A couple of posters have commented that, in the American South, passions are very long-lived about events in the distant past. When I visited SC in 1991 I thought I knew all the euphemisms for what most of us know as "The Civil War". Then the lovely 80+ year old lady who lived next door thought she'd do the gracious thing and invite the Australian neighbours for afternoon tea.

During our conversation I mentioned the TV series, which was on SCETV at the time. And she talked about the Civil War as "the late unpleasantness."

Graciousness itself! But implicitly more 'recently affecting' than even WWII, to my mind. Fascinating!

Cheers, Rowan