My Mother and Times in Southwest Georgia

Culture blog day....When I was a teenager growing up in the Southwest Georgia town of Cairo it was so fantastically hot in the summertime. Also, we had so many gnats (pesky, pesky bugs) that it made us folks pretty crazy. But many times I had great experiences, My Mother was a social worker and a lot of times she would take me on some of her trips to see people. I now know as an elderly soul that these experiences were so wonderful for me. Long before social networking, folks like my Mama helped me to understand the marvelous culture of the state of Georgia. I miss you Mama...Mother believed in getting a good social education planted in the souls of boys and girls. My Mother always treated all people the same. She had a belief that being "stuck up" was a kind of moronic attitude and she did not want her son to be carrying around that kind of baggage. Southwest Georgia is a mysterious, beautiful place with its incredible passion, fine music and most of all truly remarkable people. When I rode with Mama we talked about so many things but I remember us talking on good writing and music so much. She was a big fan of the John Steinbeck book of the regular guys called 'Of Mice and Men.' She said that story of the two interesting characters provided so many interesting insights. My Mama also liked John Steinbeck's masterwork, 'The Grapes of Wrath.' I figure the point was my Mama had lived through the brutal Great Depression of the 1930s so the 'Grapes' book of Mr. Steinbeck's had great resonance for her. I can see my Mama now as we would sit down in our kitchen and have some good, juicy tomato sandwiches and big glasses of iced tea for lunch. Indeed memories like these mean so much to me a man growing up in the remarkable Southern culture that is truly a huge part of the state of Georgia. I miss you, Mama. But I gotta say right now I am so thankful for the job you did in making me a Georgia man with a lot of passion and meaningful understanding.