Pahk the Cah in Hahvard Yahd

I was excited to tell the hubby about the great idea I mentioned in my last post that will save us a good chunk of change on our tickets.  In doing so I couldn't get the words, "Park Hopper" to come out right. You see I am from the Boston area.  No matter how hard I tried I kept saying, "pAHk hoppas."  Overall, my accent is subtle, but man that sure posed a challenge.

It reminded me of the time I spent living in the Orlando area.  For two glorious post-college years of my life I had a Florida address.  I loved it.  I was young and life was fun.  I had moved down to get some teaching experience since jobs there were plentiful and jobs in the northeast were anything but.  The plan was to go down for two years, get the experience, move home and get a job.  The plan worked perfectly, except I now curse the moving back portion of the plan each and every winter.  Why the hell did I leave?  Anyhow, I digress.

As I was saying...I never thought my accent was strong (by comparison) since it's what I'm used to hearing.  When I moved to Florida I quickly adapted to the lingo of the south and made it my own.  The problem was I never shook the Boston accent.  

I would say things like, "Which bAH do y'all want to go to tonight?" of "I have a wicked fixin' for some chowdAH." I'm sure the parents were thrilled with the highly intelligent sounding teacher that the public schools had imported from the Northeast.

A decade later I'll still toss an occasional "y'all" into conversation without thinking, but the Boston accent is definitely getting worse.