Assimilation?
Conversation today in the car on the way back to work from lunch.
Adam: I like those 7-Up Lofts.
Kim: Yeah. Its hard to believe that's where they used to make 7-Up, the building is so small.
Adam: Well people didn't used to drink so much coke.
Okay the problem with this is that I used "coke" to refer to all sodas in the same fashion that Texans and most southerners do. I resisted assimilation in Arizona where everyone called soft drinks "pop." I must preserve my original dialect. I've already caved into using "y'all" but thats all you're going to get from me Texas. I must resist. Soda Soda Soda Soda.
Adam: I like those 7-Up Lofts.
Kim: Yeah. Its hard to believe that's where they used to make 7-Up, the building is so small.
Adam: Well people didn't used to drink so much coke.
Okay the problem with this is that I used "coke" to refer to all sodas in the same fashion that Texans and most southerners do. I resisted assimilation in Arizona where everyone called soft drinks "pop." I must preserve my original dialect. I've already caved into using "y'all" but thats all you're going to get from me Texas. I must resist. Soda Soda Soda Soda.
posted by Adam at 1:18 PM
12 Comments:
How about "fixin' to"--have you incorporated that, yet?
How about "eat on it?" As in, I made so much lasagna I'll be eating on it all week. Or is that only in the southeast?
OMG, the "fixin' to"!! I love the 'fixin to'
Then there's the,
"Where you be at?"
or
"How come X is Y?"
Resistance is futile. Soon we will all be frosting and teasing our hair a la debutante-style.
resistance is futile, adam.
Gosh, and I thought Pop was a Midwestern thing....being from Ohio originally.
I grew up with "Pop". And my family is from Nebraska and Texas. So. But if Coke means "soda" in Texas, how do you respond to a kid who says, "Mommy, I want a coke." Do you say, "What kind of coke do you want?"
I'm confused.
People are of course welcome to refer to this beverage as they wish, but if you call all kinds of canned soda, "Coke," what do you call actual Coke? Isn't that sort of confusing?
Q. What would you like to drink?
A. I'll have a Coke.
Q. What kind of Coke?
A. A Coke.
Somehow, this does not seem to make sense to me.
Soft Drinks, Pop (I hate that one...) - they are all Coke. Sorry aaron - that is the way it is in the South - because we are always "fixin to" do something...
Oh for goodness sake! Just ask for a soft drink! ;)
Imagine me in a Japanese grocery store in downtown LA asking for tonic (what soda is called in New England) from a woman who could barely speak English. Not my proudest cultural exchange.
I learned that in Tennessee:
Soda = something you use in the icebox (freezer) to keep it from getting stinky...
Coke = any kind of carbonated beverage, except for BIG RED and MELLOW YELLOW (these two, and I think Root Beer, do not fall under the generic coke rule for some reason)...
Fittin' = (1 - noun) a changing room; or (2 - verb) to prepare to do something, see related Deep South term "Fixin'".
Pop = (1- verb) to punch someone; or (2- verb) to get a flat tire, specifically, the sound your tie-yers (tires) make when you get a flat.
So, being ignorant of these very important distinctions... the worst bit of regional breakdowns in communication I had came from a roomate I had, who was from Gah'REEN'vull in the Great State of Ten-ah-SEE (Nashville, Tennessee). He liked to drink coke.
So we decide to get two cases, one of Coca-Cola for him, and a case of Mountain Dew for me.
The thing was, the little fucker drank all of my Mountain Dew. When I challenged him on it, he said, "Ah tole you, I like to drink coke!"
When asking him to please learn the difference between Mountain Dew and Coca-Cola, all he had say was "Dun' be actin' all ig'nant (ignorant)... a coke's a coke. It'dun matter ta me what color it is!"
"A'ight, I'm a fittin' to pop you one then!" would have been my response if I had thought of it then... :P
NOOOOOO!!! Poor Adam. Saying things like Y'all. Tisk tisk.
Cool blog by the way. And I never knew you were a scientist. Knute must not have mentioned that. ;)
-T
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