hillbillies?

I've recently moved from the west coast - Oregon and California - to Kentucky, and am suffering culture shock. Part of that is just the local speech patterns and accents, for even though I know I'm still in America, I can't understand a word most people are saying to me. But more than that, it's the differences in the people themselves - more "helpful" and more willing to impinge on a stranger somehow. The customs are a little different too.

Grocery shopping, for example: I always seem to acquire an "assistant shopper," someone who just can't resist telling me that "them thar is cheaper" or "if you buy 48 of them you'll save $0.32." (How do they know?) There is a whole freezer section in that grocery store devoted to Tater Tots. I've never known anyone who even eats Tater Tots. You don't find that in Northern California. There are more varieties of Little Debbie cakes than I've ever seen before.

The local barbecue place serves a little dish of cole slaw before they bring your main dinner plate - as a pre-dinner salad. Maybe that's not odd... I've just never seen it before. They also offer you "drinks to go" when you are ready to leave. And don't seem to recognize, somehow, that "sweet tea" - a southern favorite - is really sweetened iced tea. When we went to a ballgame (local minor league), we talked all night to the guy sitting in front of us (which also never would have happened in CA.) Almost no one gives you the finger in traffic (asserting that you are still number one...) And I actually know - and like - all my neighbors!

When I first got here, someone told me that people here are either rednecks or hillbillies. I can't remember the distinction now, but I do know she said hillbillies are the ones who say "It don't matter" when faced with anything from a broken dish to an insurmountable challenge. I wonder if it really doesn't?

Maybe it is the "rednecks" who care that I buy the brand name products and pay a few cents more. (It must be ALL of them that eat Tater Tots though!) Maybe it's a pretty nice place after all.