Southern Ladies, Accents & Recawds:

So the other day I popped in for a browse at my neighborhood resale shop and met a certain Mrs. Penelope Pepper. She’s one of those older southern ladies who is tall and slender with a larger nose and beautiful quirky teeth. She was charming, friendly and vivacious.

I was minding my own business when I overheard a very distinctive southern accent, an accent the likes you rarely hear these days. To be specific it was a non-rhotic accent. That is to say she didn’t specifically pronounce the letter ‘R’ for instance take the word ‘mother’ where most people would pronounce the hard ‘R’ at the end of the word her accent softens the ‘R’ into the letter ‘A’ as in ‘mutha’ or instead of the word ‘card’ she would say something like, “Let’s play a game of cawds”.

It’s ever so elegant.

Sometimes you meet people with a southern accent who place a hard ‘R’ at the end of words that end in an ‘A’. For instance the name Rhonda becomes Rhondar or put an ‘R’ after an ‘A’ into a word like ‘wash’ which becomes ‘warsh’ but that’s another story.






















Anyway back to me minding my own business flipping through the record albums section when she meandered over and asked, “What kinda recawds do ya like honey?” At that moment I happened to be holding a prized and pristine copy of the Anita Kerr Singers, Spend this Holiday with Me which by the way I have been looking for, for about five years now. I held the album up to her and said, “I like old easy listening, jazz, exotica, and standards singers and I just found this Anita Kerr album...have you heard of Anita Kerr?” She looked at the album and nodded her head and said, “Why shoowa honey, I shoowa have in fact I have a whole cawpawt full of recawds.” Let me translate, She sure does have records and in fact a carport full of them.

We contin’yed tawkin’ and she innerduced herself and then also let me know that her husband is a reti’yed dentist, Docta Peppa. We exchanged phone numbas and made plans to rhondarvoo next week at her home for tea and to rifle through some recawds.

I went back to flipping the dusty stacks, Glenn Campbell, Sing along with Mitch, lots of homemade Christian records with terrible cover art (I should start buying those just for the covers), The sounds of Italy, France, Germany etc, Jim Nabors, and then I found a little piece of gold.

Co Star The Record Acting Game...YOU ACT SCENES OPPOSITE YOUR FAVORITE STAR

Featuring none other than Tallulah Bankhead!

What?
























It’s a record of Tallulah reading lines from some of her favorite plays and some scenes made up just for this recording. It includes a script that you read from and ACT against Tallulah as your partner.

What?

I had to have it but at $150.00 it was a bit expensive. Oh wait I misplaced the decimal. I had to have it but at $1.50 it was a bit expensive for a mint condition gem. I plunked down my quarters and bought the damn thing and raced home to give it a listen. When I looked it up I found that it routinely sells for a $100.00 and so I felt that I got a pretty good deal. Besides I always wanted to act in a play opposite Miss Tallulah Bankhead.

Dahlings, let me just say that it is everything you would want it to be. I have provided a recording of a little skit entitled ‘Two in a Boat’ which I would imagine was inspired by her magnificent performance in Alfred Hitchcock’s magnificent film, ‘Lifeboat’.

So let yourselves go dahlings and enjoy trying to keep up with Miss Bankhead as she barely gives you enough time to say your lines and upstages you at every turn. If you like it download it and print out the script so you can play it at your next party. If you like it I shall recawd mo’wa of the scenes and scripts fo’wa mo’wa of yo’wa ennatainment.