Now I know....

[Shoe]

That I do have a country draw / southern accent.

Well I moved up to the pan handle of west va a few weekes ago and damn if everybody around makes fun of the way I talk. I mean it's all good at first but damn I hate hearing people your not from around here are ya or repeat what I said in their best imation (sp) of a southern draw.

One of sisters friends was asking about where I came from and what it's like back home. I told her it's more or less the same there as it is here except going to the mall, traffic and so on. She was like I thought you had general stores, road side stands, out houses, lived in one room shacks and drove beat up 1950 chevys trucks. I was like I lied about everything you caught me. I then proceeded (being the smartass I am) to tell her hell we don't wear shoes and that 5th grade was our senior year. I told her we still have house and buggies and that we still use candles as our only lights. So I pissed her off lo [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]l. Ah it's all good though.

[knight_67]

it kills me workin up at sykes mang, i get that crap all the time, good thing they dont monitor you as much at night, because i would probably be fired by now, especially if they had heard the call when one guy preceded to ask me "you're from the south ain't ya...boy??", talk about pissin me off, thats all it takes...

[imported_Sportsman]

I thought that was how West Virginia was.

[SunTzu]

Why would people ever think we were backward hillbillies?
Click pic to enlarge redneck hot tub.

[imported_elp6n]

In Blacksburg I refined my 'neutral accent' for the workplace.
Northerns either
a) laugh
or
b) act like they cant understand you with an accent.

My coworkers would laugh at me. I would speak with my Wise County accent to them, but as soon as I had a phone call it was a complete 180 in accent.

The neutral accent usually fooled them.
although I did have one client (from MD) call me one day, and as we were discussing some things he asked "just where are you from?" and I said "oh you wouldn't know the town, it's in Wise County..." and he said "I though I recognized that accent. My wife is from Appalachia."

And in my last job our bookkeeper could spot a Wise County accent a mile away. She has a brother that lives in Wise, so she learned the distinct bits and pieces of how we speak.
She says the Wise County accent is very different from any other part of SWVA.