Laurie: I think that yall's Uncle Dayton is quite proud of the smiling, funny, honest life you are living for yourself (yallself? - I'm a life long California girl and need more tutoring in this lingo).

Love the blog and my daily dose of Crazy Aunt Purl. Hoping to meet you some day when I'm brave enough to come to a SnB.

:-) Lorrian

Laurie... you DO know that you are living true and honest AND funny, right? I'm guessing you got the funny from Dayton and you spread his joy and laughter to us every day. We love you for it, you make us realize that all the goofy, klutzy, warm and wonderful things in life are to be treasured and enjoyed. I sound like a bad Hallmark card so I'll sign off but keep in mind, I ever make it out San Ferisco way I'm expecting learn me some knittin' and a big old bowl of wine to soak my head in. Love ya girlie.

Omigod, I couldn't quit snickering at the funny parts of your posting this time (as always), and I continue to be touched by the tender way you write about people who have mattered to you. Speaking as someone who actually had grandparents known as Big Mama and Big Daddy (really) and also Mamaw and Papaw, I can tell that your Southern roots run deep. The picture of your uncle looks like one of a hundred from my own photo albums. (What am I saying ... "photo albums" ... most of my family photos are still in my daddy's old cigar boxes.)

You made me think of my own dear (and also deceased) Uncle Frank, a short, cussing farmer and also a very funny old prankster who was universally adored by my cousins and me. Thanks for the warm fuzzy thoughts for the day.

Laurie, I will have to meet you some day -- if you ever, ever, EVER come to the Memphis TN area, let me know. Drinks are on me. (And the heck with mint juleps; we'll have some bourbon and branch. Or margaritas. Or Cosmopolitans. Or wine. Heck, I'm not particular.)

Best - Carolyn B.

as i live in pennsylvania, i DO draw odd looks when i drop an occasional y'all. that is the extent of my sourthern-isms, with the excpetion of my all-time favorite, courtesy of the sweet potato queens, and i believe it is shouted as all one word, "hey-y'all-cute-shoes-tell-yer-mama-hi!"

Thanks for the yawl education. I spell it ya'll, but what do I know? I'm an asian from Hawaii! Our equivalent of ya'll is "da kine ovah deiah"

Your blog rocks! :)

I churn my own butter,LOL. I guess I am weird. It is so true what you say about the southern pull... I do the same thing every time I go home too. 15 seconds flat and I am talking like I never left(savannah GA) I have northernized my tounge as well, seeing that my husband is a northern man in the truest sense of the word, and is a grammar nazi and all.

Since I have some Texas in my background, I had to laugh at your post. I believe that I have an Uncle Truman too. I know that I have an Aunt Opal Mae and a cousin Jackie Don and used to have an Aunt Fluorine before she passed away. And my grandfather's name is Ethan Allen...but he goes by Allen. And he talks as if the south will rise again. We are complete with a past that includes early family members who fought for the Confederacy and were captured and became prisoners of the Union. And now I live in Pennsylvania, so I don't get to go back to my Texas roots too often. In fact, I have not been there since we moved to PA in 1986...but I will make my triumphant return someday.

Anyway, I'm fixin' to do some work now...so y'all have a great day!

I do beleive the drawl comes from location and not just being around people who also have the drawl... when I go to West Virginia to visit my dad and his family, I'll meet my brother at the Pittsburgh, PA airport and we drive (forever) to get to his house. Our speech usually kicks into country mode about an hour into the drive- well before we've actually met up with our family.

I spell it y'all, too.

great-aunt marionette? because no one should name someone mary-annette without seeing if that will sound like a puppet on a string first.

the drawl is a powerful thing. i lived in loozhiana for 3 years followed by 2 years in georgia (and YES! there are different southern accents!) and the drawl stills slips out when i been drinking or i am tahred. what's interesting is when the time in the south mixes with the time in new england (will all y'alls put the GI-tar down and come heah?)

when i lived in SoCal (ew, in the 909!), they made fun of me. now that i'm in denver they still make fun of me.

