Berry: Cousin's accent good entertainment

Summer seems to be a time for visiting family members. We have had a granddaughter from Mississippi here for a while and she has had a lot of fun playing with her cousins.

Lonnie Berry

When I was a kid, my cousin Jimmy would visit every summer from St. Louis, Missouri. We spent our summers riding bikes, playing baseball and camping in the backyard.

One summer, he and I were playing with some other kids from the neighborhood when a question came up about language. One of my friends was convinced he was saying my name wrong. With his Midwestern dialect, he seemed to be saying my name with an “a” instead of an “o.”

I began to pay closer attention to some of the things he said. There were several things that I was pretty convinced he was saying wrong. I took it upon myself to help him learn to speak correctly. I have to admit there were times my friends and I would listen intently, not as much to what he was saying, but how he was saying it.

It never kept us from having a good time, but did provide some good entertainment.

Lonnie is visiting family. You can contact him at [email protected].