I Can Recall
Growing up in a small town in rural Missouri, and looking back now, it sticks out to me just how bizarre the culture really was. I attended middle school in a town with a population of 300, and highschool in a town with a population of about 11,000. I never really fit in, and moved away as soon as I was able to, and here are some of the fond memories that I still carry.
There being honest to goodness heated arguments over which brand of truck is best, Ford or Chevy.
Being able to draw the best Rebel flag in class being a point of pride.
Students wearing camouflage clothing, year round, even when there was no active hunting season.
Placing round objects in your jeans pocket to create the impression of a can of chew, even if you don't chew, because chewing is a point of pride.
Casual racism being incredibly common, with frequenty assertions about the trustworthiness or dangerousness or greediness of different minority populations, despite the fact that there was precisely one black family in the whole county and none of us had any actual experience with any of the groups in question. Neither did most of our parents, or their parents for that matter. Makes you wonder where these notions came from?
Jeans and boots being considered formalwear. No, this isn't just a cliched CMT joke, it's the reality. I have seen blue jeans and Boots worn to weddings, political events, dances, graduations, and funerals. As long as you add a button down shirt and tuck it in, it counts as formal.
Tent Revivals! I would recommend everyone try to attend at least one of these, for the novelty if nothing else. Whooping and hollaring and speaking in tounge and a wild haired preacher yelling and raving about fire and damnation while wielding a folded up bible like a weapon, people shouting Hallelujah and waving their arms, all while sweating under a tent on hot July afternoon. It's intense.
Nothing being open after 8pm. A few years ago I went home to visit the family and decided to go out for a little late night fishing. At about 11pm, while stepping through a barbed wire fence, I tore the crotch out the my pants. No problem, I'll just go to a store and buy a new pair, right? Wrong. There was not only nothing open in town, but there was literally not a single business, other than a few gas stations, open in the entire 800 square mile county.
The absolutely white christian-ness. It's no wonder people in these areas don't warm to change or outside ideas. Their entire world is one monochrome unchanging sea of exactly the same race, culture, and religion going back as many generation as anyone can remember. The latest census data for the county I was raised in reports the county as being 94.61% White. That means that there are 582 non-white people in the entire county, so about .75 non-white people per square mile. That is a VERY white county. And 70% of the county is Baptist. Not Christian mind you, almost everyone is christian, but Baptist. 70% of the entire population are not just the same religion, but the same denomination of the same religion.