Redneck in Ramona
By PAT WICK
© Another Day in the Country
Fifteen years ago (or more) when we bought property in Ramona, we hired local teenagers to help us with our reclamation project. They had the brawn for lugging old hot water heaters out of the basement and cutting down scrub trees. We listened and learned about Ramona and living in this part of the country.
One day we took a trek to Pizza Hut as a treat and all the way to Herington the boys in the back seat regaled us with Jeff Foxworthy routines about Rednecks — we'd never heard of him then. I don't remember any of the jokes except the one, "You know you're a Redneck if your house has more wheels than your car!" The boys loved that one and they howled with laughter.
Jess and I, in the front seat, exchanged knowing looks. Here we were thinking these boys and the people in this area were Rednecks and they were laughing about someone else. Finally I said, "So, who are Rednecks?"
"Ah, someone who lives in Missouri or Oakies from Oklahoma," came the answer. Once again, Jess and I were grinning. According to these guys, Rednecks were somewhere else, not in Ramona.
Well, it's taken us a lot of years to celebrate the Rednecks in Ramona and this year is it! When we were searching around for a theme for our 4th of July celebration we wanted something that would be easy for folks to do so we came up with "Down on the Farm." "Anybody can do something from the farm," said Jessica. But it took newcomers in town to really put the zing into this theme.
"Let's do something new and have a run," they suggested. We'd never had a run in Ramona. Did people run around here? We see Stan out walking. Kathy used to walk regularly with Betty at lunch time, but you don't see anyone running — except Yvonne and she doesn't even live IN Ramona. Would a run really work?
"Good idea," we said in an encouraging and enthusiastic tone. "Let's do a run!" And before you know it the run was dubbed The Redneck Run and had 40 runners signing on. You even got a shirt when you joined the Redneck Run — all the kids in town were instantly enthused and they've been reporting to me that their "getting ready."
I don't believe that my sister nor I would have had the nerve to suggest the parade theme be Rednecks in Ramona. Those girls from California are too afraid we'd offend. But when we heard a great idea, we jumped right on it. Rednecks in Ramona just has this certain ring. It makes you smile!
One of our kids in town came down to the office the other day and asked Jessica if she had any work for him. We're still employing kids in town and from some reason Ramona kids have been on a real quest for work this summer. I've had a passel of them in training for the past month — weeding, mowing, toting, painting, watering. So, we were about work-projected out when another request for work came, but Jess said, "I'm making signs advertising the 4th of July. You want to help?"
"Sure," said James and being an artistic kid he set to cutting out letters and illustrations for the signs while Jess glued them into place.
"Redneck in Ramona," he read as he clipped. "My Dad had a red neck once — he hadn't shaved for a long time and when he did his neck got all red
"That's not exactly what a Redneck is," my sister searched for a child-safe explanation. "A Redneck is someone who doesn't have a lot of money and still they use what they have to make something happen that's fun."
James looked up at her and a smile of understanding spread across his face, "Heck," he said with amazement, "that's everybody in Ramona!"
Well, it's another day in the country and we're still learning things from these kids of ours!
