You Betcha, I'm From North Dakota

I went to a wedding on Saturday night. It was a very nice event. The kind of wedding where women wear a different dress to the ceremony and a more formal dress to the reception. I wore the same dress to both the wedding and the party.

Our table assignment was table 7. We sat next to a nice couple in their fifties and a couple with three young boys. The talk was small at first, but it went wide open when they found out that I was from North Dakota. Being from North Dakota and living in Philadelphia is either a conversation starter or stopper...depending on the audience.

The older man said to me, "You are the first and only person that I have ever met from North Dakota". I get that a lot. He made the mistake that most people make who are not from either North Dakota or Minnesota and said "South Dakota" a couple of times when he really meant the more northern Dakota.

The topics of North Dakotan conversation ranged from the weather to my thick accent. He asked me to pronounce a few words, most with long vowel sounds. Because this man was so friendly and not at all condescending like many people who want me to say things with that "funny Fargo movie accent", I played a long with it.

I always like it when the east coasters say, " you are not from around here, are you?" Is it that obvious? Is it the accent or could it be something else? Could it be that I wear the same dress to the wedding and the reception? Could it be that I have a more laid back sensibility about me.