A Different Perspective

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

Maybe because no matter where I went, I was the odd one out, but I learned to adapt very quickly. You are right that the accent was a dead give away, so I learned to pick up the local accent in just a few hours.
 A trait that I still have to this day, that I have to fight to keep in check.  A few seconds talking with someone and I start to adopted their accent. Unchecked I will have it down pack and almost flawless.

It saved me a lot of grieve as a child, but it can be kind of embarrassing as an adult.

Make no mistake - I have often used it to my advantage, There have been times when I intentionally thickened my accent, diction, and vocabulary and caused folks to associate me with the stereotypical "dumb hillbilly" that they knew nothing of, and had only heard about , thereby causing them to underestimate my intellect.

That usually worked out pretty well for me, and many a Flatlander has found themselves flat on their asses wondering what just hit 'em after their attempt at an intellectual entanglement with me.

it might not be fair, but the only "fair" fight is the one I win. I prefer to think of it as "strategy".

On the other hand, I've had Hispanics laugh and tell me I speak Spanish with a hillbilly accent, and @"BIAD" had a hard time sorting out my speech even when I tried to smooth it up and be more understandable rather than less.

.

Anyone that automatically thinks that a hillbilly, redneck, or ghetto thug, is dumb, has never been around them enough to know how wrong they can be.

Forty plus years of working in areas that most people would call undesirable, has given me the opportunity to see things that many have not.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and when people have the least, is when they have the increased propensity to be the most creative.