Unique Cultures within Our Great United States
One in a Series of the Research Study by John C. Glass regarding little known yet unique cultures that makes up the fabric of our Great Country.
In the Mid to late 1800’s a group of people started offering a much needed product for the cattle ranchers and farmers in the Central Texas area. With the invention of “Barbed Wire” came the need for a post to attach this highly effective tool too. At first, the ranchers and farmers were able to provide their own post, but with time that resource dwindled.
Fortunately, along the Balconies Fault Line which split this Texas territory in half grew what became to be called the Texas Cedars Trees. When cut down, they offered excellent post for the “barbed wire” industry. The “best” of these trees were located in the foothills of the escarpment which was hard to maneuver in. The group of people who took on this arduous but very profitable market came to be known as “Cedar Choppers”.
These entrepreneurs learned quickly that it would only be monetarily profitable if they would spend long periods of time collecting large caches of these posts at their hill country base sites, then bring them into Austin and San Antonio periodically on double driven wagons stacked high and heavy.
By being isolated, and not influenced by “outsiders”, these people over the next few generations taught themselves a diluted mixture of the English language with the already tangy drawl that had become associated with the frontier Texans. These adaptations allowed for a shorter more effective pronunciation of words that seemed to roll off their tongues easier and were very effective in bouncing off the sheer cliffs and ravines that dominates this isolated area of the rugged country side.
Now, they have had to find ways to co-exist with others who have tired of the Urban Lifestyle of the bigger citys and are finding and making their homes in these smaller Rural communities nestled deep in this beautiful hill country.
This mixing of cultures has so far been without serious incident. The difference in the two dialects of English is still obvious especially when pen is applied to paper by one of the descendants of the true hillcountry backwoods families.
The following is a short example of this amazing, provocative and brain twisting rural language which is a challenge to decipher...
Let's Give it a try....
Tha Akcidint
Mrnin Brudder Billy Joe;
Surry hya wrrr sleap winst I cums ta vizitcha, so Is rote ya thsear nott.
Ows dey tretn ya nn thsear fixumup chop? Shurr surry bout yrr akcidint yestrda. Ya no, I wsss rit therr winn it happn. Saw the hoe dng ting, I did. Wisht Ida nownt ya wrrr cumin dwnt dat thrr rowd then I cuda calt ya befur ya gots thrr nnnn I cuda toltcha bout dat thrrr hoe in the rowd and I wooda ifn Ida add yur sel fown nummmer.
Twernt frrr dat I dint half yurrr nummmer ya wooda nownt bout that hoe in da rowd, nnn ya cuda swrvd ta msss it nnn ya wootna hit yrrr brks nd dat der truk bahintcha dat semta cum owda nowrr nnn it wootna poptcha in urrrear.
Sews, now dat I gotts ya sel nummer, da nxt tim ya git a cul frum me bsur to luk in yurrr rrrrr vuw mrrrrrrrrrrrr ta see ifn a trk is behntcha sows ya dnt hit yurrr brak 2 fsssst. OK?
sind
1 oh ya bigrrrrr bruddderrrrsINPUT Please.... What is amazing to me is that out of all my blogs, this one has been the most visited. Most of them range from a visit rate of usually 50 or so...
This one has been visited by people from all over the world over 1700 times.
If you don't mind, I need a little feed-back. Tell me what it is that spiked your interest to read this.
Don't worry.. Positive Criticism is a good thing and I don't mind, just perplexed on why it has collected so much visitations?
Thank you for your comments...
Johnny
