Do hillbillies make you nervous?

[Smoke]

My first husband was very nervous about hillbillies. Take him six miles down a dirt road in the mountains, and he was convinced he was about to be in a real-life version of Deliverance. He actually got kind of panicky a couple times.

Well, I thought he was just nervous. But recently my present husband and his mother both told me they think it's either very brave or very foolish to travel all over Appalachia by myself, in all kinds of isolated places. They are surprised no hillbillies have waylaid me yet. That surprises me.

I am sometimes wary, mind you, about going onto private land. But in general I don't think a thing about traveling around the mountains alone. The only places that have ever made me nervous (so far) were the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn and New Orleans outside the the Quarter.

What do you think? Would you be nervous traveling in Appalachia? Why?

 

[McBell]

Nope.
i would not be one bit nervous.
In fact, I would be much more nervous in a big city than in the hills.
But then, perhaps I am a wee bit biased.

 

[Nanda]

All we have in Rhode Island are swamp yankees, and they're not scary.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

I have never seen Hillbillies as being other than rather extreme country folk.
Is there a general perception in the US that they are dangerous in some way? and why?
I suppose I get my view of them from folk music and films like L'il Abner.

 

[Vasilisa Jade]

I live in a lil hick billy southern town in florida... I don't know anything about the appalachia's, but down here hillbilly's can be dangerous. But you know... on the same note, the "ghetto," down here can be just as dangerous you know...
But anyways, I have seen people with my own eyes here that are beyond "deliverance"... I mean, they looked more like "The Hills Have Eyes," quality. My boyfriend and I love field herpetoculture (-sp?), in other words, we go and roam the woods and look for snakes and photo them. If we find venemous snakes we relocate them away from people.
There is a little small community nearby that goes way far out into the wilderness. There are some houses way far back that I bet don't get electricity. The place is a dump. The people ruined the woods. There is everything from refrigeratrors to boats to all kinds of trash just thrown all over the place. My boyfriend explores all through the place, and has been since he was little, and we still find places that he has never gone before back there. So... not too long ago we managed to lose ourselve in a part of HootOwl Ridge that we'd never been before. We didn't think there were any houses out as far as we were, and we had no idea that the dirt road we were going up was actually a drive-way until we saw the skulls. There were animal skulls in the trees. All sorts of animal skulls. We went a little further since we didn't see any people and we saw the house. It looked like an average mobile home, but there were bones everywhere! And there were some on stakes in the ground. We high tailed it outa there keepin an eye out for tire spikes in the dirt. We plan on going back and being a lil sneakier and getting some pictures so everyone won't think we're crazy.
Another time at night we stumbled upon two people discussing an upcoming KKK meeting. We had seen the artwork of the members sons I'm assuming, but we had no idea they stil gathered until then. Sure enough the usually scarce traffic was teeming by the time we got to the mouth of the place and back out to the highway. The only thing scarier than freaky-fied hillbillys is a gathering of extremist hillbillies in white robes
Another time we actually saw the barrel of a shotgun through the glass of a door, and the young girl holding it pointed at us as we drove by. Once agian... something I considered to be just gibber-jabber confirmed.
I am not "scared" to go into uncivilized places, but I must tell you as you probably already know, people are wierd. People who don't interact with others on a regular basis can be even wierder than normal. Don't underestimate or overestimate, and do not simply dismiss the warnings you are given just because they sound like something outa a movie. Movies can be the source of "the wierd ones" twisted creativity. I mean, you got a nut who has killed animals before and tortured them, he watches a torture horror movie, and then realizes it is time to graduate to a human... and he just got a new fun way to torture the person. That's a lil extreme, but I'm sure it's not too far-fetched. Sometimes where you get waylaid might mean the difference between getting shot in the chest or flayed alive. I'd go play with a drug dealer before I'd go play with a hillbilly... personally.
Just recently a woman got abducted on Blood Mountian Trail did she not??? I will find a link to the news about it....

 

[Vasilisa Jade]

FOXNews.com - Police Find Person of Interest Who Last Saw Missing Georgia Hiker, Rescuers Continue to Search for Her - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

 

[Mike182]

i don't have any real idea about hillbillies to be honest, so i don't know...

