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Virginia Local Customs
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Virginia Local Customs

Looking at a female white tailed deer - Virginia
Looking at a female white tailed deer
by Faiza-Ifrah
Learn the local customs of Virginia. Tips and photos posted by real travelers and Virginia locals.
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The vanishing tobacco auction
  • Tip Rating:
    • b1bob
  • Updated By b1bob on June 18, 2006
  • Virginia Page by b1bob
    • Tobacco Auction- South Boston, VA: August, 2004 - Virginia
    Tobacco Auction- South Boston,
    VA: August, 2004
    by b1bob
    It used to be a time when every warehouse in South Boston, Virginia was packed with all the tobacco they could handle. The New Brick Planter's Warehouse is now the only tobacco warehouse in town. With the auctioneer's chant replaced by hand-held computers, much of the excitement surrounding opening day of tobacco auctions seems to have been replaced by worry over the future of Virginia's cash crop with the number of domestic smokers declining. If this problem were unique only to South Boston, I would put this tip there, but tobacco warehouses are in decline and the art of tobacco auctioning will soon become lost all over Virginia and the several other tobacco-producing states. For those who oppose smoking and smokers (I sympathise to a degree), don't forget about all the livelihoods that are on deck to be lost in small towns across the American Southeast.

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    Mennonite customs
  • Tip Rating:
    • b1bob
  • Updated By b1bob on June 18, 2006
  • Virginia Page by b1bob
    • basic Mennonite transport - Virginia
    basic Mennonite transport
    by b1bob
    The Mennonites are a religious sect that, like the Amish, started out in rural Pennsylvania coming down the Blue Ridge Road. Although not as strict as the Amish, they don't use a lot of modern conveniences. Normally, they drive a horse and buggy. You can often see them on the highway with those orange triangles (required by law) to warn motorists of a slow-moving vehicle. When they do own a car, it has to be basic black and very plain. Their clothing distinctive- women wear a net bonnet. In Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, they own many of the farms and run a considerable number of businesses. Because they don't believe in preservatives or insecticides, all of their crops are organically grown. In the food shops in town, everything has to be homemade and fresh.

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    Neighbour helping neighbour
  • Tip Rating:
    • b1bob
  • Updated By b1bob on June 18, 2006
  • Virginia Page by b1bob
    • cleanup day at my house: 31 August 2004 - Virginia
    cleanup day at my house: 31
    August 2004
    by b1bob
    On 30 August 2004 slow-moving Hurricane Gaston flooded my basement after 14 inches (35 cm.) of rain fell on my area, leaking the foundation. All would have been lost had it not been for my neighbours. Larry brought over a sump pump to keep the water from rising any higher than the 4 inches (10 cm.) it already did. The following day, John, Larry, and others helped pull up spoilt carpet and carry remnants to the dump. Dustin came over on some days to move heavy furniture and carry more rubbish to the dump as I have no pickup truck. It reminds me of the Paul Overstreet song Love Helps Those Who Cannot Help Themselves. This is not unique to Virginia. When a friend from South Carolina was cleaning up his house, his neighbourhood banded together as a unit to help clean up. Had I not had damage of my own to tend to, I would have been off to South Carolina to help. Had he got off light and I bore the brunt, he would have been up here pulling up carpet and doing other things. I concede Southerners do not corner the market on this sort of thing, but it is so much more commonplace here than anywhere else in the USA.

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    Sir and ma'am: a token of respect
  • Tip Rating:
    • b1bob
  • Updated By b1bob on June 18, 2006
  • Virginia Page by b1bob
    • Ladies of all ages are
    Ladies of all ages are "ma'am"
    to us
    by b1bob
    I should like to thank matcrazy1 and ClarkRB for bringing this to my attention. Matt asked me what ma'am meant when I was ordering at the Indian Fields Tavern. Bobby made a comment on one of his tips that a Northern waitress was bumfuzzled by it.

    Gentlemen of all ages, up North and down South appreciate being called sir. There is a misunderstanding about the word ma'am. Ma'am is a contraction for the word madam. Women from outside the South take this as an insult, thinking that we are somehow implying they are old or matronly. Nothing could be further from the truth, we treat women with respect and we call women we know and don't know, young and old alike ma'am as a token of respect. Ladies up North and in other countries: please don't take the use of the word ma'am as an insult. We were taught that from a young age and it's hard to switch off and on as we cross the Mason-Dixon line or leave the country.

