If You Grew Up In Rural Minnesota :

You know how to polka, but never tried it sober.

You know what knee-high by the Fourth of July means.

You know it is traditional for the bride and groom to go bar hopping between the reception and wedding dance.

You know the difference between 'Green' and 'Red' farm machinery, and would fight with your friends on the playground over which was better!

You buy Christmas presents at Fleet Farm.

You spent more on beer & liquor than you did on food at your wedding.

You hear someone use the word 'oof-dah' and you don't break into uncontrollable laughter.

You or someone you know was a 'Dairy Princess' at the county fair

You know that 'combine' is a noun.

You let your older siblings talk you into putting your tongue on the flag pole in the middle of winter.

You think Lutheran and Catholic are THE major religions.

You know that 'creek' rhymes with 'pick'.

Football schedules, hunting season and harvest are all taken into consideration before wedding dates are set.

A Friday night date is getting a six-pack and taking your girlfriend shining for deer.

Saturday you go to your local bowling alley.

There was at least one, if not several, in your class who had to help milk cows in the morning.

You have driven your car on the lake.

You can make sense of 'upnort' and 'batree'.

Every wedding dance you have ever been to has the hokey pokey and the chicken dance.

Your definition of a small town is one that only has one bar.

The local gas station sells live bait.

At least twice a year some part of your home double as a meat processing plant.

You think that the start of deer season is a national holiday.

Funny, I knew a couple of guys that drove out on lakes here in California. One was screwed by the tow truck company and then his insurance company; the other just drove across and out of Big Bear lake. The second one was of course one of those little German amphibious cars, and like the polka, he never tried it sober.

Vell, I grew up in urban Connecticut, but I know most of dese t'ings. Green is John Deere, of course. Iss red Massey-Ferguson ?

"Uff da" vasn't used in my family because it came into use later dan 1915 vhen de family came over on de Bergensfjord.

Vell, now, how else vould yu say "creek" ?

Upnort is, of course, "up north" and batree is "battery".Vhen I vas a liddle boy, I alvays vundered vhy it vas a crime to put salt in a battery. I kept hearing about people being arrested for " 'salt in battery".

De vun about de vorld's major religions being Cat'olicism and Lut'eranism reminds me of de story of de man who vas bragging about how ecumenical his home town vas. "Vhy my town is so ecumenical dat, in de village green ve have de churches of five of the vorld's great religions: Lut'eran, Baptist, Congregationalist. Met'odist, and Presbyterian ! "

Where I come form we have the Swine Princess. Makes a nice visual image.

More money is spent on alcohol then food,

kristoff wrote: Thu Dec 27, 2007 7:51 pm the hokey pokey and the chicken dance

draw the largest number of dancers and most often the bride and groom leave in a pick up truck.

At our county fairs there is usually one booth that sells rebel flags and associated merchandise.

We pronounce creek the same way but we warsh our clothes. If someone shows you something they picked up at a store it was usually boughten.

I could go on about the charms of rural Ohio but why get depressed.

I think the red was mostly Fords, I think. Just curious. Does anyone up there with a milk cow have a kitchen drawer full of knee high stockings (with the clearance stickers still attached) and a box or two of rennet tablets along with a one gallon glass jug? It tastes great with honey.

The red was mostly Farmall. --FLO--

OK. I wondered because we had a Massey-Ferguson dealer in town about 40 years ago, and I seem to recall that all of his tractors were red.

Bagoas (imported) wrote: Sun Dec 30, 2007 3:01 pm OK. I wondered because we had a Massey-Ferguson dealer in town about 40 years ago, and I seem to recall that all of his tractors were red.

There was a time it was cool to wear a Massey-Ferguson hat because proudly displayed were the initials MF. They may have been riding a Deere but they liked MF on their hats. I look forward to the time of year all the classic tractors are on display inside our mall.

Bagoas (imported) wrote: Sun Dec 30, 2007 3:01 pm OK. I wondered because we had a Massey-Ferguson dealer in town about 40 years ago, and I seem to recall that all of his tractors were red.

The MFs were the one's I always remembered. It was a real charm when grampa got one, so we could just use the oxen for riding instead of plowing.

Green could also be Oliver...