Feelings Are Mutual I Suppose

Throughout my lifetime albeit not that long, there has always been those races, people, individuals we thought of as being inferior.  How did we come about this revelation, I do not know, other than it must have been our parents who were the first to clue us in.  Then later perhaps, it was our classmates, our teachers, our preachers, and lastly our employers when we were finally of a mind to decide for ourselves, even though our minds had been tainted and painted with all sorts of predispositions.

I recall quite vividly our parents were against blacks and Catholics and those who made their living in the north.  My first awareness of blacks came at Christmas times when our mother took them food baskets and other small gifts of joy.  And, even though JFK was a Democrat, he was still Catholic and should not be trusted.  The north was a place to visit like an art gallery or a museum but not a place to venture in after dark especially since their attitudes were against those who live in the south with their funny accents and such, clothes and strange religious habits...  like Southern Baptists with their born again beliefs.

While Virginia was somewhat in the middle of the two extremes, we were more likely to lean towards a southern point-of-view than to a northern one.  And so, all my biased intent was conceived in those early years while living at home.  Still...  my first adventure up north was not too positive either, as I asked a man for "what time it was," just outside the airport and he replied with extreme harshness and a dead stare, "what do I look like a fucking clock?"  My politeness all but withered and died and crawled up my ass for a place to hide.

Ever since then and I remember well, I have never cared much at all for people from the north and their BETTER THAN YOU attitudes once they realize you are not only an out-of-towner, but are from the States below the Mason-Dixon Line.  And, if you ask around on both sides and without hesitation of any kind, they will tell you that the feelings are mutual in all respects.