Ya’ll ain’t from around here, are you?

I’ve been asked that many times since I moved here to Birmingham, Alabama. Just yesterday a lady asked me if I was from Ohio. Well I did grow up in Ohio but spent the majority of my life in the Florida. Florida is NOT the south. It may be well south of Alabama, but it is definitely not the SOUTH!

I have really been trying to fit in here but I guess I still don’t talk the talk. They speak a different language here. Somehow everyone seems to know I’m just a damn Yankee. Some things don’t change. Not here anyway.

I have met some really refined southern ladies who have such beauty and grace. They are so classy, well dressed and well spoken. I can imagine them sitting on a veranda sipping mint juleps in the summertime wearing big hats and long beautiful dresses. To me, they are the true southerners.

The girls I work with however, seems to come from a another place. When they get together I hear these phrases everyday. If I put some of those phrases into a little conversation this is how it would go -

“Where you at? I’m fixin’ to go mix up a mess of fish. Ya’ll can come on if you want. No, not now, this evening. (anytime after 12 noon) Ya’ll can bring the young-uns too ifin you like. If they don’t behave I’ll hafta holler at them. Tell them to say Yes m’amm and No sir if they know what’s good for them.

We’ll have a good time just a piddlin’. If Johnny comes I’ll be madder than a wet hen. He don’t know a rat’s behind from a hole in the ground. I used to could like him but I liked to died when he tried to gimme some sugar that day… you remember doncha?

Now ya’ll be careful, ya here? You member how to git here? Just take that turn right after the big hill, you’ll see the sign where the old Chevy dealer usta be. My daddy got all his cars from that place, sad to see it gone… anyways, ya’ll come on. Kiss that baby for me. I can’t wait to pinch those fat little legs and get me some sugar! Momma loves her sugar…

Oh, and granny’s making her tater salad and slaw so we’ll have plenty to eat. Aunt Jessie’s bringin’ her peach cobbler too. Sure hope Jimmy don’t eat it all fore you git here. Hurry on now. We’ll be waitin’!

Be careful now sweetie, ya here?”

They always say “be careful.” I’m not really sure what it is they want me to be careful about but they always say that. Everyone is a “sweetie", a “darlin” and “precious.” Kinda makes you feel loved, don’t it?

Well, just bless your little heart sweetheart!