Where y'all from-- originally?

    A long time ago, a writer named Thomas Pynchon wrote a book called "V." Not quite so long ago but still a very long time back I read it. All I really remember about it (except that the V sometimes stood for Valletta, the capital of Malta) was that a good part of it was taken up with a discussion of East Coast Yoyos. East Coast Yoyos are people who spend a lot of their lives bouncing up and down the East Coast of the United States. Much of my family and most of my friends are East Coast Yoyos. I had a long run yoyoing myself, though my bouncing days seem to be pretty largely behind me.
    For some reason, I felt that the Southern accent was a hindrance for me back in those days, so I ironed it out pretty completely. I've been back for decades now, and many Southern locutions (like saying "Thank yooooooou" at drive-throughs) have crept back. But I still get a certain amount of "Where y'all from-- originally?" from strangers I meet in Columbia. I just point in the direction of my dad's house and say, "About two miles that way."