My husband is just as southern as I am. His mom's people are from North Carolina. His dad's people are from Tennessee. And he's been with me for going on 25 years. How is it that he was surprised to hear me say "tuhmaytuhs" when we were getting groceries this evening?
Husband: "Tuhmaytuhs? There are a couple O's in there. Shouldn't it be 'toemaytoes?' "
Me: "I've always said tuhmaytuhs."
#dudeseriously #whereyoubeen #proudsoutherner #proudnorthcarolinian #handinyoursoutherncard #yourmomanddemfromsampsoncounty #comeonnow #mountainfolkheritage #robesonandcumberlandheritage
(I know hashtags aren't a thing on blogs, but these are the hashtags I used on Facebook and I thought they were funny. lol Also, Robeson and Cumberland are counties in North Carolina. My mom's mom's family are from there. Her dad's family are from the mountains.)
Then Kelly chimes in, "Remember when you ordered a spahcy chicken sandwich for me from Wendy's?"
Me: "That's that mountain ancestry coming out from my grandpa's side."
I tried to find an example of how North Carolina mountain folk pronounce long I's (the way I said it in "spicy"), but only found a brief mention (just the pronunciation really) of it at this site. "White rice".
I also found this fun and interesting video.
By the way, we pronounce "Appalachian" like app-uh-latch-un in North Carolina. No long A's.
Anyway, I may have lived in a few other states growing up (including a couple years up north in Ohio) and I've lived in Greensboro for over 25 years (which, along with a few other NC cities, is full of out-of-staters who cause our southern accents to get watered down, sadly), but those eastern NC and western NC accents are still in me. While my accent isn't as strong as my family in the Fayetteville area or the mountains, I do have a southern accent.
Some may try to sound less southern (which I don't get; if you're southern, be proud of your accent), but I wish my accent was stronger. Had I not spent about seven years outside of North Carolina and had stayed in the coastal town of my childhood or lived in the Fayetteville area where most of my family lives, I would have a much deeper accent. I have an audio tape from our first Christmas in Tulsa when I was 6 or 7 years old. My accent was so deep! lol I sometimes wonder just how deep it would be if there hadn't been outside influences.
I love being southern and love being a North Carolinian. (This is not to say that my husband is the opposite of that. He loves being southern and North Carolinian, too.) I love our accents, our food, and our beautiful land - from the Appalachians to our beautiful rolling hills, our piney sand hills to our small coastal towns and islands. I love our trees and trails and our rivers, lakes, beaches, and waterfalls. Well, I could go on, but I'll stop there. :-)
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~*~Nocturnal Queen~*~
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Showing posts with label Southerner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Southerner. Show all posts
Saturday, January 12, 2019
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
A few words about being a Southerner. Okay, more than a few words.
It never ceases to amaze me the ignorance and hatred some people have. The History Channel posted at Facebook about a show they're airing tonight about the South. Almost immediately people "not from around here" began saying how ignorant and awful and racist Southerners are. (A couple of them called us a$$h@!*s.) If you want to get my blood boiling you just say ignorant junk about the South. Well, other things irk me too, but they don't have anything to do with this. lol
This was my response:
"I lived up north for two years and heard racist terms up there for African-American people that I never heard here in the South. [For the record, I've never once uttered any racist words or even thought them. From the time I was a small child, before I even knew what racism was, such words felt wrong to me, so I never used them.] There is racism everywhere. Here in the South, where I was born and raised, I attend a church that has just as many, if not more, African-Americans as it does white people. Not to mention a number of Hispanics. Our pastor was born and raised in California to Italian parents. You so-called "tolerant", progressive, better-than-Southerners types who have been spewing your own hatred and generalizations about us? Does that fit the stereotypes you have about us?
"We are very aware of the history of the South. Including the fact that the north won the Civil War. Funny how when the South is mentioned, it's almost always a northerner who brings up the Civil War to remind us poor, uneducated Southerners that we lost. Gee, we're so glad you told us that. We thought for sure we had won and that Reconstruction was just a bad dream.
[Someone had said that Southerners act like they won the war. No Southerner had even mentioned the war. Southerners were just talking about how they love living in the South. No war-talk at all before this fellow brought it up.]
