What Kind of ‘Sorry’ Are You?

[587 words] While growing up in middle Tennessee I often had occasion to hear expressions used by country folks. Since many of them came from small communities, where everyone knew his neighbors’ foibles and failings, country folks could be unsparingly candid in their evaluation of others. One descriptive phrase that I particularly remember is the word “sorry.”  When the community viewed an individual as morally deficient because of a failure to live up to accepted standards of decency and personal responsibility, that person earned the contemptuous epithet “sorry.” For example, a mean-tempered alcoholic who beat his wife could be described as “just plain sorry.” A woman who frequented honky-tonks and bars while her small children roamed the neighborhood, unattended and dirty, might be termed “a sorry excuse for a mother.” A shiftless or dishonest employee would be labeled “about as sorry a worker as there is.” While rambunctious kids who…