Part Viking, Part Sweet Tea

According to my DNA, I’m a patchwork quilt of Europe: 41% England & Northwestern Europe, 21% France, 16% Finland, 8% Sweden, with a handful of Irish, Welsh, German, Scottish, and even Icelandic threads tossed in. Basically, if there was a fjord, a castle, or a pub, my people probably passed through.

But here’s the truth: all those wandering ancestors eventually wound up Southern. Dad’s folks drifted through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Minnesota before putting down roots in dusty West Texas in the ’50s. Mom’s family came out of North Georgia and into East Texas. Mom and Dad met in Denton, and except for a couple of early years near Philadelphia, my life has been Southern through and through.

So while my DNA might read like a European buffet, my cultural heritage tastes more like fried chicken, cornbread, and sweet tea. It sounds like gospel hymns on Sunday morning and a fiddle tune at the county fair. It looks like front porches, “yes ma’am,” “no sir,” and being taught to respect your elders, work hard, worship the Lord, love your country, and treat women right. Those values aren’t only Southern, but they sure seem to show up in abundance down here. (We won’t talk about the places where they don’t — because that wouldn’t be polite. Let’s just say, “Bless their hearts.”)

And that’s what I’m proud of: not just the European map in my DNA, but the Southern soil it grew into — faith, food, family, music, and a whole lot of grit. So yeah, I guess you could say I’m part Viking, part sweet tea.

About Douglas Blaine

Capnpen is a writer who was a newspaper and magazine journalist in a previous life. A college journalism major, he now works as an English teacher, but gets his writing fix by blogging about a variety of topics, including politics, religion, movies and television. When he's not working or blogging, Capnpen spends time with his family, plays a little golf (badly) and loves to learn about virtually anything.

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