Wilmington, North Carolina

People know how to have a good time in the South; at least on the surface, and in Wilmington, a historical town, and a beautiful beach destination, the surface is all we saw. The show was a great time. The band playing before us performed covers flawlessly and creatively. Our drummer sat in with them and we all cheered him on and drank with the locals. It was good night, good fun.

On a different note, when visiting Wilmington, and the entire South for that matter, us Yankees have some pretty serious stereotypes to overcome. Although we are confronted with the same problems in the North, in places like Toledo, Ohio, and Northern Idaho, it is the South that has such an obvious scar. It is the south after all that would not give up when push came to shove. It is easy to point fingers, but most of us know now that slavery was a problem throughout the entire country and that only in the South was it so strongly bonded to the economic success of the region that they could not give up on their grand mistake. It is important for me to write this because these were the thoughts running through my mind as we arrived in Wilmington, a true Southern town.

In actuality, when we pulled into the club, the friendliness was overwhelming. Southern hospitality is a real thing; people are warm and fun to be around. Another fact hard to dismiss was that in Wilmington we saw some of the most integrated nightspots we have been to all tour, more so than Chicago, New York, or liberal Seattle. People are living together and partying together. Maybe there is something to take away from this; maybe it is just a schema adjustment on my part, which is why I love traveling so much to begin with. But I think it is more, I think us folks in Northern liberal and so-called cultured cities tend to be a bit pretentious and quick to judge. So few of us actually travel this country and understand the hearts of our brothers and sisters. Sometimes there are some pleasant surprises to be found, and important lessons to learn.