Author: MacEwan

SLS. Although I live and teach in Oak Park, IL, I was born and raised in Covington, Kentucky, the Gateway to the South. My ancestors moved to Kentucky just after it was made the 15th state, coming from Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Although we lived just a stone's throw from Cincinnati, a Yankee town, we proudly aligned ourselves with the South and its heritage.

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I do solemnly swear, that I am a child of the low-country, spanish moss ways, though transplanted among the concrete jungle known as New York City (please dear friends, do not hold this against me). That I was born and raised in the traditions of superstition and folklore, of witches, ghosts, and of food that comes from bottom barrel hunger, for necessity is the ruler of invention. That even as I had unfortunately shed my accent and so many of my mannerisms, for fear of being found out as southern, that I have seen the error of my ways, and there is no other place I can call home. I am from the tribe of y'all and might could, of women who have ruled the roost while segregated to backrooms. I am 3,000 miles from the shores of where I came from, and never more than now, closer to home.

Southern Legitimacy Statement: When we discussed the vocabulary word "paradox" this week in my English class, my students said, "Why, that's you, Mayfield - an educated redneck!" I guess my twang - and the deer head in my office - are dead giveaways. My colleagues eat salads, talk of fashion and pampered pets, and decorate their offices with pottery and plants. As they gab and giggle, I nibble on squirrel and dumplins and read my Mules and More magazine. "What are you doing this weekend?" one asks, and I say, "Riding my mule." Their eyes grow large, they gather their plates and utensils, and they flee the area for more civilized settings. I smile and stretch out. "Finally."