Well thank ya Brother Gene!! I must be a Yankee then, just a wild woman out heyar in Washington Territory. I spent November and December 1972 in Orlando, Florida in a bizarre ritual known as the Navy Recruit Center for Women, and other than a carefully chaperoned Saturday aftenoon marching in a Christmas Parade in a brand new uniform, and one day at the brand new Disney World, and promised myself I would never go back there again. I spent from the beginning of January, 1973 to the middle of August of that year at Pensacola, Florida. I decided after swapping orders to get back out to at least the same time zone as Washington State, that while an interesting place to visit, I did NOT want to spend more time in the South at that time. I did not like the heat, the humidity, the mildew in the shower stalls or poisonous snakes out in the boonies where I wanted to wander in absent minded musings and longed for the mild climate and greater tolerance for diversity and wildly eccentric independent minded women like myself on the west coast, where I resided for 20 years amidst the assorted fruits and nuts and sub-tropical flowers of Santa Clara California. I am finally back home in my beloved Seattle-- the "Other" Washington to East Coasters. Dixie is safe from my disordered walk (one leg is shorter than the other) and my dislike of long, full, poofy skirts and debutante cotillions. Now that I have a decent husband to defend my honor and and ward off carpetbaggers, I think it might be safe to return for a visit some day and go up river for some good gator hunting or a nice sweet potato pie.
Don't despair if your job and your rewards are few, remember that the mighty oak was once a nut like you!