Darling Kate

[nq:1]Katherine Hepburn, born May 12, 1907 in Hartford, Connecticut. Does anyone in Hartford still talk like that? Did they ever? Was that a Bryn Mawr accent? There was a slight lilt to her Yankee English that reminded me of the "tidewater" Virginia accent.[/nq]
Is that `tidewater' as in `Tidewater four ten o nine'?
SAm.

[nq:2]Katherine Hepburn, born May 12, 1907 in Hartford, Connecticut. Does ... Yankee English that reminded me of the "tidewater" Virginia accent.[/nq]
[nq:1]Is that `tidewater' as in `Tidewater four ten o nine'?[/nq]
Is that a TV thing? I've no idea what your question refers to.
Michael West

[nq:1]Katherine Hepburn, born May 12, 1907 in Hartford, Connecticut. Does anyone in Hartford still talk like that? Did they ever?[/nq]
Pretty unlikely. I base that on the fact that present-day Hartford accents are never non-rhotic. There are non-rhotic Connecticut accents, but they're further east.
[nq:1]Was that a Bryn Mawr accent? There was a slight lilt to her Yankee English that remind

[nq:1]Is that a TV thing? I've no idea what your question refers to.[/nq]
It's a line from Chuck Berry's `Promised Land':
Los Angeles get me Norfolk Virginia
Tidewater four ten o nine
Tell the folks back home this is the promised land calling And the poor boy's on the line
Sorry to be so irrelevant.

SAm.

[nq:1]Katherine Hepburn, born May 12, 1907 in Hartford, Connecticut. Does anyone in Hartford still talk like that? Did they ever? Was that a Bryn Mawr accent? There was a slight lilt to her Yankee English that reminded me of the "tidewater" Virginia accent.[/nq]
I was able to find a bit about her parents:
Katharine Hepburn was born and raised in Hartford
and West Hartford . She was the

[nq:1]It's a line from Chuck Berry's `Promised Land': Los Angeles get me Norfolk Virginia Tidewater four ten o nine Tell the folks back home this is the promised land calling And the poor boy's on the line Sorry to be so irrelevant.[/nq]
Ah. Yes, it refers to the same thing the
area around Richmond.
"The Tidewater area of Virginia is defined by tidal rivers primarily the James, York an

[nq:2]It's a line from Chuck Berry's `Promised Land': Los Angeles ... poor boy's on the line Sorry to be so irrelevant.[/nq]
[nq:1]Ah. Yes, it refers to the same thing the area around Richmond. "The Tidewater area of Virginia is defined by tidal rivers primarily the James, York and Potomac that flow from the Chesapeake Bay into the interior of the state."[/nq]
True, but I suspect there's s

[nq:2]Ah. Yes, it refers to the same thing the ... from the Chesapeake Bay into the interior of the state."[/nq]
[nq:1]True, but I suspect there's something else also going on in Chuck Berry's lyrics. It's a phone number. He's asking ... gethim a transcontinental trunk connection: TI4-1009, in the same way our phone number used to be given as Vista 55372.[/nq]
That much is clear, but what'

Significance? I'm not sure there is any. At least, none of any importance. The "Tidewater" sort of seems to work on two levels - on one level it's just part of a phone number, like our "Vista" or your "Northbrook". But on another level, he's telling us his family are back in the Tidewater region.

Or maybe I'm just talking out my backside. I dunno. It's late and I'm going to bed.

[nq:1]I think it's just one of those cultivated thespian accents that were in vogue beeack then.[/nq]
Retract that slanderous epithet, sir. Are you suggesting her relationship with Spencer Tracy was a sham?

Michael West