PS- about what I said earlier-
I read somewhere (don’t ask me for a cite) that two Australian aborigines meeting in the Outback who are total strangers would sometimes stand face to face and, addressing the wind but not each other, begin reciting their ancestry. Since there aren’t that many aborigines, chances are good they’ll come to a common ancestor (real or mythical) or common relative soon, and once they do they’ll greet each other as they would a member of their tribe/clan/family, but first they have to establish that connection. Sorta the same thing.
If I were to meet Mississippienne say, on a plane flight, and we struck up a conversation (and the Doper connection was never revealed), it might start “pretty day today isn’t it?” but somehow, someway, hard to explain just how, within a minute I would probably know she’s from Mississippi and she would somehow know I’m from Alabama- even if neither asked “where are you from?”, it’d somehow be offered to the conversation.
Now, we know from this that
1- we’re both from the Deep South
2- we didn’t attend any of the same schools
3- we probably don’t have any relatives in common
The only places in Mississippi I’ve spent any time are Biloxi and Starkville. I’d somehow mention this to see if she’s from either one. She’d do likewise probably if she’s been to Montgomery or Birmingham or whatever. If there’s still no connection, we move on (and this is all “meaningless” pleasant small talk, mind).
At some point I might or she might ask a question that’s really not about what it’s asking at all but more of a depth charge. Example: “Did you see Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live as Sarah Palin the other night?” Seems innocuous enough, but what this is really guaging is "were you offended by it? Are you for McCain or Obama or do you not really have strong feelings either way? [which would be unusual since being southerners, strong feelings are never in short supply- we might not know something about a subject, may never have even heard of it, but I guarantee you we both have opinions on it.
So let’s say I ask the Tina Fey question. If Mississippienne (whose real life politics I honestly don’t know) should say if Mississippienne responds with “Man, what was that old man thinking when he chose her as a running mate?”, then… we’ve found the clan of which we’re both a member. Connection made, I can now address her as a relative.
If she should instead respond “Man, can you believe how much hell they’re giving that poor woman?” this lets me know “Okay, since I’m pro-Obama, this isn’t an avenue I want to go down.” (For those who’ve seen me in 201 recent “Sarah Palin is evil” threads and aren’t really familiar with southern culture, it may come as a surprise that I would never start an argument about the woman in “the Waking” but would more likely smile and nod… and change the subject.) And we’ll talk about something until one or the other of us fires another depth charge.
Of course if all else fails, her being from Mississippi and me from Alabama, we can always discuss how much we dislike Yankees who come to the South and bitch non-stop but won’t leave.
(Sorry to pick on Mississippienne.)
Anyway, the “I spent a summer in Antwerp back in the '70s” might seem an irrelevant stretch when said by someone from Columbus, GA to somebody from Norway, but they’re trying. They’re reciting genealogies in the hope that you’ll say “Ah yes… my uncle Georg once was arrested for taking an underaged Czech girl to Antwerp” and they can add “Oh really? My brother Walter was arrested for taking a 14 year old Cuban girl to Eureka Springs, Arkansas once! How 'bout that.”
It’s not totally a southern thing of course. I remember reading that Churchill (I believe it was Churchill) did the same thing, always trying to find something common to talk about. There’s an anecdote that once he was introduced to Pablo Neruda at one of Onassis’s parties. He hadn’t read Neruda’s poetry, only had a general idea of who he was, was a bit out of the loop by this time on Chilean politics, and after a moment’s thought he said “I’ve always thought it must be odd… to be from such a long and narrow country.” (It was the one thing he could think of to make a connection.)