Accents

I have a tremendously thick southern accent. It is so bad that other southerners cannot understand half of what I say. Southerners, being the xenophobic people that they are, regularly suggest to me that "in America, we speak English" just before they suggest I go back to where I came from. People who aren't from the south, but who speak English natively, regularly ask me what language I am speaking. Okay, that is all an exaggeration. I have been told that I have a light, but noticeable southern accent. That is what I get for growing up in a small southern town. If I had grown up even in Birmingham, which is still the same state, I would be blessed with a neutral accent. I can only dream.

However, I do not use a lot of the typical southern words and phrases, such as "yall" or "aint". I think that using "fixin to" in place of "about to" is also a southern thing, but I cannot be sure; I don't use it either.

Jam it back in, in the dark.