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Heck, even the media in the south is biased!

We had some flooding on the lake where we live and of course the news came by and interview the ONLY person on our street who is a redneck:
1) lives off of dissability
2) always drunk
3) always shirt-less
4) doesn't have indoor-plumbing
5) can't understand a damn word he says

Whereas, there are 3 college students, someone who works at the local PBS station and 2 wealthy business owners on our street and they didn't get on tv...good job, local news!!!

I can't believe how many rednecks I met in New York State.
Ignorance is bustin' out all over.

People are crazy all over the country. And where they're not crazy like *this*, there's plenty of other nonsense to go around. I'm convinced though that if you drive 100 miles in any direction from a major US city (east/west/north/south), and you'll see pretty much the same stuff.

That is, the areas will be very similar. Not that you'll see the same stuff as in Bloke's pictures.

I'll quote a fine old southern humorist, Lewis Grizzard who was once held captive in Chicago for three years, " For all you smarty yankees who move down here for a better life and then commence to tell me how you did it up North, 'DELTA'S READY WHEN YOU ARE'. We got a plane leaving every 3 minutes." All I can add to that is Amen! Amen! and Amen!

I went to NYC back in 2000 when I was a wee lad and we had no problem fitting in. Everyone there was pretty cool with us and there were folks there that spoke more "country" than my family did. We even went to a traditional Manhattan landmark...a Jewish Deli and we blended in other than I was wearing an Arkansas Razorback shirt (which I am ashamed of now that I go to a *cough* better univeristy).

The year before we were on our way to Yellow Stone National Park and we stopped in North Platte, Nebraska and I was told that I "sounded like I was from Arkansas" from someone who lives on a farm in Nebraska....... He had WAY more of an accent than me...just fyi

I've lived in Washington State my whole life but I'd like to go to the American South to see for myself. Most of the stuff up here that is 'really old' started about the time of the Civil War. When it comes to "North vs. South" I really don't have a side except I'm pretty happy that we became a full fledged member of the Unite States in 1889,

Jeff "wondering if other parts of the country have prejudices about WA" Benedict

The Big Ben wrote:I've lived in Washington State my whole life but I'd like to go to the American South to see for myself. Most of the stuff up here that is 'really old' started about the time of the Civil War. When it comes to "North vs. South" I really don't have a side except I'm pretty happy that we became a full fledged member of the Unite States in 1889,

Jeff "wondering if other parts of the country have prejudices about WA" Benedict

my favorite californiaism....is that other than the missions and a very few other towns....every town in california's first permenant building was a Saloon.

and the second, if not another Saloon, was a brothel.

and people wonder why we are the way we are out here.

If the yankees hadn't shot my great grandpaw, he'd be 260 years old today.

There is a noticeable rise in friendliness towards one's fellow citizen the farther I've traveled below the Mason-Dixon line. Bloke's listing of the finer points of Southern-isms reminds me of the fond memories of my few trips to the Southern states, namely small towns like Front Royal, VA and Morgantown, WV.

As I've traveled around this country, I have noticed, almost 100%, that when you get away from the city, the exburbs and suburbs of pretty much any area of the country, people just behave differently, much more civilly, and definitely nicer. Wonder why this is?

Hoping my spouse doesn't peruse Tubenet . . .

I grew up in Southern Arkansas, married a woman from Las Vegas. Now live in Utah. My Arkansas family I grew up in consisted of my parents and six kids. All six kids have undergraduate and graduate degrees, all still on their first marriage, no infidelity that I know of, all with stable careers, none of us or our kids ever arrested, etc..

My in-laws have a significantly higher degree of . . . disfunction . . . in the family. (The list would be very long.)

I only mention this to say that when I get together with the in-laws, I invariably take ribbing for growing up "redneck." I just laugh lightly while mumbling "jackass" under my breath.

Uncle Buck wrote: I grew up in Southern Arkansas

Good place to be from. Me and you and Slick Willie. Can't be all bad?

bloke wrote: bloke "If you believe the term 'redneck' has ANYTHING WHATSOEVER to do with politics, racism, or racialism, you just don't get it."

Doesn't the term 'redneck' actually refer to people who do stoop labor in the fields and get a sunburned neck, hense, 'redneck'?

Mojo workin' wrote:There is a noticeable rise in friendliness towards one's fellow citizen the farther I've traveled below the Mason-Dixon line.

Southern friendliness is superficial. They will be nice to your face and stab you in the back. Sometimes I just prefer the Northern rudeness, at least I know it's honest.

When I was younger I falsely believed Southern women were nicer than Northern women. They only talk nicer.

MartyNeilan wrote:They only talk nicer.

They do other things nicer........

My neighborhood in Utah has plenty of rednecks. None of them ever lived in the South. They are the ones who:

- despite city leash ordinances, let their dogs and cats run free to crap all over my lawn;
- use tons of illegal fireworks within city limits on July 4 (in the middle of a desert, with tons of tall, dry weeds everywhere - I always soak my lawn with tons of water before that holiday);
- drop empty cans and bottles on my sidewalk and on my yard;
- etc.

Uncle Buck wrote: within city limits on July 4

Rednecks are not usually found "within the limits of any city" They got their red necks the "ol' fashion way", workin' the crops. The idiots you describe are commonly called "po (skin color of preference) trash where I come from. They don't have enough functioning brain cells to come in out of the rain. They are true social illiterates and they really piss me off! They cost me a lot of money each year because they are the main reason I pay a lot more to shop somewhere other than Walmart.

bloke wrote: How much clothes, bikes, cameras, TV's, sporting goods, camping equipment, blah-blah-blah (not including groceries) do you really buy each year?

I don't buy any of that stuff at Walmart. Although I did buy a work camera there on a half price sale 3 or 4 years ago. I usually go early in the morning (before 7), thereby avoiding the riff-raff and purchase my toiletries, pharmacuticals, bird seed and occaisionaly some gardening supplies. When you get my age you will need a lot more of all that stuff. I stood in line behind a bra-less 300 pounder in desperate need of a bath the last time I went mid-afternoon. After I had the good sense to back up 5 or 6 feet it was quite humerous. Trash is trash. It doesn't matter what region, state or national origin. Trash is just trash.

If one studies the history of the "Scotch-Irish" (sic.) in America, the first thing learned is that the bulk of those immigrants, along with some lower classes of Englishmen who landed in the southern colonies/states could not stand the middle and upper-class town & city folk who settled along the Atlantic coast, so they headed for the hills ASAP. There they set up small dirt farms, raising just enough corn and barley to live on (and to make beer and whisky.) Most of 'em never left - except for the few who headed to Oregon (the southernmost state on the Pacific Coast

Because of the cultural isolation and such, the language and music of what became known as "Hillbillies" has not changed much from the 17th century - much like the "Cajuns" of Louisiana speak in almost 16th/17th century French (and their music also reflects Canadian and French music of that time.)

BTW, I am reading a rather interesting book about popular music history in Great Britain, Africa and America - how the mixture of "Folk," "Blues," and other musical forms merged to make what is now "Mainstream" music. Interesting, but slow going!
Origins of the Popular Style - The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music
Peter van der Merwe
http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/s ... 0198163053

(and my favorite T-shirt from New Orleans a few years back - "It's not the Heat - It's the Stupidity" )