Re: USA - YANKS - was C(h)ronology - Was Re: Ages of the S's, A's and D's.


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Posted by Ed Kiser on June 09, 2006 at 21:21:56 from 152.163.101.7 user Kisered.

In Reply to: Re: USA - was C(h)ronology - Was Re: Ages of the S's, A's and D's. posted by Laurence Monkhouse on June 09, 2006 at 18:18:02:

As a good ol' boy from the deep South in the USA, let me clarify the concept. The word you do NOT want to use, ESPECIALLY to a USA SOUTHERNER is to call him a "YANKEE" as accusations like that are referred to as: "Them's FIGHTIN' WORDS!" Nobody should call any Southerner a Yankee, as that is the ultimate of social no - no.

I can afford to say that, since my Mother was born in Brooklyn, and all of her relatives are really Yankees, but she married my Dad from North Carolina and has lived in the South ever since, where she claims "to have corrected the error of my birth" being a died-in-the-wool true Southerner by choice.

So you might say I have a foot in both camps by heritage, but sincerely claim to be a Southerner.

For someone not from the USA to call me a "YANK" is not related to that other expression that is quite unacceptable, so is understood as to mean, someone from the USA, which is a correct notation.

"YANK" is one thing; "YANKEE" is an entirely different concept.

One wonderful thing about working for 25 years with a company like IBM is that so many of the folks there are from up North, and therefore would seem to qualify as being "Yankees" but I must say, I have met a lot of fine people at work from that northern area, and am proud to have known and worked with them.

I wonder if I would get into trouble referring to someone from England as being an "Englander." Or a "Britisher."

I know I am in trouble if I say to some Irishman that he talks like an Englishman. Deep, deep trouble. And I will never make that mistake. Never again.

I would be apt to claim to be an American, but would need to be reminded that such a term includes anyone from North or South America. They may insist that they are also Americans, but it is hard for me to think of it that way. If they want to BE Americans, then they should learn to speak "Merican." But that sort of thing can really start some arguments, but such is not my intention here.

If a fellow is from Mexico, I would call him a "Mexican" but not hardly would I think of him as an "American."

Somehow, having to settle for being called a "United Statesian" just does not cut it. Never heard of such and expression anyhow; not apt to start hearing it any time soon either.

Too bad names and labels have to be used anyhow, as such just helps to divide the world into two kinds of people, "Us" and "Them," and THEY talk funny.

One of the joys of reading Ransome, as an American (one of those specifically from the USA kind) was to read of another people, of another time, of a different set of customs (milk in Tea! egad...) and yet, to have a chance to reach out and to touch just a flavor of what is truly The Mother Country. There will always be a bit of respect for England, as most of us can trace out ancestry back to that distant land. And to other lands as well. Moore, Westmorland, Butner, Beers, Van Buren, Bedell, Spainhour, Kiser, Helsabeck, all my ancestral names. Names like that take me back to quite an assortment of places, many English, but other European lands come into view with that heritage as well. I am them. They are still a part of me. Their lands forever remain the land of my ancestry, and for that, I respect it and their memories.

So Ransome gave me a brief look into a part of that land. I am grateful.

And this forum has let me come to "meet" some amazing chaps from not only England, but from all over the world. Now that is the magic of "All Things Ransome."

Ed Kiser, South Florida (until the 18th, then I drive to KENTUCKY)


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