grits part 2

okay...so i've been asked why i'm talking about people with country accents. yeah...it's not like i grew up in new york city or anything. and everyone is right. i grew up in a fairly small town myself. i have no idea how i ended up in the family i did without sounding at least a little bit country. but somehow i managed. i guess i have a southern accent...although i hate to admit it, but i don't think i have a drawl or speak country.

sometimes living with ashley and being friends with jeremy it seemed like they spoke a different language. one night the three of us were sitting around in our living room and somehow the conversation of vienna sausages came up. i have no idea why or how...but it did. except jeremy and ashley both call them vi-ain-ees or something to that effect. weird, i know. i was in awe that more people than just the two of them call them that. apparently so does my stepdad. so after that discovery, it always seemed i was out of the loop. sometimes they'd say words that i'd have no idea what they were talking about...even in context. sometimes they'd say words that i'd never heard of, but i could figure them out based on how they were used. but there was one time where i was thrown off course so bad, i still laugh everytime i think of the story.

another thing that always made me laugh was the fact that anyone from a small town knows everyone else from other small towns. seriously. one night our neighbor ben came over, and ashley's friend courtney was there, and my friend shea came over. they're all from little bitty towns...not the same ones...just small towns. so they started talking about who they know. "do you know so and so? how about so and so?"
that's the night jesse hicks came about. so apparently everyone from small towns knows everyone else from any surrounding small town. but me, big city girl, knows no one.

i was on the phone with jeremy and he had another call and asked me to hang on a second. when he switched back over, he said, "that was my mom telling me about a guy that is building me a pool pit."

i sat there for a second and tried to comprehend what he'd said. "a pool pit?" i asked.

"yeah, he's building me a pool pit."

at this point i was pretty confused. "are you getting a swimming pool?"

"what?" he asked as if i was losing my mind?
so he repeats it again. "that was my mom telling me about the guy that's building my pool pit."

brief silence. "okay," i finally say "i don't know what you're talking about."

jeremy seems a little frustrated at this point. "a pool pit. you know what that is."

"is it what they dig before they put in a swimming pool?" i really had no clue at all what he was talking about.

"amy, a pool pit!" he sounds a little frustrated at this point.

i finally break down and ask, "what is that?"

"you know what a pool pit is. the thing that a preacher stands at in church. you know...like a podium."

"OHHH! a PULPIT!" i finally understand.

"yeah. that's what i said. a pool pit."

at this point we're both cracking up so hard i don't think either of us can breathe. but wait...it gets even better.

"no, you were saying pool pit. i thought you were talking about a swimming pool or something."

jeremy has no idea that we're saying the words differently. "yeah, pool pit."

i try again to make my point. "you're saying pool pit like 2 seperate words. i'm saying pulpit."

"they sound the same to me."

after i got off the phone, i went and tried to tell ashley the story. but she didn't understand why i didn't know what a pool pit was either. so to them, i looked like i didn't know what they were talking about, but to me it seemed like they were saying something totally different. of course i know what a pulpit is...but i'd never known what a pool pit was before that day. apparently now i'll be ready when i head to mississippi this summer. i will know what a pool pit is. :)

so hopefully that story brings light to the subject. it was something that always cracked us up...something that we were always aware of. and it was so much fun even though it seriously was a language barrier sometimes. i love my country friends who are always willing to teach me new speak.

i'm reminded of the kenny chesney song "back where i come from." so ashley, jeremy, and everyone else who can relate to being from a small country town, i dedicate this song to you.

In the town where I was raised
The clock ticks and the cattle graze
Time passed with Amazing Grace
Back where I come from

Now you can lie on a riverbank
Paint your name on a water tank
Or miscount all the beers you drank
Back where I come from

Back where I come from
Where I'll be when it's said and done
I'm proud as anyone
That's where I come from

We learned in Sunday school
Who made the sun shine through
I know who made the moonshine, too
Back where I come from

Blue eyes on a Saturday night
Tan legs in the broad day light
TV's, they were black and white
Back where I come from

Back where I come from
Where I'll be when it's said and done
I'm proud as anyone
That's where I come from

Some say it's a backward place
Narrow minds on a narrow way
I make it a point to say
That that's where I come from

That's where I come from
Where I'll be when it's said and done
I'm proud as anyone
That's where I come from

That's where I come from
I'm an old Tennessean
And I'm proud as anyone
That's where I come from