Sir and Ma'am

[wuapinmon]

Dude, no one said anything about slavery, mayonnaise sandwiches, and tobacco dipping.

¡HIJUEPUTA! (perdóname, Constancia).

[Tim]

¡HIJUEPUTA! (perdóname, Constancia).

You calling my mother a whore? CONNIE BOISVERT WAS A SAINT! A FRIGGIN SAINT!!!

[wuapinmon]

You calling my mother a whore? CONNIE BOISVERT WAS A SAINT! A FRIGGIN SAINT!!!

Don't Press Your Luck. I knew her.

[Tim]

Don't Press Your Luck. I knew her.

Now you're making fun of Press Your Luck? Damn you, Mac. Damn you.............. for reminding me about that lifetime supply of Success-brand boil-in-a-bag white rice that she won as a parting gift.

[wuapinmon]

Now you're making fun of Press Your Luck? Damn you, Mac. Damn you.............. for reminding me about that lifetime supply of Success-brand boil-in-a-bag white rice that she won as a parting gift.

No money, big Whammie, apparently.

[Tim]

No money, big Whammie, apparently.

Who needs money when you've got an 8.5"x11" autographed photo of Michael Landon ("To Connie, Best Wishes, Michael")?

[wuapinmon]

Who needs money when you've got an 8.5"x11" autographed photo of Michael Landon ("To Connie, Best Wishes, Michael")?

Well, that's in my attic, and if you ever want to see it again, I suggest you start saying "sir" to me. Do you understand me, young man?

[marsupial]

We moved to NC 7 years ago, and even though there are a lot of carpet-baggers like us around here, we hear "sir" and "ma'am" a lot. We do not teach our kids to say it though, because my wife hates it. For some reason, when kids say "sir" or "ma'am", she thinks like it sounds they are sassing. Probably has something to do with her never hearing it much before.

I remember one of my friends in school getting sent to the office for saying yes ma'am to the substitute. Ma'am and sir were only used if you were being a smart a when I grew up.

[The_Tick]

I am in So. Cal, and I was raised saying it.

Even at 35 I still get folks that get mad at me for saying it. I always offer to allow them to call my mother and chew her out. It is her fault.

Just simple good manners.

[Tim]

Well, that's in my attic, and if you ever want to see it again, I suggest you start saying "sir" to me. Do you understand me, young man?

I knew you'd try and hijack the photo of Little Joe, Hoss. They do say that looking at history is the best way to predict the future.

[wuapinmon]

I knew you'd try and hijack the photo of Little Joe, Hoss. They do say that looking at history is the best way to predict the future.

I prefer to be Touched by an Angel than to walk that lonely Highway to Heaven.

[Tim]

I prefer to be Touched by an Angel than to walk that lonely Highway to Heaven.

Now, Mac... we've already established that you touched Todd's penis on the highway to Hartsville.

[Non Sequitur]

Please see my correction above. My children are asked "Yes what?" if they don't say "sir" or "ma'am." My wife's a Utah girl, but now that she's been around me doing it for going on 12 years, and 7 years with our own kids, she thinks it's really disrespectful when a Southern child, one who knows better, doesn't do it.

I make my nieces and nephews from Utah use honorifics with me. If they say, "Hey, Mac, can I ______?" I don't respond unless they say "Uncle" with my name (unless, of course, if it's an emergency or something serious). If they come to visit me, I tell them that they're under Uncle Mac's Rules, and they have to say "sir" and "ma'am." I enforce it, but not enough to make things awkward. If someone tells my kids, "You don't have to say "Sir or ma'am" to me, especially colleagues who aren't from the South, I tell them, "That's good manners in our culture, and my children have to say it to everyone, without exception." I have one colleague who is from Germany, and insists on my kids not calling her by her last name. They are supposed to call her "Julia." My kids call her Miss Julia, even though she tells them not to. That's polite in the South, I'm Southern, my kids are Southern (and Hispanic), and that's how I'm raising them.

Most Southerners I know (real ones, not jus soli uterine carpet-baggers like Tim), raise their kids that way. Tim, by the way, is Uncle Tim to my kids. He rates above a mere Mr.

So, while some might see the influx of Yankees to the South as changing the culture away from it, I think it's so genteel that their children will wind up picking it up, so as to be polite.

My students all say "Yes, sir" to me. I like it. I'd never correct them if they didn't, but I do like it when they do. Good manners have value.

Do you also insist that they say "I'm fix'in" and "I reckon"?

[wuapinmon]

Do you also insist that they say "I'm fix'in" and "I reckon"?

No, because those have nothing to do with good manners. But, I don't expect you to know that.

[Tim]

Do you also insist that they say "I'm fix'in" and "I reckon"?

No, but he does force them to say "cut the lights on" instead of "turn on the lights."