NO MA'AM--YES MAAM

[MAVINSON5 at AOL.COM]

My grandmother, who was from western Kentucky and would be 95, used to use
"No Ma'am" and "Yes Ma'am" to both sexes (never "sir") not as terms of
politeness but to indicate that you were not to question whether she had done
or had not done something, such as whether the ham in the refrigerator was
spoiled ("No ma'am") or whether she had remembered to put vanilla in the
pound cake ("Yes ma'am").  I just wondered whether this comment was just an
idiosyncrasy of hers or others had heard.