Matt is actually correct. There was a study done by a linguist and Appalachian southerners accents are closer to Old English than the rest of the U.S. dialects.

I'm a west coast transplant and the way people here seem to know who you are through who your relatives are and how everything's connected seems to me to be a uniquely southern thing. I never experienced it before anyway. Here's an example: we lost my mother in law a few months ago. They had been at the same credit union for decades, and of course after she passed we had to do the usual paperwork involved at the bank, death certificate, take her name off the accounts, close the credit card that was in her name etc. They were very sympathetic of course, that's normal. Well, a couple weeks ago my husband got a paper check in the mail (weird I know!) and we went to deposit it--we use the same bank. We were in the drive up lane, like the third one over from the window, so not like we were face to face with the teller or could even see her. She gets the check from the little tube and as she's processing it asks "How's Mr.(FIL) doing? We're so sad about Miss (MIL) I hope he's getting along okay." We were kinda shocked, we do 99% of our banking and bills online so it's not like we go into the bank and know the employees. But this lady saw his name on the check, knew who his dad was, and remembered that his mom had passed and genuinely seemed to care how we were doing. That's not something I ever experienced until I moved here.

My mother's cousin grew up in Georgia. Was sent up north one winter by a company he worked for. His coworkers didn't want to believe him when he told them he'd never been out of Georgia before then because of how well he handled driving in the snow, and on icy roads. He asked them if they had ever driven on a Georgia red clay road after it had just gotten done raining, or while it was raining

I grew up in California but have lived my whole adult life in the south, so I've actually lived here longer than i did in California. I remember back when my husband and i decided to buy a house out in the country, all of my friends were really concerned about how i was going to use the bathroom, or how we were going to have lights. I live like 15 minutes outside of a large city in Tennessee. It's ok guys, we have plumbing and electricity. I even had one friend ask how i was going to buy groceries. I told them i planned on hunting and gathering, and if that didn't work out, i would just get in my car and drive to the grocery store 5 minutes from my house.

I love the South because: 1) The people are genuine. 2) Life is slower and enjoyable. 3) The food makes you pass out into a deep sleep. 4) Folks appreciate us who are in the military. 5) Again, sincere people.

So the "when" vs. "whenever" thing, I think the question was probably aimed at people who say "Whenever you go to the store..." instead of "When you go to the store..." and it's about managing expectations. If you ask someone to pick up milk "when you go to the store", there's an assumption that a trip to the store is imminent, or it's being strongly suggested that you go to the store right now. If you ask the same thing, but say "whenever you go to the store", the immediacy is removed and you're just asking for milk to be added to the shopping list for the next scheduled Walmart run.

My friend from Georgia was in the Army in the early 60's. He had convinced some Army buddies from Brooklyn that in order to get to Atlanta, you took a plane to Chattanooga and then had to take a stagecoach to Atlanta.

Southerners are flat out more polite. I say this as a person that was born & raised in the north. I have family in TN, KY, NC & AR. When we are traveling to the south, I intentionally don’t pack everything we will need. I enjoy shopping in the south. No one grunts at you. No one shoves you out of their way. No one swears at you for being in their way. Shopping in the south is great. People smile. People say things like excuse me, please, thank you & yes ma’am/sir. They smile at you. Southern customers help others find things. I could go on for a lot longer. Basically shopping in the north =🤬. Shopping in the south = 😁

About basements: First, a building's foundation has to be below the frost line, the deepest point where the ground freezes. Up north, once you dig down several feet to the frost line, you might as well put in a basement. Down south the frost line is only about a foot deep, so digging deeper to add a basement is more expensive than adding a second floor or a larger first floor. Second, the water table answer is also valid.

I was born in Tuscaloosa and live in a small town in Texas now. My favorite idiosyncrasy in the south once someone pointed it out is our habit of contracting words excessively. The best example is “Y’all’d’ve” a contraction of “You all would have.” Used in a sentence, “Y’all’d’ve gotten hurt if you got drunk and started jumping into the creek.”

My dad is from Vermont. Dinners were quiet and very dignified. No elbows on the table. The first time he ate with my moms family, he didn’t get to eat because there were so many conversations going on he just kept saying ‘excuse me’ and no one heard him. 😂😂😂

In colonial days, most of the people who settled in the south already spoke English, whereas most of those who settled in the North had to learn English. A Southern accent is closer to a British accent than most folks realize. (Look at some SNL videos of Dan Ayckroyd imitating Jimmy Carter, and how he slips into British a lot.)

