November 08, 2005

I Don't Know Nothing 'Bout Blogging Birthdays!

Gone Wind.jpg

Today is the birthday of Margaret Mitchell in 1900. Here is a short biography. Frankly, my dears, I have never read Gone With The Wind and find it hard to sit still all the way through the movie.

As it happens, the grandmother of one of the Missus' school friends from Atlanta was friends with Mitchell back in the day. We met her for brunch one time at Atlanta's Piedmont Driving Club. She (the grandmother) was the perfect example of the Southern Society Matron.

When we all sat down, she fixed the Missus and me with her steely blue eyes and a bright smile and said,"Wheh-yah are you fruhm?"

"We live just outside of Dee Cee in Virginia," we replied.

"No, no," she said gently, "Wheh-yah are yor people fruhm?"

We looked at each other with some alarm. "Erm....well, Connecticut and New York, actually."

"Oh."

Her smile remained as bright as ever, but I could see a film of ice forming over her eyes. She would not have dreamed of actually saying it, but every single molecule of her being radiated the thought, "Dayum Yahnkees!"

Once she satisfied herself that we were not going to pillage her handbag on the spot, however, she warmed up and related a number of stories about the hoopla surrounding the world-premier opening of GWTW in Atlanta in 1939. I don't recall much (this was 10 years ago), except that it seems the city pulled out every last stop to mark the occassion.

Posted by Robert at November 8, 2005 11:37 AM | TrackBack
Comments

Imagine my surprise when, while stationed in South Carolina, I was asked where my people were frum.

I replied "New Mexico".

She came back with: "Was it difficult to get your Green Card?"

*eyerolly*

Posted by: Margi at November 8, 2005 01:45 PM

So, you waited until later to go for her handbag? I hope she was carrying some of that worthless northern currency.

Sometimes it doesn't matter where "your people" are from. My mother was a dyed-in-the-cotton Suthunuh, but since we lived in California and "talked funny," we were still Yankees.

Posted by: tee bee at November 8, 2005 03:16 PM

My husband and I attended a wedding in southern VA a few years back. One of the other guests asked us where we were from. I said Long Island. He said that's in South Carolina, right?

Posted by: babs at November 8, 2005 07:43 PM