As a lifelong Northeasterner, I'm afraid of the y'alls, but I'm looking forward to experiencing them with our upcoming move to the South. Well, not the South, really. Florida. Probably more Northeastern than Massachusetts. But still, have y'all ever driven along Alligator Alley? Tell me they aren't southerners! They eat RIVER RAT for chrissake! *runs away screaming*

I get upset with people who misspell "y'all" because it indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of where the word comes from (you all = y'all. Easy as pie), and I hold that if you don't know where a word comes from, you shouldn't use it. But I make exceptions for people who understand the word but make a conscious choice to spell it differently. That's creative license. And besides, the people I really have it in for are those who insist y'all isn't a word. That's just Yankee snobbery.

Thanks for the great post. You really made me laugh and I'm with y'all in spirit!

Hey! Two old aunts who live together? We've got those. Actually, they're Husband Dear's aunts, and I acquired them through marriage. Mine can trump yours, though. The aunts have never been married, never moved out of the house, still live in the same room, for Pete's sake. They cook really good food though, every time we want to come over. God bless'em.

Brilliant. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

Girl from NYC + vacation with relatives in Northern VA (we're not talking South here, just Washington DC) = temporary southern accent.

Never kept it long, but I could always hear it. The power of the drawl is to a force to be reckoned with.

Hey, I saw the garments from the Fall Vogue Knitting in Columbus last weekend and your favorite teacher/stalkee has an amazing shrug done in Lorna's Laces Shepherd's Worsted that you will love. I think it may even be the cover sweater!!

I can completely relate to having an Uncle like that. My Uncle Tommy is the funny, older single southern man in the family (We're in Atlanta-which is quickly becoming not as southern anymore-sigh)and keeps us laughing through e-mail stories about "the gap" constantly! Love him!
(and yes, we spell it y'all here too)

My dad, Rufus, from Calhoun Falls SC, loved to talk about the Civil War. I would say "Daddy, who won the Civil War?" and he would say "There were no winners in that war."

I was in high school before I found out that, technically, one side did win.

As a fellow southerner - and one from the same neck of the woods (I got family in Paris, Orange (and actually all over the Golden Triangle, Houston and my folks even own property in Comfort) - I can vouch for the hold of the drawl. Has nothing to do with location and every thing to do with who you're talking to.

I'm always being told I don't sound like I'm from Texas, however the second I've talked to my meemie and pawpaw on the phone (and got help y'all if I've actually been home recently) or the second after I've had my second Jack Daniels, the drawl comes out with a force. Suddenly I'm fixin' to do the warsh and speak in hushed (y'all ever whisper and yell at the same time? Must be a southern thing) tones about old Mizzruz (Mrs.) Thibideaux and her son Dirt's (not his Christian name, duh, it's just that he hauls dirt for construction projects) inability to find a job that let's 'em sit on the couch all dang day sippin' sweet tea and swattin' mosquitos, since that's really all he's good for, anyhow.

Anyway - I get a kick out of the blog. Keep entertaining us out here on the internets.

Good times, good times. I grew up in Virginia and don't have too much of an accent (I did public speaking stuff in high school, so that helped erase it), until I get in the vicinity of some of my relatives. I've got some in Texas, and then others in Carolina (they don't like to say the "n" word...), and y'all, I don't even know if it's 15 seconds before my words start to get longer and more melodic. Then I come back out to CA and get teased a little because the drawl stays with me for a little while. :)

Um, you ARE that funny!

Hey, Purl,

Your humor is by turns heartwarming and laugh-out-loud funny. I don't think you need to worry about living your life with humor and honestly following your heart; you do that everyday. And, I don't think I am alone when I say, your blog makes finding that same path easier for the rest of us.

I'm a Southern girl myself. Born in New Orleans, with family from Texas, Louisianna, Arkansas and Mississippi. I moved overseas when I was a baby girl (4 years old), so much of the drawl was lost when I started school.

I had Australian and British teachers, so I had something close to an English accent when I moved back to the States six years later. I lost the English accent almost immediately, but never did pick a true Southern drawl again. The closest I have come is to pick up an Okie twang, because I've lived here in the heartland for almost 25 years.

