Do You Make Groceries?

Growing up in New Orleans, everybody made groceries which for the uninformed means you went to the supermarket or more correctly the corner store to shop for food. In New Orleans we also had "neutral grounds" on our streets which the rest of the world probably calls a median. Many of us in New Orleans "axed" you a question which translated means asked you a question. We also had "banquets" not sidewalks on our street.

Many years ago I was in Los Angeles talking to a secretary for a doctor who ran an emergency room service. I had spoken many time s with this lady and we had become telephone friends and to this day I have never met her. I told her I had to go make groceries and she immediately said "I didn't know you were from New Orleans". I wasn't aware of what I had said to give me away, so I asked her how did she know that and she said her mother-in-law was from New Orleans and she was the only person she knew who "made groceries". While living in Los Angeles, I also was in a store in the sporting goods section and some man asked me a question about fishing and I replied, don't ask me that because I am not a fisherman. He responded by saying "you mean you are from Louisiana and you don't fish?' Surprised, I asked how he knew I was from Louisiana and he told me he was raised in Orange, Texas which borders Louisiana and that I had "axed" him so he knew I was from Louisiana.

As a freshman at Tulane, I had a good friend who was a "military brat" and his father was an Air Force General. I talked about "erl" and he would get on me and harass me about what in the world was I talking about. He would say "You mean the Duke of Earl?" I could not enunciate the "oy" sound of oil and it took me a long time to say "oyl".

In my practice, I can often tell people who are from New Orleans, because of their accent, or their colloquialisms. So if you axe me if I am going across the neutral ground to make groceries then you have got to be from New Orleans a wonderful place to grow up.