I can agree with you on a few of your comments, for instance Hollywood’s consistent misrepresentation of the South and bad accents. But I disagree completely with your thoughts on the "Andy Griffith Show" and dislike of the Beverly Hillbillies. Although I truly treasure Andy’s show for its entertainment, I must admit growing up watching the black and white images as a child I always questioned where are Mayberry’s African Americans? I was also puzzled by the idea that Aunt Bee didn’t even have a Southern accent, but one that was pure enough to be from Indiana or Ohio.

As far as your comments go in reference to "The Beverly Hillbillies," I must admit you are completely offline. I grew up just miles from the Ozarks where this fictitious family hailed from and where my Grandmother’s family called home. While watching this show, once again with our good old black and white TV, I always felt right at home with Granny, Jed, and the rest of the Clampetts.

You see, as a child growing up just short of the northern reaches of the Ozarks hills, which by the way are predominantly in Missouri and not Arkansas, we frequently visited home folk down that way. The Ozarks were not only a place where my Grandmother’s people came from, but also a place that we chose to visit for vacation and weekend getaways. The fact is many of those satire expressions and jokes about Ozark life are, or were, indeed true. I say that completely with pride and I can also provide you with my own stories and pictures of family to prove it.

It is unfortunate that you missed experiencing the diversity of the rest of the South while living South Georgia. You missed the painted blue skies and the brown and grassy Plaines of the Western South. The beauty of Texas and Oklahoma are not only in its picturesque scenes, but also found in its cultural diversity infused with Hispanics and Native American Indians. You also missed the French influences of the Mississippi Delta where French dialects and a way of life once reached as far North as the Mid South just below St. Louis.

You also missed my Grandmother’s home that was settled by the people of Appalachia and you neglected the great contributions made by African Americans who lived in all of these areas that I mentioned. It was from there that famous Americans were born and raised, for instance my own Missouri’s George Washington Carver. You missed the unforgettable sounds that arose from the fields and backrooms of the Delta, those sounds that created Dixieland, Ragtime, Jazz, and the Delta Blues. Scott Joplin, who is said to be the father of Jazz, wrote and published his Ragtime classics in Missouri and ended up living in St. Louis.

Oh yes, and as far as my opinion goes we have the greatest damned barbeque in the whole South!

Sincerly,
Gary Gene Fuenfhausen
Tybee Island, GA

Dear Mr. Fuenfhausen,
Thank you for your letter in response to my satirical article in Tybee’s entertainment magazine, Tybee Breeze. I’m always delighted to hear from my readers. If you have read any of my other articles, you know that all of them are designed to be either tongue in cheek or humorous...hopefully both. They are NOT serious treatises on life as we know it. I had enough of those in my years of teaching in high school and college!

Since I have lived in Europe and traveled extensively in this country, I am far from blind as to what lies beyond the borders of Georgia, and I’m not quite as provincial as that article may have led you to believe. My knowledge of other places and other cultures is what makes me comfortable enough to make fun of us Southerners as I did in the article that you have taken as a serious commentary. However, the article does express what I think of the accents I hear in the current movies set in the Savannah and Low Country areas.

As for the Clampetts of your area and the Taylors of Mayberry, whom I also watched in black and white, I see a bit of some of my relatives and acquaintances in both of those families. And, no, I did not grow up in the Ozarks or the "western south" as you did, just as you did not experience all the little nuances of life elsewhere in the vast south. We all have our childhood memories of places and people we find special. We are who we are based on those experiences and memories.

Read the Breeze article again and think "FUN!" And, by the way, welcome to this little piece of southern paradise we call Tybee Island. We’re an interesting mix! We enjoy life here and hope you will too.