{"id":878745,"date":"2025-12-18T23:27:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T05:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/18\/talking-southern-telling-time\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T23:27:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T05:27:07","slug":"talking-southern-telling-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/18\/talking-southern-telling-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking Southern \u2013 Telling Time"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/strong>At a recent national convention in a non-Southern city, your compiler was asked by a delegate with a nasal, northeastern accent what time it was, and he answered without looking.\u00a0 \u201cMust be about a quarter to three.\u201d\u00a0 (He had noticed the time in answering his cellphone a few minutes before, so the guess was a fairly precise one.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re from Georgia, aren\u2019t you?\u201d the northern delegate asked knowingly. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cYes,\u201d your compiler replied, thinking his rich accent, inch-and-a-quarter cuffed khaki slacks, madras sport shirt, and docksiders had been the clues.\u00a0 \u201cWhy do you ask?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cBecause of the way you said the time.\u00a0 Folks in most other parts of the country don\u2019t know what a quarter means when it comes to telling time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Your compiler was so flabbergasted in that moment that one out to hurt him could have run him off the steep side of the Starr\u2019s Mill dam armed with nothing more than a limp dishrag and a chicken feather. \u00a0 For you see, he had known for years that the younger generations, who have known digital clocks all their lives, don\u2019t typically use that old analog term in telling time, but he had never heard it expressed as being a Southern\u2026or just a Georgia\u2026 thing.\u00a0 He is interested in hearing reader comments on this, for what the northern delegate said truly surprised him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Forty years ago, while in grad school at the University of Georgia, your compiler heard a professorial response one afternoon that he thought was absolutely brilliant.\u00a0 She finished her lecture, which was a polished gem of a talk, and asked, \u201cAre there any questions?\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 A\u00a0 student in the lecture hall raised his hand and asked a long and rambling one designed more to show his supposed grasp of the subject than to increase the learning of anyone else in the class.\u00a0 The professor looked at him for a long, silent moment, her lips pressed together in a thin line.\u00a0 Then she asked in a very level tone, \u201cAre there any pertinent<\/em> questions?\u201d\u00a0 Everyone in the classroom had to stifle laughter, your compiler perhaps most especially.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 You see, while he thought the professorial response had been absolutely brilliant, he simultaneously thought back to his Brooks, Georgia, roots and to his late grandfather, who would erupt in frustration when someone would not get to the point in telling him something.\u00a0 \u201cWhen I ask you the time,\u201d the old man would roar, \u201cI don\u2019t expect or need you to tell me how to build a damn wristwatch!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 Precious memories, how they linger!\u00a0 (That would make a good Gospel song!) Meanwhile, your compiler must go, for he has promises to keep and miles to go before he sleeps. (That would make a terrific poem!)\u00a0 And it\u2019s already a quarter to seven.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Dan Langford
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 At a recent national convention in a non-Southern city, your compiler was asked by a delegate with a nasal, northeastern accent what time it was, and he answered without looking.\u00a0 \u201cMust be about a quarter to three.\u201d\u00a0 (He had noticed the time in answering his cellphone a few minutes before, so the guess<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":878746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1209,4917],"tags":[5228,6934],"class_list":{"0":"post-878745","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-talking","8":"category-southern","9":"tag-southern","10":"tag-talking"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}