There is nothing... nothing quite so irritating... and foolish... as a damned yankee tourist... and except for a damned urbanite yankee tourist.
So so wrong on that one Nate.
Its called a neighbor.
I remember going to college my freshman year and being amazed at how ignorant the city kids were about ag stuff. Truly amazing. Unfortunately we don't live in the country or on a farm, but my kids are not ignorant about such matters. At practically every meal we talk about what kind of meat we're having and what animal it comes from. My mom loves to tell the story about being a the Como zoo in St. Paul and listening to some woman tell her son that the calf in the petting zoo was a "cowlet". At least this woman was asking questions instead of wallowing in her ignorance, annoying as she might have been.
...Bacon?
By the time she gets back to the frozen north y'all will be barefoot, the ol' lady pregnant (she's not, right?), everyone in overalls, and possum stew at the "cracker" barrel.
Seems like since the national campaigns have gotten rollin' that the whole red state - blue state (urban - rural) conflict has dropped of the news cycle radar.....
A market gardener from just outside NY City didn't get her carrots washed before taking them in to sell. A woman said "Oh, you must have dropped your carrots."
Gardener replied, "Why do you say that?"
Woman "They have dirt on them."
Gardener "They GROW in the ground."
Woman "No they don't--they grow on bushes."
The gardener ended up in rural sw Virginia.
Been lurking a long time and enjoy your blog Nate.
Nice to hear from ya Jean! Now I just wish I could figure out why someone would put potatoes IN the ground..
I mean I know why one would pull the root up...
Jaysus...yankee blah blah blah...
Get over it. You've got as many dumbassed country "sothrons" as carter's got liver pills. Stupid is stupid...end of story.
And the stereotyped American tourist is way too true.
"Bacon ain't a rock."
Unless you hit one of the well-built bastards in your truck.
Never have I heard anything as utterly stupid as "If you can survive in New York City, you can survive anywhere." Really? So you think being a complete asshole means you can survive anywhere? How about you spend a week in the woods and get back to me on that, should you actually live.
What is this so called 'bacon' that you speak of?
RU
Sure we do... and the vast a majority of them are found in inner cities.
Which was the point of this post.
The fact that she was a yankee was just icing on the cake. Or more accurately stated... it just added the "rude know-it-all" deminsion to compliment her ignorance.
I remember taking teams of youth groups into the city to minister. These yokels carried way too much money and flashed way too many touristy things. Nice people, but man were they ignorant in terms of street smarts.
A few of them got robbed.
We also kicked these Indy boys asses in basketball.
Nate: "No. No that's a deer."
Yankee: "Is that safe?"
That reminds me of the time when hubby and I were walking in our Detroit suburb. There are many, many deer in the area because the apex predator is the car. We had just seen a lovely doe, so when we saw a jogger coming up the sidewalk we just offhand told her there was a deer just up the road a bit. Her eyes became wide and she asked "will it charge?". The look of confusion on our faces must have been amusing and it took a couple seconds to recover to say 'no, it won't'.
Now we live in the county with the highest deer-car accident rate per capita in the state. Anti-hunters are easy to handle around here.
Granted, my husband didn't learn much about growing things and outdoorsy stuff growing up in Detroit area, but he's learned a lot since we've been married. He likes being able to identify birds, mammals and plants and knowing something of their behavior. (One of his favorites is the killdeer with their broken wing display.)
I learned a lot from reading and from my Grandma. My mom grew up on a small farm and even had a burro as a pet growing up, but preferred a city (or at least suburb life) and hasn't passed anything on to me, but Grandma taught me a lot about gardening before she died.
I live just north of the Oklahoma border and ignorance isn't confined to Yankee's. Last month we were in Little Rock for a wedding and a nice lady asked (in her best Arkansas accent) where we were from. Upon learning we lived near Wichita, Ks she replied, "Oh you live up north where it gets coooold."
