Where I Come From

Where I was born and raised is land locked, sort of, we are by a lake, but what I mean by land locked is that the closest "city" with ANYTHING in it is Richmond, Ky, which if you have ever been to Richmond, KY and have been anywhere else in the USA you know that it is FAR FAR FAR from a city. 

In high school the BIG thing to do was to drive to Richmond to eat at, get this, Red Lobster.

yep!

That was THE thing to do.

"Whattcha doin' this weekend?"

"Well, we're proly gonna drive in to Richmond to eat a little sumthin'!"

Another BIG thing to do was the drive in.

Boy oh Boy

If you went to the drive in movie then you were "The Bomb." 

(a saying that was in style at the time)

I remember getting all dressed up to go out to eat at Ruby Tuesday.

Man alive, when that restaurant came in it was THE TALK of the town!

"hey george did ya hear?  we're gettin' one of them there ruby tuesdays."

Just recently they voted the island that is near the lake moist. 

I've heard that it isn't unusual to go into a restaurant down by the lake and find people falling on the floor drunk in their bathrobes.  

CLASSY!

And the lake, well, that is a whole different blog post.

I must admit that when I entered college at Georgetown I tried my best to hide my backwoods roots.

I guess mainly because when you say to your new college roommate that's NOT from Kentucky... "I'm headin' on down to warsh some clothes ya wantin' me to warsh anything for ya while I'm at it?" and she giggles REALLY loud, you get a complex.

While at college I lost my accent (a little bit).  It just kinda happened. The first thing to go was the "WARSH."   I remember someone pointing out that wash DID NOT have an R in it.

WAAAAAAASH

WAAAAAASH

I am going to WAAAAAAASH my clothes.

Then went the "well I'll be."

it was replaced with "interesting."

instead of screaming out "Well I'll be" when a friend told me something exciting I said "humm interesting." 

I even guit saying "oh good grief" and "man alive" when someone said something annoying.

slowly but surly I started completing words. no longer leaving off the G or adding a long A sound.

It made me feel VERy smart and sophisticated.

But just as fast as the accent went it has come on back.

Here I am sayin' things without the G and addin' the long A sound in every other word.

My husband giggles BIG time about it.

He's from the same town but if you look back at home videos of me you can barely understand what I'm saying. 

Over the years I have learned to appreciate my heritage, or as my pawpaw would say "my raisin." 

But I would be tellin' a fib if I didn't admit that I get a bit embarrassed about where I come from and how I was raised, when I am around certain people.

Like the woman I met the other day that moved here from New England.

I sometimes feel like I SHOULD be the wife and mother that wears high heels and speaks with a sophisticated dialect. 

Like seriously, I look like I'm twelve.

Right now I have a shirt on that has a massive ice cream cone on it.

I like to dress up every now and again but most of the time I chill out in a tshirt, shorts and bare feet. 

And yes, most of the time I leave my hair hanging wet to dry on its own.

I have become a LOT more comfortable in my own skin in regards to my clothing and my hair ( I could care less) but my southern dialect makes me uneasy.  

I need to work on that.

I need to be comfortable about who I am in regards to the way I say things and the things that I say.

With that said, just because some one is raised in Kentucky, speaks with a county twang and avoids wearing shoes at all cost doesn't mean they are less!  

I guess that's my biggest fear. I don't want to be seen as not smart.

I really need to get over this

Is it really THAT big of a deal what someone thinks about they way you speak?

NO

And so I write a blog!