Y'all Come Back Now

Although I was raised in California, I was raised by Southerners. My parents both have no accent to speak of anymore, but I did grow up thinking that saying 'y'all' was perfectly normal. Normal that is until I started saying it to Californians. They would just look at me and say "Where are you from honey?" My mom said that every time we returned from a trip to Kentucky she couldn't get the Southern drawl out of me for a couple of months. And I still remember the shock of the first few days back in Kentucky, when my mother would become someone else entirely. At least her speech did.When I grew up we had a little mosaic tile above the phone that said SHALOM Y'ALL. Apparently my aunt had brought it back from Israel after working on a kibbutz there for a few months. For years I would look at it, the humor completely escaping me. It all seemed par for the course for me. But I was a Californian and therefore required to say "you guys" instead. And oh how I disliked it. Almost as much as I dislike being called DUDE. When I did my year abroad in college there were exchange students from the UC system and many from UNC. Many of us became friends and the constant argument was which was better: 'y'all' or 'you guys'. People fell completely within geographical lines, except me. And then we moved to Texas and I have to admit that I was more than a bit excited at the prospect of being able to dump the 'you guys' and firmly commit my self to the 'y'all' camp. I don't think we had even made it across the state line before I switched teams. And I have to admit that I relish at the prospect of someday being able to utter "all y'all" to a group. Mmm, it's like butter.