During
the early months of the Korean War, I was stationed at Camp Rucker,
Alabama. This post had been boarded up
since the end of World War II. The only inhabitants in place were rattlesnakes,
and there were plenty of them.
Rucker
was just outside the little town of Ozark billed as “The Peanut Capital of the
World”. There were few bright lights in Ozark.
Anything in the way of excitement called for getting over to the medium
size city of Dothan. There was not much to do in Dothan either, although it did
boast of being “The Home of the Early Bird”, a popular program on its radio
station.
I
have some pleasant memories of my time serving at posts in Alabama, Louisiana and
Georgia. Many of them were centered around
culinary delights such as barbecued shrimp, grits, biscuits and sausage
gravy. I also have some very unpleasant
recollections of those months, starting with my first trip using public
transportation when the driver yelled to me: “Hey soldier, you get up front now
or this bus isn't going to move!” I quickly understood that my hoped-for spot
in the rear was where the “colored” sat. Then in rapid fire notice: “Colored
entrance”, “Colored fountain”, on and on. Sooner or later we all got the bigger
message: There was White. There was Colored.
Flashing
forward a half century, things have changed in a big way. Last week my wife and
I were in Georgia to celebrate a granddaughter's wedding. In the dining room of
our hotel blacks and whites intermingled for breakfast. There was no fuss. Same in the swimming pool
area. I am sure there are many reasons for modern-day Southern Hospitality,
including legal ones. But I suggest that
“good manners” as we used to know them are also a big factor. All across the board men are called “sir” and
women addressed as “ma'am”. Some may do
so with fixed smiles and clenched teeth, but in the main the average person in
the 2016 South seems to understand that it is just good business to be friendly
and well mannered.
It's
nice to be nice. It benefits all of us.
