I talk funny. More people should.

 

So.

I talk funny.

Not all the time.

And not the same way each time.   But....I talk funny.

Y'see, I've... lived in a LOT of different places. 

Spent first 50 years of my life living in multiple homes, in...

• Four different states
• 12 different municipalities

And, you know.

Words.

People's stories.

People AS stories

Kinda my thing.

And now I talk funny.

I was in Chicago for a few years, after leaving the deep, damned damp south, and my business calls would still regularly be interrupted by whomever I was talking to asking:

            Did you just say "Fixin'"?

Uh...I didn't NOT say it....

I'm in MI now, 20 years later, and have reached a level of  business-casual in my work email correspondence. 

        Y'all:  I just bange out a new audit, comparing.....

Noone says boo.

Almost 40 years ago, I was hanging out with a group of guys from Balto, MD, in Dayton, OH.  Was their first trip to OH, and they were getting a kick out of pronouncing it "OooooHIIIIIIIooooooooo", with their Balto accents.

Bastards.

I was born there, still have people, there.  

And I find myself calling it "OoooooHIIIIIIIooooo" but with my southern OH accent.

Which, by the way, ONLY EXISTS WHEN I'M TALKING ABOUT OHIO.

it turns on instantly.      Drives my wife crazy.   

Last night, I caught myself, and then had to try to think about the correct way to pronounce it..

And yeah, I can whip out stereotypical chicago accent like g.d. champ.  15 years, you pick up a couple of things... Most of the time it's intentional.    

Occasionally..... 

The thing about my talking funny is:  accents weren't the only things I learned, the only things I picked up, as I moved about.  Different ways of thinking, of cooking of... existing day to day.   

MS survival skills

CHI survival skills.   

VERY different skill set.

I've thought about this more and more, in a professional context, since moving back to MI.

I've worked for Colombians, the Japanese, companies HQ'd from Hong Kong to Etobicoke, Banks to Banana companies.....

And accept for when I've lived in  MI, the folks I worked with, generally had similar experiences.

Didn't notice the complete lack of this sort of thing when I was a younger fella, here.  lots of people hadn't been anywhere or done anything yet.   I DID know I was hosed one afternoon, however, when a boss told me she thought degrees were worthless. 

27 years later, I moved back.

My first boss when I moved back to MI was by far the worst, though I continue to see it even today, albeit in more benign doses.

She had lived the same 15 mile stretch of corn and meth labs her entire life.  Started at our mutual employer in high school and went exactly nowhere else.. ever.

To put it as kindly and as in-actionably as possible - She did not talk funny.    

But fuck, she really needed to be able to do so.