Well, I recently moved to Menifee, Ca..to tell the truth, before July 2013, I never even heard of Menifee. I am originally from Maile (Maili), Oahu, Hawaii. In 1965 my journey took me to Charleston, South Carolina.
Many people throughout my life have asked me, "How long have you been in this "COUNTRY" or "What country are you from?" At first I was taken aback with these questions. "What?" YES there were and still are people who don't know that Hawaii is a STATE!!. The 50th to be exact. We tried for the 49th, but Alaska beat us out.. Any way, I couldn't imagine watching Hawaii 49.. well,
when I left Hawaii, I didn't know about the Vietnam War, Hippies or Civil Rights. But I got a quick lesson in Southern life. On my first day of school the teacher asked me "how long have you been speaking ENGLISH and Where did you learn to speak English"? Looking at her perplexed, I replied, "I been speaking English since I was a baby". You see, in Hawai at that time, we weren't allowed to speak Hawaiian or honor some of our customs (sound like any other nation you know?) My grandfather was a retired sailor from Annapolis, Maryland and he didn't want us to be "stupid/ignorant Hawaiians". So it was mandatory that we spoke the PROPER ENGLISH.
Can you imagine my fright when I heard people say "Ya'll" or "stoop" or "spigot". What in the world is that? And NOT getting along with black people? YOU see in Hawaii EVERYONE was family; and many families had mixtures. My grandmother said that 'we were the league of nations". OK. In Hawaii, the only words I spoke in my native language was
Maha o'e (never mind) and Ni e'le (mind your own business). But now the food, was definitely Hawaiian spoken and we Hawaiians can eat some good lau lau and poi. UHM ONO delicious.
I tried looking Ya'll up in my Websters only to discover that the word DIDN'T EXIST. Oh well.. eventually I became accustomed to the "lifestyle of the southern persuasion" and I can happily say that I have truly been a Southerner all my life.,YOU see; if you look at a map, Hawaii is the southernmost state in the union.. it lies below the equator and makes it THE SOUTHERNMOST state of AMERICA.
