Piddlin': Learn the Ancient Southern Secret to Relaxation

If there are 10 words sure to set any southern teeth on edge, they are the following: Let me tell you how we do things up north.

Now we’re not in the business of perpetuating stereotypes, but our friends from the cold side of the Mason-Dixon do have an alarming tendency to share their infinite wisdom on any manner of subjects, whether anyone asked them to or not.

And while unrequested Yankee know-how manifests itself in everything from the right way to build a house to the “correct” pronunciation of pecan, there is one subject that southern engineering has advanced to an art: Piddlin’.

Think of it like fiddlin’ but without the fiddle. It’s basically the southern way of saying you’re doing a whole lot of nothing at all.  Now general wisdom carries that piddlin’ is more or less the same as wasting time. But if you’re piddlin’ correctly, there couldn’t be a better use of your time.

“But if you’re piddlin’ correctly, there couldn’t be a better use of your time.”

 


Traveling to Savannah? Tybee Island is the perfect place to practice your piddlin' skills in a stress-free and relaxing environment.

And nobody does piddlin’ like we do down here. Up north, a stretch in a hammock is usually done surrounded by fences on a small plot of backyard. Down south, we hammock like we mean it, stretching our net between palmettos so we can take in the sunset over marshlands rolling away to the sea.

Up north, tanning’s done in a hollow tube of lightbulbs in a strip mall. Down south, we get our sun from, well, the sun. And we do it on the beach, or on the deck of a boat cruising the ICW.

So while we appreciate our northern friends’ attempts to educate us, we hope they don’t mind us returning the favor and letting them know how we do things down south.

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