<p>I know of some Catholic towns in the midwest where, in public schools, religion (Catholic catechism) is taught during the school day, and the buses bring the kids early for daily mass. (Mass attendance not required, but would you rather stand out in the cold for 30-45 minutes?) Those smart Germans built their public school right next to the Church–they used to have nuns–back when there were still a lot of nuns-- teaching in the public school, too. </p>
<p>Years ago, I taught in public schools in Botswana–modeled on the British system. School opened with prayers and singing of hymns. Religion (Bible, Christian values, etc.,) was part of the national curriculum. I was assigned to teach it one semester. It was all about loving your neighbor, 10 commandments, etc. Most of the students were nominally Protestant with a mix of traditional/tribal beliefs. No one complained about the course.</p>
<p>My friend’s husband grew up in a mostly polish town in Michigan. He did not realize until just a few years ago that not everyone eats fish on Friday. It took us awhile to get him to realize that it’s a Catholic thing. Where he grew up everyone was Catholic so he thought it was universal.</p>
<p>The elementary school I attended in southern Virginia opened up each day with a student reading a Bible story. I couldn’t wait for my turn, and always wanted to read the story about Shadrach Meshach and Abednego. I think I was a bit obsessed with that story and it perhaps paved the way for my attraction to slasher movies.</p>
<p>My son was on his university’s team for University Challenge, a UK quiz show. One of his teammates fielded the question: ‘What is the predominant religion in the American Southwest (Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas)?’ The teammate only knew one person from that region (my son) and using that one example answered ‘Anglican’. After retrieving his jaw from the desk, my son verbalized a fair degree of astonishment.</p>
<p>Irish: thinking the answer would be “Catholic” because of the high percentage of Hispanics in the SW, I checked the map linked above, and noticed that Evangelicals are close to equal in AZ and NM, but there are a lot more Evangelicals than Catholics in TX. Was Evangelical given as the correct answer? (I was surprised that there are so many, especially in AZ and NM.)</p>
<p>The ‘correct’ answer was Catholic but, as you suggest, the true answer may be debatable. However, the word ‘evangelical’ has a different meaning in the UK and the researchers may have been looking more at specific denominations. </p>
<p>We live just northwest of San Antonio, a majority Hispanic and Catholic city, but the Texas Hill Country was largely settled by Germans and the nearest town was founded by German free-thinkers, who originally forebade the building of any church within the city limits. They relented to the point of allowing the Catholics to build a church just outside the limits. Later when English settlers moved in they were allowed to build an Episcopal church just outside the city limits as well. </p>
<p>After living in Ireland and Seattle, I found the local history here very interesting.</p>
<p>My daughter attended an all-girls, majority-minority Catholic high school in San Antonio.
She was the only Episcopalian but one of her best friends was a Presbyterian and another was an African-American Jew. Going to college in Vermont was a bit of a cultural shock for her: there were virtually no Hispanics, people kept asking her why she didn’t have a Texas accent, and people also made stereotypical comments about the South, a region she did not identify with and knew only from having attended an intensive ballet program in Atlanta one summer.</p>
<p>Milwaukee’s SOUTH side was home to Poles- near 16th and Mitchell- National Geographic had an article about the city in the 1970’s and included the “joke” about the longest bridge in the world- the 16th street viaduct separated Africa (near North side) from Poland (south side).</p>
<p>I remember visiting Duke for residency possibilities 30 some years ago and the Irish named staff doctor told me there was a Catholic church in town (I had an obviously ethnic name). I remember thinking “a”, what do you mean- only one in a city of that size??? Wisconsin blink and you miss it towns were said to have at least one church (usually Catholic) and two bars. Green Bay WI has several Catholic churches within blocks of each other in the central city- the Polish, Belgian, Irish… all had to have their own. Baptists were only Southern as I recall- never knew of any of the various types nor of any churches in WI. Times have changed and now there are previously unknown “nondenominational” churches, aka bible based ones.</p>
<p>wis–my grandma and mom grew up in that area–a little farther south. Many beautiful churches built by the immigrants–St. Stanislaus, St. Josaphat (Grandma’s home parish),etc. Mom’s was St. Helen’s. It was still Polish even when I used to visit as a kid, but largely Hispanic now. (Just “walked” down the street, saw grandma’s house via Google. . .thanks for the memories!)</p>
<p>In an effort to get away from all the religious talk:</p>
