have you ever noticed that rednecks in the north are nothing like rednecks in the south?
in the north you have your rednecks with the tractors, the actual really RED necks and the john deere caps. they drive around in red pickups and wear camo on their off days. sometimes they don the bright neon orange cap.
in the south, you have a slightly different breed of redneck. everything is centered around the cowboy boots, the gun AND the confederate flag plastered somewhere on their person, truck, girlfriend, gun or dog.
in the north you see beautiful rolling hills with corn and soybeans and wheat. picturesque farms with the navy blue silos. cows dotting the hills.
in the south you see in the countryside trailers with the quinticential confederate flag displayed quite prominantly, and somewhere a satelite dish. have you ever noticed driving thru tennessee or west virginia that people can be living in absolutely horrible surroundings, but they manage to have satelite tv. i think the status symbols in the south are as follows:
1. the size of your wheels on your truck
2. the size of your gun
3. the size of your dish
and last but not at all least
4. the size of your tobacco chaw.
kinda sad. i miss the north. where the rednecks are red and the the accents are bearable.
i will make one good statement about the south. i do like their tea. they know how to make sweet tea. good stuff. kinda goes right thru ya on a road trip (note to self).
any other differentialities on rednecks of any sort would be welcome. i am partial to the north, it is in my blood. but i am open to correction.
Posted by hill at June 26, 2004 12:25 AMIn the north the "red necks" have a professional title and occupation: "farmer." And they're well-respected members of any small community. :-)
Posted by: Jonathan at June 26, 2004 08:33 AMvery very true. amen. my dad became one of those sorts! *gasp!!!* he would come in after a few hours of mowing the front field on our 1950's tractor and his arms and neck would be SO red and tan, but he was pasty white elsewhere. =)
Posted by: hill at June 26, 2004 09:07 AMFalse dichotomy. Over-generalization.
Love your friends in Poland, Chad and Dave.
Beautiful post, Hill. It has made me miss the corn and the farms and the tractors and the cows and the orderliness and I just love you for it. Glad you'll be back soon and will bring part of the North with you. :)
Posted by: heidi at June 26, 2004 01:41 PMAs a Southerner with lotsa roots in the South, I agree with you entirely. I wish I was from the North. I've tried to purge every hick vowel from my speech patterns and remove all Southern words and have never worn cowboy boots. Ok. I haven't worn them in at least 10 years.
Posted by: sligh at June 26, 2004 02:49 PMMy roommates used to mock me for using inordinately long words, then saying "y'all" in the next sentence. It is the last thing I must purge from my Southernness. That and "would you like a coke?" "Sure, I'll have orange."
Posted by: anonymous at June 27, 2004 12:10 AMAs a geographically-confused-southern-born-nothern-grown-southerner, there is much in this post that I take issue with. But much of it would take a week's answer or none at all. So I will opt for none at all on the majority of it. The only comment I will make is in regard to the northern vs. southern accent.
I understand that the regional location of Ohio is debatable. I've debated this point with friends of mine for years. As one who grew up in Pennsylvania, I always considered Ohio to be a member of the Mid-West region. So, what I am about to say does not apply to Ohio or any other mid-western state (Indiana, Illinois, etc.).
The variations of the *true* northern accent are by far the most detestable accent variations that exist in whole of the United States. I'm not talking about the "Big 3" (New York, Boston, and Maine). I'm referring to the accents found in New Jersey, Delaware, and Eastern Pennsylvania. Please, please, before we totally disparage the southern accent, let's consider some examples of the monsterous northern accent:
1. The word "Lord" is pronounced "Lure-rd".
2. The word "home" is pronounced "hoe-oom".
3. The words "you all" are pronounced "yooz" or "yooz guys".
4. The question "Right?" (as in "is that/am I right") is pronounced "Ain't?".
So, the above examples put into the sentence "The Lord has promised you all a home in Heaven, right?" in the north would be: "The Lure-rd has promised yooz guys a hoe-oom in Heaven, ain't?"
I'm sorry, but give me the southern accent (in any variation) any day! :)
I'm with hansen. As a thru and thru Southerner I would rather listen to someone from South Georgia who may have a slight aristocratic breeze in their Southern drawl then hear anyone from New Jersey spit out one word! But that's just me.
Much love!
As a person born in South Georgia, I will have to agree we love our sweet tea!
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