Newspapers / Meredith College Student Newspaper / Oct. 13, 2010, edition 1 / Page 8
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Whines & Gripes collected by April Richard To the people who move others rain- boots and/or umbrellas, please note that you are in college and not elemen tary school. Dear girls in my bio class, please stop Facebooking and then stopping the class to ask questions that have already been asked and discussed. Maybe you’d understand a little better if you paid attention. You are wasting my time. It is in no way appropriate to show up to a 2:00 p.m. class in pajamas. Dear girls in the dining hall that like to form social circles in the entryways, please GET OUT OF MY WAY!!!! Greatly appreciated. Dear English Professor, Though you may think that my print ing money is reserved for you, let me inform you that it is not! The geese eat better than I do. The fact that some of you can devote unlimited time, money, and manpo\yer to Cornhuskin’ while I am trying to Juggle i6+ hours, projects, presenta tions and such does not give you the right to make me feel like an incom petent student who is undermining the sacred society of Meredith College. If 4/5 of the Staff Parking is empty, why can’t I park closer when it’s rain ing!!! I strongly believe that at least 5 park ing tickets should be included in the , tuition seeing the fact that no one can seem to tell me where my $34,000 is : /going anyway. My Family Language Emily Gamiel It was a typical Tuesday night wheti my sister and I met my dad at my great-grandmother’s house for dinner. This was a weekly routine and consisted of either an elaborate Southern dinner or greasy Chinese food, depending on Mimi’s mood, and trying to beat my Dad at Jeop ardy, even though he somehow seemed to loiow all of the answers. While at the, dinner table that night, mid-conversation, Mimi popped up to say, “Well my gosh yall, that must have been worse than a row of hickadees.” No one quite remem bers what we were talking about when she said this, but the blanket of silence that quickly fell over the table was unforget table. My eyes scanned the table, looking for any sign of hope that might lie with someone who knew what in the world Mimi was talking about. I never gained total understanding of what the ridiculous sounding word meant, but from what I gathered, it was a small animal similar to a snapping turtle. These turtle-like crea tures apparently lay in rows and whoever walked by them would be harassed. I would like to know who made this word up. Most fingers point to the distinctive pioneers of the eclectic region of land, called Kinnakeet, settled on Hatteras Island in between Hatteras and Oregon Inlet. Most of the vocabulary that entered my quite absorbent ears while at Mimi’s dinner table could be described as “Oc- racoke Brogue,” a familiar term referring to the dialect of those on the South end of the Outer Banks. My Mimi, a mem ber of one of the first families to settle on Flatteras Island, was a true depiction of this dialect. She often became mom- mucked by the dingbats across the street at the gas station, playing their music too loudly while cleaning out their cars, and at the annual Fourth of July Kinnakeet family picnic, the dumplins and pie bread were up on the pizer. Most of these words did not stick with me and aren’t used in my everyday vocabulary, as the dialect is slowing becoming extinct, but hearing someone mumble “hoi toide on the seund soide,” still makes the corners of my lips draw upwards and a feeling of melting butter come over my heart. It reminds me of where I came from and who my fam ily is, even if they did have a strange way of expressing things. Seriously, who calls themselves Kinnaketter yaupon eaters? I learned many strange and absurd words while growing up and I have a slight feel ing that it may have something to do with where I come from. Even the small island where my family resides, also a part of the Outer Banks, called Manteo has affected the way I speak. The location of the island, as well as the unique people who dwell there, affect the Manteo-isms that are nothing but standard to me, as well as to my parents and siblings. Nothing would be worse to my E arents than bringing home one of those each boys. The young fellows that lived on the North side of the Outer Banks, referred to as “Beachers,” were bad news. And those Cheesers, they were worse. The small fishing village of’VVanchese carried nothing but, well, fishermen referred to as “Cheesers.” But the Beachers smoked pot and my momma’s baby was certainly not allowed to go to the movies with one of them while he was all doped up on drugs. Later in high school, I real ized that these boys were no different than the ones with whom I attended school with and the whole conspiracy was foolish. I think that the citizens of Manteo made up these terms up because a “Manteo-er” doesn’t sound quite right so the Beachers and Chees ers would have to be twice as creative as we were in making up a catchy name. And, of course, there were particular phrases that were familiar within my own household. My brother and I would ask Momma for more “wudder,” at the dinner table, refer ring to water. My sister and other brother would correct us every time, yet still referred to any object whose ' name they could not come up with within twenty feet of their distance as a “thingamabobber.” And whatever you do, do not “half-ass” something. One time, when I was about eight, I half-assed dusting the baseboards. The next day when I spent hours on my hands and knees, flicking the tat tered bristles of a toothbrush from board to board in attempts to fulfill my mother’s cleaning needs, also known as my punishment for hitting my sister with a ball. My stepdad still doesn’t uite understand the reasoning behind usting baseboards as punishment, and for good reason, because neither do I. But, my Momma dusted the base boards as punishment when she was a child, so I would, too. One dialect that did stick with me was my mother’s. My mother, a • native of Pitt County, North Carolina, known for its farm land and country accents, also had a very distinctive dia lect, which I can say that I have picked up more than anything else. And if you don’t think so, then I say that you are full of malarkey. This tongue is not necessarily anything dramatic, sim ply consisting of the typical southern phrases like “piddlin around” and “y’all.” The distinction between how my mother and I speak, as opposed to the next mother-daughter pair, is the tone in with these words are spoken in. I’m not sure whether to take this distinction as a compliment or not, as sometimes I fear I have the awful fea ture in my voice like Fran Fine of The Nanny. V^ile shopping at the clos est Target, about an hour and thrity minutes away from my hometown, my mom was talking ridiculously loud to a client on the phone. 'Within about one minute of her yapping on her Black berry, a familiar face popped around the aisle corner. It was a friend of my mother’s who had heard her voice about six or seven aisles down and had no doubt in his mind that it was Mom. Now, that’s impressive. No matter where you come from, you and your family will always have tnose silly phrases and speech mannerisms that make absolutely no sense to those who did not grow up hearing them every day. A touron from New Jersey may roll his or her eyes at my Mimi when she would pull a word out of her compilation of expressions, but that was one of the things I loved most about her. Where I come from makes me who I am and the language learned from this place is anything but ordinary. Letter to the Editor Dear Herald, In the September 29th Edito rial on the Ying-Yang Twins concert response, I wanted'to make a little bit of a counter-argument, because I don’t think that the opinion of a lot of the student body was accurately addressed. A lot of Meredith students enjoy the music of this group and voted for the Ying-Yang Twins to be the featured art ist at Sizzlin’ September when the poll last semester went out. Some felt that the chance to see this group at a safe place like Meredith College was an op portunity that they didn’t feel like they would have had without this concert. Think about it this way: if the people who supported the misogynistic lyrics all gathered in one place that was more unrestricted than Meredith, would you feel safe? Another argument presents itsef; why didn’t this protest occur back when the Ying-Yang Twins were placed on the poll in the first place? I think that a protest asking that the artist be removed from the list would have been more effective than trying to take away a concert that all Meredith students have already paid for - yep, that’s right! It’s called the “Student Activities Fee” and comes out of your tuition. For $35,000, don’t you want to get what you’re paying for? Personally, I voted for Vertical Horizon, but since I believe in the role of democratic voting among students, I respect that my fee went toward something that made a lot of students happy. Thanks, Andrea McKerlie Check back in next week to find out the results of our survey and to see how we’ve changed based on your suggestions.
Meredith College Student Newspaper
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Oct. 13, 2010, edition 1
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