"There is far more to the South than its racist past. Just as there's more to the north than the fact that they brought slavery to America or the fact that they had children working in factories or the fact that there was great hatred towards the Irish and Jews, etc., etc., etc. [No region or culture or country has a lily white past.] When we sing patriotic songs, my heart is filled with love and pride for all of America, including the north. Not just my beautiful home in the South."
I don't like gettin' "ugly" about things, but dang it, I can't help but get a little riled up about some things. ;-) A Yankee friend of mine (yes, I have Northern friends ;-D ) said something about having never heard of northerners making fun of Southerners. I couldn't help but laugh. Maybe she never heard of it because there weren't any Southerners around where she lived to be made of. Or maybe she wasn't there when others were making fun.
Southerners and Christians are the only people in America that it's still okay to ridicule and verbally attack. The targets have been removed from minorities and homosexuals, but there are still big ol' targets painted on Southerners and Christians. (Especially "holy rollers".) It's still okay to make fun of us. Well, unless you're a Southern Christian minority. The minority part may save you from the ridicule for fear of getting your (whoever it is that's making fun) butt kicked or getting shunned for your bigotry. People preach tolerance and acceptance and having an "open mind", unless you're talking about Southerners and Christians. (Or Conservatives.) We're "fair game".
Now, moving on to more lighthearted things. I'm a proud Southerner, but I'm not your "stereotypical" Southerner. I love Southern food (especially fried chicken, fried fish, hush puppies [sans onions *blech*], cornbread, black eyed peas, and mashed potatoes and gravy), but I've never tried grits or greens or pigs feet or alligator or frog legs or turtle or any other wild animal. Never had any desire to. And I don't eat Southern food very often.
Music: I don't listen to country music, though there are some older country songs that I like okay. No, I listen to gospel music. Fred Hammond, Kirk Franklin, Kurt Carr, Donnie McClurkin, Tye Tribbett, Israel Houghton. That's my kind of music.
I do not drive a pick-up truck.
I don't wear jeans and t-shirts and tennis shoes or cowgirl boots. My style is considered classic, feminine and somewhat old-fashioned. I wear A-line skirts, dresses, cardigans and blouses with flats or heels or sandals. Though not quite preppy. Just lady-like. :-) Maybe that is considered Southern, but it's not the stereotypical Southern redneck look.
I have all of my teeth, I love to read (novels and classic literature), I've never gone frog gigging (or whatever it's called) or off-roading, I've never mud wrestled, I've never tasted alcohol. (Some people think Southerners love alcohol.)
I watch NASCAR races sometimes, but miss more races than I see. If Dale Earnhardt, Jr. weren't a racer, I wouldn't watch at all.
College football is big in the South, but in North Carolina the big sport besides NASCAR is college basketball. I love me some Tar Heel basketball! I'm proud to be a "stereotypical" North Carolinian in that regard. I'm proud to be a North Carolinian and a Southerner, period. :-)
The stereotypical Southerner loves the Lord Jesus and goes to church on Sunday and Wednesday. As far as that goes, yes, I fit that and gladly.
We do have electricity, running water, HDTV and HD cable, a Blu-Ray player, a modern, 21st century vehicle (not on blocks lol), a PS3 and cell phones. There is no indoor furniture on the outside of our house. We don't have farm animals in our yard or car parts lying around.
We don't live in the country (though I'd love to as long as it's not too far out), we live in a pre-dominantly black neighborhood and have for nearly 13 years. Anytime I see a white family in our neighborhood I say to myself, "Oh, look. White people." I'm so used to only seeing black folks around me that it always kind of surprises me to see white faces other than our own. The couple two doors down from us are good friends of ours. My son goes to the races with them sometimes and hangs out with them in their house when he can.
Some people think all Southerners are racists. If that were true, we wouldn't live in this neighborhood, we wouldn't go to a church with even one African-American, let alone a church where around half of the congregation is African-American, and we wouldn't let our kids hang out with African-Americans or go off with them.
So much for all Southerners being racists.
