<p>This thread is amusing because it clearly demonstrates the cultural differences and feelings between different regions.</p>
<p>I’ve always lived in the Deep South and never heard “Miss” pronounced as “Miz”. In my lifetime, I’ve also never heard it used solely toward one race or another. It’s simply a term of respect and affection. In the office I work in, we have college age student workers who call all of us “Miss Jodie” or “Mr. Chuck”. I have coworkers who are in their mid 30s (younger than myself) who call me “Miss Jodie”.</p>
<p>I remember when I first began having young folks say “Yes, Ma’am” to me. It made me feel old because I realized I wasn’t the young one any more. BUT I totally don’t want to be called “Mrs. Smith” because that’s just way too formal and stiff for me. And I’m not a fan of young people calling their elders by their first name. Growing up here that would have been seen as rude and sassy.</p>
<p>On the topic of what to call grandparents, when I was pregnant with my daughter, my dad told me that he did NOT want to be called “grandpa” because he did not “feel” old enough to be a grandpa. We settled on “Poppa” instead! My parents would have been horrified for my daughter to call them anything to do with their first names.</p>
<p>cartera, my parents were mama and daddy to me too growing up. And my dad is the worst when it comes to pronouncing things. He says “thee ate er” too. Funny, funny.</p>
<p>My kids call my parents Grandmom Betty and Granddad Bob, and H’s parents are Grandma Jane and Grandpa Joseph. (Well, not those actual names, but you get the concept.)</p>
<p>My kids call my mom Mimi and my dad Nono. When my firstborn was a toddler, he would wander too close to my parents’ open stairwell and my dad would say, “Nooo nooo!” So my son started automatically laughing and saying, “Nooo nooo!” whenever he saw my dad. The “name” stuck, and all three kids use it now.</p>
<p>cartera, my parents were mama and daddy to me too growing up. And my dad is the worst when it comes to pronouncing things. He says “thee ate er” too. Funny, funny.</p>
<p>Heck, my dad is from Chicago, and he pronounces some words funny. Instead of college, he says CAWL-ige. Instead of doll, he says dawl…as in “baby dawl”. And instead of sophomore, he says, SOUTH-more. lol</p>
<p>Of course, when i’m in the more rural parts of the south, I sometimes hear things like, My vee-hick-cle got pulled over by the poe-leese. </p>
<p>Oh, well, my Boston friend says she going to warsh some clothes.</p>
<p>"Cartera does make a good point about the historial racial implications. But many Black Americans [older] prefer the “Miss X” thing. And they would quietly fume hearing it pronounced “Miz.” '</p>
<p>This all becomes so confusing when one hangs around people who are of a variety of racial, regional, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.</p>
<p>For instance, I’m black, have a doctorate, and had to tell one of my black friends repeatedly not to introduce me to people as “Dr. Last name,” to just give them my full name.</p>
<p>My friend grew up in an area where most people didn’t graduate from high school, and she’s proud to have a friend with a doctorate.</p>
<p>She now calls me by her first name, but she calls many of her friends whose backgrounds are similar to hers “Miss First Name,” so when she introduces me to them, she refers to me by first name, and then to them by “Miss First Name”. I find that irritating though I know that she’s trying hard to balance how everyone wishes to be addressed.</p>
<p>My MIL was dubbed “Grandma Easy” by the youngest 2 of her l8 grandchildren. Those 2 were brawling twin boys, and nobody could understand their chosen name for her. She seemed too old to be playing the field, kwim?</p>
<p>Turns out, when they’d wrestle with each other on her floor, she’d tell them, “Easy, boys, easy…” </p>
<p>My dear MIL was like the Israeli cactus sabra fruit, “prickly on the outside, sweet within.” Her own sons, when growing up, referred to her (out of hearing) as “Tough Mom.” PIcking up on that secret, she wore with pride. </p>
<p>So it was hilarious she finally earned the name “Grandma Easy” from her very youngest grandsons.</p>
<p>I’ve always had a fascination with accents. One of my college roommates was from the West Bank of New Orleans, which is the other side of the river from the French quarter in case anyone is familiar. West bankers have an accent that to me sounds similar to a Boston accent. And of course any good west banker knows that “the west bank is the best bank” or so they say! :)</p>
<p>I love people watching too, especially when accents are involved. In Orlando recently, there seemed to be quite a few people from the UK at our hotel. I know they probably thought I was staring at them but truthfully I’m just fascinated by the accent.</p>
<p>Yes, take any young bum off the streets of Australia, Ireland, or England…admit him to an American college campus…and his accent instantly becomes “date-bait.”</p>
<p>When I lived in NJ, the kids in my Sunday School class would call me “Mrs. last name” as would most of my friends kids. When we moved to TN, I am now called “Miss Rob” by pretty much all the kids, with an occasional “Mrs. Last Name” thrown in. Miss Rob is more familiar than the formal Mrs. Last Name. I don’t mind either one. </p>
<p>My husband coaches softball and is Coach First Name to a lot of the kids. Except for those who refer to him as Mr. First Name. </p>
<p>And I love the yes, ma’am and no, sir stuff. Melts my heart :)</p>
<p>Speaking of food, I do miss the small ethnic restaurants here. No clue as to what Portuguese food entails in TN And I’m wishing for a real bakery now too. Thanks!</p>
<p>My dad also said ‘thee ate er’ and frequently used the phrase “I’m fixin’ to…” but rather than fixin’ he would say ‘finnin’, which baffled the heck out of me well into adulthood. And strangely like some mid-Atlantic folks, he would oddly pronounce some names that ended in ‘a.’ For example, the President’s name becomes 'Obom-MER. Or Linda becomes Lind-DER.</p>
<p>I lived with my grandparents, Nana and Poppop. My grandfather worked a factory job and left the house super-early for his shift, something like 3 am or 4 am. He would write me notes in which he would twist my name around and be playful (sort of like “The Name Game”). I started writing him a series of notes in which I did the same to him, so Poppop morphed into Poppip, into Pippop, into Pippip, and finally Pippy. </p>
<p>Here’s to Pippy, and Grandma Easy, and Grandpa Nono, and Miss Lilly, and all the rest!</p>
<p>The a becoming er sounds like parts of North Carolina to me. We didn’t do that in southern Virginia. My dad said something sounding like “mun year” - meaning nearly. </p>
<p>“There’s mun year an inch of snow over yonder.”</p>
<p>Lake Washington - did he say mind your own “bi ness”?</p>
<p>Ooooo I’ve heard “bi ness” down here too. One of our state legislators was a cattle rancher and he used to talk about “gettin down to bi-ness”. Love it</p>