|
|
|
Facebook
RSS
![[Nameplate]](http://www.dddnews.com/images/nameplate.png)
|
|
Fair ~ High: 87°F ~ Low: 70°F Sunday, May 19, 2013 |
|
Community Reflections -- Southern ComfortPosted Monday, June 30, 2008, at 11:03 AM
I was a banker for many years prior to coming to work for the Chamber and both of the banks for which I worked were owned by larger banking corporations. While I worked for Commerce Bank (formerly Cotton Exchange Bank, now Southern Missouri Bank), I was a loan officer and also the investment representative. Each time I would attend training in St. Louis, the other investment reps from various parts of Missouri and the folks at Commerce Brokerage found great amusement in making fun of my southern accent.
One of our training sessions dealt with ethics. Investment products are generally not FDIC insured and investment reps working in a bank environment have to be especially careful that their customers understand this. We were discussing the importance of a solid, trusting relationship between the investment and non-investment bank personnel when I said "The other bank employees have to trust me enough to know that I would never hoo-doo their Meemaw out of her CD money." The head of Commerce Brokerage Services happened to be at our meeting and he leaned over to the person next to him and said "What did she say?" I repeated it and he still looked at me as if I were speaking a foreign language. Finally I said "They have to know that I would never CHEAT their GRANDMOTHER out of her certificate of deposit." Good grief! A few months later Commerce sold the Kennett and Quilin banks to Southern Missouri Bank and I had to go to First Tennessee Brokerage in Memphis for my first investment meeting. The first speaker on the agenda had about 10 different degrees and professional designations and was to give us an economic outlook and analysis. I was sitting there thinking how this guy was going to be speaking way over my head when he walked in with a stack of papers, passed them around the table and said "Good mornin'! I'm so-and-so.…., have all y'all got a hand out?" All y'all -- man, I knew right then I was where I needed to be. Isn't that a great feeling -- to know that you are right where you need to be. We sometimes dream of other places, those wonderlands of high paying jobs, variety of restaurants and shops, avenues of entertainment, those lands of places to go and things to do. I know everything around here is not easy. I have a great job now, but I have also chopped cotton and picked tomatoes and cleaned toilets and washed dishes and I promise you I never forget that. I still do many of these things, basic things that we all do to keep our homes and our community going. Those other lifestyles have a cost, too -- in a metro area many people have to pay to park and then walk a block or ten to work. We can drive to New Orleans or Dallas or Atlanta or Nashville or Kansas City in less than a day. We can be in Memphis in less time than it sometimes takes to get from one side of St. Louis to the other. Even if we work in Paragould, Blytheville or New Madrid, we don't have to leave home an hour early and stay at work an hour later to avoid heavy traffic and the drive is no further than what many in metro areas drive. OK, so we don't have a huge selection of shops and restaurants, but just about anything we want is not far. How often can you go to the opera or eat at an expensive restaurant anyway? So for those who long for some place other than here, but especially for those who want to be here, please know this: you are right where we need you to be. We need you to be involved in making this community what it can be. We will be having a series of meetings, hopefully in each ward, to discuss how we can work together to build a better path for our future. Please take the time to participate. Yes, I think of other places now and then. And then I make some home-made ice cream and our kids, grandkids, my mom and dad and aunt and uncle and my husband and I sit around in the yard where my great-great parents did much the same thing and I remember that I'm right where I need to be. Comments Showing most recent comments first [Show in chronological order instead] |
Hot topics 2010 Delta Fair Parade(2 ~ 9:49 AM, Sep 23)
Getting Old is Just Hail
From TEA to Trash
The Greatest Gift
Missouri State Fair
|
Email link
Read comments (19)
Blog archive
![[Feed icon]](http://www.dddnews.com/images/icons/feed-icon-14x14.png){kind=icon}
The movie "Ride With The Devil" is on IFC today (08/04/08) at 3 pm Arizona time. (5 pm Missouri) It deals specificaly with the bloody atrocities committed by both sides in the Missouri/Kansas conflict during the civil war.
http://www.flickfilosopher.com/blog/1999...
Ride With The devil is based on the novel "Woe to Live On" by Missouri author Daniel Woodrell.
http://www.richmondreview.co.uk/features...
Wow. I hadn't thought about Madden's Goose Farm in a very very long time. Anyone remember when Tom Madden (at least I think that was his name)was on What's My Line? I don't think any of the celebrities guessed his occupation.
Lived There, you did make it to Farmers Supply, and yes, that is exactly what Madden's goose farm was all about.
We may have to go back to geese if the price of chemicals keeps going up!
