First time visit to Des Moines

[tollfree]

Can you explain some of the questions?

Wouldn't be too surprised if some of them were actually condescending assuming you probably have an accent being from WV. Places like Des Moines can be a bit condescending to anyone with a southern accent. I had a friend from Texas who said having an accent was something that always got mentioned.

[atler8]

Yes, an accent can get noticed & mentioned but don't necessarily jump to the conclusion that it's meant as a knock or in condescension. Sometimes we can look too deeply for insult when none is intended.
Growing up in a small, rural Iowa town, In particular I can easily recall 2 southern born & bred women that we knew who married & moved to my home town as adults as well as 2 class mates who moved into our school district.
Their retained southern accents never faded & almost seemed to be a source of pride for them. As for the reaction of the folks in town, it was as though everyone was charmed by the musicality in what they heard & enjoyed it. In other words, there was no negativity generated against them because of their accents.
That being said, there are always a few numbskulls around who might pop off a remark. But we had "Norsk talk" accent jokes around to be fair. Ja, you bet!
Down where I live now, I still hear silly remarks about Yankee talk.

[Caden Grace]

Originally Posted by RonnieJonez

Can you explain some of the questions?

Wouldn't be too surprised if some of them were actually condescending assuming you probably have an accent being from WV. Places like Des Moines can be a bit condescending to anyone with a southern accent. I had a friend from Texas who said having an accent was something that always got mentioned.

Well, our accent is not as southern as Texas, but it is not what I call Duck Dynasty either. Our accents are mildly southern if I had to describe and yes it was very different from those we spoke to in Des Moines, but rather then drawing odd conclusions, those we spoke to seemed to be attracted to us. Of course it started off with, "where are you from?" and that was natural to ask. One thing lead to another and we making friends fast.

I never felt anyone was condescending or rude, not one. Well, the hotel front desk clerk at the Hilton Garden Inn over by Jordan Creek was from another planet, but I don't think that was an issue with manners. She acted like Anna Nicole Smith, kind of looked like her too.

I guess we met all the right people because we left town feeling like we had left friends behind. It may be that we felt that way because we plan to move there and only saw the best of things, but that is pretty much us any where we go and we have had many encounters with obnoxious people, just none of them in Iowa.

[Caden Grace]

Originally Posted by atler8

Yes, an accent can get noticed & mentioned but don't necessarily jump to the conclusion that it's meant as a knock or in condescension. Sometimes we can look too deeply for insult when none is intended.
Growing up in a small, rural Iowa town, In particular I can easily recall 2 southern born & bred women that we knew who married & moved to my home town as adults as well as 2 class mates who moved into our school district.
Their retained southern accents never faded & almost seemed to be a source of pride for them. As for the reaction of the folks in town, it was as though everyone was charmed by the musicality in what they heard & enjoyed it. In other words, there was no negativity generated against them because of their accents.
That being said, there are always a few numbskulls around who might pop off a remark. But we had "Norsk talk" accent jokes around to be fair. Ja, you bet!
Down where I live now, I still hear silly remarks about Yankee talk.

You are right about the musical quality but I think that is because where we are from, we do not really end a word before we start a new one. The southern style from the mid-Atlantic region though has empathic punctuation, every couple of sentences we hit a word a bit harder to give it emphasis and the rhythm in that choice is only determined by the conversation flow.

We do say "Y'all" a lot and our words seems to have a lot "ahs" in them. Now that I think about, we don't sound like we have two brain cells between us, but we get by and we have never met a stranger, especially in Des Moines.

[tollfree]

There still seems to be something you're leaving out, for instance, when you mentioned "there's no topic they won't bring up in a conversation".

There had to be something that stood out more than asking where you're from.

[Caden Grace]

Originally Posted by RonnieJonez

There still seems to be something you're leaving out, for instance, when you mentioned "there's no topic they won't bring up in a conversation".

There had to be something that stood out more than asking where you're from.

Well, hmmm, I did not think the details mattered too much, it was mostly run of the mill sort of topics:

What's like in West Virginia?

What are the people like?

Are they all hillbillies?

Does everyone work in a coalmine?

Does West Virginia have any notable dishes?

What do you do for fun?

Do we hunt/fish?

90% of it was stuff you might get asked any where you travel. Most were surprised West Virginia has superb whitewater rafting and the photos we showed them got the normal ooohs and ahhhs when you show pictures of a place not where you live.

But we asked the same questions back and they got the same responses from us, including the oohs and ahhhs.

The other 10% is what we refer to as the Fifty Shades of Des Moines. We don't generally meet people that ask intimate questions 5 minutes after they meet you. Maybe they just found us to be approachable and friendly and we did our best to answer without getting descriptive. It got a few chuckles and after it was over, it felt more like dishing the dirt with old friends. In the end that is exactly how we seemed to be treated. We liked the people because while they were different in many ways, deep down, Iowans just seem to be solid, normal, friendly and honest people.

[tollfree]

So they were making it sound like you have finally descended upon civilization. Not surprising. That can be looked at a variety of ways.