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Although they are the butt of a good many jokes, hillbillies are actually a very important part of the DIY community. Often isolated by geography, politics, and language, hillfolk are naturally self determined and quite capable within their natural habitat. These days hillbillies are everywhere! You probably meet them on a regular basis. A little understanding, and a good sense of humour goes a long way towards producing positive experiences with these rural folk.
Over the years, there have been a lot of missunderstandings, and a lot of misinformation regarding hillbillies. You may not be able recognize them. You may not know how to deal with them. I will try to teach proper identification techniques, and (in a later instructable) methods for interacting with them.
Note: For the purpose of this instructable, I use the term "Hillbilly". I have also included aspects from Redneck, White Trash, and Trailer Trash cultures. Though these terms are NOT interchangeable, there are some overlapping traits, common to each of these sub-groups, and at times (for the novice or the outsider) the subtle differences may not be readily noticeable. Think of it this way, "Anyone can devolve into white trash, and a Redneck just requires a certain attitude, but being a true Hillbilly requires heritage (or a lot of time and effort!)."
Over the years, there have been a lot of missunderstandings, and a lot of misinformation regarding hillbillies. You may not be able recognize them. You may not know how to deal with them. I will try to teach proper identification techniques, and (in a later instructable) methods for interacting with them.
Note: For the purpose of this instructable, I use the term "Hillbilly". I have also included aspects from Redneck, White Trash, and Trailer Trash cultures. Though these terms are NOT interchangeable, there are some overlapping traits, common to each of these sub-groups, and at times (for the novice or the outsider) the subtle differences may not be readily noticeable. Think of it this way, "Anyone can devolve into white trash, and a Redneck just requires a certain attitude, but being a true Hillbilly requires heritage (or a lot of time and effort!)."
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Signing UpStep 1First Step: Identification- by vehicle.
There are numerous ways to identify a hillbilly. A good start is to check their vehicle. I am an authority on this. I've traveled in hillbilly cars, trucks, boats, planes and wagons. My cousin once parked his car on the side of the road, and went to check his coon-traps. (Ok, I'm pretty sure he was actually down at the creek checking on his "hemp-plantation".) Anyway, when he got back to his car, a cop was there, and my cousin was issued a citation for leaving the scene of an accident. He had to get witnesses to go to court to prove his car always "looked like that"!
Here is just a basic checklist for identifying a hillbily vehicle:
1. Is it rusty?
2. Painted/primered by hand?
3. Has any of the glass been replaced with plastic
bags/plexiglass/plywood?
4. Is the key a screwdriver?
5. Are duct-tape, coathangers, or vise-grips used as a
replacement for any major components of the vehicle?
6. Does the "gas tank" (usually a jerry-can) ride around
in the passenger seat?
7. Does it have a sticker (Molly Hatchet,#3, Urinating-
Calvin, NRA, or "This Car Insured by Smith&Wesson") in the
back glass?
8. Did his truck used to be a car?
9. Are there chewing tobacco stains running back from the
drivers side window?
That being said, many Hillbillies take very good care of their vehicles (at least mechanically). If you intended to keep your car for 30 years, you would too! Please understand, true Hillbilies are rarely if ever wasteful. If you see a cheap old truck that looks like junk, a Hillbilly sees a vehicle that doesn't require a userous loan, or overpriced insurance.
Here is just a basic checklist for identifying a hillbily vehicle:
1. Is it rusty?
2. Painted/primered by hand?
3. Has any of the glass been replaced with plastic
bags/plexiglass/plywood?
4. Is the key a screwdriver?
5. Are duct-tape, coathangers, or vise-grips used as a
replacement for any major components of the vehicle?
6. Does the "gas tank" (usually a jerry-can) ride around
in the passenger seat?
7. Does it have a sticker (Molly Hatchet,#3, Urinating-
Calvin, NRA, or "This Car Insured by Smith&Wesson") in the
back glass?
8. Did his truck used to be a car?
9. Are there chewing tobacco stains running back from the
drivers side window?
That being said, many Hillbillies take very good care of their vehicles (at least mechanically). If you intended to keep your car for 30 years, you would too! Please understand, true Hillbilies are rarely if ever wasteful. If you see a cheap old truck that looks like junk, a Hillbilly sees a vehicle that doesn't require a userous loan, or overpriced insurance.
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Now we have a ton of crab aples to pick and make apple sauce with.
I may live in the city, but nothing tastes better than home apples.
As soon as I spoke a few words any where I went there I could see one of 2 attitudes apear in everyone I saw that lived there , I was either this big dumb hick that would be easy to fool or this big violent redneck who should be left alone !
It didnt matter to me , If you know what cubbyhole folk got you down for you are already one step ahead of them !!
-Fortunately, He'd never seen He-Haw!
And yeah, I was raised with a wood burning stove in the living room and cut wood and stacked wood all damned summer and made homemade applesauce from apple trees we found in the woods out back and weeded the garden and probably whined about all of it, too, but the whining's not what I remember now.
I live in town so I'm within walking distance of the store and my job in case my vehicle ever up and dies when i don't have the money to fix it, but have an old farmhouse on the river and my kids catch crawfish and frogs and fish all the time. If the river were cleaner, we'd be eating that stuff on a regular basis, I guarantee you that.
