Accents

Whenever people ask me where I'm from, my standard response is to ask them to guess. Popular choices are Australia, South Africa, and Scotland, in roughly that order. England comes some way behind, but a couple of people have guessed correctly. I have to say that reactions to the realisation that I'm not American, let alone an Okie, have been pretty much uniformly positive. The other day in Hobby Lobby, the checkout girl's face broke into a wide grin as soon as I spoke to her, and she said delightedly, 'Oh! You have an accent!!'