* * * So on Friday afternoon, in a bid to get the hell away from the computer, I was sitting on the couch watching “I love the 70s” on VH-1 and reading a magazine. At one point they began discussing The Waltons. Now, I enjoyed The Waltons, although I did not see every show, and I had a wee bit of a crush on, uh, one of them. Maybe Jim-Bob? Or Jason? Ben? One of the redheads, anyway, if that narrows it down, since I’ve always had a bit of a thing for redheads. I even read Spencer’s Mountain, which was probably owned by my brother Tracy – Let me take a moment to say that Tracy used to HATE it when I’d take books from his room and read them without asking permission (which in retrospect was rather rude of me, wasn’t it?). It was Tracy’s copy of Carrie that introduced me to the magic that is Stephen King (HE DOES NOT SUCK, YOU JUST SHUT UP), and also inside that copy of Carrie that my mother wrote “I don’t approve of this, do you?” – and upon which the series was based. But I digress. I was watching “I love the 70s”, and the topic of The Waltons came up, and someone said that the show was about a bunch of hillbillies. And I was aghast. Because believe it or not, it never once occurred to me that the Walton family was comprised of hillbillies. When Fred got home later that afternoon, I said “Did you know that the Waltons were hillbillies?”, and he said “Well, duh. THEY LIVED IN THE MOUNTAINS OF WEST VIRGINIA”, and I said “I never thought of them as being hillbillies, though.” I guess part of it is that the word “hillbilly” sounds so insulting, and the Waltons, they were nice folk who did the best they could with what they had, and so to hear a description that was somewhat insulting bothered me. A freak? Me? I don’t know why I find “hillbilly” so insulting – I certainly don’t find “redneck” insulting at all, and they’re definitely in the same descriptive category. If someone referred to Bo and Luke Duke, those fine young specimans of studliness, as rednecks, I would have no problem with that at ALL, since it is so clearly true. Later that evening we were watching “America’s Funniest Home Videos” (and if watching that show is wrong, I don’t wanna be right), and I turned to Fred, my brow furrowed, and said worriedly, “But they’re not white trash, right?” At which point he laughed out loud with a mouth full of Ben & Jerry’s, and two peanut butter cup bits went shooting out of his nostrils and bounced across the room.
It’s a rough life, it really is.
Hangin’ out on the stairs being bitchy.
Psycho kitty!