I wish I'd win a lotery so I could pay the bills and study the dialect... As it is, I'll have to wait till my kids are older so I'll have a little more free time to do it around working, lol. But that' been in the back of my mind for a long time. Reading these posts reminded me. I think these dialects/accents are a treasure. Who the heck needs everybody sounding like Jessica or Brian on the 5pm news? How incredibly boring!
Cajuns are another group that our country will be the poorer for if they end up giving up their patois.
(all right, and don't"
be directed at other minorities. Why is it OK to say something bad about disadvantages white people?
The only "crime" they had was to be born into a different culture. That's it. I don't care if your uncle, or yourself, was born into that environment. It's not funny.
Racism and Classicism are closely related. Whatever differentiates one group from another is fair game for fun or worse.
It also has another less than subtle contents. It's one thing to be poor and African American. That's OK. We expect that as a norm.
But to be poor and White; it simply means that you haven't tried hard enough. You have failed because you are lazy in spite of the advantages of being white. You are a failure within a failure.
In the UK we had a similar effect, except everyone was pretty much white in my home cities. Can't differentiate because of color. Instead it was economic status. A cast system had evolved over the millennium and if you were poor you deserved it.
There was even a name for it. The English Poor Laws.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Poor_Laws
There were the deserving and undeserving poor. I have no idea how one might judge someone as deserving assistance but they were awfully cruel about it. Charles Dickens was actually placed into one for being a debtor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens
He was by no measure an undeserving poor. But those in charge saw him as such.
This rant has gone well off subject. Just to bring it to a close be kind to others you don't understand, don't degrade them for being different and see the world through their eyes.
Did I mention Henry Ford filed for bankruptcy several times?
I am celebrating this culture!! I grew up around all this, and even with an education and a little money.. I still CHOOSE to live much this way. Think about it!!
-Skunkbait
I'm Southern. I ate at a Waffle House the other night. Had grits, eggs and biscuits for breakfast before exams. I'm looking forward to good mustard (not collard) greens during Christmas. I have an accent. It's part of who I am.
What I am objecting to is that the narrative really hypes the worst of the stereotypes of the South (or the Foothills.) It is *so* frustrating when I have to deal with the knowing looks from others because I am Southern. I'm tired of this sort of non-sense being offered as entertainment. It doesn't help anyone in our culture. It only harms.
So yuck it up. You already have one member who is displaying one of the states with the "Stars and Bars" built into their flag. Do your bit to move the culture, and the economic future, of this area backwards.
It rubs me the same way that rappers were telling it how it was in the 'hood. And that they were celebrating women with their lyrics (and as a Southerner you would have to unleash a beating on anyone who talked to your daughter that way.) And that street warfare was keeping it real.
Just think for a moment about it. Please. And yes...I sometimes mix "u" into my spelling by accident. Too much education. Information is the truest power. You can change lives for the better if you understand the world we live in, the realities we struggle within and how people look at us.
. Great! But so what? Just because one is from The South doesn't mean one is a Hillbilly.
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> What I am objecting to is that the narrative really hypes the worst of the stereotypes of the South...
. Did you not bother to read the other parts where he lauded Hillbillies for, among other things, their ingenuity and hard work?
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> Do your bit to move the culture, and the economic future, of this area backwards.
. ROFLMAO. Very few Hillbillies I've known or seen could care less about what an outsider - including me (I live close to Skunkbait, but I don't think anyone, especially a real Hillbilly, would call me a Hillbilly) and you - says about their culture. They like who they are and are proud of it.
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> You can change lives for the better if you understand the world we live in, the realities we struggle within and how people look at us.
. That is exactly what Skunkbait was trying to do. I think he did an excellent job.
If you want to be proud of who you are, do not self-deprecate. Do not self-efface. Those show weakness, a lack of respect for both your own culture and other's perception of our own.
I really don't feel like discussing this any further.
. Weakness? How is laughing at oneself being weak? Can you not acknowledge, and find humor in, the fact that other cultures might find some of your (or my) habits funny? Can you not see how "y'all" sounds as strange/weird/funny to a Yankee as "youse guys" does to yourself?
. Instead of trying to force everyone into the same mold, try acknowledging, celebrating, and rejoicing in their differences.
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> I really don't feel like discussing this any further.
. No better than you are fairing, I would think not.
But seriously, just maybe lighten up a little..?? Remember, this lifestyle is a CHOICE for many, not an AFFLICTION!! If we can't laugh at ourselves a little, then what good are we??
(Just curious, Stars and Bars? Haven't seen them around. Are you sure it wasn't the naval jack, or possibly the battle flag. In my opinion THAT flag is to be flown when one is ready to kill or die for the cause. Most who display it are ignorant, but many are just struggling to define themselves.)
Lastly, props for recognizing the double-edged nature of the words "white trash". I use the term sparingly, as the implication is that black folks are trash by default, and that a trashy white person is the exception! Kinda ugly when you deal with the roots!!
But seriously, this was meant to be lighthearted, and never meanspirited. Forgive my indiscretion!!
hear is a sideshow of one
http://www.instructables.com/id/red-neck-truck/