Everybody say this with me — Appa – latch – uh.

There now, I feel much better.

I can overlook Northerners and a few others who “ain’t from around here” for their faux pas, but how is it that the Weather Channel people can never pronounce Appalachia correctly?! Can you tell this has become a burr in my saddle? None of them – no matter how many times I yell it at the t.v. – have grasped this concept. And they’re in the South. You’d think they would know better.

Lands a mercy.

We were talking about this at lunch after church one Sunday. I don’t remember now what started the conversation, but some of us got a little miffed just thinking about it. One friend in the group who came to us from “up north” was quickly forgiven when she divulged the truth. She had been saying it wrong, but only because that’s how she learned to say Appalachia growing up above the Mason-Dixon line.

She also said she learned the correct pronunciation and we let it go. We aren’t in the business of holding grudges.

I cringe everytime I hear the Weather show people predicting the weather in our neck of the woods – it usually goes something like this: “Here we have a strong storm approaching ‘Appa-lay-shuh’. If you live in a mobile home, save the underpinning and get out of there!” they warn. That’s another subject altogether – where are we supposed to go?

I may have to start a write-in campaign. I don’t want to be mean about it — I just want them to acknowledge they’ve been wrong all this time and then start saying Appalachia the right way. I don’t know if any of their on-air people have actually listened to the way we say it. With this, I invite any of the Weather Channel meteorologists to come up and visit a spell. Hang out with us and we’ll show you how it’s done! 🙂

Maybe we could show them old news reels of Johnny Wood doing the Channel 5 weather report (Johnny is a beloved local (long time) newscaster who loves his homeland of Appalachia). That should actually be a requirement in meteorology school. I think it would do them all a lot of good and they would learn a thing or two.

To my northern friends, just know that I understand and it’s ok. Bless your hearts. You’re precious.

Everybody else, get with it! We’ve got to make sure the little ones know how to carry on when we’re gone on to Glory.

Just don’t let them watch the Weather Channel and they will be alright.