They call me Mr. Mark

The folks in Lafayette have a very interesting thing they do. Yes, they eat crawfish. That's not interesting. That's crazy.

No I'm talking about how they talk. Or, better put, how they address one another. Maybe they do this elsewhere in Louisiana. I don't know. I haven't been anywhere else in Louisiana, so I can't really say.

But in Lafayette, folks are addressed in a strange formal/non-formal way.

For example, when someone speaks to me who knows my name, I am referred to as Mr. Mark. Not Mark. Not Mr. Stevens. But Mr. Mark.

Likewise, Amy is called Miss Amy.

It's Mr. Mark and Miss Amy.

I didn't really notice it at first. I just thought it was something our local realtor, the wonderful Arla Slaughter, did.

"Mr. Mark," Arla would say, "how are you and Miss Amy today?"

It's different than in Tennessee, where people, including me, were more apt to say, "Hey you!"

Amy and I left for Louisiana one week ago, on a very long drive with our dog, Sadie. During the trip, I turned to the back seat and said, "How ya doing, Miss Sadie?"

"We haven't even arrived in Lafayette," Amy said, "and you've already started to talk like them."

"Well," I said, "we need to embrace a little of the culture. Maybe if we call folks Mr. and Miss, we can avoid eating crawfish or speaking French. Besides, I like how it sounds. Miss Sadie, it is."