I was sitting at a bar on Saturday night (I live in New Orleans now, remember?) and was watching the various sporting events that were being televised when a very large man at the end of the bar heard that I had just moved here from CA. We began a lively discussion about the dialects and I told him what I knew (which was very little) but that one of the things that I did notice was that people in Louisiana tend to put an emphasis on the first syllable of words that I might normally put on the second syllable. (For example, I say ‘ce-MENT’ and they say ‘SEE-ment’.)
Then my new friend Rico asked me if I had made groceries yet.
I frowned a moment, which he must have thought was funny, and he quickly explained: “you probably go grocery shopping, we make groceries.”
Interesting, these things I’m pickin’ up here.
For the record, I made groceries last night at my neighborhood Rouse’s, which is where I will be doing all of my shopping from now on because the idea of making groceries in a Wal-Mart is weird to me.
As a fellow Native Californian turned Louisianan, life is very different here. I look forward to hearing your soon-to-come experiences so we can laugh at those who are not like us! (haha, just kidding). And making groceries is a very New Orleans thing. People from the boot also say supper, interstate (not freeway), paw paw and ma ma (for grandparents – we’ll have to talk on the phone for proper pronunciation later) and they spell go “geaux.”
And yes, shopping at WalMart is totally normal here, but I still have a hard time with it. Luckily, there is a Target near my place. Hope to see you next weekend for the TU-lane game 🙂