[HPFGU-OTChatter] Need FanFic Help - Deep South

[Terry James]

You can't get much more Deep South than where I'm at, unless you want to go 
swimming in the Gulf!  However, I come from a poor sharecropping family, so 
my "plantation" knowledge is kinda rusty.  Here's what I think, though, for 
what it's worth.  Put it together with whatever other responses you've 
gotten and use what you like.

Terry LJ

>From: "Steve" <bboy_mn at yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com
>To: HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [HPFGU-OTChatter] Need FanFic Help - Deep South
>Date: Wed, 02 Jul 2003 00:53:25 -0000
>
>This is way off topic, but I was wondering if we have someone from the
>deep south (USA) or familiar with the deep south.
>
>SETUP-
>
>Through a long series of events, Dobby and Harry are meeting with a
>southern plantation owner (a wizard). Being from a very old and rich
>southern family, this plantation has had both men-slave and
>elf-slaves. Currently, they only have house and farm elves, and I
>think it goes without saying that none of them are free elves.
>
>As a side note, you can imagine how uncomfortable, to put it gently,
>this southern plantation owner is having a house-elf enter through the
>front door and sit for tea (actually lemonade) with him in his living
>room. But if things work out, he stands to make a great deal of money
>entering into a business arrangement with Harry, so as much as it
>irritates him, he's willing to endure it.
>
>QUESTION #1-
>After offerring Harry refreshment, they decide on lemonade; Harry
>likes lemons. So when the house-elf bring the tray, what else should
>be on it?




Authentic Deep South drink would be iced tea.  The elf would bring a silver 
tray with a pitcher and glasses with ice already in them, and pour for them. 
  A saucer of lemons would be
on the side; Harry could have several, since he likes them.  Also on the 
tray would probably
be cloth napkins (NEVER paper) but no sugar; real southern iced tea has so 
much sugar in it already that you could pour it on pancakes if you ran out 
of syrup.

Depending on how old Harry is, he could instead have a mint julep. :)

>Note: this is an unexpected meeting; Dobby and Harry just drop by.
>It's not a planned or scheduled meeting, so the host hasn't had time
>to prepare.
>
>Lemonade and biscuits (either cookies or actual American biscuits)?
>Pastry?
>?
>I'm looking for an additional treat, probably finger food, that would
>reflect southern cooking. This meeting takes place mid-afternoon.
>
>I guess I can alway make it jelly dognuts or cookies or something, but
>I would like it to reflect the south. Sweet Potato pie would be good,
>but it's not really finger food. So a southern pastry, pie, cake,
>roll, other sweet treat...
>
>Any thoughts?



Pecan pie would be authentic.  Also fruit-filled turnovers: apple or pear 
mostly; you take a circle
of pastry, fill it full of fruit filling (like in a pie), but double it over 
and press down the edges with a fork so
that you get a nice fruit-filled pastry in a half-moon shape with cute 
little marks on the edge.  I don't know if these are southern-only foods, 
but they definitely are popular here.  You'd need silverware for the pie, 
but not for the turnovers.


>
>Final note: I really do have a believable way to get Harry and Dobby
>AND Ron on a southern plantation; as impossible as that might seem.
>
>This is a very minor plot point, but it's driving me nuts, so I need
>to resolve it.
>
>QUESTION #2-
>
>I need some common (stereotypical) slave names (for the elves), both
>male and female, or any suggestion where I might be able to look these
>up. So far, all I've come up with is Eliza and Toby.
>
>


Note that if the owner would probably call the elves "elf", like Crouch, 
much
like real slave-owners called their slaves "boy" and "girl", no matter their 
ages.
He probably can't be bothered to learn their names, and thinks "they all 
look alike anyway."

>Thank a bunch for any suggestions you might have.
>
>bboy_mn
>
>
>
>

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