As an Aussie I connect with Southern people so easily, I can tell by the accent if I’ll be able to relate. Love Southern people ❤️🐝

Since you asked so politely, my momma is feeling much better after her injection appointment for the arthritis in her hands! She’ll be right as rain tomorrow for when she plays the piano at the Wednesday night church service 🥰

Yo. Y’all talked about banana pudding and I was like “damn they’re right. I could go for some banana pudding right now. Hold up. Don’t I got some in the fridge?” Update: I am now eating banana pudding and can confirm I am happier 😋.

Y’all did a great job answering the questions. Pronouncing “oil” is definitely affected by the area where you grew up 😂

As a native Texan (yeah I know Texas is confused about where it fits) sir and ma'am are a must. Being friendly is who we are. I now live up North and wow are the people not so friendly. I get homesick and watching your videos lifts my spirits. Keep up the good work!

Came for the jokes, stayed for the spaceballs t-shirt 🤣

Ha! I struck up a chatty conversation with the librarian at my daughter’s school and halfway in, I realized she must be from the North - she’s looking at me like, “why are you talking to me about the book your daughter took out last week, and how do I get out of this?” 😂😂😂 What can I say? We aim to be friendly, sorry if it’s too much for you!

As an Arkansan, I find these questions hilarious! 😂😂

I love the Miss first name. The way I was brought up, that is to be used for any unrelated woman that you’re on a friendly, or somewhat familiar basis: friends of parents, ballet instructors, Girl Scout leaders, etc. Since leaving the South, and most recently Texas, I can only recall being called Miss Saundra once. I think it is such a friendly and respectful term. I wish it were used more often, in more places. I still use it all the time. You can take the girl out of the South, but you can’t take the South out of the girl. 😉

I use this channel as a whole as an educational tool. I'm a northern Midwesterner by culture and blood (5 generations) but I have been adopted by a southern mama. She used to be my MIL but we get along better than she does with my ex that is her blood kid. Also, I have custody of her only grandchild, so there's that. I use this to understand where she's from (born and bred Alabamian).

I'm from South Eastern Texas, actually grew up in San Felip, and have lived in the north for about 20 years. It's *amazing* how quickly I drop back into my native accent when I start watching these videos. It's making me smile :P

"We can read, write, and whoop your ass." Dear gods, I love you people. Please let me be your mama.

The term Yankee originated as a derogatory term referring to the people who created and formed the United States of America, the British redcoats used it as a slur suggesting the American people were simpletons they would beat into submission, and they would sing Yankee Doodle Dandy to mock the patriots. The patriots however after they started defeating the British troops adopted the song to mock the British redcoats. The origin of the word Yankee isn’t known for sure, though some believe it came from the Dutch who hated the English settlers and referred to them as janekke, which was purportedly an insult. The Dutch colonized what was first called New Amsterdam, they were bankers, and tried imposing slavery of the Indian tribes, who they were very antagonistic to. They were utter failures in their attempt to be successful and New Amsterdam was taken over by English settlers and eventually became New York.

Matt: "People say the guys down here dress like tablecloths..." Cameraman: *aggressively zooms in to Matt and Ryan's collar shirts*

My NC coworker always gets super excited when she talks about food, either a meal she made recently or lunch or dinner she’ll make soon or food in general. So #1 is super accurate for her.

Northerner from Pennsylvania who married a southern girl from South Carolina. We currently live in Virginia, but not south enough for us. Planning to retire to South Carolina and be closer to family in SC, NC, and GA. Love the South!

My mama's doing all right, considering she just turned 90 and has a crap ton of health problems. Thank you for asking. If I tried to go into "all 'em" it would take too long and fill up my word quota. My mama is from East Texas, so that's the part of Texas that is most "Southern", and she pronounces oil as "ah-wul." Seriously. We used to razz her about it like crazy (I grew up in West Texas and we just said "oy-ul" like everbody else.) Mama also double-joints a lot of words, so she says "way-ull" for "well". My son is a linguist and he could answer why all this is, but he's an adult now and on his way home from church so I'm not gonna call him while he's driving. (I watched church online, got my own health issues.) No basements in some parts of the South because the bedrock is too hard and too close to the surface to dig out without dynamiting. And maybe that flooding thing is a deal in some places, too. Southerners talk a lot because we have a lot to say and we're generally very social. Also, maybe a lot of us have ADHD. (Look up "ADHD infodumping.") Many of the top universities in the country are in the South, and I guarantee they're not mostly populated by Northerners. So a dang awful lot of us are WELL-educated, thankyouverymuch. Y'all Northerners stop worrying about us and take care of your own business. You're always welcome to come visit or move here, but please behave. Don't make us sic our Southern mamas on you.

