There's nothing better than summer is the South. I love everything about it. I love the feeling of the steam building throughout the morning. I love magnolias and weeping willow trees. I love the crickets chirping around 7 o'clock in the evening after a scorching day. I love finding a good shade to sit under in the middle of the afternoon. Nomatter how old I get, I will always catch the first glow-bug that I see every summer. I love coming in the house for a cold glass of sweet tea, dripping in sweat after working in the yard. I love grass-stains and dancin' around barefooted to keep from being severely burned by the hot asphalt. Country music has more soul in the summer. I love wearing searsucker shorts and grandpa' beach/fish shirts. If I had my way, I'd start every one of my mornings with my pops on the glaring water chasin' fins and smelling like fish. If I had it my way, I'd finish every one of my days on the backporch grillin' cheeseburgers with Amanda and telling her all about my day fishing over a frosty bottle of Abita brew. I love driving my truck around town, windows down late at night. Truth be told, Amanda might even tell you that I get a little more redneck in the summer - and I'm alright with that.
I was thinking about all of this earlier this week while I was getting ready for an event that one of our radio stations was working. The event: Harnett Regional Agriculture Fair. I don't know if it was the smell of fried turkey legs or whether it was the sound of a pig race taking place in the background (Little Anne beat BBQueen if you were wondering), but while I was waiting for our station van to arrive all I could think about is how much I loved summer in the South. Sure, summer is great everywhere. But summer doesn't seem to have a soul everywhere else if you ask me.
All that goes to say, I couldn't be happier that it is May. That means we have four months of good-living directly ahead of us. I love summer so much, I didn't even wait for summer to officially begin to start the good times. Every summer, me and my buddies get together for a big cookout in April and this year was no different. A few weekends ago we hosted the Dixie Boil and filled the backyard with music, food and close friends. The Masters was going on in the background, the sun was shining and it was even the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Everything was right. I swung by Earps' Seafood Market and loaded my truck up with tons of seafood. We had a cajun boil (15 pounds of shrimp, potatoes, corn on the cob, creole sausage, garlic, hot sauce and Zatarains) and we steamed a bushel of oysters (around 125 oysters). Just to top it off, we also threw 15 marinated mahi-mahi steaks on the grill.
Not too long after the Dixie Boil, I snagged enough Jimmy Buffett tickets for a group of us to bring in the summer Margaritaville-style. Jimmy is one of my favorites. You see, let's be honest: Jimmy isn't a great singer, he doesn't dance around the stage, he doesn't have insane stage sets or even wild pyrotechnics. In fact all his has is a guitar, a few part-time hula dancers/full-time backup singers, and a huge screen behind him displaying a tropical slideshow. The reason I love Jimmy and the reason why I've seen him perform a handful of times is because of the atmosphere. You'd be hard pressed to find a more friendly crowd. Everybody sings along and sways together like hundreds of thousands of palm trees. Sure, maybe the margaritas have something to do with it. But what is a margarita without Jimmy Buffett playing in the background? Just frozen juice.
The summer is young and we have a lot of things left to do on our checklist. We have a trip to Alaska to see my brother, Sarah & the kids - I can't wait. I hope to fill a few of my Saturday mornings with a little golf with the fellas. There will be many days on the lake - tubing, wakeboarding, esc. We have kayak day-trips. We have a Cross (Amanda's side) family trip to Hilton Head in July - I've even been watching Swamp People on Discovery Channel to prone my gator catchin' skills (Hilton Head is crawling with gators). I'm not going to lie, we also finagled our way into a few friendships with people who have beach house connections (Just kidding, guys. We genuinely like ya'll for all the right reasons). We can't wait for everything ahead of us this summer. HAPPY SUMMERTIME, EVERYBODY!
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