Southern Charm - More on My Wonderfully Weird Husband

Apparently there is a great debate about whether or not Kentucky, my home state, is a southern state, which means I sometimes question whether or not I’m a southern girl. Yes, I say “ya’ll,” but I’ve never in my life had sweet tea, so it seems like it’s a wash. 

I think my husband has the same type of identity crisis.  There are some things about Jay that are decidedly southern.  He loves him some Dukes of Hazzard.  He knows every word to that Chattahoochee song.   He can put away some biscuits and gravy.  On the other hand, he doesn’t wear cowboy boots.  He doesn’t hunt.  He’s never dated a cousin (that I know of).  

Whether the South claims Kentucky or not, Jay, who was born and bred in the Bluegrass state, sounds like a bonafide southern boy.

Which brings me on my countdown to Weird Things about Jay #7  - He Has His Own Language.





My Hillbilly (Just FYI, this was actually a play!  He's not THAT bad!)

Some of the oddities of Jay’s language have to do with the way he pronounces certain words.  Warsh = wash.  Pire = power.  Code = Cold (okay, I’m guilty of this one too).

He also combines words to make his very own vernacular.  For example, tump = turn over and dump

But even better than the pronunciations are the words and phrases he chooses to use.  He often uses words like “fixin’” and “reckon.” 

Rather than say, “Hello,” he says, “Hidey ma’am.”

Rather than say, “It doesn’t matter,” he says, “It’s neither here nor there,” or “Six in one, half dozen in the other.”

He calls a fridge an icebox.

He calls a lunchbox a lunch pail.  Really, Laura Ingalls?  When is the last time someone carried a lunch pail?

He uses such charming southern colloquialisms as “That’s older than dirt,” “Good Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise,” and “I’m sweatin’ like a stuck pig on the fourth of July.”   He’s even been known to say, “It’s colder than a well-digger’s butt.”  I'm not really interested in knowing what that means.

I’ve even heard him sing this song –

“Oh, Micah ain’t got no sense.

Eat all the pickets off my back fence

Got a hump on his back and a wart on his chin

He’s in pretty good shape for the shape he’s in.”

I giggle every single time the southern boy tries to burst out of Jay. It cracks me up…

But it also has an upside…

Sometimes he calls me darlin’.

Enjoying a Southern tradition (Waffle House)

Kisses!