I hate country music. I hate it with a passion. When I was a kid, I used to like it. Hell, it was about all I heard growing up in a small country town in Missouri. As I got older, I started to dislike it, but now...now I just plain hate it. I can't really explain why either. I'll admit there are a few country songs that, if I hear them, get my toe tapping or whatever, but I won't purposefully listen to country music on my own. I hate country music.

Then why in the hell was I clapping along like an idiot and grinning like the fuckin' cheshire cat this afternoon while watching The Beverly Hillbillies on HBO? Well, one reason was that they were playing dueling banjos and I have to admit that I dig that song. But still...I was clapping along to country music. And enjoying it. And then a thought hit me, and I got kind of bummed out. I was not only reacting to the music I was hearing, but I was also reacting to the images I was seeing. For those of you who have seen The Beverly Hillbillies it was the scene where all of Jed's family is on the plane on the way to Bev Hills for the wedding. For those of you who haven't seen it, the scene is like a who's who from a Ma & Pa Kettle movie. Just a bunch of hicks, hillbillies and rednecks on a plane. Guys with long hair and beards, women with bad teeth and worn dresses and boots. Kids with dirty noses and spitting tobacco. So, why was I reacting to what I was seeing in such a way? Simple.

It reminded me of home. Well, I don't actually have little 7, 8, and 9-year old neices, nephews or cousins that actually chew tobacco. I do have some relatives that would fit the textbook definition of redneck, hick and hillbilly, but I'm damb proud of it too. We're family dammit. Anyway, I see these people looking so out of place on the plane, watching the flight attendants do their little ballet of safety while dueling banjos slowly plays over the whole scene. As the camera switches between the little old ladies with their "good hats" on, to a big hairy guy with his beard braided, to various other stereotypical "hillbillies", I started to get kind of homesick. I sat there and looked at these people, crammed in next to the hoity-toity, rich, we-have-you-don't kind of people and realized, "These are my people!" To be honest, it made me kind of homesick. So, I thought I'd do an entry and tell a little about where I come from.

I grew up in a small down in central Missouri called Warsaw. I believe the town itself is about 150 years old, but it hasn't had the name Warsaw that long, I think. The town was named Warsaw in honor of the capital city of Poland. The town's founding members felt compassion for the Poles due to their treatment at the hands of the Soviet Union, I believe during WWI, and thus named the town Warsaw. The town, I keep referring to it as a city, but it's actually too small to be called a city, has a population of about 1800 or so, but I believe only about 80% of that number actually live within the city limits. The rest live in various rural subdivisions 1-5 miles outside of town. There's only one school, but due to the fact that a large portion of Warsaw is farm communities, there are 2 different school houses. There's the North school, which is in town, and then about 10-20 miles outside of town, there's the South school, where a lot of the farm kids go to school. When I was younger, each school went from kindergarten to 7th grade, and then we would move out to the high school for 8th to 12th. in 1991, however, they completed construction on a new middle school, so now kids attend 6th-8th grade at the middle school, right next to the high school.

Warsaw may be small, but it's got a lot of history. There are at least 10 historic landmarks throughout the town dating back to the civil war and before. One of the old hotels, which still stands, on main street was a stop on the underground railroad. There are 2 or 3 areas that were sites of civil war battles and other things that I can't even recall right now. And just because the town is small doesn't mean it can't be modern, or that it's not caught up with the rest of the world. It has a lot of the creature comforts of most any city...sort of.

Warsaw has one movie theater. The owner, worried about losing money some years back, converted the one screen theater into a 2 screener to show 2 movies at the same time. There are 2 grocery stores, and the most recent additions, within the past 10-15 years have been a Hardee's, a Sonic and a McDonald's. Warsaw has the luxury of being positioned right next to a major highway in that part of Missouri so a lot of travelling traffic stops in. The town only has one stoplight, but there are suprisingly few traffic accidents. Oh, I almost forgot the most important thing. Warsaw, Missouri, is the spoonbill capital of the world! What's a spoonbill you say? Well, it's a bloody big fish is what it is (go here for more info). It's a bottom feeder and you don't fish for it the way you do other fish. During the spoonbill season, yes there is a season, you do what is called snagging. Basically, you get a couple of big poles (like ocean fishing poles) and get large triple-hooks. You weight down the line so that it's near the bottom and then you slowly float up and down the river until you snag a spoonbill on the bottom. I've heard they're not very good to eat so I don't really know why people want to catch them, other than to say they did, but who cares.

Anyway, I was feeling a bit homesick for the old place and thought I'd try to alleviate it a bit by talking about it. I do feel better. Oh, and just to clarify, I do not have family that would pass for someone on the Beverly Hillbillies...but some do come damn close. Anyway, that's a bit about where I came from and where I'd like to get back to some day. It's odd. I kept telling myself when I was younger that I'd do anything to get away from the small town, get to the big city. Now, I'm in the big city and all I want is to get back to the small town. I miss it quite a bit. I guess I need my space. Cities are too crowded.

Well, I'm off for now. Take care.

Da 'Bear

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