" By Betsy Shearon, George Grits I grew up being more interested in scoring touchdowns than wearing tiaras. I never particularly wanted to get married and was well into my thirties before I even got engaged. And although I am a devoted aunt, the call of motherhood for me has always sounded strangely similar to the "Warning Will Robinson!" cry on the old television show. Still, I consider myself a true Southern Girl, simply because, as we say in the South, my mama done raised me right. I say, "yes, ma'am," "no, sir," "please" and "thank you." I am respectful of my elders, even my great-aunt Ida Mable, whose food we were never allowed to eat at family reunions. (Suffice it to say that eccentricity not only runs in my family, it pretty much gallops.) I always wear clean underwear in case I am in an accident. And I always leave the house clean before I go on a trip in case I get killed and strangers have to come into my house to get my funeral wear (this is despite the fact that I have yet to read an obituary that said, "she left a husband, two children, and an immaculate house.") And I know things that only Southern girls know, such as the fact that it is possible to "never talk to strangers and at the same time greet everyone you meet with a smile and a hello. I know that it is possible to "always tell the truth," but to always answer "fine" when someone asks how you are--even if your hair is on fire at the time. It is this knowledge that allows us to turn the other cheek when people say ugly things like "Southern girls are stupid, barefoot and pregnant." Southern girls realize that, given the swollen feet and ankles that accompany pregnancy, going barefoot when possible is actually a very smart and sensible thing to do--and that the Yankees who say things like that probably wouldn't talk so ugly if their feet didn't hurt, bless their hearts."