If you think you know all there is you need to know about rednecks, you may be wrong. We do get a bad wrap from city folks because they weren't raised country. We sure as heck fire don't know all there is to know about city folks and living the city. We( Generally speaking of all the rednecks I've known in my life, including myself.) try to reserve judgement until we get to know someone.
We are fiercely independent, because we know how life really is. It's dangerous, dirty, hard living, and sometimes boring. That last being the most dangerous thing. When a redneck gets bored we get creative and come up with new ways to do things. When we don't get paid much for our hard labor, we have to invent what we don't have.
There's not 'one size fits all' with us either. I've met dumb and smart, rich and poor, big and small, tall and short, fluffy and scrawny, wise and unwise, creative and unimaginative rednecks. We come in all sizes and shapes. We come from all walks of life and we are in every country on the planet. The comedian Gabriel Iglesias did a funny stand up piece about this too, you can find it on YouTube from one of his specials. He mentions how Mexico and the U.S. both have rednecks and how he has seen then in every country he has visited. He wasn't wrong.
People have made jokes about every type of person from every walk of life for as long as I can remember, and that's more than forty years. I've heard jokes and wise cracks about blonds, brunettes, dark haired people, dumb and smart, short and tall, LGBTQ, every color and creed, from every college campus, careers and so on. At first, I didn't have much of a sense of humor and thought people were just being mean to each other until humor was explained to me. It opened my mind to a new way of thinking. I had to develop a sense of humor over time. My dad was a real jokester, he was always coming to us with a new joke he had heard and I'd say more than 80% of the jokes were incredibly inappropriate.
One side says the jokes denegrate a person while the other side just laughs. So there are those people out there and somehow these people have been in charge of things(telling people what to think and how to act) for the past thirty years. I think they just want strife and for people to hate each other so that we will be weaker and fall to tyranny easier and quicker. They want us divided. Comedy is one of the things they've ruined. When I was young, I had to learn how to take a joke and not be so serious, but it's hard to learn that lesson especially if nobody is there to explain humor to you.
A famous person once said "Why take life so seriously, you won't get away from it alive" or something to that effect, my dad always quoted that to me when I was growing up. I didn't bother to look up who said it because it just wasn't important to me, but I've learned that many people have heard the quote over time and that it wasn't an original saying from my dad.
I consider myself a redneck, even though I don't herd cattle and I'm not a farmer. I used to raise chickens with my dad, that was as close to farming as I've come. It's hard work, smelly, and at times dangerous. I had friends that raised cattle and horses, but not me. I have ridden horses and fed cows, but I didn't spend all my waking hours on them, not like chickens. The community that I grew up was a farming community wedged in between Dallas and Fort Worth, but since the late eighties it became mainly houses and now it is a premier place to live in North Texas. Like Hollywood, this place has now has million dollar homes that sit upon land once used as grazing pastures. The place that we used play soccer was a pasture and now multi-million dollar homes sit there. My past has been erased in the town I grew up in and called home. I was broken hearted to find out that I couldn't afford to raise my children there.
However, I do still raise rabbits for pets.
When I started looking to buy a piece of land to raise my own family, I looked near where I grew up and an empty undeveloped lot was going for $800,000.00! Lol! I've never made that kind of money in my life. My dad moved us there back in 1974 when the land was a small fraction of the price. They lovingly nicknamed it Colleywood! I knew I'd never go back. My parents were both buried there, but I can't afford a lot in that cemetery now. I remember when Roger Staubach lived in my little town, now a city. Perfectly nestled in between Dallas and Fort Worth and real close to D/FW International Airport.
It's fine to make jokes about certain walks of life, until someone complains. I used to be a jokester too, once I got a handle on how humor worked, until certain people went and got offended. I had to learn appropriateness and timing. Then after a while even that wasn't good enough, so I gave up on trying to help people laugh. Now I just entertain my own family as much as possible. Giving the gift of laughter to my loved ones has helped them grow as people. I don't do jokes that can possibly offend anymore, I just keep it simple and lite.
Some of us rednecks are sophisticated and some are gloriously and elegantly unsophisticated. What is a redneck anyway? It's simply another term for the working man. Originally it described anyone who worked outside and got sunburned on the nape of the neck more often than not. People who worked outdoors more than indoors. We can and do laugh at ourselves because laughter is the best medicine and some of the best comedians have been rednecks, like Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Ingvall, and Larry the Cable Guy.
I find that the best rednecks have a love of the outdoors, a great sense of humor, enjoy freedom, work hard to provide for their families, and treat others with respect. Now, there's always an exception to the rule, but for the most part rednecks are good folks. It's always fun to hang out with a redneck because you just never know what they'll come up with next.
Well, that's all I've got to say on the subject for now. Keeping this lighthearted as much as I can. Have a great day and enjoy life. Find something fun to do this weekend. If ya can't find anything worthy of fun, look for your nearest redneck and ask them.
Much love and light,
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