Hillbilly Culture Shock

After going through the reading, I could only think about my own hometown, Lawrenceburg Kentucky.

The quaint little town is home to around 10,505 people, two bourbon distilleries (Four Roses and Wild Turkey), and one confederate monument. Lawrenceburg is your stereotypical hillbilly town, and the stereotype is pretty right.

I was born in Lexington Kentucky, and lived in the historical “Lane Allen” part of town until I was nine years old. By that age I was used to regular traffic jams, highways, rushing ambulances, flights from the airport, trips to one of the (at the time) three malls in town. City life was like second nature to me, especially with spending much of my childhood at my father’s work in downtown Lexington. So it was culture shock when in the summer of 2001. 

Lawrenceburg was a completely different animal from that of Lexington. No airport, few ambulances, no traffic jams, one highway that ran right through town, and fifteen minutes away from ANYTHING to do. The trips to the mall became less and less as time went by, shopping meant going to Wal-Mart or JCPenney in Frankfort. Fun meant going to Frankfort to see a movie.

Beginning life in a larger city as Lexington and then moving to something as small as Lawrenceburg was incredibly different to me. One thing I began to notice specifically was the fact that culture between these two towns were vastly different. While the kids in Lexington began to think things like Pokemon were getting old, Lawrenceburg kids were just learning about the show; While kids in Lexington spent their time singing the latest hit from the Backstreet Boys, Lawrenceburg kids were more concerned with what Kenny Chesney was singing.

As I grew up I began to notice how much rural culture really impacted a town like Lawrenceburg. FFA was the major school function while the Anderson County High “Act Cats” (Drama program) were the dead last to get money from the school board.

In high school, I spent much of my time chatting with people across the country on Skype. During that time I became friends with a girl from Kentucky through Skype. When first talking to her I found her accent to be VERY familiar. However, when people would talk to me they were surprised to know that I was from Kentucky. The response “MAN! You DO NOT sound like you’re from Kentucky AT ALL!” was very common to me. 

Has our media primed all of us to think that Kentuckians are ALL major hillbillies? What is a hillbilly these days? Those who are reading this from other states, What did you assume about Kentucky? Did you assume a rural area like Lawrenceburg, or your basic City?

 

 

 

 

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