I suppose you could call me a natural-born "Northerner". I grew up about 30 miles east of St. Louis. I lived in a small town with a gigantic population of 900. I think in the twenty years I lived there our population sign went up to 930. Corn and wheat fields surrounded the town and we were lucky enough to have 1 bank, 1 gas station, 1 cafe, 2 churches and 2 taverns. Notice the correlation between the churches and taverns. Interesting.
I never really considered myself a Northerner. We lived in the south-central end of Illinois. Illinois wasn't a northern state. Now that I have crossed the line into Kentucky I can see that there is a difference indeed.
There is a difference in the way people talk, the terms used, the difference in food and even hospitality. Three hours difference physically leads to an interesting difference in culture.
The most noticeable difference is definitely the accent. Being from Illinois, I really didn't think I had much of anything. We spoke like a normal American..if there is such a thing. At college I could walk around campus and pick out those that were from Kentucky and Tennessee based on how they talked. They usually spoke slower, dropped the -ing 's and used -in 's instead (going would be goin), and used words like fixin. Not as in I am fixin some dinner but I'm fixin to go run.
Being down here for four years has changed the way I view the way people speak. I have been told I have picked up the southern drawl. Sometimes I catch myself talkin a 'lil slower, droppin the "g" in -ing 's and using different terms. No worries, I still have some North in me.
Dan's family is having a shrimp boil this afternoon with the shrimp they brought back from their vacation. They've been planning this all week and talking about the "shrimp boil". The way they said "boil" sounded like they were saying "bowl".I've been contemplating all week if we were having a "shrimp boil" or "shrimp bowl". They both made sense to me but obviously they were two different words. I felt silly asking which boil or bowl they were talking about. Last night I broke down and asked Dan. Of course he laughed at me and noted my Northern ways. It is a shrimp BOIL where they boil everything together. Duh! You see, back home we say something like "I am going to go get my o.i.l. changed. Down here they say "I am goin to get my ol changed. This is why I was so confused. It was pronounced a shrimp bowl but it was actually a shrimp boil.
Accents are the most noticeable difference but there are so many other things I find interesting that it would take a novel to explain. All of these are stories for another day!
The joys of being a farmer's wife...in the South!
No comments:
Post a Comment