Are western rural people differant than people that live in cities or the east?

[curious1111 (imported)]

After talking on this forum I find a lot of different attitudes that I have don't mesh with people at this site.I tend to be blunt and speak my mind and share more of my life than I probably should.My friends and those I share work with talk to each other like I do all the time.

Am i wrong or do rural western people think different and speak a different way than eastern city people or is it my imagination??

[Sweetpickle (imported)]

Maybe rural people, from whatever area, are less suspicious of strangers.

If you meet someone on the street you likely expect that they will be friendly

and helpful. In large eastern cities they are likely to be crooks.

[DeaconBlues (imported)]

I disagree with the common view, the stereotypes of a "friendly" western cowboy versus a "cold hearted sissified New Yorker" are just NOT the way I see things, and I was born in Arizona, raised there, and exept for a few dreadful years in military service, I have lived my whole life in Arizona.

What I see, what I believe, about the western culture is this: there are very very few REAL cowboys left. I do NOT count myself as a cowboy, I never was. I grew up on a ranch, the sort of ranch that made money by selling cattle, I have been bucked off more horses than I want to ever remember, my childhood was f***ed up. The CLOWNS who wore Stetsons, outrageously priced pointy toed "cowboy" boots and chewed tobacco, they call themselves cowboys, I was never in their clan. Typically, the "cowboys" I knew were coarse, vulgar, and sticky fingered, though there were a few exceptions.

In my teen years, I left my home and actually got to know some of those "sissified" and "cold hearted" city types. And you know something? I think most of them are actually a lot SOFTER hearted and MORE open, more emotionally vulnerable, than the people who grew up in the "western" culture. Seriously, how many city kids REALLY could slaughter cattle? Oh they THINK they could, but watch a them come slaughter day, and they can't stand the idea of killing.

Today, in Arizona, as most of the "west," natives are a very very small minority. The majority of people here are "immigrants" from the east, old people who move here to live out their "golden years," refugees from the "rust belt," and some lunatics who want to move out here to live out their cowboy fantasies. I see a lot of them are so so vulnerable, trusting, and ill prepared to deal with the coarse cowboy clan here. Lots of hard working honest tradesmen have bought their "cattle ranches" in Arizona, only to find that the well is a dry hole, and that the water table is more than 800 feet farther down.

[moi621 (imported)]

Rural. I co own two ranch properties. When it comes to those who like the wide open spaces there are the ole style country friendly and the isolationist. Some people are rural because, they have no wish to be involved with other people. Gotta know who is who and don't let your dog chase someone else's livestock. That is a shooting offense.

Then if you mean rural like a recent space being made into suburbs you have , "Hell". People only live there because they are bottom feeders or feed on the bottom feeders.

Moi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw2iZYYC ... re=related

[Riverwind (imported)]

Having grown up in country and in the city Both in LA. and lived in big cities and out in the country on and off my whole life I can say this,

In the country people tend to talk to their neighbors and have a BBQ and invite everybody over, in the city you don't know or talk to the person who lives next door.

That has been my experience.

Today I live back in the country, my neighbor comes over to use my internet for her school, she just walks right in, she also knows if I am at the store to just come on in, the house is unlocked. I would never do this if I lived in the city. I go over to Talula's house and walk right in, I don't ever remember knocking. Its just the way it is in the country.

River

[gunnutz (imported)]

Ive seen both sides of it here in the rural mid west.

The people are clannish, but they will stop and help you fix a flat regardless.

I haven't had much trouble assimilating, tho I am still an outsider in some regards.

Much like deacon I was never with the "in" cowboy crowd, despite being involved in real ranches.

I did enjoy the "you can run 250 head of cattle" adds for places that clearly would be hard pressed to support more than 150 head.

I still ride horses, despite having my butt bucked off many times. We use quads here instead of horses for real work, it is just more efficient.

[Dave (imported)]

I grew up in the City of Pittsburgh. Both sides of my family were Italian and some still speak English with an accent.

Speech and debate in HS not only had black team of students but Jewish students and some Hindi students.

Being a not so large city, mine was the GErman HS and the church two blocks away was IRish and the ones in the bottoms were Eastern orthodox and Catholic. Before I graduated I knew what he insides of synagogues looked like and the prayers that were said because I had friends pass on or get married. My father had African Americans working for him in many jobs - some cops and come janitors and others just plain bowlers. Oh yes, My Dad ran a bowling alley. I bused tables in HS and played music on electric organ at lunchtimes in the bar and met my first 300 score perfect bowler there (A black lady with a wonderful sense of humor).

In college (being Carnegie Mellon) I met students from almost every country.

That's where I met kids who never knew anyone except white anglo-saxon protestants and jeepers did they get a surprise in college.

I've met scientists from most continents except Antarctica and South America (I've never figured that one out).

I also had a coworker walk out of work on a Saturday as a man and return Monday as a woman. She's a good scientist.

So did I grow up different than people in the midwest?

uh yes I did.

And let me add this - at 16, our HS went to the Pittsburgh Symphony and they played Mahler's 2nd Symphony. I almost never listen to anything but classical music after that. I fell in love hard with classical music. I've had season tickets to the Pittsburgh Symphony since 1974.

I listen to everything else in music but I always return to classical. Right now, Pittsburgh has one of the best orchestras in the world and that, is a cultural blessing.

[Riverwind (imported)]

Right now I am streaming the classical station from St Louis where I once lived, its a good station. never was into rock, hate opera and country western but love bluegrass. go figure.

River

[DeaconBlues (imported)]

Ive seen both sides of it here...

I still ride horses, despite having my butt bucked off many times. We use quads here instead of horses for real work, it is just more efficient.

God DAMN isn't that the truth? Most people who have never had horses just have no clue about what a bitch it is to keep a healthy horse, and then to actually ride the animal and get it to do what you need it to do. Expensive? HELL, you spend more on a saddle and tack than you can afford, and all the while the horse needs to be fed and cared for, and vetrinarians are only getting more and more expensive. One ATV or "quad" in good shape can go most places (not all) that a horse can go, a quad loads up in a trailer or the back of your pick-up with no trouble at all, a quad starts and is rolling in less time than it takes to saddle up a horse... The only real advantages of the horse is that you are a lot quieter and do not spook the cattle when you need to herd them, and you are sitting a bit higher and can see more of what's going on. All things considered, the quad beats the horse if only for the cost issues, quads quit "eating" when you turn off the engine, horses need food and water and care every day whether you ride them or not. Even so, if I kept any number of cattle, I would want to have a horse for some things, most of the time though, I would prefer a quad.

[moi621 (imported)]

It does occur to me, that in the west we are much more inclined to be informal then the East.

Take it to epiphanies thread?