At "the Beach"
Jun. 21st, 2005 01:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mysidMy family and I are enjoying our annual week-long trip to "the Beach," namely the Outer Banks of North Carolina. My mother-in-law is from NC, and has been coming here in the summer since she she was born. Her extended family (her brother, sister, their spouses, children, and grandchildren) has continued the tradition, and there are currently 32 1/9 of us here in a huge rental house. (Yes, 1/9 means that one of the cousins is just barely pregnant.)
One slight problem facing me here: I'm one of those people who tend to absorb the accents around them, and here I am--not only in NC, but in house filled with my dh's NC relatives. I'm constantly self-editing the Southern drawl out of my speech. It's not that I'd mind sounding like Daisy Duke, but I'm afraid it would just come off as if I were mocking the in-laws.
My kids' only first cousins are close in age to them, but not close in distance. This week at the beach is one of two times a year that the cousins get to spend time together--and they love it! The 7 1/2 hour drive it takes us to get here is well worth it to give them a chance to spend time with their cousins.
But it's the grown generation of cousins which had us laughing last night. My brother-in-law, Gary, and a few of his cousins started reminiscing about past years, and suddenly everyone was laughing about the night Gary decided he'd rather sleep on the couch rather than share a room with Bruce anymore. Half the group was laughing knowingly, and the others--including Gary's wife--were asking, "Do we want to know?"
So Bruce's older brother said--in his NC drawl, "Well, I'll just start the story, and maybe you can figure out the rest. A few of us went out drinking--pitchers of Long Island Ice Teas--and Bruce had a bit too much. After we got home and Bruce went to bed, he woke up kind of groggy and headed for the bathroom--but he didn't quite make it to the bathroom."
At which point Gary took over the storytelling. "I woke up when I heard rain, and just as I realized someone was standing over me, I realized it wasn't rain."
Bruce's younger brother, with the thickest drawl of the three, chimed in with, "Suddenly Gary was yelling, 'Whoa!---Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!' But by the first 'Whoa,' he was already past the point of no return. There was no stopping now."
One slight problem facing me here: I'm one of those people who tend to absorb the accents around them, and here I am--not only in NC, but in house filled with my dh's NC relatives. I'm constantly self-editing the Southern drawl out of my speech. It's not that I'd mind sounding like Daisy Duke, but I'm afraid it would just come off as if I were mocking the in-laws.
My kids' only first cousins are close in age to them, but not close in distance. This week at the beach is one of two times a year that the cousins get to spend time together--and they love it! The 7 1/2 hour drive it takes us to get here is well worth it to give them a chance to spend time with their cousins.
But it's the grown generation of cousins which had us laughing last night. My brother-in-law, Gary, and a few of his cousins started reminiscing about past years, and suddenly everyone was laughing about the night Gary decided he'd rather sleep on the couch rather than share a room with Bruce anymore. Half the group was laughing knowingly, and the others--including Gary's wife--were asking, "Do we want to know?"
So Bruce's older brother said--in his NC drawl, "Well, I'll just start the story, and maybe you can figure out the rest. A few of us went out drinking--pitchers of Long Island Ice Teas--and Bruce had a bit too much. After we got home and Bruce went to bed, he woke up kind of groggy and headed for the bathroom--but he didn't quite make it to the bathroom."
At which point Gary took over the storytelling. "I woke up when I heard rain, and just as I realized someone was standing over me, I realized it wasn't rain."
Bruce's younger brother, with the thickest drawl of the three, chimed in with, "Suddenly Gary was yelling, 'Whoa!---Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!' But by the first 'Whoa,' he was already past the point of no return. There was no stopping now."
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-21 11:41 am (UTC)I hope you have a lovely vacation.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-22 11:06 am (UTC)Ah, ha!! I just thought that was funny, because I've been trying not to have a southern accent for over ten years! I think I've succeeded -- just the other day, when talking to a job recruiter in L.A. over the phone, I was told that I had no trace of a southern accent. Yay!
I miss you -- just thought I'd stop by your journal to see what's up. :)