I could only smile and say yes, even though, map wise, we only live about 90 miles north of Little Rock. We are a considerable distance west but north, not so much. I understand you were speaking in generalities but... This lady considers me a Yankee cause I'm from Kansas, and a whole lot of folks would consider Kansas in the south so...there you go. I guess I'm geographically challenged.
"she asked "will it charge?"
Did she have big lights on a headband? Then she might have to worry about those walking steaks running her over, I guess.
Nate, I really wish you were making this whole post up. Alas... I know you're not.
Bacon Rocks. Go figure.
"That's food." Great comeback!
Go check out my brother's buck.
she asked "will it charge?". The look of confusion on our faces must have been amusing and it took a couple seconds to recover to say 'no, it won't'.
That's actually a legit question at the right time of year. I've seen does charge people when they have a fawn hidden nearby.
Wear enough Doe-in-heat deer piss and the bucks will whip your ass right in public.
Guess they figure you got the girl hidden away somewhere....
she asked "will it charge?".
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/15...81/deer_attack/
Actually.... I know several hunters that have been attacked by bucks, and I've heard several stories of people being killed by bucks, and I've heard doe will charge as well. It's almost a legit question. The problem is; there's no way to know if a deer will charge - them being wild animals and all.
There are things you can do to increase your chance of having a good story to tell; douse yourself with deer urine before walking in the park, rub against a dog or other predator-type animal, wear smelly perfume/cologne, and run towards a deer if you see one.
http://www.ksdk.com/news/news_ar...x?
storyid=97452
A year after the normally docile creatures attacked seven people on a university campus here, the deer have turned bullish again. Three people were attacked by deer within minutes of each other Tuesday on a footpath at Southern Illinois University, police said Wednesday. One doe probably was responsible for all three attacks, said Todd Sigler, the school's public safety chief.
Wear enough Doe-in-heat deer piss and the bucks will whip your ass right in public.
One wonders how you found this out JAC......
In this particular case it was mid summer at the point when the fawns are pretty big, the body language of the doe was completely indifferent and she was a good 20 yards away and the sidewalk is right by the road. (And suburban deer are pretty fat and lazy.)
The odd thing about the lady was, hubby and I were both smiling in the usual chatty way without a hint of fear or caution when we mentioned the deer. Most people assume they are docile little Bambis so her uneasiness was very unexpected. She seemed like the type of person that is afraid of everything.
As for the college attacks, it was probably the same doe or the doe's progeny - the aggressiveness is probably taught behavior. I think animals have to be reminded every once in a while who is in charge.
"This lady considers me a Yankee cause I'm from Kansas, and a whole lot of folks would consider Kansas in the south so...there you go."
Yup, a whole lot of yankees.
Like Nate said though, it's more of a cityfolk thing. Lord knows Florida's ate up with 'em, and Atlanta ain't been right since it burnt.
"I think animals have to be reminded every once in a while who is in charge."
Indeed. I find chicken frying them and placing atop biscuits with plenty of gravy tends to go a long way towards cutting that squirrelly crap out.
Don't forget the 'rocks', err bacon grease for the frying.
the aggressiveness is probably taught behavior
I bet someone is feeding them.
I give the deer around here plenty of lead, and have never been bothered, other than the occasional kamikaze attack on my car.
"This lady considers me a Yankee cause I'm from Kansas, and a whole lot of folks would consider Kansas in the south so...there you go"
Dude. You're from Kansas... you ARE a yankee. Remember when you think of KU's mascot that throughout the rest of the country the term "Jayhawk" meant "Thief".
Maybe its not much further north than Arkansas... but the fact is.. Kansas was on the wrong side of the War.
Bacon...that's hilarious.
1)Oil comes from way down in the ground, from like, rocks you know.
2)When you subject bacon to pressure and/or heat, you get oil.
3)Ergo, bacon is a rock.
I went through part of Mammoth Cave a few years ago, it's impressive. Loved it. We don't have caves anything like that where I grew up.
