Red Necks and Farmer’s Tans

Oh No! What have I done?

I had to go to Sydney for a funeral today, and left Teeg the keys to the blog so that she could cover for me! I just got home and look what’s happened…

When Allan asked me if I’d write a guest post and said it could be about anything, I grinned.

Trying to correct his mistake, he quickly amended it to say I could write about anything within reason, but the damage was done. I’d already come up with a topic.

Without the internet, it’s doubtful Allan and I would have ever met. After all, I’m a southern lass (half southern belle, half redneck) who enjoys southern rock and loves good bluegrass picking and grinning music.

And Allan, as he’ll freely admit, is a typical Australian bloke who doesn’t think twice about referring to females as shelias (I’d soooo love to know the true story of how that name came to stand for womenkind).

Allan and I had been friends for a few months the first time I heard him call someone a redneck. I was shocked, since I’d never really thought of people outside of the south using the term, and then surprised to find that to him (and likely to most of the world) it actually has worse connotations than it does in the south.

In high school, rednecks were usually the kids who drove pickup trucks (or even a tractor) to school. Many had gun racks in the back of the truck, and there might even be a gun sitting in the rack, especially during hunting season.

During the spring, they were usually the kids with “farmer’s tans”, neck and lower arms brown, upper arms still white from wearing t-shirts to work. Of course, in the mountains, there were more people with fair coloring, so the arms and neck were often red, or the reddish brown that shows someone’s tanned over top of sunburn.

The term redneck was a slur in that you wouldn’t call someone that to their face, but it was a gentle slur, describing more of how they lived than talking about the person themselves.

I remember calling a boy a redneck to my parents one time. Both of them reacted probably very similar to how I did when Allan used the term. I wasn’t really fussed at for calling someone that, instead my parents wanted me to understand why someone would be called that.

They pointed out to me that the fact that these children probably had to work out in the fields, and that the red neck showed not that someone was lazy or unintelligent, but that they were hard workers, who were likely helping to provide for their families.

Comedians like Jeff Foxworthy enjoy putting down rednecks, and in some ways his routine is even funnier if you are from the south because we’ve seen the single wide trailers held up by cinder blocks, the cars without wheels sitting in the front yard, even the prized coon dogs lazing around the front porch.

By the way, a guy who wanted to take me to the prom knew I didn’t approve of hunting so he sold all of his dogs except the one he’d had since he was little to pay for it (he didn’t tell me until after the fact, unfortunately, or I’d have tried to talk him out of it).

He won the rest of the money (our school had decided to have the prom at a fancy hotel in another town, so it was expensive that year) by winning first place in a trout fishing tournament.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned a bit more about rednecks (and I’ll be honest, many people would probably call me one…especially up here in NY when people see me running around the yard barefoot, even in the fall and spring (no, I’m not quite brave enough to do it in the winter).

Rednecks are usually of the group known as slow talking southerners (fast talking southerners talk about as fast as Dale Earnhardt drove).

Often they like to think about what they’re saying before they speak. Some might be a bit slow, but many aren’t, just thoughtful.

They are hard workers and good friends, and you haven’t seen southern hospitality until you visit the home of someone who doesn’t have very much, and they offer to share what they have with you.

I hate the idea of hunting for sport. But by and large, most of the rednecks I’ve known use what they catch. The hide is often tanned and sold, the meat eaten.

The dogs also bring in an income, since a good hunting dog can sell for a lot.

That’s why I wouldn’t have agreed to go to the prom had I known how my date was going to pay for it…that was future income that he wouldn’t have if it was needed.

I think over the years, and especially since I’ve lived away from my NC mountains, I’ve come to respect rednecks. Not the callous, get drunk, date your sister and beat on your wife type that Jeff Foxworthy teases about, but the real rednecks, the southern rebels who live for God, family, and country in that order, and God help the person who gets in their way or even worse, makes them angry.

I’ll tell you from experience though, that when it comes to a dependable friend, someone who’ll stand up for what they believe in and who is always there for their friends, you can’t ask for better than a southern redneck…even if you do have to put up with them liking NASCAR.

For a good description of a redneck girl, check out the song “Redneck Girl” by the Bellamy Brothers:

Charlie Daniels has a song called “Simple Man” that gives a pretty good example of a redneck.

Charlie Daniels singing Simple Man:

And, to finish it up, here’s some real picking and grinning music, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs performing on the Beverly Hillbillies:

Kentucky Headhunters and Southern Rock? It’s all rock and roll to me!