West Coast Rednecks

When I first moved out to California I had a very specific idea of who lived in this state. Coming from the east coast I was quite certain the population of the state of California was mostly surfers. Having seen a map I’m not sure why I thought that as some of them would have to drive for hours to get to the surf. But I had watched a fair amount of TV and that is what I learned from the shows. It was all surfers and rich people out here. Blond, not too smart, very pretty. Said dude a lot.

I really did expect to find the entire state full of valley girls saying like and totally and working on their tans. Which does somewhat explain my misunderstanding. The first time we drove out of San Francisco into the non coastal parts of the north bay and stopped for gas, that’s when I said the thing.

In my defense things are simpler on the east coast. I spent a fair amount of time down south and the lines are drawn pretty thick. Culturally speaking the groups are clear and what divides them is obvious. We were New England transplants so our outsider hippie ways were tolerated but barely. In a sea of crackers we were the sesame seeds. Basically the right color. Don’t act right.

People from the north were called a word I can’t remember. We stuck out. In the nineteen seventies a lot of alternate cultural options were emerging and swirling around but they were far from accepted. Long hair and funky clothes meant no one would serve you in the restaurant. Maybe a doctor would refuse to treat you because dirty hippies. We elected to garner poor treatment as some ill conceived form of solidarity. Clearly logic wasn’t one of the side effects of the psychedelics.

Oh that’s right. We were carpetbagging yanks. Being called Yankee was funny because to me it was a baseball team. My people were not fans, we were Red Sox folks, so it was an insult but not the one they intended. It was however clear we didn’t fit in and weren’t really welcome.

So being down south was confusing for me in a lot of ways. I’m just realizing this is where the ability to parse social cues in real time became impossible for me. I was probably bad at it to begin with, even in New England. You don’t need to try too hard to decode Connecticut social norms. The yanks are pretty up front about their derision. Norming you into wearing the right things to the grocery store is done with audible clucks and visible head shaking. They invented the gen Z blank stare. They are not subtle. Believe you me, you will never wear a tshirt and leggings in public again.

Down south it’s covered up in a bunch of aggressive politeness. If you’ve never experienced this imagine you are somewhere and a lady comes up quickly to about an inch from your nose and introduces themselves with a smile that makes you think she may want to eat you. Her tone is warm, her words are kind. Her face is terrifying and the vibes are ice cold. She’s standing way too close, she’s a little too loud for how close she is, and you sense if you don’t give up your name and origins pronto she might bite. Yikes

On the up side things are very clear in a visual sense. If someone looks like a redneck they are super racist. If they look like a tie dyed hippie they are one of us and can be trusted to a certain extent. This did not hold true in San Francisco where I discovered hippies can and indeed will screw you right over. Ask me about the pretty piece of paper I bought once and boy were my friends pissed. No four dollar movie for you!

I was trying to make a point so let’s see if I can get to it now that I’ve veered sufficiently off course to give you a sense of what that was like and who I am when I get to the west coast in my mid twenties. We stop for gas in Mendocino county and I go inside to get some chips and soda and the people behind the counter have what I take to be a redneck backwoods accent.

So where are y’all from? I ask them. Innocently. Thinking they are going to say Tennessee. They do not. What do you mean? They ask me. Oh I figured California is all hippies and surfers so you must not be from around here. Oh they laughed so hard. Like I made their whole day that day, and probably the next day as well. We’re from right here they told me. I must have had a funny look on my face. Did not compute.

I honestly did not know the west coast had their own rednecks. And this brings me to my question. Like animals that evolve differently in different environments the west coast rednecks are not as easy to categorize as their pretty much racist to a man east coast counterparts. Out here that look doesn’t always mean what you think it means.

In fact out here there are rednecks of all races. Why would someone want to identify with a group that stands for the erasure of their very existence? If it was a dominant group I guess there could be perks. But rednecks? I just don’t get it.

We are an odd species. We get to pick our own feathers. We can wear whatever plumage we want. Maybe it’s a disguise. Maybe I’m just too simplistic in my thinking. I come from a two faction binary construct. You’re either a yank or a cracker. Broad strokes. Out here it’s stripes and polka dots and I think maybe flannel. There’s a lot more going on and people identify with more than one way to organize themselves into fractional factions.

I’m still pissed off about getting screwed over by someone in a tie dye shirt. Like who can you trust? Where safety is guaranteed by how you look and where you come from you’re stuck with the group you’re in for the most part. As things blend together this causes internal conflict. People who are five or six things choose the one that has the most power and identify as that. I get it.

But no I don’t get it because I can identify with a culture all I want, when people see me they see old white lady. I can’t transcend my carcass, believe me I’ve tried. Most people respond to what they see. Clearly they haven’t been aggressively greeted by a southern belle! It’s the vibes that matter. What you see is only an illusion. Beneath the surface lurk multitudes. I wonder if we will ever figure that out.

In my mind you have the bodily lineage of your genetic ancestors, the spiritual lineage of your souls reincarnations, and the physical lineage of the land and the place where you reside. All of these things make you a unique individual with specific wisdom rooted in those lines. You can’t do a dna test for it. You can’t trace it with a family tree. But it informs who you are and how you show up in the world.

Me, I show up like a ginormous dork. Like I will say the stupidest shit in all innocence and ignorance and be super open to finding out why it’s so funny. I really do want to know. People and the ways they act fascinate me. I am a student of human nature and it’s not possible to know everything and that means we need each other. We need the benefit of the wisdom of the other. We hold something that is required. Only in community can it be revealed. So get out there and share yours. I hope you enjoyed mine!