Where Dixie Came From

There are conflicting stories about how the South came to be known as Dixie. Some say that it was thus named after The Mason and Dixon survey of the Maryland-Pennsylvania boundary. Why wasn't it called Masie, instead? Well podners, that ain't right. Here's the real deal:

In the early days of the 19th century, when the flatboat and keelboat men from the Midwest states and Kentucky tiresomely poled their ways down the Mississippi, they were looking forward to the end of the trip and getting paid. )Think of Mike Fink, the King of the River.) Now typically these keelboat men were paid is locally-issued banknotes with the French word "dix" on  for "ten" on them. Now the keelboat men, not pronouncing the French word dix properly with a silent "x", referred to New Orleans as the land of the Dixies.  Gradually, the scope of Dixie spread until it included the entire South. It could have been worse: if the keelboatmen pronounced dix right, we might have wound up with 'Dee-hee."

And that's why there is Dixie Beer! Drink a bottle in honor of the tired, French-challenged keelboat men!