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Two Letters Re: Regional Accents and Considering Retreat Regions
Mr. Rawles,
I enjoyed the article on choosing the ideal location for survival when considering regional dialects, and find myself in the exact opposite situation. I was raised in Eastern Washington and take great pride in my home state, but have been stationed in South Eastern North Carolina for over three years. I find the experience of another region benificial, but I honestly have the same reservations about the South East that the author found in the Inland Northwest. I had the displeasure of hurricane Irene, disabiling tropical weather, and predictably unpredictable thunder storms that seem to be a weekly occurance (the Pacific Northwest has an unusually small amount of these, averaging just five a year in Western Washington). With my non-descript accent I am often questioned where I hail from along with a sideways glance or two. As a Unitarian, churches were relatively easy to find near Spokane, however here I must drive over 60 miles to find one here. At the end of the day, I think it is presumable that one may have a better shot at survival and community acceptance where one is most familliar. – Translocated
Dear Mr. Rawles,
As a Southern lady who grew up on a sugarcane farm in the Everglades, complete with gators, cottonmouths, and mosquitos, I have now happily relocated from South Florida to Montana and felt compelled to reply to the gentleman from upstate South Carolina who chose not to move to the Redoubt…
I, too, have a drawl. When folks here mention my Southern accent, I tell them I decided to make Montana my home because it’s one of the few Southern states with mountains. When they give me a quizzical look, I quickly explain that Montana is *obviously* a Southern state given that most of it was acquired via the Louisiana Purchase, and….well…. We all know that *anything* to do with Louisiana is Southern! Besides all that, the Missouri River is just chock full of crawdads! What more conclusive evidence would you need to realize this is a Southern state?!
Then I flash a quick smile and invite ‘em over for a supper of fried chicken, biscuits with cream gravy, and blackberry cobbler! 
Now, I really don’t think any of them fall for my convoluted logic, but they sure don’t argue! These are rather agreeable folks and have been incredibly warm, welcoming, and wonderful to my daughter and myself.
You couldn’t blow us two Southern gals out of Montana with a ton of black powder and a Confederate cannon! This is our home now… Oh sure, we still have our Yeltson’s stone-ground grits shipped in, and I grow a Meyer lemon tree in the greenhouse, but other than that, we have everything else we could ever possibly need or want right here in God’s country!! We have plenty of wheat, cattle, oil, nukes, pickup trucks, tractors, national forests, wild rivers, great fishing, ALL the pretty horses, and THE nicest folks in the world with God-fearing values. What Southerner wouldn’t love all that?
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