Are Mainers Hicks Or Not?? (Greenville: trailer, diversity, land)

[bignhfamily]

Originally Posted by elston

perhaps a trampoline in the back yard is the equivelent to a swimming pool on the hicksdom scale?????

Or better yet a trampoline next to the pool. Talk about the makings of some redneck olympics

[Zymer]

Originally Posted by mollysmiles

lol!! I don't know about that! But thank you for the morning laugh as I try to avoid doing more Thanksgiving prep! (I'm trying to resist the Pillsbury Ready Made Pie Crusts that are calling my name all the way from the IGA.....mine are better, and cheaper to make....at least that's my mantra!)

upscale hick.... does that mean I can keep wearing my barn jacket even though I don't have a barn?

Well, if you *do* get the Pillsbury ones, that are nicely rolled instead of folded so that they don't crack and split when you spread them out, you can thank my wife.

She works with someone whose son works for Pillsbury. They were having lunch one day and the guy was saying that they were looking for product suggestions. My wife uses the ready mades and she used to complain about them splitting, so she told him about that and said "You ought to roll them instead of folding them, it would be a lot easier to just unroll them to spread them out."

The Pillsbury guy was just about dumbfounded at the simplicity and practicality of the idea, he said "I never would have thought of that."

A couple of months later the new rolled crusts started appearing in the stores. My wife loves them, she made me a nice mincemeat pie last night.

[corgis]

I don't know if I'm a redneck, hillbilly or just a hick. People in WV have been labeled like that for all time here. WV and Maine are very similiar. If you took away Maine's coastline and added 10 degrees of heat, it'd be the same place. We have the same Appalachian Trail, the same population (1.2 million), the same misconceptions of lifestyle, same kind of farms and most of the people here are blue collar. We have two university's and about a half dozen colleges. And our children can't wait to leave after they graduate. Most of ya'll think we talk funny and we do. We drop letters out of words and pronounce words with a definite drawl. We have hollows between mountains where people live and never come into town. They have their own little cultures deep in those "hollers".

[Maine Writer]

Originally Posted by mollysmiles

I'm not a great swimmer, I probably wouldn't drown, but don't think I'm going to test that theory out either! My girls are fantastic swimmers--jumping off back road bridges into the smaller rivers, and going to the quarry. The boys are more like me. I read somewhere a while ago that many Mainers, especially old timers along the coast, don't know how to swim. I don't know how true it is, but with the ocean water temps and lack of swimming pools I can understand how it might be! Wonder where swimming ability enters into the level of "hick"?

Steve grew up on the ocean. He lobstered with his father, step-father and grandfather. He goes out to haul with his brother. He barely swims.

[bignhfamily]

Originally Posted by corgis

I don't know if I'm a redneck, hillbilly or just a hick. People in WV have been labeled like that for all time here. WV and Maine are very similiar. If you took away Maine's coastline and added 10 degrees of heat, it'd be the same place. We have the same Appalachian Trail, the same population (1.2 million), the same misconceptions of lifestyle, same kind of farms and most of the people here are blue collar. We have two university's and about a half dozen colleges. And our children can't wait to leave after they graduate. Most of ya'll think we talk funny and we do. We drop letters out of words and pronounce words with a definite drawl. We have hollows between mountains where people live and never come into town. They have their own little cultures deep in those "hollers".

And they are both so beautiful. I through hiked the AT several years ago and fell in love with the WV mountains. If it wasn't so far from my family and beloved New England I would really like to move there. I hope my kids will want to stick around after they graduate as I couldn't imagine life with out them.

[treeluvr]

Originally Posted by mollysmiles

I'm not a great swimmer, I probably wouldn't drown, but don't think I'm going to test that theory out either! My girls are fantastic swimmers--jumping off back road bridges into the smaller rivers, and going to the quarry. The boys are more like me. I read somewhere a while ago that many Mainers, especially old timers along the coast, don't know how to swim. I don't know how true it is, but with the ocean water temps and lack of swimming pools I can understand how it might be! Wonder where swimming ability enters into the level of "hick"?

My father taught swimming at an elementary school in the 1950's--but he himself could not swim a stroke! He was a "hick" from a small Kansas farm (with a strong eastern Kansas accent)--so I would guess that swimming ability is not a requirement.

[K-Luv]

Originally Posted by corgis

I don't know if I'm a redneck, hillbilly or just a hick. .

The chain of command would go:

redneck
hillbilly
hick

Rednecks can be white trash, or filthy rich. Being a redneck is more of a style or attitude that is generally applied to country folk, or folk who listen to country, but they also can be found in large cities as well. Essentially, rednecks are just jocks and many played sports in high school-most notably football. They tend to be narrow minded, but they have a good sense of what is going on in the world. Usually fairly well educated with at least a HS diploma. Can be found hanging out at rodeos and monster truck rallies.

Favorite drink; guys-Budweiser (Coors, sometimes) and Jack Daniels. Gals-Bud lite and Boonesfarm.

Favorite sport; Rodeo, NASCAR, football, tractor pulls.

Usually drives; A clean Ford F-150 for the more refined redneck. A raised F-150 with confederate flag and KC lights for the more country influenced. Pontiac Bonnevilles and Ford Taurus as well.

Hillbillies always live out in the country and could also be dirt poor or semi rich. Moon shining is their favorite past time and they would never be caught dead in a major city. They usually have a kinship with the land, but not necessarily as farmer. Most don't finish high school but they can be fairly smart. They may not know a dang about math, but they can build a solid pull barn and know how to get a busted generator up and running. They are also pretty keen at setting traps and can live off the land indefinitely.

Favorite drink; moon shine.

Favorite sport; hog racing.

I already explained hicks.

[AlisonL]

Hot dang! I am a bit of all three. LOL

[Zymer]

I think, if you are using a computer to access an on-line message board, you are automatically disqualified from the positions of hillbilly or hick.

[Maine Writer]

Can we have an exemption from the computer if we're wearing Mucks and long johns?