Rossi Rifleman

Excerpt from an article interesting from a historical perspective:


"The word hillbilly was first used at the turn of the twentieth century in a New York Journal article by political correspondent Julian Hawthorne, who was entranced by the word. A local described the “Hill-Billies” as:

“a free and untrammeled white citizen of Alabama, who lives in the hills, has no means to speak of, dresses as he can, talks as he pleases, drinks whiskey when he gets it, and fires off his revolver as the fancy takes him.”


Nothing wrong with that!


http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/slang ... HOIdYME.99

And there's a negative connotation in there.............exactly where?


Oh wait, almost forgot............

So disappointing that only those from Alabama would be considered for the title.

Everyone knows real hillbillys are from Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

I was going to say there really weren't much in the way of hills in Alabama but that might be a simplification. The Appalachian foot hills start in GA and AL a mite south of Chattanooga.

GasGuzzler wrote:

Everyone knows real hillbillys are from Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

Well that is the way I see it. Alabama is more, well; "redneck". It doesn't help that it was first reported in the New York Journal. I suspect that Mr. Hawthorne didn't spend a lot of time in the South.

GasGuzzler wrote:

Everyone knows real hillbillys are from Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

I'm with Gas on this us Eastern Kentuckian have been called "hillbillys" by Buckeye relatives as long as I can remember. I remember this joke from when I was still using training wheels, "Do you know how to drive a hillbilly crazy? Put him in a round room and tell him to pee in the corner.

Greetings
I'm thinking a "real hillbilly" would reply... "Who needs a corner ?" .

And you don't need much in the way of hills, there's a lot of us in the relatively flat lands of SW Ohio.

Make smoke,