Thursday, March 29, 2007

Yes, Ma'am, No Ma'am, and Other Musings on the Way to Baton Rouge

Camping by the levee Wednesday night. If you click on the picture, you can see Bear :)
Hello Dear Reader! I hope that your week is going well. Mine has been good. I've had a few technical difficulties with my wheels (i.e., I've had more than that last flat tire I told you about), but otherwise life has treated me quite well.

Once again, time has just slipped by so quickly and it occurred to me again that I have forgotten to mention some cultural differences that I have come across along the way. Lest you think that the country has gotten to be homogeneous, I assure you that here in the South-- some aspects of life are quite different than up North.

Let's start with formalities. Dear Reader, could you imagine referring to every singe adult you meet and most of the adults you know as Ma'am or Sir? Well if you're a Southerner reading this the answer I am guessing is a resounding YES. If you're in Seattle right now, I'm guessing you may be a bit confused. Well get this: it's true. And I've rather gotten used to it. I refer to every adult I meet as ma'am or sir until they tell me otherwise. Kids I meet along the way are calling me ma'am. The only drawback I can see so far is that I am getting worse at remembering people's actual names.

Anyway, I wanted to write to you about this because of little Grace, the two year old I got to meet when I was in Amite County. She is now being taught to finish her yeses and no's correctly (with a ma'am or a sir). Keep at it Grace. :)

Other musings: I camped out right next to a levee last night along the Mississippi River south of New Roads, Louisiana, and I have to say that I am glad to have experienced that and I don't feel the need to do it again. As the weather has warmed up, the mosquitoes are out in force-- especially by a river. (Duh, Ms.V.)

And the last musing: libraries are cool. So are expensive hotels that let you use their business center even when you aren't staying there. In case you're wondering those two places are how I have been able to keep up the blog. And can I just say: I am super impressed with the Parish libraries that I have seen so far since crossing the Louisiana state line. (Parishes are just like counties.)
There are other differences too that I have noticed regarding religion and schools, and I'll get into that one in my next post. Cheers, Dear Reader!

1 comment:

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