Country and Kahkis

I don’t know about y’all, but I love a man in khakis.

This, evidently, is not a universal opinion shared by the rest of the free world.

Khakis, as in the pants, are often described as:

Boring,

Uncool,

Tired,

Plain,

And just plain dull.

I beg to differ.

To me, those very words were wholly put on this earth to describe high-rise mom jeans, fat-free anything, folding laundry, rearranging junk drawers, and late night infomercials on TV.

Every once and awhile my husband will try and turn things up, if you know what I mean.

He’ll slip into his skinny jeans, shrug on a tapered designer shirt three buttons shy, and blow-dry his hair.   

This scares me.

I like him rugged.  Not in the Marlboro man, three packs a day, leathered to hell and back kind of way.  I just like him the way I like khakis:

            Tough,

            Reliable,

            Steady,

            Strong,

            And just strongly indifferent to the tiny ebbs and flows of the mainstream current.

This is also why I love the South:

Catfish and Khakis.

Cold Ones and Country.

Even Elvis sang the Blues.

Here, we make tough stuff to inspire of our sensitivities.

Not to mask them.

Around 1865 in Nashville, Tennessee, the brothers O’Bryan started to buy up Army surplus tent material called duck.  It was a strong, durable material that could withstand a lot of wear and tear, ins and outs.  So why not make a pair of work pants out of them, they said?

By 1978, after over 100 years of success, the new Sales Director, David Baseheart, took the Duck Head khaki pants, put them the University of Mississippi’s campus bookstore, and the rest as they say is good, old-fashioned Fashion history.

But doesn't the South embody all of these things?  Style, endurance, longevity, practicality, tough-as-nails, we're not going anywhere, but we still look damn good anyway- way of thinking?

Sure, a lot of people love to jump on the newest band wagon, pull up their pirate-sleeved blouses and try out the latest trend.

Me, I will take the tried and the true, the tough and the cool, the bad-ass ruggedness of simplicity any day of the week.

It's about knowing who you are and being proud of it.

That, my friend's, is what being Southern is all about.

previously published, March 20, 2013, on thesouthernc.com