My Mom, bless her heart, retained her Shreveport, LA accent, even in Africa. The men that my father worked with used to tease her about being the only person they knew who spoke Portugese with a Southern accent. She loved it and never apologized for being a belle.

You are smart to embrace your roots, Sweetie. I too am proud of my eccentric (the Southern term for crazy) family. I wouldn't trade my heritage for anything.

You're a mess (I mean that in a good way. Yes, I know that "bless your heart" and "you're a mess" have more than one meaning South of the Mason-Dixon) and I love reading your blog because it takes me home.

I never did have much of a drawl when I lived in Oklahoma. Coming to CA made me realize that I pronounced things in really bizarre ways (mewzim as opposed to mew-zee-um and apparently my pronunciation of "lawyer" is/was strange...but I have no idea how). I managed to work a lot of that out of my speech but when I'm excited, in a hurry, flustered, or back home, it comes back.

Last night I realized it comes back in a frightening way when I am talking to myself, which in and of itself is bad enough. But to do it with a drawl?

What about y'all's instead of all y'all? Because I say y'all's.

Heck, I live in Wisconsin, and I've adopted "y'all" as a very efficient contraction. I think it comes from watching so much NASCAR and listening to all the guys talk. I can even tell pretty well what state the guy is from by his accent... except for Ward and Jeff Burton - they are brothers and talk totally differently! They joke that it's because Jeff grew up on the north end of the house and Ward on the south end.
Never be embarrassed by your family - would you really want them to be boring, one-dimensional cardboard cutout-like people? It's great that they have so much character. The people who think that's weird are just jealous.

OMG. When I was a kid, I spent the summers with my cousins in Carterville, Missoura and this is what I remember. Supper's ready and if y'all don't git in here right now, I'm gonna kick all y'all's butts!

The power of y'all is all encompassing.

You've not lived till you've heard y'all used by people with such accents as: (and I'm not kidding here) South African (my doctor), Pakistani (a neighbor), Punjabi (another neighbor), Mexican ( half of everyone I know), Swedish (a former roommate), Lebanese (a former EX), Egyptian (the only one I've ever heard who actually made it sound.. elegant)and then...there's the transplanted Yankees.....errrrr I mean.. "Those of Northern Extraction".

Y'all have a good tahme naow, heah? And don' f'get the swee'tea.

HOLY COW! I've got family in Bogata - that just a stones throw and a holler from Longview!
While I've never been to Great Stet, send me to a family reunion and I could fit right in.

You are THAT funny! Seriously. Also, apparently it doesn't take a visit home or a phone conversation with Nana to bring out the accent on us Southern girls.

For me it generally takes:
1/2 glass of wine
less than 6 hours sleep
reading blogs of other Southerners (new addition)

Yep, my friends and family have now noticed an increase in the Southern since I've been reading your blog. My nana would be so proud. It might even make up for the fact that TheBoy is worse than a Yank, he's a Californian! Which of course means he is a long-haired hippie who does drugs and *gasp* doesn't eat meat. (none of which are true in this case)

Also, I loved how a friend of mine (who also reads your post) called me to tell me that we are "practically neighbors" beings how I'm from Cibolo and you're from Longview. Because all Texans are neighbors, even if they are a days drive from each other.

Actually according to that logic we're neighbors now! I'm in the SF Bay Area and you're in So. Cal. Same thing right?

I'm okie born and okie bred - so yeah, I got a drawl! But those people in the Carolinas? WOW! Texas - not so bad, closest I think to the Okie Drawl.

I don't care how it's spelled, "y'all" sounds so much nicer than "yoos guys" - like "I tell you what" sounds so much nicer than "Listen." It is a peculiar talent of Southerners to make an imperative verb sound like a friendly request.

I am a Southerner by choice.* I was born in Boston, (thankfully my parents left before I learned much of my vocabulary), and raised in MD, but my family is from here (Atlanta) and here is where I am. I can speak with what I call the Maryland Non-Accent and an Atlanta drawl. I prefer the drawl. I can happily use the word "yonder" and not have people look at me funny. Lastly, I think tea w/o sugar is heresy.

*Mind you, that's not to be confused with a carpetbagger. A carpetbagger shows up with the intent to change things to his own liking w/no regard for The Way Things Are and then resents being Talked About.