Re Jan McElwrath:
I seem to remember my Mother once buying from the Farmers Supply a couple bags of chops (chopped up corn kernels for non-farm types) for hog feed.
Madden's Goose Farm? Were they one of those whom used to lease out the huge flocks of geese to farmers for eating grass in fenced cotton fields? Sans a fence, the far roaming geese were no respecters of mere property boundaries.
Hey, Lived There - my grandparents were Diser and Beulah Allen, who owned and operated Farmers Supply in beautiful downtown Friendship. My mother is Doris June Allen Lynn, married J.T. Lynn. My husband and I live next door to my parents just north of Friendship Baptist Church.
My grandparents sold the store many years ago, but once larger groceries opened in Kennett, the store at Friendship closed. The building is still there and maintained well by its current owner. You can still see remnants of Madden's Goose Farm, parts of one of the gins, but any sign of the other is gone. Friendship Baptist Church and Camp McClanahan are going strong.
I grew up in and out of the store, semi-working in the summers. Eggs came in a huge box and we would have to transfer them to the individual egg carton. One of my first lessons as a little girl was "little end down". To this day my mother or aunt or I will be doing something when suddenly one of us says "little end down". My grandparents were some fine people who made every customer feel welcome.
You may remember that kid who was always yakity-yaking away..some things never change!
Re Jan McElwrath:
That is interesting, is it still there? Our Mother, siblings and I, ate many a bologna sandwich at the Friendship store during the cotton chopping and picking seasons.
Here in this part of Arizona, they raise some of the most beautiful cotton to behold. My wife is also from Kennett, but she will not so much as begrudge a sidelong glance when I point out the cotton to her, she still has some very strong feelings about swinging a hoe or pulling a twelve foot tar bottom cotton sack.
When we got married 48 years ago, the wedding was at 10:30 in the morning, we went right from the church, changed clothes, and straight to the field to pick a couple drafts of that $3.00 a hundred cotton before dark. That night, for our wedding feast, father-in-law treated us to foot long chili dogs at the old Log Cabin. So I can understand and forgive her for being a bit jaundiced against cotton fields. (;>)
Lived There - Now that is livin'! I grew up around my grandparents grocery store in Friendship and from cotton choppin' through melon season to cotton pickin' time bologney sandwiches, cokacolas, vienny sausage and moon pies were in high demand. I used to love to watch those peanuts rise to the top of my coke.
Still do...
janb - at least that's a story I can tell in public..thanks for posting!
Jan, I have to admit the hoo doo memaw is a trademark for you....We enjoyed you then and I enjoy you now.
You do a great job. Keep the accent!
Jan McElwrath: "I may just have some vienna sausage later.."
Along with a bag of Planter's peanuts dumped into a bottle of RC Cola, followed by a Moon Pie for desert? Weird, maybe by PC Yankee standards? But still today, I plead guilty to occasionally indulging in those favorite childhood comfort foods we bought at Strain's Store on Ely St. (;>)
I am sorry about that Jan. I had every intention of comming to the meeting. I was in the area but went out of town for the afternoon and got back way too late to attend the meeting and didn't want to interupt it. I did enjoy the fantastic pictures that was sent to me about the apartments. I actually know one person who lives there already and met two others who were moving in. The next time I'm in town I may just show up unannounced.
(Don't forget the crackers)
Hey, Keith! Great to hear from you - thought we'd see you at the community meeting last month.
I was feeling sorry for city folk just this morning, standing out in my yard cutting open ripe, juicy watermelons and cutting out just the heart to bring as a treat for a lunch meeting today. I may just have some vienna sausage later..
Lived There, I learn something from you every single time you post. Thank you - and keep 'em coming!
Although Missouri was a split border state during the civil war, it was heavily influenced by Southerners as many settlers had immigrated from the south. Present company excepted of course, but very few people from Missouri know very little about their state's history.
In 1862, Dunklin County passed a resolution to secede from Missouri and upon declaring itself the independent state of Dunklin, declared war on the Union and was occupied by Union troops in 1863.
The map at link shows clearly why the Bootheel has deep southern roots, it was cotton.
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/FarmPol...
Missouri had more civil war battles fought on it's soil than any other state except Virginia. Not the grand battles in other theaters of the war, but very bloody ones for their size. For several years before the civil war started, Missouri and Kansas had been fighting their own vicious border war. For sheer hatred, revenge and ferocity, it was truly the Balkans of the heartland in the mid 1800's.
Snip: "For five years before the Civil War, residents of the neighboring states of Missouri and Kansas waged their own civil conflict, which was characterized by unremitting and unparalleled brutality. More than anywhere else in the nation, this was truly a civil war-a conflict whose wounds were a long time in healing." Jayhawkers from Kansas and bushwhackers from Missouri led raids on the others' land, homes, business, and families, committing numerous violent atrocities."