I'm just happy when I can actually understand the black inner-city kids. I find it incredibly annoying when my first response always has to be a variation of "what??". Ebonics + mumbling is a main ingredient in the recipe of perpetual poverty.
Behave SB.
There has been many a tale told around the camp fire on this subject.
An aquaintence of mine claims to have had to kill one with a knife due to this behavior.
An acquaintance was bow hunting and shot a buck between the eyes. It just annoyed the deer, he pursued it, gunless, and ended up drowning it in the waist-deep river across from his house. Cracks me up.
Glad he wasn't a fighter pilot any more.
(this incident didn't show his rambo-ness, just his dork-ness)
Wear enough Doe-in-heat deer piss and the bucks will whip your ass right in public.
Yeah, well, to borrow a line from South Park; They won't be whipping your ass, but they'll be doing SOMETHING to it!
Er, um, so I've heard...
In Animal, Vegetable, Miracle Barbara Kingsolver tells the story of her husband as a little boy. He was living in the city although he had experience on a farm. While in the city he was growing carrots and impressed the kids in the neighborhood when he pulled them out of the ground. He asked the kids if they could think of other things growing in the ground. After thinking really hard, one of them said, "Spaghetti?"
Having lived in Chicago for five years I can promise that not all Chicagoans, city dwellers, or Yankees are that dumb. But I do believe that when we put so much distance between ourselves and the places where our food comes from, everyone suffers.
That story reminded me of this commercial I saw some time back.
As Hank Jr. sang: "just send me to hell or New York City, it'd be about the same to me."
That may be true Marybeth.. but I've seen no supporting evidence.
Where was daddy? Did you tell them that there were daddy's in the woods too?
It's never good to lie to them, EP. Take them to the zoo and tell them daddy live in a similar place.
This was the funniest part:
Yankee: "Oh my! What's that? Is that a coyote?"
Nate: "No. No that's a deer."
Yankee: "Is that safe?"
I literally laughed out loud. Gosh, she'd hate living where I live..we got lots of deer, and even scary foxes and porcupines with poison darts hunting your dog!
Do they teach their kids anything? Sheesh, that's something a three or four year old would say!
The deer are really cool around here. I notice that if I don't look at the deer directly but in the corner of my eye, I can get very very close to it. The closest was about six feet. The moment I look in its face is the moment it darts like a bat out of hell. I guess it's the predator-prey body language dynamic or something.
What with your stories of does charging...errr...maybe I should stop doing that.
With regards to deers getting hit by cars, I've seen deer run off if people or animals are nearby, but I once saw a group of three in the wintertime, right next to the roadway there. Literally only a foot away from the road, and I didn't want to disturb the creatures, so I just walked to the other side without looking at them. After I got a good ways past them, I saw a car come down the road. I was curious as to how they'd react, and mildly concerned that one of them might decide to go on the road just as the guy was driving by.
I was surprised to see that they weren't spooked by the vehicle at all..no, not at all. It was maybe a foot or two away from them at one point, and, you know, it was like no big deal to them.
I guess they react more to walking or running than wheels..but it's something that I took note of with the deer around here.
...but I once saw a group of three in the wintertime, right next to the roadway there. Literally only a foot away from the road...
Crystal Lake | 11.26.07 - 10:38 pm | #
Roads throw off heat.
I finally almost hit a deer with my truck the other day. Jumped right out in front of me, but far enough in front that I could stop. There's a ton of them at work, too, wandering all over the place, though usually at dusk or dawn, and sometimes midday.
Bacon rocks? WTF?
When I worked in the park we'd get all sorts. One lady asked where we kept the animals at night. We'd just laugh at people like that. I was going from West Yellowstone to get to work on time in Mammoth Station and in desperate need of bending the speed limits when I got stuck behind someone from CA. They slammed on their breaks so they could stop and look at some critter. In the park this is fairly normal. When it happens you expect to see a buffalo or some elk etc. If your from CA you stop and jump out to take pictures of ground squirrels.
