My grandmother would use the word "Country" to refer to herself. And that embraced for her the positive qualities you speak of.
"Hick" carries with it the negative connotations that you mentioned in your post about Bakersfield. Where I lived for 4 years as a kid and can relate. In a lot of ways I loved the place, though.
"Hick" could be reclaimed to carry the honor that YYB mentions in the Spanish word. Around here "redneck" has changed a lot since Jeff Foxworthy. But people (some) have chosen to take it as a badge of honor reflecting a way of life, and have rejected the broader usage by those who don't live here to mean that they are racist, etc.
There's a way of life in the deep country that is apart from the faster, more hi-tech, world of the city. Claiming that as something of beauty, and something that is of your soul, is a powerful thing. To embrace as a redneck, or a hick, is. And to say that it is the country things I embrace.. taking off work to sit by a pond with a fishing pole, spending Saturday night around a bonfire in the driveway while we work on cars, listening to c/w music, thinking the first sign of spring means getting ready to plant the vegetable garden... that make a hick, redneck, Country is great. That's Country. Not fighting on Saturday night, or looking for queers or blacks to beat up, or any of that. My grandmother would call that "trash", because the behavior is trashy. Mean and cruel. Nothing to do with Country. |
