Thursday, November 13, 2014

Living in Minnesota - A Watery Question!

Accents speak louder than words. As the husband and I found out one fine evening in a MacDonald drive-in. It had been a long day out and we had depleted most of our energies and all of our water as we pulled into the drive-in for replenishments.

As the lady handed us our bag of burgers, I asked her for some water.

A what?

Water, please.

I am sorry, what was that again?

WATER

I make sure the T is heard.

Could you spell that for me?

W A T E R

The husband adds his very Indian accent to the confusion. I decide to resort to signs.

You need a drink?

Now, I am afraid to say yes lest she misses what I might be saying.

Waaatttteeeerrrr

I try it in slow motion with brilliant emphasis on the T again.

She looks at us like she would probably look at aliens. Which we were, technically speaking. And as aliens we have a secret language which we use to communicate in silence. We decide to let the matter of water go. The Coke will have to do.

I reach for the empty bottle of water to try to squeeze out a few drops as the husband thanks her politely for nothing. I believe she spotted the odd habit of the aliens and realized what they wanted.

Oh you mean wa..er!

The ‘t’ was almost not there and whatever was in its place sounded like a d…Very pure American H20.

We nod, a bit skeptical, because now we don’t know for sure what she thought we needed. Turns out, she understood alright and soon I was sucking ice cold water wa…er…whatever…through my trunk.

I thought I had left the complications of accents in the drive-in until yesterday when I asked my four-year-old son if he wanted to have some water.


He squinted at me for a long second before he nodded. Yeah.Wa…er!

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