Southerner Test

How well do you know southern culture?

This test is based on a version sent in email to me in the pre-InterWebs days. I added a bunch of questions to those, which others have pointed out give it a Georgia bias. So sue me. If anyone knows the original author, happy to credit him or her. The last seven questions are from a guy named Ken Peters who saw an earlier version and wrote back with suggesions, which was way cool. Bill Cook (Winchester, Ky) corrected the Bourbon question, and Blake Cullen corrected a .380 auto question (since removed). Many other people have submitted scores, and/or commented, thanks so much to you all!

Scoring:

Yankees only get a few right.
A Frenchman I sent an earlier version of this to claimed he couldn't even understand the questions. :)
I don't yet know what score is average, so, if you like, tell me how you did, and where you are from, so I can figure it out. I also always appreciate bug-fixes, clarifications, and submissions.


Questions:

  1. How many Vienna Sausages are in a can?
  2. What was the number or color of Richard Petty's cars?
  3. What is a Scalawag?
  4. Why is Tennessee the "Volunteer state"?
  5. Where did Herschel Walker play college football?
  6. After boiling peanuts for an hour you have what?
  7. In cubic inches, how big is the smallest 1966 GM small-block V8?
  8. A Cajun is likely to speak what furrin' language?
  9. What is a chigger?
  10. Where is "The Redneck Riviera"?
  11. What's that fuzzy stuff hanging off the oak trees?
  12. What follows logically? Johnson, Mercury,
  13. What's the common name for a bowfin?
  14. If you mated a heifer and a steer, what would you get?
  15. Who sang "Your Cheatin' Heart"?
  16. What are grits made out of?
  17. Who was nicknamed "The Bear"
  18. Why is the Blue Ridge blue?
  19. What are the radio station call letters that carries "The Grand Ol' Opry"?
  20. Where would you find Vidalia County?
  21. What sport requires 3 legs and a rope?
  22. How many strings are there on a banjo?
  23. When you argue with a fool, what is he doing?
  24. Do you want the goats to get into the kudzu?
  25. Why do you want to eat "high on the hog"?
  26. What color is a John Deere?
  27. What do you call the offspring of a mule?
  28. What instrument did Bill Monroe play? (typically)
  29. What will you harvest when you plant "shade"?
  30. What is the largest 'Bandit' Trans Am engine?
  31. Name two models of Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
  32. What special name is a top-of-the-line Camaro called?
  33. What baseball team did Dale Murphy play for?
  34. What's in a Mint Julep?
  35. What are the two types of tea served in a Southern restaurant?
  36. What two states does the Okefenokee swamp extends into?
  37. What do any two of the three numbers in "442" stand for on a Cutlass 442?
  38. Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, has monuments of what?
  39. What is the longest knife you can legally carry?
  40. Hot dogs would make good bait for ocean fishing what creature?
  41. What edible crustacean is found in Southern streams?
  42. If your occupation is "framer," what do you do?
  43. What is a '30-odd-6'?
  44. Youth in the rural south sneak into cowfields and do what (other than drink)? (two possible answers)
  45. What is the significance of the Jim Bowie's 'Bowie knife'?
  46. Name three historically black colleges.
  47. Where is Coke's corporate HQ?
  48. What is a Carpetbagger?
  49. Name a Southern euphemysm for The War Between The States? (many possible answers)
  50. What is special about Vidalia county onions?
  51. In what state was William Faulkner born and raised?
  52. What are the two makes of car that usually win NASCAR races?
  53. In what state is Clemson U.? Auburn U.?
  54. How is okra usally cooked?
  55. What are chitlins?
  56. What is the difference between bourbon and whiskey?
  57. Who is the greatest Southern general of all time?
  58. What is a "Skoal Bandit"?
  59. What's the difference between dip and chew/chaw? Which wears a round hole in your back pocket?
  60. What's the common name for the Dixie or Rebel flag, the battle flag of the army of northern virginia?
  61. Where can you get hash browns scattered, smothered, and covered?
  62. What is "Gullah" and where can you find it?
  63. When is Mardi Gras?
  64. What are two (of the three) standard bluegrass instruments other than guitar, bass, and drums?
  65. After what defining Mississippi Civil War battle was Linclon able to write "The father of waters again goes unvexed to the sea"?


