That's what I like about the South
One of my former newspaper bosses was telling a story about how, when he was in high school, his Future Farmers of America instructor said he should go to agricultural college and make a career of writing reports about and collecting data on topics of interest to farmers and farm-fanciers.My boss was deep into the story, giving us all the full dramatic presentation, when he then said "... and his wife, my English teacher, told him 'NO, John David! He needs to go to a big school and work for a newspaper!"
I love this little slice-of-someone-else's-life-story story because my friend felt the need to tell us that his teachers were married and, best of all, that the wife called her husband by his first and middle names. That right there is about as True South as it gets -- the double-name usage.
Of course, America in general knows that when you're called by your FBI Most Wanted List full name, you're in big trouble. But the two name address is like a dog's warning growl in the South, especially when used by a wife who is speaking to her husband or, most likely, calling him out for something as in the example above.
Another Southernism, and one I've mainly heard in south Alabama, is "took and," which sounds like "tooken" when issuing from the mouth of someone who has mastered its usage.
"Took and" can be used to describe the actions of any person or thing. It's obviously an unnecessary addition to a sentence, but there's just something about it that adds that special, particularly hyperlocal relish to anything it's referencing.
Watch just about any news interview with a south Alabaman after one of the phalanx of tornadoes plaguing the Plains and you'll inevitably hear a sentence like this:
"... and then, that tornader took and tore up the elementary school and the high school, but the football stadium didn't suffer no damage, praise Jesus."
These are small things, but they make me happy when I hear them. The South is a fine place worth savoring.
posted by rekkidbraka @ 12:02 PM
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