It is September and in some parts of America, that means it is cooling down. In the South, specifically Alabama where my roaming family has actually put down roots, it is still sweet tea weather.
Get Ready to Clutch Your Pearls
I look outside my study window, in front of which my book puppy is napping in the sunlight, and see Rapunzel’s Garden overtaken by summer-happy weeds. Oh, autumn, that you would grace us with your chill!
But instead, Southern women are sipping their sweet tea with plenty of ice for weeks to come. My mommie, always Southern no matter where my daddy’s job landed us, was a woman of peculiar taste in sweet tea. Dear book friends, she changed the recipe. GASP
I understand if you need to clutch your pearls at this point in the narrative.
Was it because Dad kept moving the family around? Was it the health fads in the ‘80s and ‘90s? We may never know. I suppose we can blame the patriarchy (as one does) or AI (but that feels untimely).
The True South and Sweet Tea
Here is my big, fat confession: I didn’t really like her tea, and I assumed—you know what they say about assumptions, don’t you?—that it was representative of all Southern Tea. As one who did not grow up in the capital “T” True South (I was born in Texas, moved to Venezuela, back to Texas, then the suburbs of Chicago, and went to college in the Midwest before returning to Texas) I really had no way of knowing, did I?
I thought several steeped bags of tea, 8-10 tablets of saccharine, a cup of lemon juice, and a gallon of ice water was sweet tea.
I have since learned how WRONG I was.
At the end of 2013, we lost my sweet and sassy mommie. By 2017, Daddy needed a break from caring for my brain-injured eldest sister, so my little family and I relocated from a small ranching town in Texas to take over. Where had Dad retired? Sweet Home Alabama. The True South. And though I had visited many times through the years, since the majority of our relatives reside here and in Georgia, I don’t really remember eating collard greens before. Or drinking real Sweet Tea. (Also, I use the 5-minute quick grits, obviously I was raised poorly!) another reason to gasp
But I came, put down roots, and discovered the True South. In some ways similar to Texas, in some ways similar to the rural Midwest, but in many ways not. But in all ways, they put poor Mommie’s sweet tea to shame. I did, however, discover to my utter joy that while everyone adored Mommie, they also all hated her version of sweet tea. All but Daddy. Bless his heart. (see? I am a little Southern if I say that!)
The Fiction Connection to Sweet Tea?
For those looking for any connection to my fiction, there are several points in my Love and Laughter Small Town RomCom series that the Texans mock the South and claim that they are strong Texan women, NOT to be mistaken for Southern women. Not sure anyone else will get the sweet tea jokes, the Baptists who don’t drink, the Germans who do, the gossipy small town paper full of grammar issues, allusions to Dr. Pepper, the meddling and match-making Abuelita, but there you have it. My quirky chaos for you to enjoy.
About the Quirky Author
A lover of faith and fantasy inspired fairy tale retellings and utterly obsessed with sweet romantic comedy books, JacQueline (aka Jackie Q.) enjoys telling stories, asking God hard questions, and laughing with her family and friends. She lives in North Alabama with her amazing karate husband and three book-crazy children. She takes every opportunity to drink coffee while wearing dangly earrings and the color purple.
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