Yes sir, my buddy answered his father. I was about 15 years old and this was not how my Pacific Northwest friends normally talked to anyone. But Caleb (not his real name) was from Louisiana. His affable southern quips and gentle drawl made him fun to be around. Not that he wasn’t into wayward teen activities—just that he’d been culturally conditioned to be genteel and civil when it was in his best interest. My other friends and I were a rather uncivil lot (insolent come-backs and raunchiness are teen survival skills), but I still respected my parents, and I thought maybe Caleb was onto something I could adopt. Beyond that, “Sir” and ...