A Rose By any other name...

possum · Post by **possum** » Sun May 21, 2006 10:35 am

What do they call the "rural conservatives" in your reigon ? These are people that are low tech, and may be involved in subsistance agriculture,generally not a segment of "high culture".

In the mid-alantic Appalacians we have :

Rednecks

Good old boys

Hillbillys...pretty similar to gapsters, but they get into town monthly or more.

Gapsters...Gapsters are "off the grid", once a year into town people that live in Huckleberry land (no running h2o, no electric). They are seen in the wild huckleberry patches picking away when the fruit is in season. NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH THE AMISH, WHO ARE MUCH MORE SOPHISTICATED.

Swag · Post by **Swag** » Sun May 21, 2006 9:01 pm

We have a fair amount of people who like to go off and live far away from civilization in California too. I don't know of any specific name attributed to them, other than "growers". Growers alludes to the cash crop many of them cultivate out in the middle of nowhere. It's not wise to go hiking or camping close to these folks as they have a habit of shooting first and asking questions later. They are very protective and suspicious folks.

hornedrhodent · Post by **hornedrhodent** » Mon May 22, 2006 2:49 am

We have that sort of grower here too - but the blue helicopters dropping paper streamers on the crop and the follow-up ground crew keep us under control.

Just kidding - I stick to legal drugs like tobacco and alcohol - grow them both.

Post by **Tater** » Mon May 22, 2006 7:22 pm

You yankee boys shore is funny.With all them labels ya tossin about.

The Chemist · Post by **The Chemist** » Tue May 23, 2006 5:41 am

I never knew they were called that, but I WANNA BE A GAPSTER!!!

But...I'm not giving up electricity or running water. I can do it.

pothead · Post by **pothead** » Tue May 23, 2006 4:36 pm

Here we have

Rednecks - also known as "Hicks"

Folk- same as good old boys

Hillbillies

Huggers- The hippies that don't come out of the woods&fields till the cold brings em out. Then they travel a little south till april when they decide to start planting their weed again

hornedrhodent · Post by **hornedrhodent** » Fri May 26, 2006 3:05 am

pothead wrote:The hippies that don't come out of the woods&fields till the cold brings em out. Then they travel a little south till april when they decide to start planting their weed again

They never go south in Australia.

DixieBanjo · Post by **DixieBanjo** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 5:18 pm

Here,the people that ARENT "rural conservatives" get called dam* yankees.But I certainly would NEVER call them that.

No in all seriousness,I dont have anything against yankees.

possum · Post by **possum** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 6:20 pm

That's funny Dixie Banjo

I almost peed myself. I live in the keystone state, near the Mason dixon, in a rural area that is on the edge of farmlands(valley) and mountians. The Great megapolis (D.C. NY, philly coridor) is expanding into areas that used to farm with horses (and some still do). So there is a pretty mixed culture in the area. I think the old time ways are on the way out. And that makes me sad, but its almost imposible to make a livin' farming the family style farm. Land prices, taxes and fertilizers are up, but milk sells the same as it did in @1970. But times change, and people adapt. Can't change economics just by wishin. I'll get a small subsistance farm of my own someday, but just to controll my own food suply, not for makin big cash.

Edit: I have some kinfolk in Kentuckey with the whole lane/road full of development all by family members. They have thier own "private dump".
One had a Nova/blazer hybrid. I think it was a Nova body spliced onto a jacked up blazer. Some are good citizens, others spend time as guests of the county.Its been a while since I visited, but last time I got between two brothers (my 2nd cousins) one drunk, the other with a .357 over a pair of sunglasses. Nobody fights like family. I have a similar distribution of inlaws and outlaws up here near the mason dixon.

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ANYWAY, enough of the gloomy stuff. Here is a bit from Bujapat on the 'neck culture in Belgium :

"So, I can say we have our rednecks in Belgium too!!!

They don't drive pickups, but they throw empty cans in my garden and along the roads allround!

