You might want to ask an old "Southerner" (a term which is also offensive, by the way) before you expose your ignorance concerning our customs.


"Aunt" and "Uncle", when not applied to relatives, are informal titles denoting endearment, respect, and acceptance as part of the extended family, used by the children or when speaking to the children about their elder.

Adults of the same generation may address each other as "Sister" or "Brother" to denote familial acceptance, whether the parties are related or not.

In either case, neither age nor skin tan has anything to do with it.


"Mr." and "Mrs." are formal titles given to anyone you meet, until their preferred title is discovered.

In most places, they are used when they have no title.


There are still places where, if they have no other title, they are addressed by their occupation, similar to the custom in the Middle Ages.

Thus, you might have "Mayor Johnston", Colonel Higgenbotham, Head Dog-Catcher Smith, Assistant Grave-Digger Jones, Pastor Germano, Town Drunk Hester, etc.

At all times, the complete title is used, no matter how cumbersome and EVERYONE is assigned a title.

There are fewer and fewer places, today, that still follow this practice, but there are a few.


"Mr.", "Mrs." or "Miss", followed by the first name is an acceptable form of informal address by children towards an elder who is neither part of the family nor accorded the title of "Aunt" or "Uncle".

Thus, "Uncle Bob" is part of the family, while "Mr. George" is not.


Only trusted people from outside the family are ever granted the title of "Aunt" or "Uncle".

Any slave (one of which there hasn't been in this country for over 150 years) called "Aunt" or "Uncle" had special status, accepted as a member of the family.



Trivia for the Day:

The proper designation for a person from the South-Eastern section of the United States once called "Dixie" is "American" - without any stinking hyphen.

You're welcome.



Note: The above two sentences immediately prior to this one are hereby clearly labeled as the subtle sarcasm characteristic of this section of the country that indicates a state of being aware of an insult and dismissing it as unworthy of notice - in case you missed its significance.

Really, love selective outrage. So do we regard Washington and Jefferson for their remarkable contributions to this nation built on their “public life”. Or destroy their reputation, memory, and monuments because they participated in personal behavior (slavery) that was unfortunately practice worldwide at the time. Tearing down one monument is not going to make one poor urban life better. Undoing 50 years of well intentioned but failed “Great Society” policies that have done more to propagate cycles of dependency and cultural poverty than anything else, period!