The best example of dumb was a women who thought it would be REAL cute to get of picture of her kid (about 4 or 5) sitting next to mr. bear. The kid wasn't hurt, as the bear got bored and wandered off. The mom wanted the rangers to make the bear stay still for the picture. (I guess she went and got them)
Almost as good as that story is the one about the lady that sat her toddler on a buffalo for a picture. Again no one was hurt too bad since the buff just threw the kid off and the ground was mostly soft.
There has been many a tale told around the camp fire on this subject.
Sure JAC. It's always a "friend" that it happened to.....
Sorry, SB, I can make no claim to a "When Deer Attack" encounter, though there was this squirrel once and an overdose of "acorn scent"......
"Squirrels Gone Wild"
Couldn't help myself.....
Maybe its not much further north than Arkansas... but the fact is.. Kansas was on the wrong side of the War.
Nate | Homepage | 11.26.07 - 4:59 pm | #
A little off topic but it always goes back to the war. The war of Northern aggression or the war to end slavery.
I regret being taught in the Mass. school system that the uncivil war was bout freeing slaves. All my friends and schoolmates being taught propaganda at the expense true knowledge.
I had watched many documentaries about this war and one thing that always stuck out for me was the bravery of the Southern soldier.
I would ask myself "why would he be so righteous about oppressing another man. The answer would come later on in life that it wasn't about that at all for the Confederate soldier but about States rights. What? The right to keep a fellow man down, No. The right to live as you see fit for your happiness and ability to persevere.
I now know that that war was fought for the expansion of Federal power. They just told the common folk about the slaves to get recruitments for the war. There is even a letter from Lincoln to the Confederate leadership that Lincoln states "...you can keep your niggers."
My point on this, Nate is this. There may be more "Yankees" that sympathize with the plight of the South than you realize.
MZ
There have always been Yankees on our side. There was actually a regiment from Indiana that fought for the South.
MZ: "The right to keep a fellow man down, No. The right to live as you see fit for your happiness and ability to persevere."
The southern slaveholding boys were scared to death cuz they were outnumbered 3.5 million to 300K and a total free population of 5.5 million. Slave holders had the power, they had the money! The rest of the poor folks were rubes for the slogans just like their Yankee brethren and most soldiers throughout history. 10% of the population made the issue for the 90%, keep that in mind.
Don't forget the cheap labor aspects for keeping slavery, hell, even the Yankee, Catholic, Irish, (What could be worse Nate?) understood that free'n slaves was going to hurt them.
Ru
Clearly you've not thought deeply at all about this.
tell me what's cheaper in the long run... buying a man... which involves paying for his housing, healthcare, and food... as well as disciplining him and keeping him captive...
OR
Simply paying him a patheticly small wage and calling it a day?
Fact is slavery was NOT economically viable. It didn't work in the long term. it was a short term solution to the problem of labor shortage.
Note that when the southrons left the south for brazil... they took no slaves with them.
They set up their new plantations without slaves.
And the fact is... the "freed" slaves from the south moved north to a new kind of slavery where by they were forced to take jobs that paid them less than they could feed and house themselves on... and they made up the difference by borrowing from the company store... making them indebted to the company and therefore what?
Slaves.
So shove that up your yankee apologist ass.
That's pretty good, or pretty sad, as the case may be.
Rocks are now bacon, oh my, LOL.
There may be more "Yankees" that sympathize with the plight of the South than you realize.
Move Zig | 11.27.07 - 8:30 am | #
Aye, they're called Copperheads.
Nate: "Sure. Otherwise folks might get eaten by wild dogs... or bears... or something worse."
Out of curiousity, what's the 'something worse'? Or were you just yanking her chain?
remember.. Nate knows that Bigfoot exists.
Like Big Bird knowing about Snuffleupagus.
Nate and Bigfoot are going to do a buddy buddy Southron film.
It's Harry And The Hendersons with guns and bourbon.
what's the 'something worse'?
Nate.
