Our Side Of The Hill: Modern Rural Life Through The Eyes Of An Intellectual Redneck - Softcover

Page, Roger A

9781078201018: Our Side Of The Hill: Modern Rural Life Through The Eyes Of An Intellectual Redneck

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1078201013 ISBN 13: 9781078201018

Publisher: Independently published, 2019

View all copies of this ISBN edition

0 Used

1 New

From � 13.38

This all started when a friend referred to me as an “intellectual redneck.” How improbable. As a child along for the ride in a divorce I wound up immersed in city life in Southern California until I turned twenty-two. But of all the good I have to say about California, the brightest thing I ever did was leave there and return home to upstate New York.I met a girl just ten days prior to leaving California and why that is important is she gave up all she had ever known to seek the risk, or potential, of a journey shared. From minimum wage jobs we progressed to a self-reliant resiliency and now over forty years have passed. Her name is Karen and I cannot wait for you to meet her.From a social perspective, this book questions and then confirms why it is still okay to disparage the redneck even as an increasing number of “identity” groups crawl into protective shells where the rest of us mustn’t mention skin color, gender, sexual idiosyncrasies, and whatnot. But it sure is still okay to verbally bash the daylights outta ol’ Jethro tinkerin’ under his station wagon and comin’ up for air now ‘n then for a swig of Rollin’ Rock while his ol’ coonhound, Blue, takes turns between bitin’ at horseflies ‘n lickin’ his balls and the ol’ lady’s screaming from the kitchen window that if Jethro wants to eat somethin’ ‘sides tranny oil he’d better get a move on… (now see, I no longer know if I’m okay using the word tranny anymore, but I’ll trust ya). The point is while too much of America hustles to cash in on supposed sensitivity debts the redneck never goes begging in that fashion. The truth is we don’t want an “R” word; the broader truth is we get a big kick out of us too.This book is an honest account of rural life. Out here there are bears (that merit their own chapter), there are temper tantrums that will have you rolling on the floor if you are at all human, there are farmers holding onto the old ways while just five miles away downtown there are factories, eateries, and Walmart. Yet we get along. Naturally there are dogs—dogs galore in fact, and there is the rowdy bunch Karen calls the Jamboree Crowd and there is ol’ Ralph for you to meet, too. Finally, there is the tedious evolution about fate. As the pages amassed, I the suspected pragmatist did discover fate burgeoning into such a meaningful usher it eventually verified the generous revelation that I am indeed living the life I intended; a phrase borrowed from the great Charles Krauthammer.So with that I’ll trust you to decide about this intellectual redneck moniker. Myself, I have grown to like it so all I ask, and this is for your own good as well as mine, is if you somehow find it not to be, don’t dare breathe it aloud… at least out this way.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.