Hillbilly

A 1900 New York Journal article defined a Hillbilly as “Someone free and untrammeled (unrestrained), who lives in the hills, dresses as he can, talks as he pleases, drinks whiskey when he gets it, and fires his revolver as fancy takes him.”

Last weekend my daughter got married to a great guy from Chicago who is a country boy at heart. So I’ve been around a lot of city people lately. I like city people. I myself was a city person for a few years. But while there I discovered that I prefer these hills of home. 

A couple of days ago my daughter and youngest grandson were running around barefoot and her mother-in-law asked how they could stand to have no shoes on outside. Her response was, “We’re Hillbillies“. That made me smile. To me that is not a disparaging remark. It is a proud lineage. 

My great-great-great-grandpa, Abraham Huddleston, travelled from the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia on to Tennessee and eventually landed on the banks of the Eleven Point River around Thomasville,  Mo. in 1820.

His son Benjamin (my great-great-grandpa) lived in the same house on the same ground for 82 years, but in three different counties. As time progressed and county lines were changed the house was in Wayne County, then Ripley, and finally Oregon County. 

As for the barefoot Hillbilly stereotype, apparently they were way ahead of their time. The New Age therapeutic technique called “grounding” or “earthing” by going barefoot and realigning your inner electrical system with that of the earth is widely practiced. You can even buy earthing starter kits. (Only $199). 

Here’s my DIY crash course in earthing;

Wait until you hear the whippoorwills call

Go outside 

Take your shoes off

Avoid areas where free range chickens have roamed.