@chai2,
chai2 wrote:
glitterbag wrote:
My husband is from Raleigh, very few of his elder family members have ever ventured far from the State. I can remember vividly how his Mom, Aunt and older female cousins would use that "Well, bless your heart", it was never meant to be a sweet statement. They just didn't think Yankee gals were smart enough to figure it out. And I'm from Maryland, below the Mason-Dixie line. Don't get me wrong, at times those ladies were wonderful, they just preferred the passive aggressive way of letting you know they thought you were uppity.
Oh hell yeah. "bless his/her/your heart" is bad mojo.
I'd rather be stuck in a room with a hungry pit bull than with 3 decent southern christian ladies.
I have been in a room with dozens of decent Christian Southern women and lived to tell the tale. The trick is to stay relaxed, and keep your sense of humor. My dear departed mother-in-law was incredibly uncomfortable that her beloved son married a Yankee Catholic tramp. But she was too Christian to be direct about it. But there was one magical night as we sat around her lovely dining room table, enjoying a lard laden dinner, when I think I must have recounted a story about Catholic School nuns. At that moment you could see she couldn't keep it in any longer, so she said "jayyness (it's actually Janice) so, can you tell me, are the Catholics like the Jews and don't believe Jesus Christ is their Lord and Saviour??? (Please take a minute to absorb this), I honestly knew it would not be kind to start laughing, but I just gave her a big smile and said "Actually, we Catholics thought of it first". My husband was amused, but I know that devout women had no idea what I was talking about. She truly was a lovely person, just clueless about all those blasphemous churches, temples and mosques. My hand to God, my husbands family has given me so much material I could take it on tour.
I have to point out that although the elders had little knowledge or understanding of anything outside of a fifty mile circle, they worked hard, they made sure their children were well educated and courteous. That might not seem like high praise, but I got to meet many of the people my husband grew up with, most of them became very successful in careers that were definitely challenging. I'm just very concerned that anyone would assume I'm making fun of Southern people, it would be a huge mistake to judge a person by their accent. I live in Maryland, people in New Hampshire assume I'm a rube, and folks in Tennessee think I'm an uppity Yankee. Go figure.