The joke about asking for a *breathy* oil change and Express Lube not even looking at the air filter… Man, that one got me! 😂🤣

My Mom is doing very well thank you. She’s got a whole mess of chickens that are just coming into their eggs now and she thinks the tiny eggs are super cute. How is y’all’s Mommas doing?

I'm a cross between Northern and Southern. I was born and raised in Indiana. My parents were from Virginia (mom) and George (dad). I grew up with a crazy mix of north and south. As an adult, I have lived in Louisiana and Alabama. I LOVE the South. I fit in so well, my accent from my heritage emerged and no one even knew I was a Yankee! I'm back in Indiana but I understand "It's a Southern Thing" and the references y'all just keep doin' what you're doin' y'all are wonderful!!

Driving in snow in the north is a mandatory skill. They don’t shut things down around here unless they absolutely have to.

As a lifelong Wyoming resident I used to get questions about riding horses to school, if we had indoor plumbing, if we were located in Canada, and how we got along with Native Americans. I suppose those are all googled now.

I absolutely love you guys! My mom is from GA and my dad is from MN and we moved between from the north to the south every 2.5 - 3 years (dad was in the Navy) and my wife is from GA/FL and we live in MN. We have had to answer a lot of these questions from family and friends from both regions, thank you for helping educate the people!

Im a student from Nashville studying abroad in Europe rn. This little taste of home made my day. I was crying laughing y'all are hilarious:) Thanks guys!

Born and raised in upstate New York and at the age of 25 I chose the The South and I’ve never had any regrets and just to test that theory I went back to my hometown lived there for a couple years hated it and I was welcome back home as a hurricane was coming into Florida and all I could think was I’m home😎🥰

I’m a southerner born and bred and I guess I didn’t realize “whenever” was a problem for northerners to understand like they can’t understand “fixin”. Uh, glad I follow y’all so I can become better educated. Love your channel!

Watching stuff like this makes me love love love being from Alabama ❤

The way he said "Dwog" reminds me of my grandmother... who was from New York!

This one got me. As someone who moved to Tennessee from Colorado in 2008, I am now believed to be a local due to my accent/communication style and understanding of the culture. Hell yea.

As a southerner, here's an answer to the basement question: it all depends on how high the water table is under the ground. If the water table is higher, there won't be any basements because they'll get flooded. If the water table is lower, basements will be more normal.

The guy with the hat really needs to be a stand up comedian 😂

Mississippian here. I felt well represented by the responses.

Loved this vid, y'all. 😎👍 Y'all should put together an episode with a Southerner, a Northerner, a Midwesterner, a West Coaster, an English person, a European, an Australian, a Japanese, a Chinese, an Indian (from India), a Spanish person, a Native American, etc and all talk about various slangs and phrases that they use. I bet that would be both interesting to compare and might even be humorous at the same time. 😁

"Why can't southerners drive in snow?" That's silly because here in the north every year when we get the first real snow fall there are accidents everywhere as we find out drivers have completely forgotten how to drive in the snow since last winter. Maybe not Alaska.

My mom, who has past, was from TN. I grew up mostly in WI and can remember everyone loved her accent. I always wondered "what accent?" I wish I had found this show before she passed. She would have loved it. Thanks.

Love your work 🤣🤣 I’m from England, I’m not really sure of the dynamics of the northern/southern thing in the USA but I still enjoy watching thanks

Yall always make my day! I laughed so hard at the food bit because it's true. Found out yesterday that my MIL is making dinner for us today, for our weekly family visit, and I have been thinking about it since then. And I'll be thinking about it afterwards, until I step outside in the humidity and reach a level 10! 😂😂😂

Driving in the snow is a skill. Driving in melted snow that re-froze into ice isn't safe no matter who does it. That's what we get in Georgia. Of course, most people near Atlanta aren't actually Southerners.

