[Culturechat] Education in the northeast

[tillhouse]

And here in Ca. you are asked what type SUV you drive.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Vance Roy" <gigli.saw@virtualnewport.com>
To: "culturechat" <culturechat@untours.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2001 6:37 AM
Subject: [Culturechat] Education in the northeast


> Is it only me that seems to always hear New Englanders bring up the
> topic of "Where did you go to school?" in the first   minutes of a
> conversation with a stranger?
>
> In the South (always capitalized), one wants to know three things about
> a stranger. "Where are you from?", "Where did you go to school?", and
> "Have you found a home church yet?". The first is curiosity because most
> folks talk funny to Southerner's ears. The second is asked only because
> in football or basketball season, we like to know who to hate and who to
> love. The third is typical Bible Belt Babble.
>
> In Yankeeland, the first thing usually out of the mouth in that thwarted
> tongue is something to let you know that the person or his relatives or
> both, went to this school or that. Such as, "When I was at Brown", or
> when my child graduated from Smith". Then the inevitable, "Where did you
> go to school?". Now, I have a daughter who is a Cornell grad. Wonderful
> school, and even though obscene in cost, it gave me the feeling that I
> had gotten my money's worth. The thing is, these people up here in NE
> seem to think that it makes one a better person, if one has graduated
> from a "prestige" school. That seems to be the sign of quality. Now,
> come on, haven't we all known absolute Dweebs that are Harvard grads,
etc.?
>
> Not long ago, we were in BOS attending a wedding. At the reception, we
> were seated around a table of eight or so. Some delightful folks and
> some average or below, Yankee Doodles. A lady from "New Joisey" had been
> eyeing me for awhile. I have no delusions of grandeur, and she was no
> doll, so I didn't know what to think. Then she spit it out. "Is that a
> Penn tie you have on?" Well, it so happened that my tie was a nice one
> from a shop in Luzern, so I said "no". Then, here it came. "Where did
> you go to school?" In my most exaggerated drawl, I laid out, "Maamm, I
> went to Tennessee, and you don't get a tie there; you get a nice set of
> Bibb overalls when you graduate." This lady was amused to the point of
> impending incontinence and immediately grabbed her husband to tell him
> about the Tennessee overalls.
>
> I remember how, the first time I was in BOS in 1968, I remarked at what
> a snow job the medical folks had done on the Bostoneese. If Mass General
> Hospital said spit, everyone puckered up. Wonder what they would have
> thought had they known that the acting chief of the division had done a
> year of his training in Tennessee because at that time, the training in
> BOS was only accredited for three instead of four years? I remember a
> friend who interned after graduation in Memphis in BOS. Some of those
> Harvard and Yale boys looked at him as a member of a third world country
> until he got their attention as a smart guy.
>
> I suppose the point of all this blather is that a person's worth is not
> measured by where he went to school. Some Yanks have yet to grasp that.
> --
> Vance C. Roy
> gigli.saw@dplanet.ch
>
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