John Shelton Reed Quotes

Country Music Historically Has Been Sort Of Middle-aged People's Music.

As Long As There Are Japanese Tourists, There Will Be A Market For The Old South.

Every Southerner, I Think, Knows People Like Bill Clinton, Maybe Not Quite As Smart And Maybe Not Quite As Liberal, But Kind Of A Glad-handing, Country-club Yuppie Southerner. The Problem Is We Don't Have Labels For Middle-class Southerners.

But I Still Do Believe That There Are Useful Things To Say About Elvis Presley, Including What His Own Ordinariness As A Poor Southerner Says About 20th-century Hero-making.

Dixie Has Just Fallen To Pieces. There Are Little Patches Of Dixie. But Even In The Heart Of Dixie - In Alabama - Dixie Is Slipping. They've Stopped Using The Word In Commercial Listings.

I Do Believe States' Rights Was A Sound Doctrine That Got Hijacked By Some Unsavory Customers For A While - Like, 150 Years Or So. I'm Professionally Obliged To Believe That Knowledge Is Better Than Ignorance, But Some Kinds Of Forgetting Are Ok With Me.

I Think There's A Suspicion In The South Of People Putting On Airs. You See It In Most Successful Southern Politicians, But You Also See It In Someone Like Richard Petty, Who May Be A Multimillionaire Stock Car Driver, But He's Also Beloved Because He Has A Nice Self-deprecatory Way About Him.

I've Occasionally Wished I Had Caller Id. Even Telemarketers, I Hate To Hang Up On Them. I Try To Explain I'm Not Interested, But They Have All These Canned Responses So I End Up Having To Hang Up On Them Anyway.

Southerners Smile More Than Other Americans.

There's An Ethic That Says: 'you Don't Run Off To The Church For The Sacraments Of Salvation, You Establish A Personal Relationship With God. You Don't Run Off To The Courts For Justice, You Settle It Yourself. You Don't Run Off To Labor Unions To Sort Out Your Work Relations, You Can Take This Job And Shove It If You Don't Like What You're Doing.

We Could Say That People Who Eat Grits, Listen To Country Music, Follow Stock-car Racing, Support Corporal Punishment In The Schools, Hunt 'possum, Go To Baptist Churches And Prefer Bourbon To Scotch Are Likely To Be Southerners.

Drive A Hundred Miles And The Barbecue Changes.