Alabama Two - Text
This subject is a 20 year old, Caucasian, costume shop assistant from Birmingham. She is a musical theatre major at Birmingham Southern University. She has lived in Birmingham all of her life. Her mother was from Michigan, but has lived in Birmingham for most of her life. She has a mild accent, due to vocal training, however, it is easy for her to slip into the thicker, more stereotyped southern accent when she imitates those around her. Interviewed by Cynthia Blaise. Edited by Paul Meier. Recorded 1/7/00. Running time 00:02:46.
TRANSCRIPTION
I’ve lived in Birmingham all of my life. (Um) My mother was originally from Michigan, but she spent most of her life down here in Alabama, and my father has always lived here.
I went to Hewitt-Trussville, which is a really podunk kind of school, but it was a lot of fun. It taught me a lot of characterization. It was just very useful in theater.
I’m a sophomore musical theater major, here at Birmingham Southern, and I plan, when I get out of school to maybe venture a little bit-- maybe into Nashville, maybe Georgia, but not New York yet. It’s a little scary. It’s a little too big and busy for me.
The characters from my school (uh) would wear cowboy boots to school, and the big cowboy hats, and they’d talk ’bout huntin’ all the time, and what they did, and how many deers they caught over the weekend. And, you know, what they shot it with, and you know, “Do you like deers?” And I’d have to say (laughs), “I like them, but I don’t really like to shoot them.”
And (um) my grandmother-- my great-grandmother, actually, was my favorite part about growing up as a child because she would always cook this incredible Thanksgiving meal. Just like Chris, she had the cornbread, and she used to fuss at me about not eating enough. Every single Thanksgiving she’d be like, “Don’t you want some more stuffin’? Girl, you’re getting’ skinnier every year. You’re just like a little bird.” And she would fuss at me so much. But… it was one of my favorite memories. Oh, she used to love to make black-eyed peas, and green beans, turkey, and ham, and oh-- coconut cake, coconut cream cake, every Thanksgiving. It was the best.
I have two brothers. One’s older and one’s younger, and the little one’s name is Bobby. And he hasn’t developed a real strong southern accent yet, and I’m hoping he never will. But the first year I came home from college and I’d had all the vocal training, he looked at me, and I sa-- I had said something to him. And he looked at me, he was like, “You done lost your accent.” I was like, “Bobby, I wasn’t aware that I ever had an accent.” And he goes , “Oh, yeah, you did.” So, he laughed at me a lot, and he sa-- He calls me Hoity-toity now because I don’t talk with a southern accent.
I didn’t have to work as hard as other people do, I still-- I hear it in my voice sometimes, and I try really hard not to let it come through. But I kind of appreciate it. I think it adds more voice to my-- more character to my voice, and I kinda cherish it.