Folks,

Dux:

I hope you enjoyed those stories by Greif1 and Bader on the previous page.

Southern flags are flying in Derbyshire? Really? I was aware that stock car racing was becoming popular and Bourbon whiskey is being sloshed down by the gallon but I had no idea there were confederate flags flapping in the British breezes. I'm sure that the stars and bars flying over a castle's keep anywhere in Derbyshire might raise a few well plucked eyebrows. Not as many as it might here in the south these days. Such exhibitions are not considered politically correct anymore since no one wishes to hurt anyone's feelings and they might cause offense. We will not get into a discussion of all the many flags of the Confederacy here, the yawns would become deafening.

Suffice it to say that there were several flags of the Confederacy put to greater use but most are unknown save for the Stars and Bars. For some people the sight of that flag is like giving a bull a red hanky with which to blow his nose. Having said that, I live no more than a short tramp down to a park near the river where stands a very tall, very large marble monument commemorating the Confederate dead of our un-Civil War. This was erected by the Daughters of the Confederacy back in the 20's.

During the sixties that monument was defaced and several full-size likenesses of confederate soldiers were toppled over from their marble pedestals and broken. I suppose that it was more vandalism than a political statement, however they have never been replaced. I suppose it isn't quite the same but don't you folks accept monuments or even public statues of both Charles the First and Cromwell?

In Hereford, Hartford and Hampshire, Hurricanes Hardly ever 'appen.

Our parents, the WW2 generation, spoke with a more pronounced southern accent than do we. I credit education, TV and radio for much of that. Most of us retain a slight southern accent, and proudly. There are some however that to this very day seem to have managed to retain the somewhat more refined southern drawl that was once the identifying characteristic of the southern gentry or aristocracy. Their voices are a delight to the listener, soft, rounded and well modulated, clearly southern yet almost as distinct from the drawl of most folks around here as they are from the harsh, crisp speech of our northern cousins. For instance, the word 'boy' becomes baw-wee.

Your mention of those folks wishing to impress by sounding their "H"s reminds me of that episode of "Are You Being Served" when the Cockney Mr. Harmon and the dead-common lass Miss Brahms, must somehow manage to pass as members of the upper classes to save Grace Brothers from a hostile takeover. She poured on those 'aitches'. Good fun.