In french, we call them "groseille" or "paysans", and in the local language (wallon, spoken by oldtimers in Wisconsin...) we call them "baraquis" ! "

Post by **Fourway** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 6:47 pm

Here folks dont manage a whole bunch of lables like that.... all country people who arent weekenders or yuppies are rednecks... but there are some clear cultural distinctions in country folks that get called rednecks...
there are folks who build stock cars in their front yards... own towing businesses and raise big families and have whole roads or towns with the same name as them.... they tend to do well and keep up their properties and not have any family memnbers in jail.... There are the little hollows where everyone is named wilber or tuttle and everyone lives in tar paper shacks and everyone looks exactly the same and some of the womenfolk work down by the highway at fry shacks... but mostly nobody works... and their biggest exports are bad reefer and guests of the state.
then there are folks like my mom who went "back to the land" in 1968 and never came back... edumacated ex-city people who've "gone native".

so basically... we have seat on the town board rednecks.... cell in the county jail rednecks and funky old hippy rednecks.

Post by **theholymackerel** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 6:33 am

I live in the SouthWest.

We don't really have "rednecks" here, at least we don't call 'em that. We got Good'ole Boys, we got ShitKickers (called just "Kickers" by the more polite), we have Ruales, Spanish Ranchers, and Bosque folk. We have Navaho's (Hey! When yer culture tells ya to stay on the rez and to have yer yer closest neighbor ten miles or more away yer a "rural conservative"), we got Hicks and truck farmers and rural ecectric co-op operaters and familys still livin' on Spanish land grants goin' back over 500 years that the cops can't go to...just the Feds. Heh.

But what we mostly got is hippies. Every color and flavor. We got urban Hippies that roll over cop cars at this one certain park every few years, these same urban hippies get maced by the cops every time they march infront of the university. We got all flavor of rural hippies too: Folks that live in schoolbusses, mule-hauled gypsy caravans, teepe dwellers, hippies in earth-ships and hogons, and wigwams, and army tents, caves and caverns. We have immaculately groomed and good smellin' hippies and others that have unbelieveable grime and grease layers coverin' their whole bodies.

While I've found the standard redneck and the standard hippy to both be opinionated without any research into their opinions... the hippies have to be the more annoyin' 'cause they won't leave strangers alone. Nada worse than someone with an odor that makes yer eyes water screamin' in yer face yer a facist bastard 'cause ya dodn't wanna listen to his rant about the destruction of all government and how we'd all be happier sittin' in a hut rubbin' mud into our navels.

pothead · Post by **pothead** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 6:51 am

While I've found the standard redneck and the standard hippy to both be opinionated without any research into their opinions... the hippies have to be the more annoyin' 'cause they won't leave strangers alone. Nada worse than someone with an odor that makes yer eyes water screamin' in yer face yer a facist bastard 'cause ya dodn't wanna listen to his rant about the destruction of all government and how we'd all be happier sittin' in a hut rubbin' mud into our navels.

rubbin' mud into our navels

I agree. Hippies are annoying. I have met a few cool urban hippies....but VERY few.

KatoFong · Post by **KatoFong** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 8:15 am

Back when I lived in Asheville, NC, I used to marvel at how similar the good old boys and the hippies were. As long as you didn't mention politics, they were basically the same good-natured folks in overalls who liked to go out into the woods and smoke their herb. The second you brought up politics, they would divide into opposite poles, but they were still basically the same folks at either end of the pole, shouting back and forth.

Asheville also had the most nefarious breed of hippy: the Trustafarian. Trustafarians were the children of rich white folks who would dread their hair and go down to the square to rant about bringing down Babylon. You'd occasionally catch them driving around in their parents' Mercedes, talking on cellphones and drinking $5.00 cups of coffee.

For what it's worth, I think there are plenty of cool urban hippies--most of the coolest people I know are, in fact--but they aren't the ones who advertise it. Real cool people don't wear their cool on their clothes.