 

[Valjean]

I live in a lil hick billy southern town in florida... I don't know anything about the appalachia's, but down here hillbilly's can be dangerous. But you know... on the same note, the "ghetto," down here can be just as dangerous you know...
But anyways, I have seen people with my own eyes here that are beyond "deliverance"... I mean, they looked more like "The Hills Have Eyes," quality. My boyfriend and I love field herpetoculture (-sp?), in other words, we go and roam the woods and look for snakes and photo them. If we find venemous snakes we relocate them away from people.
There is a little small community nearby that goes way far out into the wilderness. There are some houses way far back that I bet don't get electricity. The place is a dump. The people ruined the woods. There is everything from refrigeratrors to boats to all kinds of trash just thrown all over the place. My boyfriend explores all through the place, and has been since he was little, and we still find places that he has never gone before back there. So... not too long ago we managed to lose ourselve in a part of HootOwl Ridge that we'd never been before. We didn't think there were any houses out as far as we were, and we had no idea that the dirt road we were going up was actually a drive-way until we saw the skulls. There were animal skulls in the trees. All sorts of animal skulls. We went a little further since we didn't see any people and we saw the house. It looked like an average mobile home, but there were bones everywhere! And there were some on stakes in the ground. We high tailed it outa there keepin an eye out for tire spikes in the dirt. We plan on going back and being a lil sneakier and getting some pictures so everyone won't think we're crazy.
Another time at night we stumbled upon two people discussing an upcoming KKK meeting. We had seen the artwork of the members sons I'm assuming, but we had no idea they stil gathered until then. Sure enough the usually scarce traffic was teeming by the time we got to the mouth of the place and back out to the highway. The only thing scarier than freaky-fied hillbillys is a gathering of extremist hillbillies in white robes
Another time we actually saw the barrel of a shotgun through the glass of a door, and the young girl holding it pointed at us as we drove by. Once agian... something I considered to be just gibber-jabber confirmed.
I am not "scared" to go into uncivilized places, but I must tell you as you probably already know, people are wierd. People who don't interact with others on a regular basis can be even wierder than normal. Don't underestimate or overestimate, and do not simply dismiss the warnings you are given just because they sound like something outa a movie. Movies can be the source of "the wierd ones" twisted creativity. I mean, you got a nut who has killed animals before and tortured them, he watches a torture horror movie, and then realizes it is time to graduate to a human... and he just got a new fun way to torture the person. That's a lil extreme, but I'm sure it's not too far-fetched. Sometimes where you get waylaid might mean the difference between getting shot in the chest or flayed alive. I'd go play with a drug dealer before I'd go play with a hillbilly... personally.
Just recently a woman got abducted on Blood Mountian Trail did she not??? I will find a link to the news about it....

Those weren't hillbillies, Tigress. They were probably some type of redneck -- an entirely different, and sometimes dangerous, species.

Real hillbillies -- I think the term originally referred to the backwoodsmen of the Ozark mountains -- are embarrassingly hospitable by ordinary standards. Living at a subsistence level, usually off-the-grid, they need to be able to rely on neighbors in times of need or to help with labor-intensive projects. Social mores reflect this need for mutual co-operation.

 

[Vasilisa Jade]

Those weren't hillbillies, Tigress. They were probably some type of redneck -- an entirely different, and sometimes dangerous, species.

Real hillbillies -- I think the term originally referred to the backwoodsmen of the Ozark mountains -- are embarrassingly hospitable by ordinary standards. Living at a subsistence level, usually off-the-grid, they need to be able to rely on neighbors in times of need or to help with labor-intensive projects. Social mores reflect this need for mutual co-operation.

:sorry1: i didn't mean to make anything offensive. Everyone everywhere has different ways of refferencing the "stereotypes" you know... Around here we have:

"Hillbillies": the crazy ones
"Rednecks": The preppy confused ones that dress like country people but are preppy and snotty. Every once in a while they get confused and listen to rap music while bashing african americans. Not cool...
"Country People": Which would be our local term for what you reffered to as hillbillies. he he. They live in the country, tend farms, are nice... not racist, like horses and animals and working outside etc.

Down here if you call a "redneck" a hillbilly they get pretty upset. And the same goes for calling someone south of the bridge a redneck. They think all the people north of the bridge are posers who call themselves rednecks... so those nasty ones apparently took the "hillbilly" title...
Everywhere the local people probably define those differently.... I hate making labels and stereotypical generalizations. The people here locally just get very upset if you refer to them the wrong way. This town is very clique'ey.

 

[lamplighter]

If I feared hillbillies/rednecks/white trash I wouldn't ever come outside, but yeah people get weirder and their gene pool shallower the farther in the woods you go around here as well. Though mostly the biggest threat you have around here is being in a bar and them wanting to fight you because you're dressed differently but if you enjoy bar fights or just have superior linguistic skills it really isn't a problem.

 

[Vasilisa Jade]

If I feared hillbillies/rednecks/white trash I wouldn't ever come outside, but yeah people get weirder and their gene pool shallower the farther in the woods you go around here as well. Though mostly the biggest threat you have around here is being in a bar and them wanting to fight you because you're dressed differently but if you enjoy bar fights or just have superior linguistic skills it really isn't a problem.

It sounds like you live in my town! At least you don't have to sell them cell phones, and then smell them while you teach them how to use the daggum thing... for the fifty-millionth time over! ha ha

 

[lamplighter]

I bet you live somewhere near Pensacola because I actually lived in St. Petersburg for most of my life and rarely had to deal with them before I moved here. Luckily I work at a Thai restaurant and don't deal with them too frequently at my job like you do, which I imagine must be considerably worse if you're also a Cellularsouth employee.

