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

From: Sterling K. Webb <kelly_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:17:38 2004
Message-ID: <3FCD37C1.BE20A50B_at_bhil.com>

Hi,

    I can't believe I forgot to include Bubbas and crackers and white trash!
Cedar choppers I didn't know about until now. In southern Illinois, all Germans
are called "Dutch," a corruption of Deutsche that arose during World War I as a
polite circumvention. We are nothing if not polite.
    Yes, only Czechs are Bohemians, but not all Czechs are Bohemians, and prior
to 1915, Bohemia was a separate country. I run an antique store and I had a vase
with a portrait of Crown Princess Louisa (for whom the German gunboat in the
Movie The African Queen was named), and it was stamped "Bohemia" on the bottom.
    The person who bought it was excited to find something marked "Bohemia"
because their great-grandparents had come from there when it still was a
separate country. They were from Benld (where the first car-smasher meteorite
fell in 1938) and they were a lot more excited about the vase than if they had
found a spare piece of the meteorite.
    I told them that if they found a heavy dark rock while digging in their
garden, they should call me...

Sterling
-----------------------------------------------------
Kevin Fly Hill wrote:

> To further clarify classifications --
>
> #1 - In Florida -- That's Cracker - not Redneck. Derived from the whips
> they carried at one time as a weapon of choice.
> #2 - In Central Texas there are Cedar Choppers with Bubba's and Rednecks
> spreading out to the rest of the state. Cedar Chopper is a specific
> designate in the area of Texas where cedar trees are abundant and are turned
> into fence posts and is used to describe the indigenous peoples that perform
> that duty. Similar in life style to a Hillbilly.
> #3 - The non-specific but generally considered - White Trash. A term that
> if used at most family gatherings in East Texas can get you labeled as
> "uppity" or a "high falutn' snoot"
> #4 - In Texas, at least, only Czechs are Bohemians, Germans are Square
> Heads - (note: married to the former and being the latter - this is a fact)
>
> Most Curious Listener
> Fly Hill
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sterling K. Webb" <kelly_at_bhil.com>
> To: <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
> Cc: "RYAN PAWELSKI" <yellowengine_at_earthlink.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2003 12:51 AM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Re: A Sign From Above (Sylacauga Meteorite)
>
> > 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
> > >
> > >
> >
Received on Tue 02 Dec 2003 08:09:21 PM PST