep. And so it's the same from the spiritual, as in the natural right of, here's who your ancestors are. Yeah, here's why we do this. Here's the music that we, you know, listen to every Christmas. Yes, that kind of thing really gets in you. Yeah, yeah. So let's start by just saying that. I mean, not that we haven't started, but because we're on people, I think you can ask anyone that has lost great grandparents and grandparents early on in life didn't have them at all, maybe even up into mother and father parental roles. If they feel any sort of a lack of knowing who they are just from those roles being absent in their life, I think you're going to hear a resounding Yeah. Like I kind of wished I would have had more time with this grandma, or I've heard about this uncle, but I never got to meet him or a lot of that people. Yeah, in our own nuclear families carry so much weight in terms of the I guess I'll just call it oral traditions. Yeah, you know, that sounds so formal, but because it could be a story that, you know, shouldn't be published. It's not like a great story. But it's just something that I don't know that we stuck out to you for some reason that somebody in your family mentioned, and maybe you've heard it more than once, and maybe every time it gets told it's a little different, or you're not even sure if it's true anymore. But those sorts of oral traditions are hugely important in terms of preserving culture. So I would say, I don't know how to categorize it, other than the people and the storytelling of oral traditions.

Well, yeah, and one of the things I jotted down here was, to your point is in the how do we do this? I just wrote down media. Yes. Because media in general, you can jokingly wrote down you could start a podcast because that's what we did. Well, you could write a book. Yes. My my whole list is pretty much media. Mostly. I just feel like it carries such weight. Yeah, it can outlive you. Yes, right. Maybe I can outlive you. So I think about what Foxfire is doing, where they're sending out. They're sending out young people, to interview elderly people in Appalachia, to keep their stories alive, to keep their traditions alive to keep their recipes alive to keep their way of whatever whittling sticks, right alive remedies for mosquito bites, or you know, ahead call has have died and will be dying. So let's keep all their knowledge alive. Yeah,

we did do a whole episode on Fox fire. So I'll link to that in our show notes. So you can go back and listen to that if you missed it. But I do want to just mention real quick if you're like What is Fox fire, so in 1966, a struggling English teacher to school in northeast Georgia, he asked his students what would make school more interesting, and they decided to create a magazine featuring stories gathered from their families and neighbors about the Pioneer era of southern Appalachia, as well as traditions still thriving in the region. The students called it Foxfire, after the glow in the dark fungus found in the local hills. This spark of an idea turned into a phenomenon of education and living history, exploring how our past contributes to who we are, and what we can become, how the past illuminates our present and inspires imagination. So, yes, we love organizations. Foxfire is an incredible example of it. Yeah. That promotes students to go interview someone to get to know who they are and where they came from. And that's exactly right. Yeah. So education is huge. I might go ahead and name just a couple of other sort of educational groups that are doing good in the worker. Preservation. There's a group that is part of the Institute of the Center for the Study of southern culture at the University of Mississippi. They're the Southern Foodways Alliance. They also have a podcast, they host events, they create films, right? They even teach you how to, you know, go do research yourself. I mean, they're very thorough in the ways that they're trying to carry on and preserve culture. I mean, there's a bunch out there that are tied to college campuses, community centers, libraries. Yes. Of just vested citizens. I'm sure there's probably no grateful for all of those kinds of things.

So, I was thinking about, you know, just seed exchange groups that are keeping heirloom seeds going, you know, because that stuff will die away. Yeah. Otherwise, yeah. So all of those kinds of things. Yeah. Well, we said our podcast at the front end of this is, you know, this is our effort to participate in this work as well. 

I want to mention another podcast that we have been a fan of and really enjoy.  Vanishing postcards is please go ahead and just jot that down, or we'll link to it in our show notes. But, you know, it's been said that if you want to get your finger on the pulse of a nation, just take a cruise down Main Street, America's main street, and one of our favorite podcast vanishing postcards, is inviting you to do just that this season. The host is Evan Stern. He motored cross country on route 66. And he encountered everything from an eating contest in the Texas panhandle to a morning on the Santa Monica Pier. Vanishing postcards is I would call it like an immersive experience. He's so great. The way he tells stories, the way he interviews the way he brings sounds into the experience because it feels like your wedding. Do you absolutely feel like you were on the trip with him? And so He's funny. He's touching. It's just an incredibly unique experience. Yeah, he's a Texas native and I love Texans. Check out Vanishing postcards wherever you get podcasts, and tell Evan we said hi. 