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    If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes
  • Tip Rating:
    • b1bob
  • Updated By b1bob on March 5, 2004
  • Virginia Page by b1bob
    • What a difference a day makes! - Virginia
    What a difference a day
    makes!
    by b1bob
    If you enlarge the photo, you will see a winter wonderland in South Boston, Virginia on Thursday, 26 February 2004 when several inches (more cm.) of snow fell on Southern Virginia and the Carolinas. The following day, temperatures rose to 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Celsius), rapidly melting the snow that fell the previous day. This is an extreme (and early) example of changeable weather which normally happens most of March and April. The more common pattern is a warm spell which last 1-3 days, a cold front with thunderstorms, hail, and sometimes tornadoes, and several more days of cold temperatures. The average maximum temperatures for that interval range from 59-68 degrees Fahrenheit (15-20 degrees Celsius), however, AVERAGE days are rare. It is either much warmer or much cooler than the median in these two months of transition. Snow can fall well into March. For example, much of the east coast of the USA was consumed by a blizzard of historical proportions on 13 March 1993- sinking ships from Miami all the way to Nova Scotia, Canada. Where it was cold enough, it snowed. In warmer climates, there was rain and stormy conditions. Therefore, when traveling to my part of the world at that time of year for any length of time, you cannot go wrong by packing a wide range of clothing.

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    Bluegrass music
  • Tip Rating:
    • b1bob
  • Updated By b1bob on June 18, 2006
  • Virginia Page by b1bob
    • George Winn & the Bluegrass Partners - Virginia
    George Winn & the Bluegrass
    Partners
    by b1bob
    This is a Southern tip

    The roots of traditional American music began with the folks who settled here in the 1600s. As the early Jamestown settlers spread westward, they composed new songs about ordinary life experiences in the new land. Since most of these people lived in rural areas, it reflected that way of life, therefore it became known as mountain or country music. Bluegrass music is a branch of rural-themed music born in the Kentucky countryside. Bluegrass has to have a 5 string banjo. The fifth string is the drone and that gives it the twangy sound. Much of it is religious in tone. Included in the photo is George Winn and the Bluegrass Partners from Lunenburg County at a barbecue event in Beaverdam, Virginia (geographcally close to, but culturally a world away from Richmond). They played old favourites like I Saw the Light, Will the Circle be Unbroken, Rollin' in my Sweet Baby's Arms, Gotta Travel On, etc.

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    Tobacco Barns
  • Tip Rating:
    • b1bob
  • By b1bob on March 8, 2004
  • Virginia Page by b1bob
    • tobacco barn: Virgilina, VA - Virginia
    tobacco barn: Virgilina, VA
    by b1bob
    Throughout Virginia's Southside and much of North Carolina and part of South Carolina, you will see tobacco barns dot the countryside. Tobacco leaves are cured- lined up and dried on a long stick over a fire. They used to have a guy stay up all night in the barn to keep the fire going and in control. With the diminution of domestic demand for tobacco, there are fewer tobacco farms, and thus fewer tobacco barns. Historical societies are doing battle to keep them from being torn down by ex-farmers who have no real use for them (and they are difficult to convert to other uses).

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    The Bible Belt
  • Tip Rating:
    • b1bob
  • Updated By b1bob on February 9, 2004
  • Virginia Page by b1bob
    • Union United Church of Christ: Virgilina, VA - Virginia
    Union United Church of Christ:
    Virgilina, VA
    by b1bob
    The South, together with the Midwest, is often referred to as the Bible Belt. In rural areas particularly, regardless of race, people flock to country churches like the one in the picture every Sunday morning and some adults and children attend Sunday school. I have attended some services and vacation bible school at the pictured church during my childhood. For foreign folks and those from the Northeast and Pacific Coast, please be respectful of the religiosity. Some localities have blue laws which prohibit or restrict any kind of commerce being done on Sunday. Even in localities without blue laws, many storeowners freely decide not to open on Sunday.

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    ABC Stores
  • Tip Rating:
    • b1bob
  • Updated By b1bob on June 18, 2006
  • Virginia Page by b1bob
    • ABC Stores - Virginia
    ABC Stores
    by b1bob
    For those from Roxboro, ABC Stores are not educational supply stores, but rather they are liquor stores run exclusively by the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. See, Virginia is one of those more conservative states in which the state regulates the sale of hard liquor. Virginia permits the sale of wine and beer in grocery stores, but anything else is sold at the ABC Store.

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    Soul Food?
  • Tip Rating:
    • b1bob
  • Updated By b1bob on October 21, 2004
  • Virginia Page by b1bob
    • My kind of cooking - Virginia
    My kind of cooking
    by b1bob
    So-called soul food has recently become trendy. Many folks would have you believe that soul food is unique to one race and it originated during the antebellum days when slaves were fed from leftovers in the house. Well, poor people of all races ate the exact same thing for centuries and I still eat it because it tastes good. Barbecued spare ribs, macaroni and cheese, fried chicken, cornbread, pinto beans, and collard greens are just a few examples of Southern cooking. The truth about Southern cooking is that it is very nourishing and it sticks with you. Now that Southern cooking has become trendy in some places, they feel the need to modify it in order to cater to more urbane palates (make it lighter). To heck with them- they can eat rice cake! Folks, give 'em the real stuff and don't mess with Southern cuisine.

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    More Virginia Tips
    Overview
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    Tips: 90 - Photos: 178    		Packing Lists
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