I, too, drop y'all into everyday conversation, and my mama does too--because she's from Oklahoma, and Florida, and grew up to be a Delta Gamma at UT Knoxville. So far, so good, right? The strange thing is that both my mama and I talk really, really fast--strangers routinely tell us to slow down, and once an Ex, getting on the phone with me for the first time in a year, burst out laughing and said, "I forgot how fast you talk! WOW!"

Ever hear someone drop y'alls faster than the speed of sound? It takes drawl mutation to a whole new level.

Well, I spell it y'all and I say 'all y'all.'

But I'm from Northern California originally, which just makes me a freak however you look at it.

Oh lord all y'all are hilarious. I may be from Iowa, but I dated a redneck from the Florida panhandle for awhile and picked up some of his accent. In the area where I live everyone says 'yous guys'. I sooooo hate that. I much prefer to get funny looks for saying y'all. If I spend more than 5 minutes with someone from the south, I pick up the accent. I so love the southern drawl.

down here in the deep we say "all ya'll." And I am thinking the spelling is actually "ya'll." Least that what dictionary.com says. I don't ordinary cotton to a website telling me how to do things, but that site has a surprising amount of Southern slang. Purl, they even 'splain "fixin' to." Gotta love that!

You have the very best blog ever. Yours is the first blog I have ever made a point to read every day. I just love it.

I say "all y'all" even though I've now lived in Chicago 20 years, which is longer than I've ever lived anywhere else. I'm from southern Indiana, which maybe you wouldn't think is all that southern, but trust me, it is. The accent kicks in as soon as I talk to anyone down there. Instantly.

Now I know where the talking came from - those old dames had to be relatives of y'all! ;-)

Laurie,
I love reading your blog. It is *the* total highlight of my day. And yes, I am sad when you don't post. But then I remind myself, Laurie does have a life, unlike yourself!

This post is extra-special to me, because although I grew up in Michigan, I have spent a great deal of time in Middle Tennessee and love, love, love the South. Except (*ahem*) when people give you disapproving church lady looks because you don't have your hair and makeup done before you go to the MALL.

And the drawl, the drawl can really get you in the mood to kick back and set on the porch a spell with your sweetea and watch the world go by.

Keep writing. We love you. And give a holler if you are ever in New Yawrk (city). (That would be the Tennessee pronunciation.)

Just remembered something else I wanted to mention: My French teacher (a young Swedish woman who somehow found her way to north Mississippi, where I went to college) said it's not true that Southerners talk slowly. We just exaggerate vowel sounds.

"Dog" becomes "dawg" -- and it's darned near impossible to saw "dawg" in a crisp, clipped way.

Ditto for "y'all," which can be pronounced Yaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwllllllllll with a lot of intonation like a cranky cat when you really want to infuse it with some pleading or reproval.

ANYWAY! Just a few thoughts there from a former Mississippian/current Tennessee gal.

~ Carolyn B.

Thank you. Thanks you for being the only person I've known (yes, I know you - that's just how I think) to call it the War of Northern Agression. People here (Missouri) do not believe that it is taught to us at home (up in Flardy) as being called the War of Northern Agression.

Do you say "My land" too?, or is that a southeastern bible belt thing?

The "ya'll" is a powerful force... even I, a dyed in the wool Midwesterner, started saying "ya'll" after a year or two of college below the Mason-Dixon (and I mean just a mile or so below the the M-D, in Maryland). Of course I also picked up "wicked cool" during my two years in Boston and I've been saying "rad" a bit too much now that I am living in California... SO maybe I am just extremely impressionable. Dig it.

Tee hee hee! Oh, Crazy Aunt Purl, you make me laugh.

I grew up in Chicago, and went to college in Farmville, VA. (It's a long story . . . why would one leave Chicago for Farmville. Ahh, the mysteries of the universe.) I got to school and met all kinds of colorful Southern Folk. I was dumbstruck when one of my friends told me that when they were learning to conjugate verbs in Spanish class they learned them in the following categories: I, You, He/she/it, us, they, and y'all. Really? Y'all in school? Fascinating! I was out to dinner with some friends and we were talking about differences in language, and I was asked if you don't say "y'all" what do you say? At first I thought they were joking, but I looked around to see nothing but straight faces. It still gets me. Of course, after 4 years in Virginia and marrying a southern boy, I occasionally drop a "y'all" myself. That South, it can really grab a hold of ya.