I have a local that I want to mention. Tell us. I'm sure that there are these kinds of wonderful people all over the southeast and the south. But on any given Sunday, weather permitting in downtown Franklin, you might come across a free show on the public square. Oh, and it is clogging dance group that has been going for I believe, like 40 years by Tommy Jackson. Now Tommy Jackson is a native here. I think his story is hilarious on how he got into clogging. Okay, as it's clogging and buck dancing, which is certainly a part of our culture. You have got to have people to carry on the tradition of things like this, because that’s not happening in the nightclubs anymore. So somebody's got to keep this going. And Tommy got into dance because there was a girl he was interested in at a young age. And his parents said, Well, she only dates dancers. Oh, so guess what he learned how to do? Oh, my goodness. I did not know that. That's so cute. Anyway, so he's all about preservation of this dance. In his words, “It's a dying art form.” So he longs to see this carry on. Uh huh. His lessons are free and they costume them through donation money. And I just think it's such a beautiful thing. They've performed in dance competitions all over. They've performed at festivals and have even gotten to, I mean, the goal of all goals, the Grand Ole Opry. Wow. So his group is called the Rocky Top Review. And yeah, he's, I can't wait renowned in that community. He's accepted an award in Spartanburg, South Carolina at the World Championship competition. Wow. He's in I believe in Alabama Hall of Fame or something. He's really made a name for himself. But the fact that he does that right here on our little square every Sunday is just a beautiful example of what we're talking about. I can’t believe I didn't think about dance. So this is why this is so good to not collective or not to talk together. I didn't have dance on my list. I did have music. Yes. So we saw huge pieces of history. This summer even we saw this well displayed at the National Museum of African American music here in Nashville, which is a fairly, fairly new museum within the last year. We heard it when we interviewed Dr. Paul Kwami of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. We met with a Gullah woman in Charleston, South Carolina this summer. And she shared she and a group of others that she performs with share songs to tell the stories, instruments to tell of the times that they came from the people that they came from and in Fort Worth, we met a gal who is a part of a group called the Cow Town Opry. Yep. And they are committed to preserving promoting and performing western heritage and western swing music and cowboy culture. Also free Sunday shows where they're mentoring young people. Same thing. Yeah. So

there's all these pockets. I mean, there's there's droves of them out there. But thank goodness they're out there. It makes me so happy because they're using music as the art form to communicate and, and preserve and share those stories. 

I mean, I think an obvious one is books. You mentioned that earlier, but we need to make sure libraries and archives stay around. I mean, I didn't appreciate those libraries or archives as a child. But now I regularly go to the library. Yeah, sometimes with my son to the children's section, but sometimes for this podcast and making sure that stays free. Yeah, you know, is really important. 

Yeah. historical landmarks and tours. Those are that's a great very important to storytelling and making sure that people in places continue to be recognized. Well, you mentioned southern foodways Alliance. I think even in keeping with, you know, bring that on down home to your own family, like cooking with your grandma or the elderly people in your family learning how they make those things. They may not have those recipes written down. They likely don’t. So just making sure you're, you're gonna glean so much from time with them. And just even keeping those things going. So that you, you know, 20 years from now at Christmas, and you're wanting grandma's gingerbread recipe that you know how to make it. Exactly. I'm so glad you mentioned food, because that kind of points back to our southern cookbooks episode just a few weeks back, because a lot of that discussion revolved around traditions and history. And well, I'll tell you, it's more than just how something turns out. You know, it's right. That the recipe is just right and tastes good. There's nostalgia that is packed in there too. You know, the woman that I mentioned, that I said I was really thought her cookbook looked like it would stand the test of time that Gullah Geechee. Yes, Emily, Emily, Meggett, the matriarch of Edisto Island. Yes, she had to have help on writing those recipes out because she did things like, “a handful of this.” And like she just knows how to make it. Wow. So to do the cookbook, she had to actually like measure to know how to tell somebody else. And that's what I'm talking about. Which how classic is that. Right? I think a lot of us have had that experience. If you like cooking or have been

trying to get in one with somebody that's you'll just know. Yeah, just eyeball this. Add a little Yeah. How much is a little check on it every once in a while. What am I looking for? Like, just tell me. Yeah, that's real. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. That's very cool. 

Well, I think about even other mediums of art- quilting, weaving Sweetwater baskets, You know, yes. The the the handmade goods, that stuff. I mean, especially the ones that take a long time where the stories in the tradition traditions, oftentimes are being shared while making it. That's right. That's right. You know,

That was what was so beautiful about those quilting groups and stuff. They solved all the world's problems while they made. That's right. That's right. They were encouraging each other and, yeah, they were community for one another.