West Coast native here. I’m posting in response to your question near the end. My mom is awesome I’m sure as she is home with Jesus. Me, not so much because my best friend is not here with me. But thanks for asking. Portland used to be the friendliest city in the USA. Us natives have been overrun by transplants who brought their bad attitudes and behaviors with them. I miss those days of when people were polite and cared about others. So how’s your family? Wishing you all a safe and happy Independence Day! Blessings

You are my goal to answer every question that tries to come across judgemental or piss you off!! I love the answers

Liz's indignant reaction to almost every question had me rolling 😂

Whenever someone asks me why I call all soda Coke I say, "Because Coke is from here?" Since I'm from Georgia, and well Coke is from Atlanta. The Oil one had me laughing though, I say words with oi as OL so soil becomes sol, etc. Great video y'all, keep up the hilarious work. :)

Even my own family hates it when I start telling a story cause we’ll be there all day😹

You guys are gems!! Thanks for this video!

Matt’s statement of “get to work or die” is so true!!! I’ve been here 22 years and I still don’t know how to drive on the snow

As a Kentuckian moving to chicago I’ve gotten all of these but the biggest ones were: “Did you go to the bathroom outside?”, “Did you have electricity?“ , “How old were you when you got your first pair of shoes?”… and they call us uneducated? IM FINNA GO OFF ON A BUNCH OF THEM!. That pretty much shit the conversation down. Love y’all, keep’em coming ❤

Y'all are wonderful. Thank you

I grew up in California as a young child, graduated high school in VA, and moved to GA 23 years ago. My friends call me a hippy yankee😅 I don't think I have an accent until I talk to my CA family. They make fun 😂 I love living in the south. There's a whole vibe down here. I like small talk. I also like learning about strangers while waiting in line somewhere. The connection down here is pretty cool. I realize that people connection is everywhere ❤ The broad brush strokes to describe different regions is just that - broad. Fun video 🎉

Tbh I think the "why do southerners talk so much?" Question was actually asked in the way of like talking to strangers. For example in the south walking by ur neighbor or maybe just passing someone you wave and say hey or oh how's ur day when you're in line somewhere. Or talk to someone in the grocery store for no reason. Whereas northerns don't do that. I see the answer as just southern kindness.

Be proud of your southern accent. The great Lewis Grizzard said “God talks like we do”.

Love those southerners!!

My momma is doing great. Thanks for asking. Love you guy.

Fun fact almost every state has its own accent even some large states have different ones per area even if it's small

"Soda" came from the Soda fountain or Soda shop where one could get the fizzy drinks before the times when they were packaged and distributed. Like old Soda water bottles from the cartoons. "Pop" comes from the sound the cans made when opened since folks not in the south only had canned soft drinks when they were first introduced.

My husband is from North Carolina and I love the way he says oil. He doesn’t have an accent but some times I just ask him to say oil ❤️

I'm from Australia and I just found this channel and you guys from the south and Australian's seem very similar, have a great day

I’ve seen articles by speech experts who said that Southern speech is more close to the British speech than any other speech in America.

I found your channel a few months back and love it! I'm a Californian, but we moved almost constantly when I was growing up. One of the places we lived was Gadsden, during 8 months of age 12 in 1972(!), and I loved it there. Your videos have reminded me of why. Also, most of my relatives have been Southerners, and both of my parents had Southern roots and I'm starting to realize I was raised Southern as a result, which explains why my fellow Westerners don't understand things like why I love grits and say things like "gully washer." Anyway, long story less long (yes, I can see now that's my Southern tendency, too), I just took early retirement and have been looking for other areas of the country to relocate to, and your channel has prompted me to look at Alabama. Right now my focus is the northeast part, like around Fort Payne. Got lots of travel, tourism and relocation guides arriving soon!

I just realized how southern I was . When my comment was 4 paragraphs long . Love these videos y’all . Keep it up

Thanks for asking! My moms and them are doing pretty good.

The reason I say Ma’am,Ms,Mr,Mrs is because growing up I was taught it was being polite and showing respect to my elders.Very rarely do you hear that these days sadly. I would say I’m happier than a lark in a meadow. Great video y’all did a great job funny as always and you ain’t wrong about banana pudding.

This one was a riot. Please do more.

Man, I give y'all a thumbs up because y'all from Birmingham Alabama... I just moved here a few months ago and I'll tell you what, I ain't been so happy, and less stressed in years... Y'all have a good'n, and God bless...

Idea for a future Bless Your Rank: Matt rates different brands of grits he's snorted.

