We Are Regal

It is a tradition in The South that the women live longer than the men. The men die first after struggling, honorable lives, upholding family traditions, standing in the breech, and the women live on for another 50 or so years, complete with a second girlhood, new clothes, at least 35,000 hearty meals, and a long senesence. It's hardly fair, but it's the Southern Way of Life. It's been this way since Antebellum Days, especially after The War when Johnny didn't come marching home. Decoration Day was instituted to honor the men first. The Southern Man is, if nothing else, an honorable man, upholder of Southern Traditions, regal in the way that only a Southern Man can be regal.