The Southern ideal of family is distinct from that of the Northeast, and a little word says why. In the Northeast, “we,” that two-letter word, provides an alchemy of domestic partnership. It is the word of the married couple, the unit of significance, the collaborative propertied venture: We decided to send our kids to the neighborhood school. We summer in Newport. We bought this house ten years ago, and its value has appreciated dramatically. In the South you are more likely to hear “me ’n’”: Me ’n’ yo’ mama got to talking, and before you know it, we had talked all night. Me ’n’ Buck went
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