Rent the movie "Deliverance".
paying him a patheticly small wage and calling it a day?
These days they call them "tenant farmers", sounds nicer than "slave" and you don't have to pay health care.
Nate and Bigfoot are going to do a buddy buddy Southron film.
It's Harry And The Hendersons with guns and bourbon.
Jamie R
And Nate sends Harry into Starbucks for his caffeine fix since "he refuses to set foot inside one".
I love this idea! The Hollywood writers off strike yet?
And what do you have against potatoes, Nate?
"Nate and Bigfoot are going to do a buddy buddy Southron film.
"
"Rebel Yeti"
"Bigfoot & Rich: Coming to Your Citay"
Eh, the Hollywood writers would make them a gay couple. Turn it into a film about the intolerance in the South...between a man and a Bigfoot. The Klan would appear, to try and stop them, and Pat Robertson would order them to give up, but Nate and Bigfoot drive off a cliff to stay together. Forever. The End. But it was dummies, dressed up as Chewbacca and General Lee, and Nate and Bigfoot flee to New York City, but that's the sequel.
Nate, I'm no apologist for the north,they were power grabbing bastards wrapped up in the rigtheous rage of a few, but your undying devotion to the "Noble Cause" is misguided. States rights would'nt have been an issue if slavery wasn't an issue. It was power politics all the way on both sides.
"tell me what's cheaper in the long run... buying a man... which involves paying for his housing, healthcare, and food... as well as disciplining him and keeping him captive..."
well I'm not putting him up in the Waldorf, I'm only going to provide the barest essentials, he is counted as an assest by the banks (the asset value of slaves alone rivaled the total of northern corporations), I get additional political representation because of them, and I don't pay my freemen any more than I have to...Ahh, the benevolence of the slave holders just cuts through all the BS. Oh, and because a bunch of goody goody busybodies cut off the slave trade and I can't replace em as cheaply.
If 3.5 million people suddenly enter the job pool...wages go down. Northern employers knew this and wanted it, northern workers knew it and southern workers knew it too. But, it must've been cheaper to have slaves (all costs included) than pay them a wage. Slaveholders, I assume, were out to make a profit.
"These findings have several important implications for our understanding of the economy of the lower South. As we have shown, they suggest that previous estimates of productivity growth in rice production are implausibly high. Further research into the behavior of land and capital prices is necessary to establish this conclusively, however. The rise in slave prices also appears to have been responsible for much of the increase in the region's prosperity in this period. This finding suggests that rather than accumulating more physical assets, slaveholders were becoming wealthy through capital gains realized because strong demand for the region's primary product drove up the value of labor. As long as the short-run supply of slaves remained relatively inelastic, the owners of this scarce resource were able to capture significant scarcity rents."
Peter C. Mancall
University of Kansas
Joshua L. Rosenbloom
University of Kansas and NBER
Thomas Weiss
University of Kansas and NBER
ruastatist2,
You still haven't made a convincing case that slave labor was cheaper than wage labor for the southern planter.
You merely make an assertion,
"But, it must've been cheaper to have slaves (all costs included) than pay them a wage. Slaveholders, I assume, were out to make a profit.
ruastatist2 | 11.27.07 - 3:08 pm "
Assertions do not a case make.
and then you quote a journal paper,
" "This finding suggests that rather than accumulating more physical assets, slaveholders were becoming wealthy through capital gains realized because strong demand for the region's primary product drove up the value of labor. As long as the short-run supply of slaves remained relatively inelastic, the owners of this scarce resource were able to capture significant scarcity rents."
ruastatist2 | 11.27.07 - 3:18 pm
"
This paper, your quote specifically, doesn't make any comparisons between slave costs versus wage costs. It merely tries to confuse capital gains with normal business profits using slaves as the vehicle of capital gain. It only implies, and then only tenuously, that slave labor was cheap to employ.
Sorry, but you have failed to prove anything.
"Slaveholders, I assume, were out to make a profit."