And, you know, it's interesting in our culture now, not meaning southern culture, just meaning the times we live in. Things are so fast. So teenagers don't want to sit down and learn how to quilt or make a Sweetwater basket and they want to know they want them. That's gonna be done in five minutes. Yes. Order on Amazon. It'll be here tomorrow. Yeah, I

mean, so this is yet another reason we have to just make it happen. Yeah, it's not gonna just happen. Yeah, it's, every single thing we've mentioned, takes intentionality.

Oh, yeah. I've mentioned a lot of times on here. But I mean, it bears repeating the power of films as well via feature films, or even just in the sort of the world we live in now. Just any sort of even streaming? How many people got a new picture of Elvis in his life, and specifically his manager, Colonel Tom Parker from the Elvis movie this year? I know. I did. Yeah. I had no idea. Some of the stories that unfolded from that. And some, some of them broke my heart. And now you think, Well, you know, the glamorous life didn't look too glamorous after that. No, but it stuck with me, I have so many visuals now of what was portrayed in that. There's another feature film coming out later this year on the faith that Johnny Cash experienced in his life. And I guarantee there'll be new facets of Johnny Cash that we will learn about from and we that's, that's something moments are powerful. Yeah. So you know, people do a lot of work with interviews of family and friends to put together those sorts of films. I mean, they don't just happen, like you were saying, a lot of intentionality. And, you know, I mean, of course, you can be like, well, how much was it fact checked? Or what what sort of liberties were given right to the creative sort of nature of it, but we do what we do know is that film is powerful. And it's definitely a way to preserve culture and and tell of historical people and events and places. That's right. That's a big one.

I would even say festivals. Oh, good. Yeah, that's another way of keeping traditions alive. Yes. understanding more about your culture, meeting people that are similar there in that can go in any direction. That could be music that could be foodways, that could be art. I mean, there's a jazz the, you know, there's jazz festivals in New Orleans, people that go in, there's the Sweetwater festival thinking about those baskets, there's cornbread festivals, so true. So many different kinds of directions. But festivals are a place you can learn more about your people. Yeah. Or your culture. I love that. That’s so perfect. And we mentioned the storytelling festivals, the you know, they're all around the the one we mentioned was in the one in Jonesborough. In October, yes. Yeah. So yeah, festivals. 

 And I even just think about traditions. I mean, your family may have some or may not, but you can start them. Yeah, they don't yet. Your culture may have some that you tap into, right? You know, I think about anytime there's gatherings for a purpose that we that weddings, or funerals or birthdays, oftentimes there'll be an it something that you start to do year after year. Yes, right.

Repetition. That's that repetition again. I think about a family, we know that they always for birthdays, they make the person's favorite meal. And they have a time of blessing where everybody's just praying for that person and speaking life into them. And here in the south weddings often have a lot of traditions be that special family ones or cake pulls. at the oh my gosh, we did a whole episode on that too. Yeah, Southern weddings and all the traditions burying the bourbon bottle for the good weather. I mean, there's all kinds of things that it seems silly in the moment, but that it's just something that continues to keep going. And there's something special in that. And the thing I love about all of this that we're describing, is if you love any of this that you're hearing and you just didn't know that this was a part of the culture here, jump and jump in. If you don't like just fine, it's right. If you don't like it, come up with your right. You don't have to be from here to you know, preserve the stories if you enjoy this, just come on alongside us and start it in your family or started in your friend group. And it's never too late to start. Right. No tradition. I mean, we have some that we've done for two years and some we've done for 20. Yeah, and they change. Yeah. But yeah, the important part is like you're saying These all factor in to helping stories carry on and people didn't know who they are. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Well, that was the completion of my list. Did you have Yeah. I was trying to remember what was that? I just because I thought it was a good mention. It didn't go that great when I got it for our dad. But do you remember that thing where he would get the emails to answer questions? Yeah,

group called Story something? Yeah. Oh, we can we can put it in the show notes. It prompts you in a weekly email, weekly

email with questions for them to answer and I thought it was such a beautiful experience to keep stories going. Yes. My dad did so, so on the participation of this, but I think it's just a way, just one avenue. You know, some people like to grab stories on video cameras, or now everybody has that on their phones. But well, but yeah, keeping things alive.

It's helpful with the the prodding because, you know, sometimes great stories come and it's just because the question was asked, when you would not approach known to ask that question? Yes. And it wasn't that that person was withholding the information. They just hadn't thought about it. They didn't know it was, you know, interesting to you, or Yeah,

so you can find out things that you never would have found out about that loved one, because they asked some really good things do Yeah. So we'll link to that in the show notes. Okay. Keep on keeping on. keep remembering and retelling. 

Share this podcast with your friends to help the stories continue. Peace be with you, Laura Beth. Thank you and also with y’all!