I grew up part red neck without even knowing it. My mother’s family was large, loud, boistourous and always fighting about something. Sometimes it was like living inside a soap opera where you needed a score card to figure out who was talking to who. My father’s family wasn’t quite as boistorous but I suspect they were red necks at heart.
To my way of thinking, being a red neck isn’t about how many cars you have parked in the front yard, it isn’t about marrying your cousin, and it isn’t about eating roadkill for dinner. Being a red neck is about being honest about who you are and about calling a spade a spade. It’s about getting down and dirty and enjoying life. It’s about stomping in the mud puddles instead of walking around them.
Going away to college and joining the workforce, I tried hard to keep my red neck tendancies hidden and to fit in with the rest of the crowd. Being a red neck wasn’t cool and I wasn’t about to annouce to the world that I liked bonfires, demoliton derbies, and being honest. It took me a long time to learn that the corporate world isn’t about total honesty. It’s about putting on a mask of civility and learning to keep your friends close and your enemines closer.
I’m still trying to figure out how to reconcile my red neck roots with my need to play in the corporate playground and make a living. A few years ago I found my anthem in Gretchen Wilson’s Red Neck woman as she sings about being a product of her raising, shopping at Walmart, and playing in the dirt. I will probably never be as red neck as Gretchen, but I’m working really hard to embrace my inner red neck and to discover the bliss that comes from being real and not wearing the mask all the time.
Cairn by Cairn 