My family and I just got back from a week long vacation at Disney World in Orlando. And yes, I’m still tired! But a few strange things occurred while we were on our trip, some good and some not so good.
I’ll start with the not so good. I can’t tell you how many folks, both employees at the parks, gas station attendants and just people on the street couldn’t understand my accent. It’s like I was talking Latin! “Salve puella! Puella est en cena!” (I took 4 years of Latin in college and that’s the only sentence I still remember.) But seriously, my accent isn’t that thick. Most of you have heard me talk either in person or on the show and while I definitely show my roots when I speak, it’s not as thick as sawmill gravy. I think this shows a real bias towards our part of the world with how people react to our speech. I’ll give you an example; not once but twice we had workers openly laugh over the intercoms at fast-food restaurants when we were ordering. Sure, it could have been a coincidence, but it sure was odd. And I don’t want to give the impression that every person had a dumbfounded look every time I opened my mouth to talk, but it was enough to be noticeable and worrisome.
Now for the good! When I travel, I always seem to pack lots of University of Kentucky shirts and hats. I’m a big UK fan, so I have several shirts that I regularly wear. Several times on our trip, when I was wearing one of these shirts, we were approached by folks with a “Go Cats!” or a “Go Big Blue” and to a person, these folks were from Eastern Kentucky. One was even a classmate of my old college roommate! I guess Walt was right, it is a small world after all! We got to meet some very nice Kentuckians and Mountain folk while away in Florida which made our trip even better.
So, with Santa’s big ride just a few days away, we at Our Mountains want to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year! We are just a few short months away from our new season and we’re already working hard to bring you the best music, food and stories we can find from this region! 2016 was a great year for our family and Our Mountains. Here’s hoping 2017 is gust was wonderful!
Merry Christmas from Joel, Tracie, Tripp & Chloe!