I taught missions education to Elementary school girls. They called me Miss Lucy. Fast forward 20 years, and I was helping one of my former students when her boss came in. She introduced me as Miss Lucy. And I loved it!

My momma an' dem are doing well. Thank you for asking 😊 Guess that thing they say about Southern courtesy is completely true! Have a great day (From Seattle, WA) Take care ❤

and now you'll get a Christmas card from us every year, yep. See talking to each other makes the world a happier place :)

"Why do Southerners look different" Feels like somebody returned home, after vacationing in the South, and told their friends "It was weird. Everywhere we went people kept showing us their teeth". (Smiling)

Southern- snow, better go stock up on bread, eggs, and milk. Northern- snow, oh well.

I live in southeast Texas. I love your videos!

I love how southerners ask about your mama. Going to a small town store where I know no one - I am gonna ask the clerk how their mama is doing today. It is just polite and it is what we southerners do. It shows we like you

I love the audacity of people asking such stupid questions. I talk way too much and I would love to sit and talk to ya'll. Thanks for the fun videos

As a Northerner who has lived in the South for 17 years I absolutely loved this 😂

The basement question, in GA, we have the infamous GA clay and it doesn't make for a good strong foundation. Many of these planned communities have added basements to their homes and now folks are having issues with their foundations cracking, water seeping in...yeah, there's a whole lawsuit against one specific home developer company.

Mom is doing well, thrilled that we just sold her car. We advertised it on the front lawn of our house in the country, and we had a buyer within about 24 hours. Thank you so much for asking! How is your mom doin?

As a 69 year old "hillbilly" from the great state of Arkansas, Little Rock, (Home of Johnny Cash and Glenn Campbell) I love these videos from our friends from Alabama - a truely great Southern state if there ever was one! Most of us get along beautifully - Black, White, Hispanic. The use of Ma'am, Sir, or Miss is just ingrained in us at an early stage of our lives. Yes Sir and Yes Ma'am is also taught early - All of this is taught to respect our Elders. I have been chatised for calling a person "yes ma'am" out West after she asked me if I needed syrup for my pancakes at breakfast one morning - Seriously! I will hold a door open for a man or woman, it's just the polite thing to do. What is wrong with being polite and helping others? I'm not going to change and you will never hear me say "you guys" to a bunch of boys and girls. Proper ediquette would be: "Y'all" because that means: "All of you". The only time you would use the vernacular of "y'all" to a singular person would be in referance to his family. You see a single man/woman on the street and you say": "How y'all doing?" you are referencing his whole family. You would not just walk up to some dude on the street and say "How y'all doing?" That would be similar to walking up to a single person and say "What are you guys up to? And yes, even in a small state like Arkansas, we have regional accents too. Northern Arkansas Ozarks (True mountain folks that hid from the "Revenors of illegal moonshine stills making corn whiskey are a tough breed to assimliate with, especially with the influx of "Yanks" coming to many Retirement Centers up there. Their accent is more precise and direct to the point. Now you go down some what and follow the White River as it returns to a normal flow as it once was before it was damned up to make hydro-electric power and it turned the upper White River into a great trout fishery. Now down near DeValls Bluff the water returns to it's normal temperature and catfishing and other warm water species return to their natural habitat. Shouvel-nosed catfish (not relly catfish thrive). Brim, bass, perch, aligator gar, you name it thrive here. But, The folks that live along the White River have their own dialect too. Go down to Southern Akansas farmland and you will meet some of the friendliest people around. They have hardscrabbled the land, a lot from government allotments and homesteading - both for Black and White folks. Good people that work the land diligently and trest and respect each other. Their speach patters a a bit slower because the are ot in the hot sun battling it every day. We got German settles that arrived in the Eastern farm land so ther verbal influence added to the overall complexity of the Arkansas language. We also had the Swiss move to the Middle Ozark/Ouachita Mountains to establish wineries and a more of them moved to Eureka Springs for the early treatment of body ails by natural springs - it is a cool town! Also, there is a great amount of history since a lot of the Indian Tribes were forced to trek through Northern Arkansas along the Trail of Tears - forced march by the "damn Yankees" to move all indians out of the "civilazed population"- a sad time in our History because the Indians and Southerners got along.

