ACK! Christmas is a hard thing for me. It is a rough time of the year for me, at least. Daylight saving time has just changed, and now the sun goes down on my drive home from work and it is just a depressing time of year.
For as much as I'm Southern, from East Tennessee, I've never lived in a trailer, I've never smoked, dipped or chewed tobacco until it was a habit. I don't fish or hunt. I don't eat grits or cornbread. I own a gun but I have no idea where the parts of it are at right at this moment. My wife even tells me I drive better than the average "redneck". I assume that a turn signal means the car in front of me is GOING to turn at SOME point! I did marry kind of young, but I didn't marry my 16 year old cousin cuz it was the only date I could find at the family reunion.
I have seen my mother "pitch" an, honest to God, conniption fit a time or two and I knew not to hang around if said fit wasn't being "pitched" toward me.... ( I did hear mom tell the next door neighbor she was "fixing to come across that fence and whip your ass!") You didn't mess with mom when her "button" was pushed just right, it didn't matter if it was you who made her mad or NOT!
For as much as I'm Southern, I'm also different from the average southerner. Oh well, can't everybody be perfect!
The song by Robert Earl Keen entitled "Merry Christmas from the Family" is a parody of all the goofy stuff you hear about southerners. I heard it a few years ago driving to Francis Marion while going to college. I almost had to pull over to the side of the road and cry. It made me miss home some kind of bad. It is a crude song with every possible slant toward southern people contained in its lyrics BUT it touched a nerve in me in a big way. It is most likely my favorite Christmas song. I can relate to it in a very primal way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P37xPiRz1sg Robert Earl Keen's "Merry Christmas from the Family"
I might not have ever lived in a trailer but I was raised in the manufactured housing capital of the world. Knoxville, where I grew up, is home to Clayton Homes, on the Clinton highway.
Don't get me wrong, I know and understand the true and valid meaning of Christmas. CHRIST. (I'm not an X-mas fan, if you know what I mean) but I have no problem with poking a bit of fun at my southern self. If you can't laugh at yourself, who CAN you laugh at?
The point to all of this? Even if your family is goofy, they are the only family you will have.
Remember, folks, RED ain't dead....it's all over the place...some places you just have to look for it harder than other places, but its there, trust me on this.
J.
I trust you, I see it on a daily basis! And, you don't drive like a true "Sutherner". And you don't eat collards, for whatever that is supposed to do for you, or black eyed peas on New Years Day for good luck, money, whatever!
ReplyDeleteGreat Ack, and I'm glad you're not an X-mas fan, but CHRISTmas!! Love it!