Oh, and my church? We don't have the blacks on one side and the whites on another. Or white folks sitting together on one pew and the blacks sitting together on another. We all sit together, pray together, cry together, laugh together, worship together, sing together, dance together (yes, we're one of those churches) , eat together. We hug each other, call each other "brother" and "sister", tell each other "I love you" and lay hands on each other. (Again, we're one of those churches.) There is no room for racism amongst us. I've heard my pastor say a couple times, "If you don't like it, there's the door!" Whew. I love my pastor!
Anyway, I did go on, didn't I? As I said, I just tend to get a bit riled up when people start saying ignorant things about the South. And that's all this has been about - defending my fellow Southerners. Not the ones in the past who owned slaves or oppressed our fellow African-American Southerners in the decades following the Civil War. I'm defending my fellow 21st century Southerners - white, black, Hispanic, whatever. In that show on the History Channel, there were African-Americans showing just as much love for the South (the food, the hospitality, the music, the accents - plural!, the language, etc.) as there were white folks. We're all Southerners down here. Not just us white people.
Aaannyway, ugh. Sorry for such a lengthy blog post. Maybe some of y'all won't get this. In which case I reckon this just wasn't written for you. Hey, it's my blog and I'll write what I want to. ;-) But I hope many of you will understand this and take it the way I mean for it to be taken.
I'm proud to be a Southerner, proud to be an American (which does not at all mean that I have no love for other countries) and ridiculously happy being a Christian.
This was my response:
"I lived up north for two years and heard racist terms up there for African-American people that I never heard here in the South. [For the record, I've never once uttered any racist words or even thought them. From the time I was a small child, before I even knew what racism was, such words felt wrong to me, so I never used them.] There is racism everywhere. Here in the South, where I was born and raised, I attend a church that has just as many, if not more, African-Americans as it does white people. Not to mention a number of Hispanics. Our pastor was born and raised in California to Italian parents. You so-called "tolerant", progressive, better-than-Southerners types who have been spewing your own hatred and generalizations about us? Does that fit the stereotypes you have about us?
"We are very aware of the history of the South. Including the fact that the north won the Civil War. Funny how when the South is mentioned, it's almost always a northerner who brings up the Civil War to remind us poor, uneducated Southerners that we lost. Gee, we're so glad you told us that. We thought for sure we had won and that Reconstruction was just a bad dream.
[Someone had said that Southerners act like they won the war. No Southerner had even mentioned the war. Southerners were just talking about how they love living in the South. No war-talk at all before this fellow brought it up.]
"There is far more to the South than its racist past. Just as there's more to the north than the fact that they brought slavery to America or the fact that they had children working in factories or the fact that there was great hatred towards the Irish and Jews, etc., etc., etc. [No region or culture or country has a lily white past.] When we sing patriotic songs, my heart is filled with love and pride for all of America, including the north. Not just my beautiful home in the South."
I don't like gettin' "ugly" about things, but dang it, I can't help but get a little riled up about some things. ;-) A Yankee friend of mine (yes, I have Northern friends ;-D ) said something about having never heard of northerners making fun of Southerners. I couldn't help but laugh. Maybe she never heard of it because there weren't any Southerners around where she lived to be made of. Or maybe she wasn't there when others were making fun.
Southerners and Christians are the only people in America that it's still okay to ridicule and verbally attack. The targets have been removed from minorities and homosexuals, but there are still big ol' targets painted on Southerners and Christians. (Especially "holy rollers".) It's still okay to make fun of us. Well, unless you're a Southern Christian minority. The minority part may save you from the ridicule for fear of getting your (whoever it is that's making fun) butt kicked or getting shunned for your bigotry. People preach tolerance and acceptance and having an "open mind", unless you're talking about Southerners and Christians. (Or Conservatives.) We're "fair game".
Now, moving on to more lighthearted things. I'm a proud Southerner, but I'm not your "stereotypical" Southerner. I love Southern food (especially fried chicken, fried fish, hush puppies [sans onions *blech*], cornbread, black eyed peas, and mashed potatoes and gravy), but I've never tried grits or greens or pigs feet or alligator or frog legs or turtle or any other wild animal. Never had any desire to. And I don't eat Southern food very often.