My grandmother was from KY. I was born and raised in northern IL. All it takes for me to start y'alling is a trip south of I-80.

LOVED the tin can with a propeller. I fly on those entirely too often...

Love, love, love you!!

Bring's back memories of visiting my own relatives in Arkansas...where everyone goes by two names, no one goes anywhere fast and anything can and will be fried...in bacon fat preferably.

As a Texan living in France, I've had to learn to neutralize my accent or else people simply don't understand me. Of course, it's not gone completely- the y'all is just too handy to lose, and it comes back somewhere over the Atlantic when I come home. My husband (who is French) also knows that I'm either really mad or really happy about something when I start using phrases he doesn't understand like "madder 'n a wet hen".

My grandmother Mary Lou, a very Texan lady, made a phone call to Boston once, and the man who answered the phone passed the call off to someone else, saying that he didn't think the person on the other end of the line was speaking English. Grandmother was somewhat offended, but Granddad took it with pride, saying of course she wasn't "speaking English", she was "talkin' Texan".

This Boston girl thinks you ahh wicked awesome!

Growing up in Oklahoma, I took pride in the fact that I didn't have a drawl. After all, I grew up in The City. I even had a few people ask me if I was from Up North. Then I moved to Washington State two years ago and people couldn't understand what I was saying! I was really nervous about it for a while and tried my best to "talk right". Now I've resigned myself to the fact that I am Southern and I always will be. That's part of why I like your blog so much, it feels like I'm talking to my kin. But I still look forward to my visits back home where I can let it all hang out! (The funny thing is, all my neighbors say ya'll, but I never do!)

Mom and I couldn't sit next to each other in church because we would get giggling too hard. We were known to laugh at wakes too. Sounds like our families should get together! ;)

Happy Happy Birthday! I hope you have a great one. Thank you so much for your blog. Oh, and for a lining on your mushroom hat, you could just pick up stitches in the fuzzy yarn aroung the bottom edge of your big hat and knit another hat and push it into the big hat! Voila, no seaming!

Years ago, I worked with group of Texan transplants to the Bay Area. My wife swore I picked up a drawl. I swear I didn't (but I really know I did, sort of). The colleague I still keep in touch with grew up in Muleshoe (near Amarillo, I think).

Isn't the plural of y'all "alla y'all"?

Oh Dear God, this sounds just like some of my West (by God) Virginia relatives. And of course, myself. I've lived in Indiana (north of US 40 and I-70) all my life, but 5 minutes after stepping into my cousin's house in Charleston, WV, I sound like I just fell off the truck. My husband has to deprogram me when I come home.

My ex-boyfriend was as Texasas I am New Jersey and we had endless arguments over the correct spelling of y'all. I, of course, being from the Correct Grammar or Death camp, said it was a contraction of you all and should therefore be y'all.

He pointed out, however, that to Southerners it is actually a contraction of "ya all", in which case ya'll is appropriate. I had to concede he may have had a point.

It took my mama dying to teach me the truth of what you just said: "leaves you with just your real self, and the love you have for your family, and the knowledge that only living true and trying to be happy and honest makes a damn bit of sense." Because that is SO true as to be one of the only parts of life that makes sense to live by. (Along with your family, include your friends.)

We say younse here instead of ya'll.. spelling is debatable...some spell it yunz.

Very funny! Did you happen to see the program Trading Spouses, where the woman from California went to Louisiana and just embarrassed herself with her rudeness? I told my children that it was not that she was rude because she was from California, but you could tell that everyone in the Louisiana group thought that was her problem. Good for you, for recognizing the value of both cultures. This makes you greatly sophisticated.

I'm from the Blue Ridge Mountain area in VA and I worked real hard (especially when I was a teenager that moved to the "big city") to get rid of my accent and never I repeat never say Y'all. Give me a few minutes around my family and it's y'all this and reckun that and fixin to this and yonder that. Now I'm learning to embrace my inner country bumpkin...y'all.

