Why does my mouth head south?
By Bob Gibson
Daily Progress political blogger

  Why in the world does my mouth head south when I talk on the phone with someone like Virginia GOP Chairman John Hager?

  Hager is from the South—North Carolina and Richmond—and has a marvelous southern drawl that extends vowels to their fullest horizontal righteousness.

  Time slows down and words wrap themselves around thoughts as a warm summer night’s dip in a pool refreshes a tired soul.

    I am from Arlington, grew up there, and have hung out in Charlottesville.

    This is a place close to, partly in, the South that welcomes folks from everywhere and claims a history that leans south but language that flies in from other places.

    I can’t help myself from drifting south when talking with a son of south of here. Perhaps the slow taking of verbal teas is a refreshment.