Music: I don't listen to country music, though there are some older country songs that I like okay. No, I listen to gospel music. Fred Hammond, Kirk Franklin, Kurt Carr, Donnie McClurkin, Tye Tribbett, Israel Houghton. That's my kind of music.
I do not drive a pick-up truck.
I don't wear jeans and t-shirts and tennis shoes or cowgirl boots. My style is considered classic, feminine and somewhat old-fashioned. I wear A-line skirts, dresses, cardigans and blouses with flats or heels or sandals. Though not quite preppy. Just lady-like. :-) Maybe that is considered Southern, but it's not the stereotypical Southern redneck look.
I have all of my teeth, I love to read (novels and classic literature), I've never gone frog gigging (or whatever it's called) or off-roading, I've never mud wrestled, I've never tasted alcohol. (Some people think Southerners love alcohol.)
I watch NASCAR races sometimes, but miss more races than I see. If Dale Earnhardt, Jr. weren't a racer, I wouldn't watch at all.
College football is big in the South, but in North Carolina the big sport besides NASCAR is college basketball. I love me some Tar Heel basketball! I'm proud to be a "stereotypical" North Carolinian in that regard. I'm proud to be a North Carolinian and a Southerner, period. :-)
The stereotypical Southerner loves the Lord Jesus and goes to church on Sunday and Wednesday. As far as that goes, yes, I fit that and gladly.
We do have electricity, running water, HDTV and HD cable, a Blu-Ray player, a modern, 21st century vehicle (not on blocks lol), a PS3 and cell phones. There is no indoor furniture on the outside of our house. We don't have farm animals in our yard or car parts lying around.
We don't live in the country (though I'd love to as long as it's not too far out), we live in a pre-dominantly black neighborhood and have for nearly 13 years. Anytime I see a white family in our neighborhood I say to myself, "Oh, look. White people." I'm so used to only seeing black folks around me that it always kind of surprises me to see white faces other than our own. The couple two doors down from us are good friends of ours. My son goes to the races with them sometimes and hangs out with them in their house when he can.
Some people think all Southerners are racists. If that were true, we wouldn't live in this neighborhood, we wouldn't go to a church with even one African-American, let alone a church where around half of the congregation is African-American, and we wouldn't let our kids hang out with African-Americans or go off with them.
So much for all Southerners being racists.
Oh, and my church? We don't have the blacks on one side and the whites on another. Or white folks sitting together on one pew and the blacks sitting together on another. We all sit together, pray together, cry together, laugh together, worship together, sing together, dance together (yes, we're one of those churches) , eat together. We hug each other, call each other "brother" and "sister", tell each other "I love you" and lay hands on each other. (Again, we're one of those churches.) There is no room for racism amongst us. I've heard my pastor say a couple times, "If you don't like it, there's the door!" Whew. I love my pastor!
Anyway, I did go on, didn't I? As I said, I just tend to get a bit riled up when people start saying ignorant things about the South. And that's all this has been about - defending my fellow Southerners. Not the ones in the past who owned slaves or oppressed our fellow African-American Southerners in the decades following the Civil War. I'm defending my fellow 21st century Southerners - white, black, Hispanic, whatever. In that show on the History Channel, there were African-Americans showing just as much love for the South (the food, the hospitality, the music, the accents - plural!, the language, etc.) as there were white folks. We're all Southerners down here. Not just us white people.
Aaannyway, ugh. Sorry for such a lengthy blog post. Maybe some of y'all won't get this. In which case I reckon this just wasn't written for you. Hey, it's my blog and I'll write what I want to. ;-) But I hope many of you will understand this and take it the way I mean for it to be taken.
I'm proud to be a Southerner, proud to be an American (which does not at all mean that I have no love for other countries) and ridiculously happy being a Christian.
Monday, November 24, 2008
The Holidays, House update, "You Guys"?
The kids are excited about Thanksgiving break coming up soon. They only have two days of school this week. Only one for Kelly though. She had a fever for a couple days so I kept her out today. She's been fine, other than a cough, today so she'll be going to school tomorrow.
