Know accent

"Where are you from?" The clerk in the store looks at me with a quizzical face.
"Chicago? New York? I know it's the east coast!"
She is so excited, I hate to tell her.
"Pennsylvania,"
I say in a calm tone.
"Oh,"
She turns, and walks away in a disappointed shuffle.

I don't even get the follow up question as to where in Pennsylvania.

Yes, this is how it happens, not just once, but over and over again.

Folks are not so excited about our nations first capital state.
Perhaps they do not know or they do not care that Pennsylvania houses the Liberty Bell,
and the Declaration of Independence,
Twenty-five national parks and that
Edgar Allen Poe lived there.

I don't think it matters,
bottom line is,
PA is just not cool,
not NY cool.
My accent has New York melted into it.

It happened when I moved to Georgia in 1976.
Everyone I was working with was from NY, and the influence of speaking like them,
or continually having my accent brought to the center of attention was just that.
I started dropping the vowels and rounding my o's till I began sounding like
I'd come right outa the Bronx.
When I moved back to PA in 1977 my family thought I would have picked up a southern drawl
living in GA,
imagine their surprise when they heard the NY accent.

New York City is a two hour drive from where I grew up.

Most people who live that close to a huge metropolis are influenced by said city.

Not my family,
although they had relatives living there at one time,
we were not to even think we were close to such a place.

Like living in a suburb of hell,
and never acknowledging hell's existence.

Our community of flower bordered lawns,
and white picket fences
was not ever to be confused with the exhaust filled air
of the congested dirty city they called New York.

As a teenager I would ditch school and drive into the city,
just to say I did it.

I was mesmerized by the hustle and huge buildings,
and of course their accents.

Even as a kid I knew PA was not cool.

As a young adult I would go clubbing in the city,
it was a long night but I was young.

Time passed and my accent faded, or so I thought.

Moving to New Mexico I got a job on the phone as a customer service rep. I found I could guess where someone was from just by the way they asked a question.

The accents vary so much in this country it's no wonder folks think we are speaking different languages from state to state.

Now I would imitate the person on the phone.

Allowing myself to pick up what ever accent was handed to me.
This not only broke up the boredom of the job and it gave me an unusual talent it also built a camaraderie with the customer on the end of the line.

We all like to feel like we are speaking with someone down the block or in our neighborhood.

Knowing if the person was a jerk, I could be the New Yorker and give em a what fur!

We all know no one messes with a New Yorker,

folks back off,

because you can't mess with cool!

Now as I leave the disappointed clerk to her disappointed job,
I think I could have made her day and said I was from the Bronx....

nawwww that's just not cool.

Peace, love and coolness,
Janice