One interesting and sometimes confusing aspect of being with rural uneducated people of any culture is their misuse of their own mother tongue. It is especially interesting when one is listening to someone misuse their mother tongue when it is not your own mother tongue, so you have no idea initially what they are talking about.
For example, I was visiting Doc and Marilyn and Marilyn invited me inside to have dinner with them. She said they were having "chicken popeyes." I of course thought that she must mean that they were having Popeye's Chicken (which is an American fast food chain), and that somehow Doc had found a way to get some Popeye's Chicken to their house, which is about 20 miles from the nearest Popeye's.
Instead, when we sat down to the table, Marilyn brought out three chicken POT PIES, that she had heated up in the microwave. "Chicken Popeye's." Doc asked me if Brit's ate chicken popeye's and I told him that we did but that we had another name for them.
Another time, Doc was talking about a friend of his who had just gotten another woman in his life. Doc was telling me about it, how she was a short little gal, but was "a beast." I asked what he meant by her being a beast, imagining that she had fangs, a beard, or horns protruding from her forehead. He said, "You know, Tondy. She's fat, round... o' BEAST!" "O BEAST!"
Doc's neighbor's boss, for example, holds him "a cannibal." Ernie brings tools home with him in the company provided truck. But Ernie is responsible for the tools and would have to replace them if they went missing. He is held "a cannibal" for them.
Ernie says his old lady don't speak in "contraptions." She speaks every syllable, not running words together like the rest of them.
One's monthly check comes from "socialist services" over at the "gummit" building in La Plata. LaPlata is in "Chaws Canny Merlyn," which other people refer to as Charles County, Maryland."
Of course, there is the "innerweb" on the computer where one can get e-letters, and see all the stuff out there in "cyrilspace," unless one has "doll up" in which case one cannot fully enjoy "that your-tube."
Oh well. I'm just a Brit. But none of them can figure out why someone from England is not called an "Eng."
For example, I was visiting Doc and Marilyn and Marilyn invited me inside to have dinner with them. She said they were having "chicken popeyes." I of course thought that she must mean that they were having Popeye's Chicken (which is an American fast food chain), and that somehow Doc had found a way to get some Popeye's Chicken to their house, which is about 20 miles from the nearest Popeye's.
Instead, when we sat down to the table, Marilyn brought out three chicken POT PIES, that she had heated up in the microwave. "Chicken Popeye's." Doc asked me if Brit's ate chicken popeye's and I told him that we did but that we had another name for them.
Another time, Doc was talking about a friend of his who had just gotten another woman in his life. Doc was telling me about it, how she was a short little gal, but was "a beast." I asked what he meant by her being a beast, imagining that she had fangs, a beard, or horns protruding from her forehead. He said, "You know, Tondy. She's fat, round... o' BEAST!" "O BEAST!"
Doc's neighbor's boss, for example, holds him "a cannibal." Ernie brings tools home with him in the company provided truck. But Ernie is responsible for the tools and would have to replace them if they went missing. He is held "a cannibal" for them.
Ernie says his old lady don't speak in "contraptions." She speaks every syllable, not running words together like the rest of them.
One's monthly check comes from "socialist services" over at the "gummit" building in La Plata. LaPlata is in "Chaws Canny Merlyn," which other people refer to as Charles County, Maryland."
Of course, there is the "innerweb" on the computer where one can get e-letters, and see all the stuff out there in "cyrilspace," unless one has "doll up" in which case one cannot fully enjoy "that your-tube."
Oh well. I'm just a Brit. But none of them can figure out why someone from England is not called an "Eng."
