Blacksburg, Virginia may not be the first city that comes to mind when you think of "the south." I certainly didn't realize that I would experience such cultural differences when I decided to attend Virginia Tech University. But since it is my last semester in Blacksburg, I decided to soak up all of the southern charms that this town and my best, most southern, friends have to offer.
Football is the fall semester and tailgating and turkey legs comprise every home game Saturday. I attended the Homecoming game and started jumping to Enter Sandman as my Hokies took the field.
My good friend CB invited us to her house on Smith Mountain Lake for a good ol' southern escape. A High Point, NC native, CB insists she's from the "deep south." During the trip I experienced my first ever low country boil and withstood various jabs about being "a northerner."
Three words: Flatfooting in Floyd. Every Friday night, the Country Store in Floyd, VA opens its doors to locals and tourists alike for an evening of old-fashioned soda, modern-day-priced "penny candy," a blue grass band and flatfooting. An Appalachian take on clogging, Flatfooting is a type of folk dance that originated in the region as early as the the 18th Century. Experts and amateurs alike took to the old wooden floors of the country store to get their flatfoot on. I was even roped into a square dance number. I am definitely not in Pennsylvania anymore.
