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Hey rrlund: Re: You might be a Redneck

Bruce from Can.

Bruce from Can.

Well-known Member
Location
Woodville, Ontario, Canada
Well you told me ?to speak for yourself ?. So I googled Redneck, and I?ll de darned if a picture of a big old Swede , wearing bib overalls , while driving an Oliver tractor, pulling a corn picker came up. Ha ha, Merry Christmas
 
I used Bing. It showed a guy from New Jersey holding a turnip. LOL

You can call me a hillbilly all day long. That term originally meant a Michigan farmer. When Michigan was surveyed,a "Billy' was what you called somebody who wasn't very smart. The surveyors said that Michigan was nothing but swamps and hills and that you'd have to be a real Billy to go there to those hills.

A Redneck,now that's a different thing. See my post about the Marathon bandit. Around here,that's a redneck.
 
farmers,usually Mennonite, were referred to as "rednecks" in these parts 60 years ago because the back's of their necks would get sunburned from spending time afield. don't hear it much anymore.
 
I guess it is a term subject to local interpretation. A redneck around here might, shoot a deer , build his own house, grow a garden, slaughter a hog, grow field crops, wear overalls, heat his house with wood he cut himself, look out for his family and just be a hard working guy that would stand right in front of you and tell you if he thought you were wrong, or just plain didn?t like you. That Marathon bandit guy, he is just trash. Red necks here aren?t trash, just a subculture of honest hardworking folks, that live in rural areas, that don?t conform to city style standards.
 
Originally a redneck was poor whites.
Squatters; Whites that did not own land or slaves.

It evolved to mean unkempt whites that lived like trash.
The guy with a old refrigerator or washing machine in his yard.
Old tractors might even apply.

It has now evolved to mean a pickup driving; gun toting; whites.
The term white trash was broken off to refer to the guy with the washing machine in his yard.

But one thing has held true over all the years.
It means whites that do not live up to your standards.
 
You're describing crackers. I agree with the sunburned, hard working but not affluent, while they might be given to a bit more fun than their wives would prefer.

Johnny Carson did pretty good with his plaid jacket character. Remember he was from Nebraska.
 
Over in this neck of the woods and South to the coast, it refers to a person who is their own being, not afraid to step out of line, live and do the way they want to regardless of the local accepted customs and such, not a law breaker per se, but an independent thinker. Might refer to such as ID for an "Alpha" person, usually referring to the male gender.
 
Well, always one to throw a monkey wrench into things (wink), what about Good Ol' Boys??

...And before someone mentions that as being a politician, let me refer you first to the show [i:653c372cd6]Dukes of Hazzard[/i:653c372cd6], and then to the Don Williams song, [i:653c372cd6]Good Ole Boys Like Me[/i:653c372cd6].
 
I once wrote a "tongue in cheek" piece comparing Omahans to outstate Nebraskans.

Can't remember them all, but here's a few.

You might be an outstate Nebraskan if:

Your oldest daughter takes a siphon hose to show and tell.

Your grandmother was kicked out of a church bingo game for swearing.

You mow your lawn and find a car you forgot you had.

Your guest accommodations sits on concrete blocks in the back yard.

You use a stop sign down the road to sight in your deer rifle.

You fill your deer permit in the city park during a family reunion.

The local police car has a trailer hitch.

Your wife's Christmas wish list includes ammo.

There were lots more, and some would get this thread poofed.
 
I agree that it means different things to different people. There are kids here who,for some foolish reason,are "redneck wannabees". I suppose in another generation,the meaning will be a totally different thing,but to me,redneck and white trash are still the same thing.

Jeff Foxworthy's redneck jokes were put downs,not a goal to shoot for.

The difference between a hillbilly and a redneck is dignity.
 
Some New York reporter hung the hillbilly thing on folks from the Appalachians and later the Ozarks,but the term originally meant a Michigan farmer.
 
Been trying to remember what that song was with a line in it that said "My long hair just can't cover up my red neck.".
 
When Jeff got started, my wife put up better curtains and a no trespassing sign to keep him away. When he added his one about the porch collapsing and killing a dozen dogs, neighbors showed up with puppies only to find we didn't have a porch.
 
Well Hessian soldiers moved into the Blue Ridge Mts after the Revolutionary War and those folks were referred to as Hillbillies so it was told around my area,my relatives have been
here since way before the Revolutionary War.My grandfather born in 1890 always used the term Hillbilly to refer to the local mountain people.According to Wikipedia the first mention of Hillbilly in print was in the Railroad Training Journal in 1892 and there was a place in
West Virginia called Camp Hillbilly in 1899.
 

My wife would not tolerate a good ol boy, she had one of those. But she will put up with my redneck ways. Including working hard.

Foxworthy's jokes were not put downs, just clever observations.

How many on here use an old refrigerator for storage on the porch? How many have a derelict vehicle in the yard. And how many put down those of us who do?

Foxworthy's best was "You might be a redneck if you let your 14 year old daughter smoke at the dinner table in front of her kids..."

My wife was a grandmother at 36. We're doing ok.
 
Worked with a South African few years back, Afrikaans term 'redneck' means newly arrived 'Englishman', European not born in South Africa that gets sunburned bad around neck area, back of neck where small hats don't protect from sun. Native born learn early to wear bigger hats and growing up the neck gets a good tan, no longer burns/turns red. Another source from old union organizing days coal mines, industry- the union activist wore red bandannas around necks, revolutionary colors of Wobbly/worker of world Marxists organizers. Red Bandanna also worn by farm workers, small farmers gave them the same term at times in South. alternate blue neck cover wasn't popular with some former confederates and descendants- 'Yankee' color. Grey or brown might have been preferred- red was acceptable of the common cheap hanky colors- dye stocks for red had some iron, blue had some copper(?), yellow and green only moderately popular. Green was 'San Patricio' in Mexico meaning Irish descent or trooper - Catholic of acceptable social standing anyway. Now might be 'Blood' colors, Blue is 'Crips', green still seen in Boston and some other IRA leaning area. Here the 'colors' mean IHC, Ford-NH, or John Deere-- often driven by rednecks. RN.
 
I guess I is a redneck. I got JD's, a IH an a oilover. Naah- ah. It's a White. Iffen ya drive a Oilallover, an ware bibs, yer a redneck. Ya kant be much of a hillybilly cuz them Ollyfers kent clumb up menny hills.......
 
Just ask yourself,who's more likely to have a dignified Christian wedding or funeral? A good ol boy/hillbilly or a redneck? I think the answer is self explanatory.
 
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