Being Southern

Anyone who has recently been reading this blog knows that I am in the midst of trying to lose some weight. Today was a beautiful day here, so my sister-in-law and I decided to go for a long walk together. We threw the kids in their strollers, and off we went for 5.5 miles. I felt great afterwards, so I did a few hundred crunches not long after I got home. Later in the day, I stupidly decided that it would be a good idea for me to go for a two mile run. Once I got home, I proceeded to tell my husband that I was going "to monkey." He looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language.

"What?" he said.
Gasping for breath, I answered, "I'm going to monkey. You know, throw up. Vomit. Spew chunks."
His reply, "I have no idea what you are talking about."

I didn't bother to explain as I was too busy trying not to die. I thankfully did not get sick like I surely felt I was going to do. Tonight, I was talking to my brother-in-law on the phone, and I asked him if he knew what it meant. He too was clueless as to what I was talking about. I decided to do a poll of all my Facebook friends just to make sure that this was not some phrase I had made up in my sleep at some point in my life. Sure enough, I was justified. ALL of my southern friends from back home in South Carolina knew exactly what I was talking about.

This whole situation caused me to start thinking. There are many phrases and instances that are so different in the South. One debate that my husband and I often have is about toques/toboggans. A toque is the Canadian term for a knitted hat, originally of wool though now often of synthetic fibers, that is designed to provide warmth in winter. Well, in the South we call that a toboggan. That is just one example of many language barrier arguments in our house!

I had recently made a post about being Canadian... now let me tell you about BEING SOUTHERN!

Southerns are easily identified by a few key phrases that are always used. Two examples are y'all and bless your heart.

Y'all, pronounced as one syllable, is a contraction for "you all" and is one of the most common expressions that Southerns are recognized for.

Bless your heart is a response that you would give to another person's luck, be it good or bad. For instance, you may say "Well bless your heart" to someone who has just given birth, and you may also say it to someone who has just lost their dog.

Ryan cracks up at me when I tell him that dinner is ready and he needs to come "fix his plate." His response is the same every time... "I didn't know it was broken." Southerns also use fix to let you know that we are going to do something. For example, "I'm fixin' to go to the store. Do you need anything?"

Both my Mom and my Grandmother are both known to be "piddlin" around the house when I give them a call to see what they have been up to. Piddlin means that you are doing nothing of any importance, but more or less doing lots of nothing!

You are taught as a young child in the South to respect you elders by addressing them with either Ma'am or Sir. I'm trying my best to pass that trait onto Reagan by encouraging her to answer with either yes ma'am/yes sir or no ma'am/no sir. As long as she has a least a smidgen (Southern slang for a very small amount) of my accent and Southern manners, I will be one happy Mama!

I have to give thanks to Cecilia Budd Grimes, the author of What It Means To Be Southern, for a little help with writing this post!

Also, I've acquired a few new followers recently for this blog, so if this is your first time reading my craziness, let me take this moment to say, "Hi! Thanks for stopping by... it sure is nice to meet you. Feel free to stick around or come back anytime you would like... just make yourself at home! And bless your heart for stopping by in the first place!"