Monday, November 26, 2007

More about small town life...

Growing up in Piedmont was funny... at least now when I look back at it. I often felt as though I was in The Twilight Zone and the only other person who felt as out of place as me was my brother. Here are some of the (now) funny questions I was often asked by others from Piedmont.

"What are you?" (translation: what is your ethnic background? I found it amusing to say "human" when asked that question)
"Where are you from?" (translation: you can't be from Piedmont because you don't have an accent and you don't look like you are black or white.)
"You're going to college in Vermont? What state is that in?" (No comment.)
"Is your dad Japanese?" (believe it or not, I was asked that question a lot b/c my dad had black hair, but is Caucasian and my mom had white/blondish hair and she is Japanese but albino)
"I heard that you eat dog." (Common misconception about Japanese, but it is not true. Plus people didn't realize that everybody in Asia isn't related.)
"Aren't you that girl that goes to that smart school?" (I moved from Piedmont at 16 to go to a math & science magnet school in Mobile, AL. People knew me from this fact only, it seemed.)


It is sad, yet funny. Most of my friends who left Piedmont after high school talk about our town as if it was a prison sentence and we escaped.

6 comments:

Deena said...

"What are you?"

It amazes me how some people can still be so ignorant.

Mamapierce said...

Wow.

tessa said...

Glad you can laugh about it:) I get that with my twins too, "What are they?" (They mean identical or fraternal.) Sometimes I answer human sometimes I answer cat:)

Kim said...

Amazing. And I feel ignorant because I can't tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese, Korean people. Who knew that there was much more ignorant out there than me?

ME! said...

I remeber you anwering someone "human" in a funny way at RMC. HA HA HA. I can relate to the getting paroled from a small town.That is how felt getting out off Pell City- it really can be suffocating. I am so glad I had the chance to get out and go to college.

jennifer said...

This reminds me of when people would ask me, "What is it like to be adopted?" Ummm...I don't know. What is it like to come out of your Mom's uterus?!