I was doing training for a phone system in Birmingham Alabama (Social Security Administration) this summer & had quite a few questions about “which button do I mash to …(do whatever)?”
I was nonplussed for a moment… it seemed a bit violent to me…
Michigander/Hoosier Gal…
The ‘Miss’ thing freaked me out at first, til Mr. Bobkitty explained it to me. His kids introduce him to their (white) friends as ‘Mr. First-Name’ and our godson (also white) is being raised to call him that as well. Apparently when he helped out with Cub/Girl Scouts it was common practice. I think it’s regional, though you’re right that it does have some racial overtones.
‘Lawd-a-mercy’ is a good one. The turn-of-phrase ‘Bless (his/her/your) heart’ is one of my personal favorites.
Slight hijack… Mr. Bobkitty and his entire family use a phrase that I am incredibly uncomfortable with. I thought it was just them, but it seems to be very popular in this area (west central GA), even among the college set. When discussing shoddy workmanship/piecing something together with bubble gum and spit, they use the phrase ‘n***er-rigging.’ Is this wide-spread?
-BK
If you order a chicken fried steak, and they serve gravy on the side, you are definately in the NORTH.
Unfortunately, I’ve heard that term too. My father usta (lue’s word) use it quite frequently. We’ve had many discussions about the use of it and ‘n***er-chasers’ when referring to a certain type of firecracker. I think I have done enough lecturing that he has finally eliminated those words from his vocabulary.
The term n*****-rigging is pretty widespread, at least in distribution, but it has fallen out of favor (thankfully) as times have changed. For a while, the PC version was “Afro-engineered,” but that too (also thankfully) is something that I, at least, don’t hear much anymore.
Im back, and im prepared to burn!!!
(sorry, if this seems a little long)
To meet the most southern southerners…you only have to go to Kelly NC… (we just call it “over the river”. any time you say your going “over the river” or you live “over the river” you live in Kelly.) The people there speak a such a southern dialect that even other southerners have trouble understanding them… It dont even sound like english.
I guess you could call me the official White Trash of the board. I have a cousin who is married to her brother…and they have 2 kids…gross.
The little old ladies drive big ol’ lincolns (linkins) or cadilacs (caddy lacks) staddling the yellow line…at 45mph.
Old men hang out at the local gas station. They show up at 6 in the morining and dont leave unilt 8 that night, Drinking coke in glass bottles (all soft drinks arent cokes…we call em dranks…yes, with an “a”)eating peanuts, and chewin bakker (tobacco) despite what many people think about chewing tobacco, it tastes VERY good, and i enjoy it when ever a spit bottle is avalible.
Now, lets move a little further up river…to a place known as Beaver Dam or Crusoe. Beaver Dam/Crusoe didnt get electricity or running water until the early 1980’s. The people there still fish from dugout canoes…However, the people that live there are not indians. The story behind the people that live there is that their ancestors were british prisoners who escaped from the patriots during the revolutionary war. They are a bunch of cutthroats, and were known to kill anyone who tresspassed into their community. You see, unitl the 1970s, there was only one road that went to Crusoe…it was a very long dirt road, with a few lean to shacks and cabins on it. If you werent welcome, you just didnt come back from that place…Until the 80s, even the police didnt go there…and yall think that NY gangs are scary.
My grandpa was a bootlegger (he made liquor and wine, and sold it out his back dooor) A lot of the older men in my family have also done this back in the day.
The place im originaly from is Delco NC. (pronounced DEL…CO!. it must be shouted (hollered) to sound authentic)
It was named Delco after the AC Delco Car battery…Its True! people around here loved delco car batteries that much. ( i reckon you would too if the only alternative was to hand-crank your car.) People in delco drove Ford Model Ts until the 1950s.
Another thing unique to the south is tobacco farming. All of the young men seek employment from the local tobacco farmers. (the pay is excelent, ive made over $30.00 an hour at times) Because of this, most young sothern men know every spanish swear word there is. Mexicans are also hired as farm hands in the summer.
Yall have heard of teen pregnancy right? I once went to school with a girl who was pregnant as the age of 13.
The south can be a great place to live though. You are pretty much welcomed by anyone no matter where you are (unless youre a damnyankee.) We have deer huntin, coon huntin, bass fishin, frog giggin and cat(catfish, not felines) skinnin.
Holidays are great around here. Me and my family have huge parites and family reunions ( i have over 100 cousins) and every one just enjoys themselves. The annual Little 4th of July cookout is one of the best.
Everybody down south isnt ignorant or stupid. Many are quite intelegent, and hold high paying jobs as supervisors at mills and factories, or are lawyers, doctors, etc.
Right now im attending NCSU in Raleigh NC. I get off 5 days for thanks giving and im ready to get back. I miss my dogs, my freinds, deer hunting, and all of the other things that i dont have here in the city.
Hope i didnt bore ya to tears!!!
Justin.
[><] Heritate, not hate. I proudly fly the confederate flag at my home.
