Is stepson from the deep south where "ch" and "sh" can both be pronounced like the sh in Sharon

Nope, he's from Montreal. But I've always pronounced "chard" with a /sh/ rather than a /ch/ (and have just found out I'm wrong), so he'd been hearing both /shard/ and /tchard/ over the previous couple of days.

But still. Yikes.

Well, did you think it was prounounced "Steve" or something?!

Hee!