She implied that it was acceptable in grammar school, but that she hadn't thought about it in years. Dad is definitely very proper about his grammar, too.

It's most likely from waiting tables in ruralish TN, to try and sound more like the customers. Mimicry for better tips! But I did study Russian for awhile and they don't really have a verb "to be" so you couldn't say something like "that chair needs to be reupholstered" (not that I know the Russian verb for reupholster).