Anyway, about my son....he quickly picked up the southern accent, and southern phrases...I knew he was indeed a southern boy, when one day I asked him what he was doing, and he replied"Im a fixin to go yonder"...and he said it with a twang...
Five years later, we moved to Washington state, where very few southern accents are heard...when he started school, he realized that few of the young teens he was in class with, spoke like he did...so he tried his best to get rid of his southern accent....
Towards the end of his first year of high school here, he was diagnosed with leukemia, and spent the next couple of months in the hospital,...his teachers and classmates all wrote him notes and letter, expressing their sorrow at his plight, but all sent with good wishes for a recovery....
His English teachers note was the one we got a laugh over...she said, that she sure missed our son, especially when he had to orally deliver his latest poem, or theme, or whatever, in front of the class...she said he missed, his 'soft, southern drawl'....here he had worked so hard to get rid of that drawl, and he found out, that not only did he not lose his drawl, but that folks really enjoyed it...
From that time on, he no longer cared if he spoke with a southern accent...I always told him, that accent made him more gentlemanly than he really was...
blam - you're welcome, "honey". :0)
By the way, I am still gagging over the sugar and grits! Yuck! But somebody mentioned tomato gravey. I'm still trying to figure out what that is. Never heard of it.