Modern Ozarks cultural activities

[ozarksboy]

Originally Posted by 20yrsinBranson

Well, I understand you much better than I did Ozarksboy. Anyone who would watch "So You Think You Can Dance", is bound to love high school football. To each his own, I guess. Isn't that what makes life interesting? I'd say.

20yrsinBranson

I either watch what my wife likes to watch, or I go in another room and pick banjo. That's her favorite show, so I usually watch it with her. Doesn't your husband do things you like so he can be with you? Anyway, I don't mind that show, for there are some mighty fine looking women on there.

Well, yes, "to each his own" does make life interesting, and if you don't want to go to a high school football game then don't. As I recall, my original suggestion was not that everyone MUST go to a high school football game. I believe I said ... well, here's exactly what I said in post No. 1:

Originally Posted by ozarksboy

One of our cultural activities in small Ozarks towns is to keep up with our local high school athletic teams.

If you're a transplant accustomed to operas and ballets, this will hurt you, but you ought to consider going to some home football games this fall. Some of you have asked about fittin' in with the locals; one good way is to show your neighbors you support the home football team.

In other words, show your new neighbors that you are interested in the kids of the community. Go to school plays and concerts, too, as well as art exhibitions. Buy some fruit from the FFA at Christmas time. Go to the band's chili supper.

I think that suggestion was pretty tame, especially from me. It was in one of my rare transplant-accepting moods, one of the rare days I decided to offer some helpful advice.

Then, some days later, you countered with this:

Originally Posted by 20yrsinBranson

I cannot, for the life of me, think of anything less interesting than sitting around watching a bunch of teen agers play some assinine sport. The people who go to athletic activities are people who have children IN THEM and they don't have a choice. You do not find unchilded people at these places, unless it is to support a neice or nephew or to try to suck up to somebody's parents.

While I tend to agree that there is often a dearth of culture in the Ozarks, it can be found with a little perserverance you can find something a LITTLE more interesting than watching a pubescent pupil sweat.

20yrsinBranson

Well, OK, then. Don't go join the hometown crowd. You're a Californian, and you think you're above these small-town traditions and people you find so childish and ridiculous so don't mix with them. The hometowners probably don't want to be around a condescending Californian anyway, not even one who has been here 20 years and thinks of herself, mistakenly, as a country girl.

[kshe95girl]

^Geez, in my neck of the woods, a football game is a chance to socialize. We dont feel the need to "suck up" to anyone. Thats not how we natives roll, is it, OB?