I love me some southern ppl and my mama is doing better thank you for asking ❤

I've never checked Google for anything about northerners. Bless their hearts.😅

So this is what I learned about the term Yankee and probably where it comes from. I had a roommate from Boston who was Irish, and the Irish in Boston identified very strongly as Irish. One day he made a comment about the old moneyed Boston elite, and referred to them as Yankees. I did a double take and asked about this and he explained to me that Yankee is the term the Irish use to describe the English. I’ve also read a lot about the lead up to the Civil War in this country. After the revolutionary war the Scots and the Irish living in New England were offered land grants in what we now think of as the American South as payment for fighting in the revolutionary war. One of my mothers ancestors, surname Brackett, was a silver smith in New England, who fought in the revolutionary war, and received a land grant in what is now Northeast Georgia. So as the Scots and the Irish migrated south out of New England, they took their language with them and Yankee is the term they use to describe the English. If you know much history about what is now the United Kingdom, the English spent centuries committing genocide and other forms of subjugation against the Scots and the Irish. That is why we generally are hospitable to Yankees, until they start telling us how to live. Hope that helps explain where the term Yankee came from. Also, in my mind and I think in the mind of most of us who are Southern identified, anyone who did not grow up in the South, with at least one southern parent, to experience the culture as a part of our upbringing and formation, is automatically considered a Yankee. It has nothing to do with genetics anymore per se, and everything to do with the culture and an attitude about how we treat the world, as God’s creation, and the people who live on the world, as God’s children. I had a friend who is an anthropologist when I lived in Miami and she explained to me, that in anthropological circles, rural southern culture is considered the most complex culture on earth. Only people who grow up in it ever really understand it or know how to navigate in it. We have layers of nuance and metaphor that do not exist another cultures. After almost 40 years of living in Los Angeles what I have discovered and I’m very thankful for is that most elements of Southern culture exist in other cultures as well as a central theme. For example face-saving is a strong central feature of Asian culture along with humility. Hospitality is very important to middle easterners, and the ability to communicate with metaphors and allegory is central to most non-European cultures. So I intuitively understand people from all over the world in ways that my “Yankee” friends never understand. I grew up in rural Central Florida between Tampa and Orlando. The place has been overrun with and ruined by all the Yankees that are retired there, but in the mid-60s it was very much an extension of Georgia and Alabama.

ANYONE who calls coke "pop" I question their intelligence. I've actually caught a 3 day Facebook ban for commenting on a meme that portrays coke as unintelligent and pop as intelligent and commented that op was unable to spell coke or pop because he clearly is the one mentally deficient for confusing which is which. I'm willing to die on this hill.

My mom came up to Colorado from Arkansas to visit my fiancé and I while we were living in the mountains. Her and my stepdad freakin rocked the driving in the snow part of the trip, they also relished in the legal pot in Colorado 😅

If you’ve ever been to Dublin and had a casual conversation at a pub you know exactly where our American and specifically our southern accent comes from.

Basements: Texas does not have them because the ground is so hard to dig into (I can barely dig holes to plant bushes in my backyard lol) that it is not very cost effective to do so. You can find some houses that have them but its rare. :) You are likely to spend $30,000 to $100,000 to build a 1,000 square foot basement in Texas... and I can think of many things I'd rather spend that kind of $$ on. :P

😂😂 you guys handled those questions so eloquently and precisely (trying to make myself sound educated)… Oh hell y’all did great! And also thanks for asking about my mama, she’s doing awesome!!

I did and Thank ya'll. God Bless and stay safe.

This is my new favorite channel.

I was raised in the Rocky Mountains and spent 25 years in the military. I was stationed on the West Coast, the East Coast, the mid-west, Hawaii, overseas and FL. When I retired I stayed in the South. 'Nuff said!

Southerners are nice, friendly, willing to talk to you even if they don't know you. I went to visit a friend in Cleveland OH and we stopped in at a Target. I was talking to the cashier like I do down here and she just stared at me. My friend was just like, we don't talk up here. I feel sorry for y'all up north. How do you make friends if nobody ever talks? My mom could get anybody's life story in 5 minutes. She'd sit down next to a perfect stranger at the doctor's office and they'd tell her everything. She didn't ask for their story, but she was comfortable to talk to and friendly, and people always responded really well to her. I forgot to comment on the basement thing. Some places have basements, but a lot don't because the water is too close to the surface. I'm in North Alabama and we have swamp and marsh here, so unless you're on a good sized hill, you are unlikely to have an actual basement. Plus basements are more expensive to build and most builders aren't willing to make the effort unless it's a completely custom house.