Yes. Which is why they were switching to employees instead of slaves as fast as they could.
You don't house employees. You pay them less than the sustanence level and loan them the difference.
Roads throw off heat.
It was just a description of where they were in preparation for the rest of the story. I wasn't wondering anything.
who thought it would be REAL cute to get of picture of her kid (about 4 or 5) sitting next to mr. bear.
Look, the first time I saw a wild bear was about a year ago at a garbage dump and even *I* know not to do something like that!! I mean, how can you go through life not knowing these basic things?
I don't understand it.
they were switching to employees instead of slaves
And if an employee gets sick it's their problem, and if an employee dies, you're not out 5 grand.
Slavery is a world class STUPID idea. Which may explain why the places in the world where slavery is practiced are all starving shit-holes.
===================================
As long as the short-run supply of slaves remained relatively inelastic
Yeah, and as long as lottery numbers remain so predictable I'll continue winning. What a steaming pile of crap! "Short run" would be one growing season? The trip to Africa is what? And only slaves were allowed to work, right? No scab white labor?
The rise in slave prices also appears to have been responsible for much of the increase in the region's prosperity in this period
And the price of John Deere tractors is why farmers today are so rich, all we need to do is talk John Deere into raising prices and we can end farm subsidies!
That paragraph has more spaghetti logic and bogus assumptions than a Mikhail Moore film!
give 'em hell Bill!
AP, Nate,
Fair points.
My initial comment regarding cheap labor was primarily to point out that not many small folks really wanted free slaves North or South. The cheap labor concerns were recognized by those that would be in direct competition to freed slaves. But, secondarily, there was a reason slaveholders utilized slaves over indentured servants and freemen. At some point it was cheaper to buy and house slaves than to pay a wage to laborers. Your assertion Nate, that it was to offset a temporary labor shortage recognizes that wages would be rising in a tight labor market.
When factoring the costs of slave labor versus paid labor, supervision and security are nearly common to both. But with slavery, escape becomes important because the slave is an asset and escape represents a capital loss. Not considering the morale effects runaways posed to the slave population and the whiteman's very real fear of rebellion.
The average slave price was around $500 in the years leading to war, using ten year "prime use" that equates to $0.03/day (300 work days/year), the average free laborer with bed and board in 1850 was $0.25/day and by 1860 doubled to $0.50/day. So I don't see how food and shelter factors can be considered. That leaves the special security concerns and, I suppose medical treatment of slaves to consider.
Security was primarily a function of public policy through the courts and legislatures, hence the manumission laws and slave patrols which amounted to a public subsidy of the slaveholders security concerns and thus a public subsidy of their capital losses. YANOCHIK, MARK A.
If you want to argue that the war unlawfully deprived the citizens of their property, I can accept that. There is research to show that a straight up buyout could've been cheaper. I agree that the war ended state's sovereignty. So who really won? I'd assert that the monied interest on both sides made out to all our detriments.
In the beginning of American slavery, which would be the early 1600's, slavery was seen as a capital investment in a sugar producing business. Sugar plantations couldn't get enough labor at the right price, so they started buying slaves. The vast majority of slaves brought to the New World worked on sugar plantations in the Caribbean. The practice spread to North America in fits and starts, it was never as profitable as it was on the sugar plantations, and it was far easier to hire people to go to North America than to go to the islands. It's been well-known in Occidental thought that chattel slavery is not a viable business model. Indentured servant-hood or tenant farming is by far preferred. Chattel slavery is a Muslim or African invention and has to do with dominance of a race or nation, not economics. Even in America, the pro-slavery arguments were not economic, the arguments ranged from "white responsibility for the hapless negro" to "slaves are better off than indentured workers".
The problem has always been "how to end slavery." America stopped legally importing slaves in 1808, the idea was that the institution would gradually die off, the problem was the cotton gin breathed new life into the problem. As Thomas Jefferson noted; "We have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go."
