[meteorite-list] Re: A Sign From Above (Sylacauga Meteorite)

From: joseph_town_at_att.net <joseph_town_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:17:38 2004
Message-ID: <120220030727.14593.7f37_at_att.net>

Wow,

What term best describes your personal ethnology Sterling?

Bill Kieskowski

 
> Hi,
>
> The term "hicks" refers to the inhabitants of Hicksville, New York, located
> on Long Island, which was once (a century ago) a totally rural environment.
> Hicksville, which is on the end of Long Island nearest to New York City, had its
> quiet rural
> existence immortalized by George M. Cohan's long-ago hit song "Only 45 Minutes
> From Broadway." So, by extension, a "hick" has become a term for any inhabitant
> of a small town or rural area, wherever located.
>
> A "hillbilly," though more easily found in those Appalachian (and Ozarkian)
> states (and West Virginia and Missouri and western North Carolina, etc.), is
> essentially a cultural classification, so members of that group could be found
> anywhere. That
> culture is nothing more or less than the general rural culture of the US in
> times past, now surviving only in mountainous enclaves. Eighty years ago,
> "hillbilly" would have applied to a much wider area of the South and parts of
> the Mid-West, and a
> century and a half ago would have well described about half to two-thirds of the
> population of the US.
>
> And "redneck" is originally a term for a non-industrialized agricultural
> worker. As there are very few folks out hoeing cotton by hand these days, the
> term is widely applied in those areas where they used to be numerous (like
> Alabama). Although I
> live in rural Illinois (not Alabama), there are plenty of folk about whose necks
> are literally red from a lifetime spent in farm fields before tractors had air
> conditioned cabs, GPS, laptop computers, stereos, and tinted glass. All those
> "rednecks"
> would also be "hicks" by definition (non-urban populace) and some of them would
> be "hillbillies" too, although some would instead be German, Italian, Polish or
> "Bohemian" in cultural origin.
>
> The English article, of course, was not about hillbillies, hicks, or
> rednecks; it was about stereotypes. More exactly, the English version of
> stereotypes and is riddled with errors. Can you imagine an Alabama county that
> had only ONE frog-gigger?
> The term "cattywampus" is dialectically wrong; it should be "cattywhumpus" or
> "cattywompus." Miz Hodges sez "As sure as grits is grits," when any fan of
> country music could tell you this expression should be in the form of a
> comparative, as: "If I doan
> love you, then grits ain't groceries!"
>
> Perhaps somebody should write an American parody about a famous English
> fall, like Wold Cottage?
>
>
> Sterling K. Webb
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> RYAN PAWELSKI wrote:
>
> > Actually, there is no such thing as an Alabama "hick", there are only
> "rednecks" in Alabama. Just to clear things up, the following are the three
> different subgroups of the of the "subclassy" society, better known as hicks,
> hillbillys, and rednecks:
> >
> > Hicks: Found in Midwestern states such as Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois,
> Indiana, and Ohio.
> >
> > Hillbillys (mountains or hills): Found in Appalachian and Ozark states such as
> Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas (Or "Our Kansas", because the hillbilly founders
> were jealous that Kansas had a "too-cool-for-school" name).
> >
> > Rednecks (from hot southern sun): Found in south, southwestern, and
> southeastern states such as Texas, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Louisiana,
> Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida.
> >
> > Maybe Jeff Foxworthy should write a word collection with all this here
> information in it!
> >
> > Anyway, hope I helped ya'll in decipherin' them terms!
> >
> > -Ryan
> >
> >
>
>
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Received on Tue 02 Dec 2003 02:27:45 AM PST