2015 A-Z April Challenge - Raised in the South, just not THE South

I was born and raised in South Florida.  I do not really sound like anyone.  When I was growing up my neighbors to the right were from Harwich Port, MA, the ones to the left were from upstate New York.  The ones across the street were from the Bronx and Queens...and I sound like I could be from the Midwest somewhere.  When I first moved to Alabama one of the funniest words I heard was "rurnt."  I could not for the life of me understand what it meant.  I finally asked one of my new Alabama friends what on earth this word was referring too...and died laughing when she explained it to me.  You see rurnt means that something is spoiled, not any good, wasted.  An example of its use is:  The milk in the fridge was rurnt.   What a funny word.  It sounds like a pig grunting to me.  In the early nineties I received an NEH fellowship to study Miguel Cervantes in Walla Walla, WA.  I was thrilled...out of 150 applicants I was one of the 20 chosen.  When I was picked up at the Walla Walla Airport the driver was so disappointed when I introduced myself.  He told me I sounded as if I was from Kansas.  They were hoping for a southern drawl....I guess that was rurnt.  Luckily one of the other participants grew up in the Mobile area and had a drawl as thick as could be.  It all worked out.  Before I got my degree in High School education I substituted in any grade.  The children had a problem with my pronunciation of the word "on".   They owned the word when they said it....and I didn't.  People in the community I lived in used to invite me to their events....to talk....not speak...not give my witness....just talk....they loved laughing at the way I pronounced words.  I don't say y'all....I say you guys.  I am a southerner.  I was born and raised in the South.  So today my R is for Raised in the South, just not the RIGHT South.