Jersy Southern Good Ol' Boy

Lee Habeeb, a native of New Jersey, has an article up at National Review Online. It begins:

I’m a Jersey boy. I was born there, went to high school and college there, and assumed I’d spend the rest of my life there. But though I loved the people and food, the Jersey Shore summers, and short rides through the Lincoln Tunnel to Broadway shows and Madison Square Garden, I gave it all up and moved south. Very far south. I’m not alone.

 And he likes it here! Funny part? He lives in Oxford, Mississippi.

As of this writing there are 35 comments. A significant number of them are from long-time Southerners asking him to pipe down. Shhhh. Be quiet. We don't want damned Yankees coming down here and Yankifying (i.e., liberalizing) The South. I didn't feel the need to comment because I feel the same way. It's bad enough that credentialed smart people are crossing county lines to get their kids into my county's good school system. The last thing I want to see happen to Mississippi is what I saw happen in North Carolina. So Lee, hush up.

All in all, it was a good article. BUT,  this was his set-up:

The economic and cultural forces driving this migration south have been ignored by the press. And by the Obama administration.

So I figured this Jersey boy who now calls Oxford, Mississippi, home could explain why. This Yankee turned good ol’ boy could explain the pull — no, the tug — of the South.

[My emphasis.] Oxford turns Yankees into good ol' boys? I suppose that's possible if you are from Jersey, land of no left turns.

I do actually have a soft spot for Oxford. But Oxford is Mississippi only insofar as Oxford really is in Mississippi. Which is why I love Mississippi. Go Dawgs. 

If you don't know what the Egg Bowl is without looking, stay where you are. Go Dawgs.