Manly Honor in the South
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padre31Luxury BoxOPGenerosity, friendliness, warm-heartedness, and expressive sociability were points of honor for a Southerner and one of the primary ways in which he “distinguish himself from the Yankee.” If the watchwords for the Northerner gentleman were “coolness and detachment,” the watchwords for his Southern counterpart were “passion and affability.” While Southern men honored the Stoics for their apathy towards death and centered calmness in times of both crisis and fortune, they made more allowance for joviality in social situations than their more restrained Northern brethren. Even today, Southerners take pride in their region’s friendly and big-hearted ways.
To combat the fear of solitariness discussed above, Southerners looked for any excuse to get together with friends and kin and held frequent dances, corn huskings, barn raisings, picnics, and militia musterings, amongst many other types of gatherings.
But it was the ancient ritual of hospitality that held the most central role in a Southern man’s sociability and acted as a test of his honor. Wyatt-Brown defines hospitality as “the relationship of an individual and family to outsiders on home turf.” But it started with taking care of one’s own kin. Southerners contrasted their generous approach in aiding their relatives to that which they perceived as the impersonal and tightfisted way in which Northerners more frequently relied on public assistance – leaving the job to asylums, poorhouses, and charitable organizations.
And of course when it came to strangers and visitors, Southerners felt duty-bound to show hospitality to whomever showed up. An element of competition existed in Southern hospitality – households which pulled out more of the stops in entertaining won status in the eyes of the community.
http://artofmanliness.com/2012/11/26/manly-honor-part-v-honor-in-the-american-south/
Great article in AOM's "Manly Honor" series focusing on the South with stuff about dueling, who really owned slaves (75% did not own slaves, of those that did 75% owned ten or fewer) gambling, drinking, why sports are so big in the South
Good stuff, very well done
gafinfanSupporterYou deserve a 1000 thanks for this post!
Great read and so very true.
A story from my youth comes to mind:
On a friday night at supper time in the fall we heard a hello from the front yard. A normal custome in those days .... one did not come up onto the porch until invited. My Uncle got up to see who it was at this hour, it happened to be a WWII vet down on his luck trying to get home.
He was invited in and given supper during which he told us his story ..... a marine fighting in the Pacific he was wounded and returned home. Upon finishing his meal my Uncle drove him down town (I was allowed to go also, a rare treat in those days for such a young boy) to the Greyhound Bus station, bought hom a ticket to where he wanted to go and handed him $50.00 pocket money.
Would it have happened elsewhere? I'm sure it would but the point to me was driven home by my Uncle to me that this is the way we treat people. Yet at that time $50.00 was a large sum considering at that time my Mothers pay was $100.00 a month before taxes and $25.00 of which went to my Uncle for room and board for she and I.
It was a great lesson learned and one I've tried to also live by.
This is the only thing I’ve learned: There’s only us. There’s no them. Despots and authoritarians need to make a “them” to have a straw man whom you are against. If you need to make an enemy of “them,” you’ve lost the spirit of us. - Ken Burns of PBS
padre31Luxury BoxIt's a well done piece, they have a article about "manly after shaves" that you'll get a kick out of:
Pinaud Clubman is the oldest bargain aftershave on our list. Since 1810, Pinaud-Clubman has been making the world smell manlier with their wide range of grooming products. Walk into any traditional barbershop and you’ll likely find Pinaud-Clubman aftershave sitting on the shelves; it’s part of what gives classic barbershops their distinctive scent.
What it smells like: Pinaud Clubman is pretty potent stuff. You’ll find hints of orange, lemon, jasmine, and lavender with a warm musk background in this manly concoction. It also has a nice antiseptic alcohol smell to it. You’d think smelling like rubbing alcohol would be a bad thing, but somehow Pinaud-Clubman makes it work.
http://artofmanliness.com/2012/01/10/6-forgotten-drugstore-colognes-and-aftershaves/
Pinaud is strong strong stuff, so is Brut 33..can recall every teen kid having a bottle of that stuff or Polo..