Depending on where you are in Texas, the bubble gum and wire hanger fix it jobs are called “aggie engineering”. The nearer you are to Austin, the more likely you are to hear it.
Wow! I spent 26 years in Austin and I have never heard that before…not from family, friends, or co-workers.
Really glad you used that word “about” cause that’s what it is just “about” as Deep South as can be. Some people would agrue that South Carolina, as in Charleston, is just as Deep South as Alabama. I married a gal from Leeds, Alabama whose folks are also from Abbeville, Alabama so I know how southern that state is, but if you want the Deep South you are talking one state and a part of one state at that. It’s not the northern hill country, the pine belt or the gulf coast, it is the:
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P.S. Lots of southerners have a problem accepting North Carolina as a southern state.
I made up this Southern-to-English dictionary as I read this thread, to be sure we’ve covered all the little Southernisms I’ve heard in my 10 years in the South. (Native Ohioan, lived in South Florida – which doesn’t count as southern, North Florida – which does because I live closer to Georgia than the ocean, and South Carolina.) Here’s what I’ve learned (and hopefully I’m adding things no one else has mentioned):
Note on “Bless your heart:” If you say anything ugly or hateful, or gossipy about someone behind their back, you can undo it all if you just end your rant with, “Bless her/his heart.” It’s the be-all end-all Karma fixer-upper. Just end your gossip with that sentence, and no one will accuse you of being a gossip.
Here’s my southernisms:
proud as in “I’m proud to meet you”; “I’m proud you could make it.”
finest kind as in “His folks are the finest kind (of people).”
All those posts without mentioning it and finally Dogzilla beat me to the “cut off” thing. As in “Cut off the radio” or “Cut that light off, would you?”
I also noticed that my southern pals pronounced “blouse” with a “z” whereas in the Midwest I’d heard it with an “ss” sound.
I should be able to come up with a list as long as my arm, as moving to VA at 18 was sheer culture shock. But I moved back to the Midwest and oh what I have forgotten. Of course, most of what I’d contribute has been mentioned anyway.
ORIGINALY POSTED BY KNIZ…P.S. Lots of southerners have a problem accepting North Carolina as a southern state.
(sorry, i dont know how do do the
[quote]
thing)
North Carolina is very much a southern state…Gen’ral Robert E. Lee prefered troops where from NC.
More tobacco is grown in NC than in the rest of the US combined (last time i checked) and tobacco is a very southern crop.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SOUTH (NORTH CAROLINA) SEE MY EARLIER POST. ITS PRETTY DAMN LONG
DONT LET THE "NORTH IN N.C FOOL YA. In my oppenion, Atlanta GA. is not a southern city. Texas isnt a southern state…its western. Floirida is full of sun-dried retirees.
The real south can still be found in rural NC.
Hey all,
I just found this thread, and am so put out that I hadn’t found it earlier! I don’t really have much to add that hasn’t already been said, but I ort not (ought not) let that stop me.
I live in Birmingham, and am a college constipated city boy, but I do have people who live in Shanghai and Punkin Center.
Anyway, for lunch when we visit down home, there’s slice cheese, loafa bread, a cold drank, some Arsh taters, some sweetaters, a big pone of cornbread, a mess of greens and pot likker with a big ol’ Mooder onion, served on Fine China (paper plates.) Just about all of it growed owchonder where the bobwar stops. All it needed was just a bit of gu-anner to make it grow good.
As for expressions, my favorites describe my children, who could tear up a steel ball with a rubber hammer, and who learned to whisper in a sawmill. And [b}SilkyThreat** I use tump occasionally. And dadgummit. And “lower than whale st." And "shot at and missed, st at and hit.” And my children say “Yes, ma’am” and “Yes, sir.” And they call anybody who is an adult acquaintance either Miss or Mister and then the person’s first name. Miss Millie, Mr. Tim.
45ACP
My sincerest apologies. I obviously should have said, “…in my experience, it’s been more like I would hear it, the nearer I was to Austin.”
I meant “more likely” rather than, “more like”.
Ahem!
Although technically…I’m not a native. I grew up in Chattanooga, so it is a close thing.
sigh I guess I don’t count, huh?
I don’t think anyone’s mentioned “plum,” or maybe it should be “plumb.” A general purpose intensifier, as in “plumb yonder” or “I plumb forgot.” This was a common word used by my Kentucky grandmother.
I’ve lived in Nashville for 16 years now. There are certain expressions that still get to me. Like “hamburger meat” instead of hamburger. (Although my grandmother in Michgan called it “hamburg”) “Hose pipe” for garden hose. “Stove eyes” for stove burners. “Buttercups” for daffodils. Even after this length of time, I sometimes have to have people spell words so I understand what they’re saying.
StG
“Now” with two syllables: Nay-ow. I cut up the taters, nay-ow…where is that pot?
I think we already hit warsh and rench, for putting on the soap and scrubbing, and then getting the soap off with water.
As a genteel alternative to “holy shit,” there’s always “well, I swan!”
Corr