Fashion Y'all

(Birmingham, AL) I checked in a hotel here last night and picked up a magazine to read before turning the light off. The magazine opened to an article about a young entrepreneur from the Birmingham area who is also an aspiring actor in LA.

I was very intrigued by the article I read.

Mason McCulley is proud of his Southern heritage.

I can relate to that.

Mason graduated from Mountain Brook High School and moved a long way from home. He ended up at Pepperdine University in California to study acting.

He quickly discovered that people looked at him a little funny when he talked because of his southern accent. Mason also found that people in other parts of the country had a lot of misconceptions and stereotypical attitudes about the south.

I actually discovered the same thing about 9 years ago when I started traveling to different parts of the country to speak or to attend business meetings. My first impulse was to try not to talk so southern.

I got over that in a hurry. I can’t quit talking that way if I try.


But I learned that some people think if you talk with a southern drawl that there is a real possibility that you are not very smart. I also learned that many people from the south who move to other parts of the country work hard to get rid of their southern drawl. I think many do that so the people they work with or know won’t think they are stupid.

Just for the record, I don’t do that. In fact I do just the opposite. If I think people are looking down at me because of the way I talk I will talk more southern. I’ll start using some phrases that will cause them to go do research to find out what in the heck I was talking about. As they say in the corporate world, I like to get people to “think out of the box.”

There are certainly things in my in my life I am not proud of. But I am proud of being from the south and I know that some of the smartest people I know talk with a southern drawl.

So with your permission (or not) I will just keep right on talking the way I do.

Mason McCulley obviously had similar thoughts when he moved to California. This 23 year old created a tee-shirt to make sure everyone knew he was proud of being Southern. On the front of the tee shirt was simply the word (yol).

These shirts have caught on like fire. They are sold at selected retail outlets in Alabama, Lousiana, California and Georgia. They are also sold at his website http://www.yolthreads.com . In keeping with his Southern heritage, he also sold a ton of limited edition shirts where 100% of the profit went to help Katrina victims.

Another random act of kindness.

If you are from the south with a southern drawl or you are an honorary member because you hang out with people who are, go to Mason’s website.

Maybe you’ll find a Christmas gift there.

How 'bout a little fashion y'all?