Thanksgiving is always at our house since we have the biggest dining room. I'll be making most of the dishes and desserts, as I usually do. Can't wait to eat the stuffing. Yum!
Hard to believe Christmas will be here in a month. I've done very little shopping. I bought a gift for my nephew Zach (my brother's step-son) and new bedding for the kids, which I've already given them because they needed it. I bought Kelly a beautiful Simply Shabby Chic sheet set (trying saying that ten times fast - "Simply Shabby Chic sheet set") and blanket from Target. (Click here - light pink w/little pink roses; and here.) I got Sean a set of red flannel sheets and a Transformers comforter.
Kelly wants about a hundred things for Christmas. lol No, she won't be getting it all. And I told her that. She wants Hannah Montana stuff (she's never watched the show) - dolls and guitar, Barbie Diamond Castle dolls, Tinker Bell dolls, etc. I don't know what Sean wants, other than a Dale Earnhardt Jr. jacket. Charlie wants to get them new bikes. They need them, but there's really nowhere for them to safely ride them here except for the yard, which isn't big.
We're going to be taking our house off the market for a couple months at the end of the month. That's when our contract expires with our realtor. She suggested taking our house off the market. Charlie wants to because he's nervous about the economy and the possibility of work slowing down. I don't like it, but it will give us a break.
The other day, Kelly and I were watching TV and this woman called a group of women "you guys". Kelly asked why she called them guys when they're girls. lol Any Southerner knows that you don't address a group of people as "you guys" if there's even one female in the group. Not that a true Southerner would say "you guys" instead of "y'all" anyway. :-)
We all went out to dinner and a movie Friday night. We ate at Monterrey's (delicious) and then went to the theater. Charlie and the kids watched Bolt. I watched Twilight. It was okay. Not as good as I had hoped it would be. The book is better.
Well, I need to get supper started. I'm about to starve. I'm making baked chicken breasts (in a little concoction I came up with - lemon juice, milk, olive oil, garlic, rosemary, thyme, basil), black eyed peas, Uncle Ben's chicken rice and broccoli.
Thanksgiving is always at our house since we have the biggest dining room. I'll be making most of the dishes and desserts, as I usually do. Can't wait to eat the stuffing. Yum!
Hard to believe Christmas will be here in a month. I've done very little shopping. I bought a gift for my nephew Zach (my brother's step-son) and new bedding for the kids, which I've already given them because they needed it. I bought Kelly a beautiful Simply Shabby Chic sheet set (trying saying that ten times fast - "Simply Shabby Chic sheet set") and blanket from Target. (Click here - light pink w/little pink roses; and here.) I got Sean a set of red flannel sheets and a Transformers comforter.
Kelly wants about a hundred things for Christmas. lol No, she won't be getting it all. And I told her that. She wants Hannah Montana stuff (she's never watched the show) - dolls and guitar, Barbie Diamond Castle dolls, Tinker Bell dolls, etc. I don't know what Sean wants, other than a Dale Earnhardt Jr. jacket. Charlie wants to get them new bikes. They need them, but there's really nowhere for them to safely ride them here except for the yard, which isn't big.
We're going to be taking our house off the market for a couple months at the end of the month. That's when our contract expires with our realtor. She suggested taking our house off the market. Charlie wants to because he's nervous about the economy and the possibility of work slowing down. I don't like it, but it will give us a break.
The other day, Kelly and I were watching TV and this woman called a group of women "you guys". Kelly asked why she called them guys when they're girls. lol Any Southerner knows that you don't address a group of people as "you guys" if there's even one female in the group. Not that a true Southerner would say "you guys" instead of "y'all" anyway. :-)
We all went out to dinner and a movie Friday night. We ate at Monterrey's (delicious) and then went to the theater. Charlie and the kids watched Bolt. I watched Twilight. It was okay. Not as good as I had hoped it would be. The book is better.
Well, I need to get supper started. I'm about to starve. I'm making baked chicken breasts (in a little concoction I came up with - lemon juice, milk, olive oil, garlic, rosemary, thyme, basil), black eyed peas, Uncle Ben's chicken rice and broccoli.
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