Whose bed have your boots been under? Mine apparently

After reading this blog entry, I got to thinking about am I or aren't I a southerner??? I'll address many of the same points as Dale did in his entry.

1. I was born in DC, also technically south of the Mason-Dixon.

2. Country music? Check. My iPod has its share of Shania, Faith, Dixie Chicks, Dolly, Garth and Tim. Although I can't say that I listen to much country any more. I barely listen to the radio at all.

3. I definitely use many of those wonderful terms like y'all and hun. It also took me YEARS to remove that glaring R in the middle of words like waRsh and waRshington. I also totally sound Balmer when I pronounce ambulance. It takes serious mental concentration to not put a big ole accent somewhere in the middle of the word.

4. When it comes to friend food, here is where I differ. We didn't fry that much food in my family.

5. I will agree with the flirting thing. I think it is just a combination of manners and breeding.

Now, I have to add my own points about why I think I am a southerner. Or at least a redneck at heart. I grew up on a 22 acre working farm. We had ponies when I was younger. My sister and I raised AND showed market lambs for 4-H. Pictures of my days in 4-H are forth-coming.

Until I was 20, the biggest city I had ever visited was DC. I never left the county I was raised in, until I studied abroad.

My dad owns the ugliest truck you have ever seen. It is a 70's Chevy pick-up in pumpkin orange with brown spots, to paint over the rust. Tell me that is not a little bit 'neck.

I learned to drive a tractor LONG before the state would permit me to drive a car. Oh, and I drove said tractor on the road all the time, doing errands for the neighbors. You never know when you might need a big-ass hole drilled in your yard or your three acres of brush mowed with a Bush-Hog.

However, I never did, nor do I now, have cowboy boots or a cowboy hat. I do have a "Rednecks do it better" t-shirt though.

I also don't have a name with a fancy -Bob or -Jo tacked onto it. But, don't we all agree that Bernard Aloysious Schwartz, III is cruel enough???