[Culturechat] Education in the northeast

[Joan Herriges]

Someone who moved to California recently asked me "why does everyone
introduce their wives by number?  For instance--"This is Joan, my third
wife".  Did not have an answer (or an SUV).
-----Original Message-----
From: tillhouse <tillhouse@home.com>
To: gigli.saw@virtualnewport.com <gigli.saw@virtualnewport.com>; culturechat
<culturechat@untours.com>
Date: Wednesday, May 16, 2001 1:40 PM
Subject: Re: [Culturechat] Education in the northeast


>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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>
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