Snip: "The result was a divided state. Missouri experienced 1,162 skirmishes and battles, had more fighting within its borders than any other state except Virginia, and ranks as the 3rd most fought over state in the nation during the Civil War. "
http://209.85.141.104/search?q=cache:sUb...
Well, When I went to college in 1974 in Cape Girardeau. I was amazed at all of the people with northern accents. I never thought there would be so many people from way up north comming to college in a little town like Cape. I thought they were all from Chicago, New York, Boston and in that area unitl I figured out that most of them were from St louis Just a couple of hours north of where we were attending college together. Imagine my surprise when they said I talked funny and I was thinking just the exact same thing about them. IT's like where I live now, a little town west of Dallas, Texas called Paradise. People in Kennett would feel right at home here with their accent but just 75 miles away in Dallas, The Dallasites (as we call them) wouldn't have a clue what I would be talking about when I speak of pitching melons or going out to hoe cotton or pick end-rows and having a can of RED BIRD vienna sausages and crackers right out of the can and a hot Pepsi for lunch, sitting under the shade of the cotton trailer wishing for just one cool breeze but how many of us would trade our experiences for the city life? Well I have been there and done the city live but much rather have the country and my old Southeast Missouri accent anytime. I think I will just keep it.
Keith Ivie
Lived There - When people want to be particulary nasty I sometimes use my accent as a lure...play the sweet southern belle, gaze innocently through blue eyes, let their line of remarks play, all the while reeling them in until SNAP! gotcha.
Good to hear from you!
When attending meetings, conferences and functions with Yankees, use that southern accent to strategic and tactical advantage. Some pop culture inoculated Yankees have imbued preconceived ideals about southerners, a slow and soft drawling accent only reinforces their sense of superiority and of your ignorance. This sets the conditions and preps the battlefield for your oncoming, "wal, bless your heart dahling", or, "ain't that nice" traps.
I have been gone from Kennett about 50 years, but never lost the accent. Got transferred around in the oil patch, worked in AK, WY, MT, ND, CO, UT, CA and other northern climes, but no matter where, one was never beyond earshot of those ubiquitous Texan and Cajun drawls.
Hey, Theresa!
You also know exactly which yard I am talking about. Ray and I now have two granddaughters - Jenna, almost 2 yrs old and Jalynn, almost 2 months old. What a great time Mama Beulah and Grandaddy would have had with them.
Everyone is doing pretty well, but every once in a while Mother quotes Grandaddy's niece, Pansy. When Pansy was about 90 years old, in her Texas drawl she said "Dawris June, getting old is just hail".
Great to hear from you - and I'm so excited that you read my blog!! Please keep in touch.
Jan,
Sure enjoyed your Southern Comfort. It was a great article. I know what you mean about the Southern Accent, but wouldn't want to lose it.
This is from your cousin (Theresa Nichols Lynn)
Hope everyone is well.
Thanks, SD - I can take quite a bit of teasing, but if it goes on too long I have a tendency to reeally draawl iat owwt. One thing about it, when I speak up at any state-level meeting, everyone in the room knows I am not from Kansas City or St. Louis and they suddenly realize there is a part of Missouri somewhere south of Cape Girardeau. I attended a Delta Regional Conference last week and was surrounded by lots of native Mississippians - now there's a southern accent, and it was great!
Also during the banking years we would be audited by those yankees from St. Louis and one day as a young auditor was looking through file after file of "Such n such Gin Company"; "So n So Gin Company", she looked at me and asked so sincerely, "What kind of gin do you people make down here?" Oh, honey, that's COTTON gins, bless your heart...
Regarding your colorful speech and southern accent, I offer the following insight:
I spent several years while in the Navy being teased about my syrupy Senath southern accent. "Say 'wash' for us", my buddies would say. "Worsh", I'd say, followed closely by the guffaws of the teasers. I finally got enough of the teasing and began to work on ridding myself of the accursed accent. With much practice and several self-corrections over more than a few years, I was able to virtually eliminate the pesky accent which had caused me such ridicule. I now sound like the average weatherman; no readily identifiable accent; no telltale whang that might reveal the place of my youth; nothing distinct or different about my speech. You guessed it, I wish I had my accent back, but now when I try to sound southern, I sound like an actor trying to imitate a southern accent.
My wife recently went through the same teasing and haranguing that I went through over the accent, and I she wished that she too could lose her southern accent. "Don't lose it, it's what makes you unique", I tell her. Hang on to that accent; it's an important part of your heritage which, once gone, at least for some, is irretrievable.