"Can y'all play a Southern tune?"
Whereupon the band struck up "Marching Through Georgia."

Well, ignorant as I was (being from Oz and all), I knew better than to play that one in South Carolina. But it reminded me of the little old lady who lived next door to us when we were in Columbia. At 83 she was the epitome of southern graciousness associated with the "white" part of antebellum society and, being keen to meet these Australians living next door, she invited us to (what we'd call) afternoon tea.

I thought I knew all the terms, factual and euphemistic for the American Civil War (you know, "Agressions from the North", "War between the States" etc) but she floored me with a new one; "The late unpleasantness". In 1993!

The people who were providing us with accommodation there also thought of themselves as untainted with 'racially-derived' attitudes and were kindness itself. To show us the route from home to USC (the original, not the Californian pretenders) they drove us in their car for a few trips and then I used a bicycle we'd been loaned. It seemed a rather roundabout route but it wasn't until I acquired a map (a story in itself) that I discovered a much more direct route. The direct route went through suburbs dominated by African Americans, while the one they showed us went through suburbs where more money was in evidence.

Perhaps they were trying to protect us but I often walked the direct route with my 15 month-old daughter in a pusher (what's called a stroller in the US) and I never had anything other than a pleasant conversation with those I met; I rarely met anyone, let alone someone with whom a conversation was possible, in the other suburbs.

Which I found interesting. And relevant to this thread.

Cheers, Rowan