From the May/June 2004 issue of ‘Deep Magazine’, there’s a quote in that’s attributed to Mrs. S.R. (Henrietta) Dull.
“It is a fetish in the South that the sun shines just a little brighter, the moon rays are just a little softer, the breezes blow just a little gentler, the birds sing just a little sweeter, the flowers are just a little prettier, and its climate just a little more salubrious. When going from one section to another, all of us have an idea that we know by instinct just when we cross the line out of the South or into it…”
I have to admit – I had to look up what ‘salubrious’ means (conducive or favorable to health or well-being).
Update 05.14.2007 – I was just emailed by a reader who has an early version of Mrs. Dull’s cookbook and says that the quote should actually be attributed to Hal M. Stanley. Thanks Michael!
Henrietta Dull was the Home Economics Editor for the Atlanta Journal, and wrote ‘Southern Cooking’, a recipe book, in 1928 – it’s still being published today.
The weather outside is just so nice for my little outdoor projects right now, and it makes me extra happy that there is the sweetest mourning dove mama who sits patiently atop her nest right outside the library window here, in the crepe myrtle. Happy. Happy to be right here, where everything *does* seem just a little bit better. Ah.