Last weekend I had the privilege of being able to go to Dallas on a school trip. For some of out trip we were on a bus with a tour guide that was helping us get around the city and giving us short tours in our spare time. I remember the first thing she said to us when we all got on the bus for the first time was, in a heavy southern accent, "Howdy y'all, I'm Alice, you can call me Alice from Dallas". I almost laughed at how much of a stereotypical southern response this was. For the entire weekend she continued to speak simply in her southern drawl. Near the end of the trip someone in my group found a video that showed her, apparently the president of the tour company, speaking very academically with almost no southern accent while receiving an award for success in entrepreneurship. It made me think that maybe she was very purposefully acting like the stereotypical Texan that many northerners would think of. On the All In One Tours website, they make a point of providing "Texas Friendly Hospitality". I think that "Alice from Dallas" and her tour company realize that as northerners we have such strong stereotypes of about people from Texas that it would be weird for us if our tour guide did not fit them. To get a tour guide that spoke academically without a southern accent might even be a disappointment. If you disagree please comment, but it did seem like our tour guide was certainly going out of her way to give more that the usual Texan accent.
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