<p>I grew up in New Hampshire but my parents were New Yorkers. Women carried pock-a-books and kept change in a purse. Here in NH we drank tonic, but in NY it was soda. I never hear tonic in NH anymore. And btw, a frappe in New England is pronounced “frap” and it is what most other parts of the US call a milkshake.</p>
<p>What about bowling? In many parts of New England, bowling is candlepin bowling, with narrow pins and three small balls. If you want to go bowling the regular way you must specify “tenpin bowling” or “big ball bowling” but you might not be able to find that at all!</p>
<p>oh, and Lobstahs ah wicked cheap right now! 3.99/lb!!! But beware, they ah the softshell ones. Only coastal New Englandahs know the difference.</p>
<p>It’s probably dying out. When I lived in Boston some years ago, seems like it was mostly older folks who called a soft drink a “tonic,” as well as some younger ones in working-class neighborhoods. You didn’t hear it much in younger upscale circles.</p>
<p>I used to amuse my Midwestern family with Massachusetts terms that were incomprehensible to them, like “tonic” (soda, or pop to them), “frappe”, (milkshake), “grinder” (toasted sub sandwich, more a Worcester thing than Boston; pronounced “grind-ah”), bubbler (water fountain, pronounced “bubbla”), and “packy run” (trip to the liquor store, short for “package store,” something you might do to have a little liquid refreshment to go with your *suppa *on a Saddadee night).</p>
<p>Also with pronunciations: Worcester is WUSS-tah (first syllable rhymes with "puss’), but Dorchester is DAW-chess-tuh. Peabody is PEE-buh-dee, Quincy is KWIN-zee. There was a movie theater in Cambridge that mockingly had a sign on its popcorn machine: “Hawt Budded Puppcon.” And then of course there was the famous expression, “Park the car in Harvard Yard,” which comes out as “Pahk the cah in Hah-vid Yahd.” Which of course is silly, as everyone in Bawstin knows there’s no pahkin in Hah-vid Yahd. But if you’re lucky, you might find a place to *pahk in Hah-vid Sqway-uh<a href=“Harvard%20Square”>/I</a>.</p>
<p>True story: I live in Massachusetts, my uncle has lived his entire life in South Carolina. He and my aunt came to visit, and wanted to take a day trip to Martha’s Vineyard. They drove to Wood’s Hole (the ferry terminal) and pulled up to the guy who was directing traffic at the entrance.<br>
Attendant: Packin?
Uncle: Excuse me?
Attendant: Ah you packin?
Uncle: No, uh wonted to park muh car!
Attendant: That’s what I said!
It was like they were speaking two completely different languages. I was dying laughing - although I guess I should have been translating.</p>
<p>I’m just curious, those of you with regional accents ( I’m from CA and don’t think I have one ?), what do you think when you watch major news programs or things like Jepordy? Do they sound “weird” to you? Are they hard to understand?</p>
<p>^Lima beans
Well, we all think that you guys have accents everyone thinks they’re “normal” and everyone else speaks with an accent.
I know that with national news, every now and then there are people who have an accent so different from my own, and it sticks out.</p>
<p>I live in the Midwest and spent a lot of time in CA, so I can tell when my accent comes out. The word Accent in particular. I don’t mind Southern accents, but I have a hard time with Bostin accents. That cable commercial with the “hopper” gets muted every time.</p>
<p>Lafalum - Out west her ‘packin’ has a completely different meaning and if someone asked me if I was packin’ I’d have 2nd thoughts about parking my car there. ;)</p>
<p>My take on accents is this: When you are surrounded by people that sound like you, you don’t have an accent. However, when you move to or visit somewhere else where people do not sound like you, YOU are the one with the accent. My British friends have, on occasion, imitated the “standard American newscasting” accent – the one so many people think isn’t an accent. To them it sounds nasally.</p>
<p>As far as the South, there is no one “Southern accent”. Our ways of pronouncing words vary, sometimes greatly, by state and even within a state, by ethnicity, by generation, and by income/education. In North Carolina, there are several very distinctive pronunciation patterns. The Outer Banks have a tinge of upper crust British; the Appalachian people have what is often disparagingly called a “hick accent” but has a beautiful intelligence and rhythm; the Piedmont area has everything from down-home farm pronunciations to society-ish “uppah” class words. (By the way, as mentioned earlier, in the word “Appalachian,” the “lach” is pronounced almost like “latch”; it is not pronounced “lay”.)</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the flood of out of state immigrants and pervasive electronic media have undercut some of the lovely speech patterns that we have here. That must be true all over the country. One of the joys of traveling is getting to hear local accents. I hope we can maintain our unique ways of talking and not all sound alike.</p>
<p>I just found out from another thread that you can’t buy cold medicine in Alabama until you are 19. Lets hope your student doesn’t get sick there, or he/she needs to smuggle some meds.</p>
everyone thinks they’re “normal” and everyone else speaks with an accent.