 

[Vasilisa Jade]

Ever gone to St. Augustine Beach? I live in a little town about an hour inland from there, in the middle of no where called Palatka.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

My father's family is really a group of hillbilly rednecks, so no, they do not make me nervous.

Actually, they don't make goats or sheep nervous, are different from white trash, and can be some very decent folk. But if you are rude around them, then you should be VERY nervous, possibly even afraid.

But, I'm not thinking of the few toothed, welfare leeching, uneducated trailer trash either. And, I am somewhat offended by some of these responses, because just three generations before me, my family was indeed a clan of mountain hillbillies. And alot of them still are. They may not have much money, some are not very educated, but they would rather die than soak up welfare and not be a hospitable as possible.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I live in a lil hick billy southern town in florida... I don't know anything about the appalachia's, but down here hillbilly's can be dangerous. But you know... on the same note, the "ghetto," down here can be just as dangerous you know...

Rather than hillbillies, I think the correct term would be "Deranged Psychopaths."

 

[anders]

What do you think? Would you be nervous traveling in Appalachia? Why?

I would be nervous anywhere in the US. The thought that other people than trained and certified law officials around me might carry guns frightens me no way. I was apprehensive enough during one week in Florida several years ago, and at the time I didn't even know of US gun laws.

 

[Vasilisa Jade]

Rather than hillbillies, I think the correct term would be "Deranged Psychopaths."

. That would definately be a more accurate term. I'm sorry if anything offended you. These stereotypes locally are not universal or set in stone, they are just the very generalized spoken stereotypes just in this stupid town. I've lived here for over 15 years, and my diction just wasn't good enough at that moment to avoid the labeling. I know what you mean by the type of people on your fathers side of the family. I have dealt with all sorts of people in my job. I get treated kinda like a hairdresser sometimes, they just plop down at my desk and start telling me about their life. I've made friends of people that would usually get judged wrongly because of some part of their appearance and such.That is why I hate stereotypes and labels. Even though the OP uses the term "hillbilly" we should just abandon that term all together if this is discussed further. Everyone has a different idea of what that means, which isn't a bad thing, but does lead to confusion and insulted feelings. I do believe the OP was referring to the variety that are deranged psycopaths though There is definatley nothing to be afraid of from hospitable mountian folk, whether they are eccentric, dirty, or not. My boyfriend has been approached by someone with a shotgun pointed at him before, and the person turned out to be... not psycho. But the problem is, if you are lost in the wilderness areas, how do you distinguish? I don't think right off the bat, if someone is walking towards you with a knife or shotgun in the woods that there would be a way to until you speak to them. That is why I said, don't underestimate or overestimate someone. And although all parts of the world can be dangerous, towns, big cities, ghettos, and woods, I still maintain that however it is cultured, isolation increases the chances of dangerous eccentric behavior moreso than usual. Whether you are shut up in an apartment, or shut up in a shack in the middle of nowhere decorating your residence in animal bones.

 

[MysticSang'ha]

Nope. They don't make me nervous. My grandparents on both sides of my family very well could have been considered "hillbillies." My father grew up on a small homestead out in the country raising rabbits for food, catching fish in the pond out close to their neck of the woods, and helped my grandfather build an entire "clubhouse" from the ground up. I spent many weekends out there as a child, and I remember what it was like falling asleep in front of a woodfire oven.

I agree with Seyorni's description of all I knew then and now who might be considered "hillbilly." All the people in the rural community where the homestead was (and still is) located are so hospitable you could just spit. I find them all incredibly endearing and friendly, and would barter all kinds of services with you - like butchering an entire side of beef if they would just have a small portion of the beef and some beer as payment.

To this day, my dad's favorite pasttime is to spend outside in the woods, regardless of how cold it can get. He draws on his love of nature, his Native American heritage, but also his childhood memories I believe.

They're cool folks.




Peace,
Mystic

 

[Smoke]

That is why I hate stereotypes and labels. Even though the OP uses the term "hillbilly" we should just abandon that term all together if this is discussed further.

"Hillbilly" is like "queer." Many people might use it to describe themselves, but if you use it to describe them, they might be offended if they don't like your tone.

 

[Vasilisa Jade]

"Hillbilly" is like "queer." Many people might use it to describe themselves, but if you use it to describe them, they might be offended if they don't like your tone.

Very true. It is just one of those things. i guess it is like the N word too. Personally I have always looked at the attitude around "queer" similarly. It is okay to describe oneself that way, but it is not polite to refer to someone in that way... which is fine by me. It is a touchy word, use it how you like but I won't call you it cause of the risk of how that would make you feel. hillbilly can imply more things to different people beyond just sexual orientation or skin color though it seems. I just personally assumed you were talking about the hills have eyes kinda people.

Have any of the posts helped you sort through your feelngs about walking alone?