Born To Preppy: Deep South with a dash of the North mixed in...

Me and my brothers in our front yard- Georgia circa 1970's
Another picture of part of our front yard- standing near the pond

Being Preppy, and all it consists of, wasn't a lifestyle trend picked up by my family within its trendy heyday of the early to mid 1980's- it was a lifestyle we were already living. Our version of Preppy which derives from the Deep Coastal South could be summed-up as perhaps, "the interesting cousin in the wedding party." Southern Preppiness of this nature can give the Northeastern Preppy (as so well sketched out in The Official Preppy Handbook) a run for its money in the bon vivant department. We're that cousin who can still pull off loads of daytime diamonds, a bit of flouncy ruffle, blonde helmet hair and laughing too loud as we're telling a joke at the reception's bar while waiting for our fourth glass of Chardonnay to be poured. I have a couple of aunts who aptly fit this description and I'm most likely as well am on my way to being of similar, er, distinction, hmm. Gotta' watch those ruffle-flounces...

Within my family, it was my great Uncle Skeet who fit so fully into this bon vivant category. A talented painter who wasn't able to realize his full potential, he lived quite a colorful life within the enjoyment of a few good cocktails and lunching at The Oglethorpe Club, car racing along the Isle of Hope, sail boating and amateur theatrical productions being played out both on and off the stage set of Savannah, Georgia. His wife was long-enduring to say the least. As for his brother, my grandfather who was a Yale-educated bank president, well, he was the one who took some of that Northeastern Preppy pragmatism to heart thankfully for the family's fortunes such as they were. Even though it meant that our family went from their expansive historical homes downtown and out on the Isle of Hope on into more sturdy and practical brick houses in and around the Ardsley Park area, Grandaddy Wylly kept several families in good stead during many decades when the fortunes of Savannah were on an ebbing tide kinda' slide. In my book, he gets a lot of credit and kudos for that. A bit of infused Northeastern Preppy's practicality definitely aided our family both back then and now as well.

My own parents established a neat balance between the Spanish Moss draped white verandas of Southern Coastal Preppydom and the sturdiness of Federal-style-bricked Northeastern Preppyness. Their's was a relaxed and elegantly simplified rennovating-an-old-farmhouse kind of Southern-Northern lifestyle hybrid that kept us grounded yet still steeped in family culture, lore and traditions. We had many homes over the decades, but when I think of my "home" where I "grew up", the ole' modest but pretty nothern farmhouse readily comes to mind.

Early childhood for me was spent in Georgia going between Savannah and Macon with summer months spent out on Tybee Island, but by the time I was in junior high, we had moved to the north. I actually really enjoy having had the experience of both cultural arenas to grow up within: I believe that there was an important balancing going on within that for me personally as well as for both of my brothers.

And so it seems that for the current generations of my Southern Preppy family, we're a bit Southern Gothic with a dash of Northeastern Pragmatic mixed in which... is actually quite alright with me.