What is a Redneck?

I got called a "redneck" the other day.  I was on my bike and someone took exception to me being on "their" road.  Forget the fact that they were driving a beat up 4 door sedan belching smoke and covered with bumper stickers proclaiming their...well...red-neckedness.

Redeck?  I don't know.  Maybe.   Depends on what you mean.  

When you get down to it, maybe I am.  I've always been involved in farming (small scale now) and I think that's where the term got its origins.  Farmers who had to be outside all day, every day tended to sometimes get a sunburned neck.

Except for a 2 year sabbatical to West Virginia, I've lived in Tennessee my entire life (so far).

I grew up in Loudon, Tennessee (rural east Tennessee/3 stop lights in the whole town) where pretty much everybody was in the same socio-economic category.  Most families were supported by one of the local factories.

Houses were small and tidy, yards were mowed, everybody had a garden, and there was only one home with a pool in the backyard.

Actually, it was the only pool around.  If you wanted to swim, you had to catch a ride to Lenoir City or hit the Tennessee River. Everybody went to church. Boys grew up to play football.  Girls were majorettes, cheerleaders, or basketball players.

We went fishing and ate what we caught.  We went hunting and did the same.  Most of us could tell when the dogs had a coon up a tree and knew where to be when the dogs would bring the rabbit back around. 

Today, I drive a pickup truck but don't own anything camouflage.   I no longer hunt or fish but that has more to do with time than anything else.  I live on a farm and love my overalls.  Redneck? Call me what you want to.

There are a lot of prejudices about the south.  Uneducated.  Slow.  Toothless.  Where everbody goes by two names.  Like "Billy Joe" or "Bobby Sue."  Unless they go by "Bubba" or "Junior."

I've written here before about my friend who is Southern Belle through and through.  She regularly makes two-syllable words out of words originally intended to be one syllable. With no small measure of southern charm, she also kicks butt in the real estate world. 

I do get frustrated with the southern tendency to butcher the King's English.  Double negatives kill me.  Confusing "they're, their, and there" just means you didn't pay attention in English class.  But 

I've heard the same in Manhattan.

I guarantee you that there are English teachers from my school days that find it incredible that I write a newspaper column.  And more than one would roll over in their grave if they knew I've done this for 29 years.

I don't often sound quite like some might expect.  Oh, I guess to someone from Michigan or Maine I still have a southern drawl but not too much.  But I love everything that makes me southern.

In the south, we're all about good food, good times, respect for the family, and being polite.  

Respecting your elders.  Holding the door open for others.  Always saying hello.  Did I mention good food?  And football.

The rest of the country has to admit, we play pretty good football in the south.  Although I have a strong love of the ACC, it's hard to deny that the SEC is the premier football conference in America.

And while Indiana may be basketball through and through, Bobby Knight has been through a couple of jobs since a team from there went to the national championship.  Seems like Kentucky, Duke, and North Carolina are perpetually at the top of the ranks.

Although I'll have to give that guy named Geno his due, Pat Summitt is still the greatest basketball coach ever and the Lady Vols (forever Lady Vols) are the greatest basketball program in women's basketball history.

So here's to The South!  Born in the south, I'll likely die in the south.  Just remember...nobody retires and moves north.