re: ant vs aunt

It's a regionalism, I suspect. I'm from New York and there isn't any detectable difference there between the insect and the sister of my father (not aurally, anyway) - both are pronounced like the a in "hand." On the other hand my wife is from Boston and the distinction is quite clear when she speaks (I won't even try to illustrate!). Your California aunt is probably somewhere in between, at least linguistically speaking.

On an analogous note, I'm told that in New York City during the Depression, when a municipal job was prized as one of few available source of income and teachers' positions therefore at a premium, how you pronounced "oral" and "aural" could qualify or disqualify you from consideration...