Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Rednecks....love 'em or pity them?

True story: I heard an ad on the radio today for Restland Funeral Home. The deceased's wife told of how accommodating Restland was, playing country and western music for her late husband's service "since he was a redneck and would have loved it."

Now I'm wondering....why would you want to admit you or anyone you loved were a redneck? Redneck is defined as "....a historically derogatory slang term similar to 'hillbilly' and 'white trash'. In recent decades the term has expanded to mean bigoted, loutish, and opposed to modern ways."

Does anyone aspire to be a redneck, or is it something you pull yourself up by your bootstraps to overcome? I'm thinking the latter. Even if I were "bigoted, loutish, and opposed to modern ways", I don't think I'd publicly brag about it.

4 comments:

  1. I have known a few people (in fact we are both directly related to people) that love being a redneck. Each to their own I say. Whatever makes them happy.

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  2. During my college days back in the early 90's I car pooled with a boy who took an odd pride in being called a "Redneck." He was extremely religious and while I can be accused of being a snob and of hypocrisy by writing this he was not the most sophisticated person I had ever met.

    All in all he was a decent enough fellow, except for the time a latter day hippie in one of our classes bragged about using pages from a Bible for rolling paper for reefer. My buddy actually was concerned lightning would strike down that hippie for doing such a thing.

    Truth be told he had faults like everyone else and while I do think of the term redneck as something not to be proud of I thought of him as more as a country boy, a term not as soaked in the bad side country life.

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  3. I have met several rednecks over the years and they absolutely wear the moniker as a badge of honor.

    I get nevous every time I hear one say..."Watch this" ...

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