So I'm the OP and I originally put this as "live and work in the South" but someone stole the post and it is what it is. Saw this come up again on my random FML posts and scrolled the comments. Interesting. I am in rural Virginia and it is what everyone calls each other. Grew up in Colorado and picked up the colloquialisms of the southeast while learning to say "soda" instead of "pop". It was a transplant coworker from New England who complained about me saying it to another coworker, who used the same terminology. It isn't a diner, it's retail, where half of our customers are regulars we know by sight but not name. Everywhere I go in central Virginia it's the same mannerisms and wording. Sir and ma'am get me in far more trouble - "I'm not a sir, I work for a living! Don't call me ma'am, I'm barely older than you!" It's interesting how many people take offense to what we 'should' call them, and what we 'shouldn't' call them is just as bad......we can't learn everyone's names, we have more on our minds than you think, so what do you want us to do? We can't please everyone, I guess. I no longer wonder why the world is going to hell in a handbag wearing gasoline underpants (yeah, another colloquialism).

******* feminists

That can make people uncomfortable I guess?