I worked in IT for over 20 years, in a really interesting time. Way back in the dark ages, helped install the first local email system, website, and helped many folks who’d never had a PC before use them. It was challenging, a lot of work, and really fun.
Back when we were getting started with email, heard the Big Boss (obviously a Yankee) say “email will help southerners stop wasting so much time; they do so much ‘visiting’ before they get down to what they want”. Obviously, no well-bred southerner will just walk in your office and say what they wanted immediately – that would be rude. Important things like the weather, grandbabies, football, the garden, etc, had to be discussed. Once the social niceties were over, then business could be conducted.
Unfortunately for him, he was dead wrong – nearly every early email started something like this: “Hey, man, isn’t it hot today? How ’bout them Dawgs/Tigers/Razorbacks? Do y’all need any tomatoes, we have more than we can eat! By the way, I need that report by 3:00.”
Also, since it was so long ago, nearly all of our technical support folks were on the East or West coast. After hearing them try not to snicker at our accents, they immediately got befuddled when we started asking them about the weather in Los Angeles. There’d be a short pause where they’d try to figure out why we cared about that. Silly things.
I don’t know if this is a Southern thing or not, but my mother had a strange quirk when it came to computers: nothing was real unless she printed it. Every single email, etc; when I was cleaning out the room she used as her office, I found a box of printed materials. Emails, mostly, and tons of them were replies to her that said things like “Yes” or “That sounds like fun!” Never understood it, but it made her happy.
