[GateandGarden]

Originally Posted by golddustwoman77

I live in the South too. I think you may be right. Everyone I know, friends and family, hug each other hello and goodbye. We don't hug people we barely know, but friends and family definitely hug. It may be a southern hospitality thing.

Same here! I swear it is a Southern thing, though I know there are exceptions. I'm really loath to hug people I don't know; I usually have to know someone pretty well and for decent amount of time before I do it, but after that I am very huggy. Some people are more affectionate than I am around here. I remember one time I met a girl on the first day of a class we had together and we talked about what other classes we were taking for about three minutes, and then she hugged me. I was pretty shocked about that, since I had known her for three minutes!

I liked the cartoon you posted, Amber. I wish the U.S. was much more open about being affectionate. I have a professor who's from Congo, and she said she used to hold hands with her friends all the time when they were walking down the street together, and when she came to the U.S. and did that with her female friends, she was very surprised when people started saying she was a lesbian!

Anyway, I really enjoy reading all of y'all's responses to this.

Hillary