Now, growin' up in West Central Illinoi we sorta talked like I'm writin'. Dere wasn't any rezun I cud see for it, sept maybe becuz we were on the rifer (Mississippi) an the steembotes wood bring lots uf differnt aksents upriver on 'em. I'd talk to Miz Hoag, ar naybor, sometimes an she'd tell me bout dat kid down da block who'd git in trubble a lot.

Yes, we'd intermingle dis, dat, da, dese, and dose with this, that, the, these and those. It was part straight Pike Keeyounty, part Southern, part African-American, part German, part Irish usage and dialect.