A Natural-Born Alien

Magnet #247 - Doctor Who's Slitheen

So, we established yesterday that we moved from Chicago and its snowy, snowy environs down to sunshiny Salisbury/Granite Quarry, North Carolina, when I was in Kindergarten. And, though I was fairly young, I remember feeling very much like an alien on the playground.

First, the alien name: Supposedly, that's when I started going by Joy in school. I swear, I was told it was because no one could pronounce "Linille" as my first name, though now I'm rethinking that train of thought, given the kidnap thing. So already, I was kinda getting used to the name - apparently that took, given my penchant for, well, my name.

Second, the alien language: I remember the first day of school. Because my last name begins with Ab...I was first in the lunch line. The teacher told me to lead the line from the classroom, and "stop down yonder."

I got in trouble. Because I kept going. Because I didn't know what the hell "down yonder" meant. C'mon, I mean, even now, can anyone tell me what "down yonder" actually means?

Third, the alien accent: I was lucky to understand the words "down yonder," cuz on top of not understanding the Southernisms (which we ended up buying a book about later on, which explained so much), I couldn't understand the thick accents. Seriously. Northern versus Southern accents are hard to get used to. Still are, sometimes.

Fourth, the alien environment: No snow. There was NO snow in North Carolina. At least not smackdab in the middle of the state. And how was Santa going to find us without snow? So what'd my very sweet parents do? They packed me up in the car and drove me up to the mountains of North Carolina to prove that it did snow there. I swear, I remember being let out of the car to touch the snow and being very happy.

Finally, the alien communications: So small was Salisbury, that our moving to town made the front page of the local news section of the local newspaper. A whole article about the new family in town, and the kid they had to tote up to the mountains to prove the existence of snow in the South.

Anyway, there were many other things over the years that made me feel like a alien in NC, and the ensuing culture shock from it...but, I probably have magnets for those, too.

(Mind you, they probably wouldn't be a Doctor Who Slitheen from Raxacoricofallapatorious, but this was apropos to the subject, and also, pinkish for NBCAM!)

eta:
Today's DW shout-out is also because I had a dream last night that I was pals with David Tennant. And went to watch his new show: Hamlet.

The musical.

David Tennant wasn't that great of a singer in it. Also, mysteriously short.

I'm just sayin'.