European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 21, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Testimony  enduring South by Ronald smothers new York times w weighing in at nearly 8 pounds an nearly 1,600 pages the encyclopedia of Southern culture has been completed ten years in the making the boo trios to Deline the South with scholarly treatments of the popular culture of pickups and Mobile Homos As Well As the rotes played by race violence and religion in shaping the Region s character. The encyclopedia which is almost As Bulky As the Hurdon of sell consciousness ambivalence myth and Symbol that the Region has borne Over the years was produced by the Center Lor the study of Southern culture Al the University of Mississippi in Oxford its co Edi lots Are William a Ferris a lol Kloris and expert on Southern music who is director of the Center and Charles r Wilson a professor of history at the University the sweep of the encyclopedia is at once vast and idiosyncratic it has entries on the origins of such Southern delicacies As goo goo clusters in Nashville and Moon pies in Chattanooga. Tenn the Reader Leams thai eight Southern slates in 1984 were the leaders in Mobile Home sales and thai Hall of the now vehicles sold in the South annually Are pickups All these facts Aie linked to the traditions of the rambling Man and the Region s fascination with mobility and Speed Aller years of Sull ering isolation and social stagnation Bui it is More than a pop culture iconography Wilh sections on the role of violence in Southern life the strength of an evangelical and individualistic religion and the Way life has been shaped by a pervasive Rural Pov cily and a near Feudal social order As the editors say in their introduction the broader goal of the volume is to Chart the cultural landscape of the South addressing those aspects of Southern life and thought that have sustained either the reality or the illusion of regional  Ferris said the encyclopedia also tries to liberate the definition of southerner from a Complex of altitudes and traditions that have generally been associated Wilh Whites Only with sections on the afro american aesthetic Blackmo and Black religion As Well As the Impact of Black civil rights a forts. He said. The Book attempts to show the Points Al which Black and White soul hornets diverge and those at which they come together he said the most frequent editorial change he made was changing a contributor s reference to something As Southern when it was Clear he meant White and to something As Black when he meant Southern. Wilson whose desk bears a nameplate calling him Iho Diderot of Dixie after the French encyclopedia St said the study of the Region had been so intense Over the years that the editors were Able to draw on the contrib unions from More than 800 scholars in pulling the vast work together. The Book prepared with More than $400.000 in Grants and printed by the University of North Carolina press is not Likely to be available in bookstores in the co editors Charles Wilson left and William Ferris look Over their encyclopedia of Southern culture. United Stales until september he said but already the Center and the publishers have been swamped Wilh orders. It will Cost $50 As the Region becomes More urbanized experiences Waves of a migration and copes Wilh asian and Spanish speaking immigrants just As other regions have said Wilson there will be changes. But a Core of i editions will endure. There Are some northerners who move Down Here and become More Southern than southerners and so the Region s myths keep gelling adapted " Wilson said that there Are Many scholars who would argue that the South is no More distinctive than other regions and others who argue that its sentimental romanticism of the past its religiosity and its racial attitudes Are merely extremes of what is essentially an american culture these critics he said sea a certain arrogance in even positing a Southern culture and they View it As a Way to Market everything commercially from Confederate flags and grits to William Faulkner and doll world. The Tennessee theme Park created by the Singer Dolly Parlon. John Shelton Reed a University of North Carolina sociologist who has specialized in using polls and statistical analysis to pinpoint attitudes that Are peculiarly Southern disagrees with such scholars. People make Money off of the image but they did t manufacture the image because it was there Long before they arrived Reed said plainly a regional consciousness exists and there is a regional culture thai is a variant of the american  Allen Tulles editor of the Southern regional Council s publication Southern changes and a professor of regional studies at Emory University in Atlanta said he still sees a South burdened by 3 Complex of attitudes growing out of its agrarian past slavery the trauma of defeat in the civil War and race relations. For Allol the images of a new glittery South in Urban areas like Atlanta the Gulf coast and Texas he said there remain extensive pockets in the Black Bell of Alabama the appalachians and the Mississippi Delta that testify to an enduring  if necessity really is the Mother of invention we All owe Patricia Mertz breakfast in bed Lor the rest of her life the professor from the University of Miami is leading a quest Lor a cure for Slinky feet. There is nothing like having to suffer from foot odor Al Home to stimulate research she is quoted As saying i am going to find a cure for my son " i Don want to overreact but i d put her vision right up there next to the discovery of penicillin rocket fuel and elastic waistbands How Many years did women nurturers have to put up Wilh ring around Tho Collar before a woman suggested. Wash your Crummy neck before you put a shirt on the problem with kids shoes is that nature is working against you when kids Are Small and their feet Are growing you can put up with shoestrings stiff from being wet on and shoes that you Don t dare put in the same room Wilh the heal blowing parents live for the Day when they can Bronze them and the odor will be gone. In High school the growing process Levels off and the same pair of gym shoes is worn to school work formal weddings restaurants football games dances it does t matter How Many pairs of shoes Are lined up in teen agers closets they Wear one pair for three or Lour years. Does take your breath away have any meaning for you i suppose there Are some cynics out there who think there Are More important things to solve in this world than a kid wearing shoes that make your eyes water. I say to them they have never embarked on a vacation by car with All the windows up and a child who has his feel hanging Over the front seat two inches from your face. Parents Don t want to believe what they Are smelling so they eliminate the possibilities one by one Margaret did you put ice in the cooler with the lunches i smell raw  did i hit a Skunk in the Road All right who sneaked the cat in the car Raymond you stepped in something. I m going to Stop the car. Get out and wipe your Feell if professor Merle comes up Wilh a solution this could change the Way America travels. It could bring the family closer together. It could rid this nation of the major cause of air pollution. She has already discovered that some loot odor is caused by a microbe that gives cheeses their bouquets. Researchers plan to sniff volunteers feel to find out if their feet Are carrying this germ. They Are the bravest people i be Ever encountered. A 1989 Emu boat Wick Page 16 the stars and stripes monday August 21,1989