As faithful readers know, here on Crabcorner the neighbors are always up to something. Whether stealing a fork from one's lawn, or sleeping in their cars, or dismantling their log cabins, the cowboys in the rodeo-inflected compound across the street from us always provide much interest.
Today's report:
8 am. Hot damn! A goat is spotted in the yard: 
8.30 am. Said goat is put into the above-pictured truck and driven away.
As always, lingering existential questions remain: Whose goat is it? Where is it going? And why? Did it sleep in a mobile home last night? Or in the log cabin? (You can't see the compound here, but it is sprawling, with many options for shelter.) I swear I saw no goats outside last night and heard no goat whinnying either.
And here's a question to the floor: can you call cowboys rednecks? I mean, could I call this neighbor-spying "Redneck Report"? It has a nice ring to it. And these are very slummy sleep-in-yer-car type cowboys.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Something's Always Going Down
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
Awesome picture. I'd take a step back from 'Rednecks', which is near kin to 'ignerent' on the rural pigeonhole matrix, and go with something chipper, like 'Rodeo Report', instead. Rodeo Report! ... or something. Anyway, more tales and photos of the neighbors, please. The goat sighting is just too choice.
Cowboy hats are made to specifically keep one from becoming a "redneck" and I believe the term redneck is more of a southern-working-outside without ANY type of hat (or sunscreen) deal.
Rodeo, roper, ruffian, ridiculous. . .all decent alliterative choices.
I think "hick" is the appropriate word you're looking for. Rednecks tend to stink a little more and don't have dem dere edjumacations.
Yes, yes of course, good sensible people. I will do away with this dreadful word, redneck, at once. Especially as A&A so cleverly points out that red necks are the one thing a cowboy doesn't have. On account of the hat.
I think I'll stick with my original title for the posts dealing with the cowboy compound: variations on "Something's Going Down." Thanks all for your wise words.
Very interesting...I bet the goat was pretty nervous. :-P
My initial thought when I saw the photo of the cowboys with the goat was much more sinister, bestial, and well, beyond the limits of morality (not to mention illegal in all 50 states).
I'm reminded of a little saying I heard long ago: "Wyoming: where the men are men, and the sheep are nervous". Perhaps this goat was just an "overnight guest", if you get my drift. A Capra aegagrus hircus of the night, so to speak.
Wait, wait wait; did you look closely at the pickup truck without the goat in it? In its back window is a Theta Chi decal! These aren't COWboys, they're FRAT boys!!!! EEEEEEK!!!!!!! RUN AWAY!!!!!
While the terms 'cowboy' and 'redneck' are by no means mutually exclusive, they are also far from being the same thing. A redneck may be a redneck and a redneck alone—never having been on a horse in his life. A cowboy, by definition, should be familiar with horses and ranch life to some degree, but he may or may not be a redneck. The two chaps in your photo actually seem a bit too elegantly turned out to be genuine rednecks, but they definitely look more like cowboys. A closer examination would be required to see if they might qualify as rednecks as well. But it is good to keep in mind that 'Redneck,' like 'cowboy,' can also describe an attitude and/or a cultural orientation as much as a lifestyle or manner of dress. You can find rednecks in business suits just as readily as bib jeans and trucker hats. People rarely assume redneck pretentions if they are not, in fact, true rednecks, while in some places you can't swing a cat without hitting a drugstore cowboy (Crabtown very likely being one of them).
Inky, like the others, you speak some dang fine sense. I will never call anyone a redneck again without first checking the neck. I will keep it literal, not geographical. But speaking of geographical, in South Africa we call them "rooinekke." But they don't look as spiffy as the guys in my picture (their un-spiffy buddies were out of the frame, I should add). Note: redneck or no, these guys had the goat out in the street at midnight last night. But I need a better night camera.
Of course there's always the chance that those chaps are starting an artisinal goat cheese company in Crabtown and the cloven-hooved critter in question is a prized specimen from the Haute Savoie or Auvergne regions of France, imported all special-like for just this purpose. Well... it is possible. I guess.
Post a Comment