I guess we know where you inherited THE TALKING from.

We miss you toooooo!!!!!!!!

Ya ain't never gonna lose at there drawl. I've been here in L.A. fer nigh on to fifty years an' all I gotta do is start talkin' to some one from back home in Texas and I'm drawlin' all over the place. The word that I can't ever say "right" is greasy. I say gree-z while most folks say gree-c. I wish I'da(?) written down all the folksy things my Granma used to say.

ps - Aunt P, how're you with black eyed peas 'n' okra?
Keep on bloggin' and keep us a laughin'

It's ya'll and will always be ya'll. Anyone who says otherwise does not have a clue about the truth of the matter. You're doomed. You'll always be southern. Embrace it.

I had to come back and post another comment on this...I was with some friends here, pretty much all native Californians. And in the meeting, I got excited about something, and I started to babble, and I kid you not, it all started out with "Dude! Y'all!" It was like all of the California and Southern mixed together and started talking.

So, I hope your plan, one day, is to compile all your amazing writing into one hell of a sentimental and hilarious book.

You are an amazing writer.

I tell you what.

W. :)

If it's really spelled ya'll by southern people then why is there a magazine called "Y'all...The Magazine for Southern People" Check it out at yall.com

Ah, the war of northern agression. I did have friends in high school who still called it that...and we lived in the big ole' city of Dallas. Big D...these would be the same people that asked me why I wanted to go away to a "Yankee school" for college...

Maybe "y'all" or "ya'll" depends on what part of the south you're from?

Shreveport. Birthplace of my mom and site of most of my family holidays. I do believe it's y'all but that's because I'm contracting "you all". I just assume you are contracting "ya all". When I was growing up in Baton Rouge, I always said "you guys" because I wanted to pretend to be a Yankee, but then I decided it was sexist and switched over to y'all.

"If it's really spelled ya'll by southern people then why is there a magazine called "Y'all...The Magazine for Southern People" Check it out at yall.com"

Published by NORTHERN PEOPLE!

wow. uncle mouse is hairy.

ok, i've been lurking in the corners for a while now, but i have to say, y'all or ya'll is fine (i prefer y'all) but when you start saying y'uns is when you have problems. my brother claims that it is the plural of y'all. right. oh, and i've had long conversations about how to pronounce it... the best we could ever come up with is "yaw". apparently you're not supposed to even pronounce the l's.

YOU are too funny for words! tossin in my 2cents.... anyone who spells it y'all - is no true southerner. it's ya'll. another publication to check out: Texas Monthly. they had an article about this very thing (read thang)a few months back. :)

As much as I tend to disagree with the southern politics and have been poisoned with notions of southern social backwardness since childhood, the south and southern people do seem to radiate a warmth and genuineness not found anywhere else. I come from a line of museum quality Northern Liberals of the Norwegian Lutheran sort. Stoicism and dry sarcastic humor is like an art to us. But I have adopted some of the southern lingo after a few trips to North Carolina (or as we like to say, North Cakilaky) and living so close to Virginia for over a year. Of curse “y’all” is #1, and I also like “d’jeet yet?”

I would add, side projects / splinter groups), tawny roberts the results are rarely as satisfying, whether jelena jensen or not you (as the listener) are expecting the lonnie same music. I find that to be true. Another thing nikita laska that seems related to me: when the focus of a karrie jacobs picture band is several different songwriters writing anya their own material and alternately using the rest monica sweetheart of the band as back-up or as session musicians avy scott (and even more noticeably when a band has initially jesse capelli been more of the collabourative, holistic bent), mia skylar the music is seldom as good. Examples I can think kelly havel of immediately: Spacemen 3. Mercury Rev (this roxi one is arguable either way). Sebadoh, first with sunny leone LouAfter many years as a thriving traditional jordan west wholesaler we found the Internet an easier place erica campbell to do business than did the Internet-only startup chantelle fontain companies -- ones that tackled e-tailing without kyla cole business merchandising or wholesaling experience. danni