Once, at a departmental dinner party, the date of a faculty member jokingly asked me, upon hearing that I'm from Alabama, "So are you in the Klan or what?".
It was so funny I forgot to laugh.
This is why I think that I need to read Roy Blount, Jr.'s new book as soon as possible.
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8 comments:
This had better not have been a Wisconsin dinner party.
I am so ordering that today. I love him. He's often a panelist on "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" and he's hysterical.
Once at SUU, upon hearing that I was from Oklahoma, a person asked "Oh, wow. How'd you manage not to be all racist and stuff?" I don't even remember what I responded, I was so disconcerted by the question.
Nope. Midwesterners were, for the most part, raised better than Californians, at least where manners are concerned.
(Less so where wearing sweat pants to a fancy restaurant is concerned, sure, but once you sledgehammer through the thick layers of Midwestern reserve? Good people.
...though often with unfortunate mustaches.)
Maybe this should be a book club selection...since we're the Dirty South Literati? When I first moved to Denver, the guy that worked at the car wash told me I wasn't near as dumb as he expected me to be based on my accent! Also, during my collge interviews, one admissions officer at a Midwestern school that shall remain nameless asked me, in all seriousness, if the African Americans in Atlanta wore shoes. The year? 1994.
Not to mention the wisecracks in the rest of the country about the flakes and nuts on the left coast....
My favorite is the "You don't SOUND like you're from Alabama," which is the cracker version of "Colin Powell...so well spoken!"
I've taken to responding, "Well sheeeeeyet, ain't evruhbody down thar talks lahk Jethro Clampett, summa us jes' got a lil ol' drawl, is all."
That said, if you want to hear a really nice Mobile accent, go over to http://www.pbs.org/thewar/ and click on the second of the two video files. About halfway through, my neighbor (woo!) starts talking and they show a picture of her house/my street, and I start getting homesick.
Larry: Yeah, I always do find it hysterical when the same folks who (rightfully so) laud Eudora Welty level the "weirdo" accusation at the West Coast. Also - got the cd yesterday - thanks!
A college friend once wrote me a Friendster testimonial (ah... Friendster, back in the day) that said something along the lines of, "Mary is living proof that Yankee girls can be Southern girls if they put their minds to it."
This is just about the nicest thing anyone has ever told me.
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