Answers:

  1. 7
  2. 43, red and blue
  3. scalawag: a white Southerner who acted in support of the Reconstruction (generally by joining he Republican party) after the Civil War.
  4. from the 30,000 Tennesseans who volunteered to fight in the Mexican/American War (1846-7); only 3000 had been sought.
  5. University of Georgia
  6. Hard peanuts
  7. 283
  8. French
  9. A red bug (small parasite)
  10. the Gulf Coast from (roughly) Panama City/Destin Florida to Alabama
  11. Spanish moss
  12. Evinrude
  13. Mudfish
  14. trick question! Nothing. A steer has been castrated.
  15. Hank Williams
  16. Corn, soaked in lye so the kernels swell up and turn white (hominy), then ground up.
  17. Paul Bryant
  18. Because of the pollen
  19. WSM
  20. Georgia
  21. Calf roping
  22. 5
  23. The same thing
  24. Yes
  25. Because that's where the better cuts of meat are. Rich folks live high on the hog.
  26. Green
  27. trick question. Mules are generally sterile.
  28. mandolin
  29. Tobacco
  30. 7.2 liter (6.6 is standard)
  31. fat boy, dyna wide glide, low rider, sportster, softail, electra glide, ...
  32. depends on the year: SS, IROC Z-28, ...
  33. Atlanta Braves
  34. bourbon, ice, sugar, mint
  35. sweet and unsweet
  36. Florida and Georgia
  37. 4-barrel carb, four on the floor (gears), two exhaust pipes. also acceptable: 400 cubic inch displacement; 4 valves; 2 camshafts
  38. Confederates (and Arthur Ashe, too.)
  39. 6 inches
  40. crabs
  41. crawfish
  42. build houses (put 2x4s together as skeletons of the walls)
  43. .30-06 = "30 aught 6." a shell, or a rifle that uses that shell. The Springfield '03 Rifle "U.S. Rifle, Caliber .30, Model of 1903," had its .30-caliber cartridge modified in 1906 (designated the "M1906 Cartridge"); it became widely known as the .30-06; this cartridge was the standard U.S. rifle and machine gun cartridge for the next fifty years. Any gun that uses it is often simply called a .30-06.
  44. cow-tipping, or, looking for psychedelic mushrooms growing on cow patties
  45. It has a cross piece separating the blade from the handle
  46. Morehouse, Spelman, Tuskegee, Morris Brown, Marshall, Howard, Wilberforce, Clark, Atlanta U, Ala A&M, Ala state, Bethune-Cookman, Florida A&M, Grambling, Southern, Hampton, NC A&T, etc....
  47. Atlanta. Extra credit if you said "Who cares! I drink RC Cola."
  48. carpetbagger: northerner in the south
  49. The Great Lost Cause, or, the War of Northern Agression, or, the War for Southern Independence, ...
  50. they're very big (and/or tasty)
  51. Mississippi (Oxford)
  52. ford and chevy
  53. Clemson is in South Carolina, Auburn is in Alabama.
  54. fried
  55. pig intestines (aka chitterlings)
  56. Bourbon is corn-mash whiskey that originated in/around Bourbon county, Kentucky, aged in charred oak barrels for a minimum of 4 years.
  57. Robert E. Lee
  58. snuff tobacco encapsulated in its own little pouch. you suck on the whole thing. made by Skoal.
  59. dip is snuff, like Skoal or Copenhagen; chaw/chew is long cut, like Red Man. Dip comes in round cans that wear a hole in your packet. (chew comes in pouches.)
  60. The stars and bars
  61. the Waffle House - scattered on the grill, smothered with onions, covered with cheese. mmmmm mmmm good.
  62. A slave dialect that has become it's own language. It's spoken only on Dufuskie island off the South Carolina coast. It's often studied by linguists.
  63. The Tuesday before the start of lent which is the first tuesday 40 days before easter. (easter is the first sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox, so this gets complicated)
  64. banjo, mandolin, fiddle (violin)
  65. Vicksburg. Union supply lines were now clear.


Todd Hodes, mylastname @ myfullname dot org