Speaking of urban.... Anybody following what's happening in Fwance?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/2...e/
28france.html
http://www.nytimes.com/
slideshow...ANCE_index.html
Worse than last time.
CL,
There are tons of stories like that in Yellowstone. People are on vacation and they figure "park" means safe play place.
The average slave price was around $500 in the years leading to war, using ten year "prime use" that equates to $0.03/day (300 work days/year), the average free laborer with bed and board in 1850 was $0.25/day and by 1860 doubled to $0.50/day.
To that $500 price to purchase the slave you have to add the cost of feeding, housing, clothing, and caring for the slave throughout the slave's entire life, from the cradle to the grave.
I'm not trying to defend slavery from a moral or even an economic standpoint. It was incredibly brutal, dehumanizing to slaves and slavemasters, and is second only to abortion on the list of black marks on American history.
Slavery had become a form of social control. Whites on both sides where scared to death of emancipation. The Southron whites were afraid that the slaves would murder them all, and the Yankee whites were afraid that the slaves would come up north. Hence groups like the African Colonization Society.
America stopped legally importing slaves in 1808, the idea was that the institution would gradually die off, the problem was the cotton gin breathed new life into the problem
The funny thing is that the price of slaves shot up once in 1793 or whenever Eli invented the gin, and again in 1809 when the supply of slaves from Africa stopped.
Add to that all the western lands in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas being cleared, and a diminishing supply of slaves to do the dirty work, and manumission was no longer profitable (it had been a great way of reducing expenses by relieving the master of the responsibility of caring for slaves).
As one who has just last week FINALLY been emancipated from the city (or whatever that big blob of South Florida should be called), I find Nate's story totally believable. Not that everyone in the city is quite that clueless, but there are loads of 'em.
I'm not even rankled by his Ohio slurs. I still remember the ignorant jerks who made up most of my classmates in high school (Rich Christians wannabee preppies). I maybe counted two as friends, but don't even keep up with them.
Growing up a missionary kid in a traveling family, I've lived in lots of places, even Chicago for a year (no thanks). While I'm the sort of person who manages to find something positive about any place, I still prefer the country, and the South or southwest in general. Either that, or I'll prefer to live in another country. Sick of American big-city life. Sick, sick, sick...
Where I just moved my family, in north Florida, is one of those tucked-away corners of America where people just want to live in peace, home-school their children, and be left alone. Alas, I know it is a tenuous hope these days, but we shall see.
Now, where we live is just beyond the paved section. Now, instead of sirens and search helicopters at night, I hear train whistles and crickets. In the morning, we look out our back window and see farms, cows, rolls of baled hay on the fields. Instead of a cramped townhouse on a postage stamp lot, we have 2.5 acres, a big house, even a small barn and a pen. Instead of working at the dining-room table after everyone is asleep, I have my OWN study where i can spread out all my books, gadgets, guitars, etc...
Meanwhile, our kids have taken to it like fish to water. Already our daughter (7) is conspiring with the girls across the road to build a "no boys allowed" fort, and leave coded messages in trees and whatnot. My little buddy (3) is getting more exercise in a day than he used to in a week. Wifie loves finally having space to sew and tend to her extensive repertoire of crafts, and I finally have a place for all my tools. It's a no-brainer... not even a question. The only thing I wish is that I had done this years ago.
Josh,
Eli did not invent the cotton gin. Its another BS yankee myth. There were literally dozens of working cotton gins in the South when Eli supposedly invented his.
Congrats rycamor!
One of the somewhat long term plans for me is to move to the High Point/Greensboro area of North Carolina after I better secure my financial position and the housing market turns back around (which hopefully it will someday).
I have a nice sized townhome but I could get a much nicer single family + some land for the same or cheaper.
My in-laws moved to that area from Pittsburgh and have sent us a constant stream of messages about the courtesy of the people there, the relaxed pace of living and the much nicer average temperatures.
Since I'm near Philadelphia the idea that more than 3 people can be courteous at the same time is astounding and I want to live there.
