I am proud that I was born and raised in the mountains of Southwest Virginia. It helped make me who I am today and I like that. Am I a mountain woman? Yes. Redneck? Yes. Farm girl? You bet. I say “Ya’ll”, “Bless it” and call people “Honey”. I even drawl out the words “night, light and bright” with the best of them. I am intelligent, I write, I run a family business and try to present myself as professionally as possible. So why is it when I meet someone oh, lets just say “not from around here”….their perception of me and my ability to function decreases dramatically when they hear me speak because of my mountain accent?!? Yep, this is my Pet Peeve #1.
First let’s be honest. Thanks to the media, TV reality shows and movies most of the public who are not from the country (translation: a rural area) think that we are ignorant, backward, barefooted, inbred freaks. I mean can you blame them? If that is their only insight into our world they cannot be faulted entirely for thinking that way. Luckily, the majority people who move into our communities are respectful and just looking for a quieter life at a slower pace. There are a few others who exploit us by using “catchy” business phrases like “fer”(for) and “wud”(wood) in their slogans because they think it is cute. Seriously? It’s just insulting! And then there are those who move in thinking we are a people so underdeveloped that we need to be “helped” or those who think we are so ignorant that we can be duped. (Yes I just used the word duped in a sentence. Yay me!)
Well let me take the time to tell you a little about who we are. We are farmers who help put food on your tables. We are small business owners, craftsmen, teachers, homemakers, and white and blue collar workers. We are survivors who have less need to panic when the “gloom and doom” accounts of food and water shortages are announced. We grow our vegetables (no preservatives). We raise livestock and hunt wild game for meat. Yes we kill animals for food.
We are a proud people. We hesitate to ask for things because we rather earn them. We help each other. We know most of our neighbors. Things that affect the economy may not affect us as badly or as quickly as our urban counterparts. We don’t mind traveling 20 miles to the grocery store just so we can come home to some of the most beautiful scenery on earth. People who grow up here maintain strong ties to the area even after they leave and most of us don’t “forget our raising”. A good friend of mine told me once that our little community was “clannish as hell”……….I took that as a compliment.
Is it perfect? Heck no! But it is my home, my heritage and a way of life I will defend. And for those of you who want to degrade and devalue my culture without having a firsthand knowledge of who we are……I guess that makes you the ignorant ones.