I was asked this question by friends. Before answering, I need to point out that we're senior citizens, white, married 43 years and quiet, despite my unusual choice in clothing. When you travel it is difficult to strike up conversations other than banalities.
Waiting in line in the Food Lion, a local grocery chain, I listened to the conversation between the cashier, African American and a senior, to a customer, white male and middle aged. The conversation flowed freely and friendly. When it was my turn to check out, I greeted the cashier, who responded How's Chicago? It appears that my Chicagoese immediately marks me. My sense is that about 80% of what I say is understood.
This holds true for us, despite our hearing (which is getting worse), about 3 in 4 statements in Georgian are understood. This Southern patois is soft and silky with a tendency to go fast and trail off. South Carolinian seems to be the southern spoken the most in Chicago because we both recognized it immediately. North Carolinian and Tennessean are twangy.
Showing posts with label Tennessee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tennessee. Show all posts
Saturday, October 24, 2015
Friday, October 16, 2015
Peepers
Some observations on being a Yankee in the South,
We drove through Kentucky, our first stop, Tennessee and North Carolina. At every stop we were greeted with friendship and with more conversation than, city dwellers, we're used to. One groundskeeper in Kentucky saw me taking photos of the Magnolia tree, put down his work and came over to talk about the tree, where we were from and anything else that came into his head.
In Tennessee we were visiting relatives, so I suppose my observation doesn't count, but I've visited there a lot, McMinnville Tennessee. It has a reputation of being a backwater but it is also beautiful and very rural, cows in the pasture across the road.
North Carolina was a surprise. Sylva and Dillsboro (sp?) were sophisticated and definitely upscale. Listening to the news it becomes apparent that in order of importance, locally, the pecking order is Charleston SC, the tri-cities, South Carolina, the lowlands, then the highlands. Sylva to Boone are the highlands.
On local TV the news is dominated by the high school football game recorded from the announcer booth at the 50 yard line and colorized with play-by-play from the local announcer with the kids' names. This past evening the 2 hours of local news was high school football games in their entirety.
Our habit is to walk for exercise. Strolling down the road, a farmer came over and we talked for quite a while about life and Boone. He was a A&P store manager for 40 years and a goat farmer. His children moved closer to him because he has been having heart trouble and his sons have picked up the slack on the farm.
This may be the peeper effect. Peepers are travelers who come to the highlands for the Fall colors. The other possibility is that gray hair is a club itself, a lot of peepers are gray haired, but I don't think so.
I believe that we're all beginning to realize that there is little difference between us. If we're polite and cordial we'll have more in common. I did not see the uncomfortableness of the races in the small, think maybe 2,000 people to Boone, a college town with 20,000 people. Certainly there were more white people, 95%, but the interactions I saw with the African American adults were relaxed and respectful. I observed mixed race couples both peepers and locals, being treated with the respect they deserve.
Seems to me that I have mistakenly generalized an attitude about Southerners. It'll be fun to see what a month in Savannah is like.
We drove through Kentucky, our first stop, Tennessee and North Carolina. At every stop we were greeted with friendship and with more conversation than, city dwellers, we're used to. One groundskeeper in Kentucky saw me taking photos of the Magnolia tree, put down his work and came over to talk about the tree, where we were from and anything else that came into his head.
In Tennessee we were visiting relatives, so I suppose my observation doesn't count, but I've visited there a lot, McMinnville Tennessee. It has a reputation of being a backwater but it is also beautiful and very rural, cows in the pasture across the road.
North Carolina was a surprise. Sylva and Dillsboro (sp?) were sophisticated and definitely upscale. Listening to the news it becomes apparent that in order of importance, locally, the pecking order is Charleston SC, the tri-cities, South Carolina, the lowlands, then the highlands. Sylva to Boone are the highlands.
On local TV the news is dominated by the high school football game recorded from the announcer booth at the 50 yard line and colorized with play-by-play from the local announcer with the kids' names. This past evening the 2 hours of local news was high school football games in their entirety.
Our habit is to walk for exercise. Strolling down the road, a farmer came over and we talked for quite a while about life and Boone. He was a A&P store manager for 40 years and a goat farmer. His children moved closer to him because he has been having heart trouble and his sons have picked up the slack on the farm.
This may be the peeper effect. Peepers are travelers who come to the highlands for the Fall colors. The other possibility is that gray hair is a club itself, a lot of peepers are gray haired, but I don't think so.
I believe that we're all beginning to realize that there is little difference between us. If we're polite and cordial we'll have more in common. I did not see the uncomfortableness of the races in the small, think maybe 2,000 people to Boone, a college town with 20,000 people. Certainly there were more white people, 95%, but the interactions I saw with the African American adults were relaxed and respectful. I observed mixed race couples both peepers and locals, being treated with the respect they deserve.
Seems to me that I have mistakenly generalized an attitude about Southerners. It'll be fun to see what a month in Savannah is like.
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Ruta
McMinnville, Tennesee is our next stop. We went to visit my sister Ruta. Here she is! I don't get to visit her often enough. This time both of her sons and their wives joined us for a great dinner. Ruta does enormous amounts of volunteer work with a local dog rescue. Currently she has 6 dogs that she has taken in and cares for. This is her heart at work. She is a lovely lady. Her sons are great too.
We remembered her daughter Chrissie that died a little while ago.
Ruta lives in a rural area that gave us pause as we tried to remember how to get there. Our phone GPS directions gave us a lot of instructions but a lot of these roads are not labeled. Imagine making all these sharp left and right turns in a pouring rain while the resident cows watched us.
-Ilze
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