The only drawback is that it is developing quickly and I'm sure there will be a lot of undesirable Northerners moving there as well.
Nate,
Not sure what Whitney's intentions were with the Cotton Gin, except to make money on a patent. Whitney was smart at simplifying. He created systems that allowed laymen to build things that otherwise would have been too complicated for the idiot.
Eli did not invent the cotton gin. Its another BS yankee myth. There were literally dozens of working cotton gins in the South when Eli supposedly invented his.
But didn't he gain legal protection for its mass production?
This story reminds me of a family legend. You see, my aunt Sue was born and raised here in Houston, Texas and moved to live with another aunt and her family in the Texas panhandle, where the nearest neighbors are 8 miles away and the nearest mall is about an hours drive. She had never lived on a cattle ranch before and she learned all kinds of things.
One morning the two women were out in the barn looking at some newly hatched chicks and Sue asked the other aunt why the chicks were eating feed like their mom. Wasn't she going to nurse them?
To which my 4 year old cousin replied, "Aunt Sue, chickens don't suck ninny!!" My aunt is now in her fifties and has yet to live that down.
TESTIFY, BROTHER !
And the " smarties " are best ones .
Damned If they don't outsmart themselves every chance they get.
Bill said: As Thomas Jefferson noted; "We have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go."
Yet the Constitutional Convention and discarding of the Articles of Confederation was exactly that: grabbing onto the wolf.
Josh said: manumission was no longer profitable (it had been a great way of reducing expenses by relieving the master of the responsibility of caring for slaves)
Is that the reason manumission became illegal in some states? On its face it always looked like the typical "omg proof that the South was baaaaaaad."
People from Chicago are Yankees??? I thought they were midwesterners.
It seems that yankee = anyone not from the south.
But I'll let you in on a little secret.
We yanks have farms and woods (and deer! and bacon!) too.
Where in Chicago do these people live? Deer are fairly common in the city itself (they are ubiquitous in the suburbs) and coyotes are, too. (They sometimes do things like wander into a shop in the middle of downtown.)
Use of "y'all" by a Chicagoan generally indicates a South Sider whose family came up during the big black migrations from the South in the 20s and 30s-I'll bet this woman's grandparents or great grandparents would be astonished by her ignorance.
If she's a South Sider, I'd be astonished if she doesn't know someone with a gun. Yeah, handguns are illegal, but so are a lot of other things you can easily find in the city. Maybe she was just imagining that country folk with guns act like some of her neighbors do.
Nate, you there, bro ? I need your e-mail, brother .
But I'll let you in on a little secret.
We yanks have farms and woods (and deer! and bacon!) too.
e. | 12.01.07 - 11:05 am |
And Gawdawful ugly women.
I was going to ask a question, but being from Ohio and all, I didn't want to aggravate you.
We do have coyotes, BTW.
And this yankee lives amongst cornfields and loves it.
Now I have guns to clean...
Coyotes, ya know.
Glad I've never been to Chicago.
The urge to burn the damn place to the ground might get the best of me!
And Gawdawful ugly women.
It has been scientifically proven by myself and some of my associates that the number of attractive women in attendance at college football games begins to sharply decrease once you go past the TN-KY border.
Although, I think we might need to test this theory by visiting more campuses, not just observing them on TV.
Maybe I could get a federal grant?
Nate, when you meet and talk to other rebel southron people do you hug and kiss them and tell them how smart they are because they aren't yankeez?
JACIII: "And Gawdawful ugly women."
Surely you aren't referring to SpaceBunny, you rude little man!
Josh: "It has been scientifically proven by myself and some of my associates that the number of attractive women in attendance at college football games begins to sharply decrease once you go past the TN-KY border."
Methinks your "study" failed to account for the similarly scientifically proven effect of increased levels of alcohol consumption ("beer goggles") the farther south you go, so it's a wash.
The urge to burn the damn place to the ground might get the best of me!
Unfortunately, history proves it will only grow back bigger and more obnoxious...
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