Redneck @ MindSay

To: minimichael

Welcome aboard mate.

Not much original about me 'cause I've been here at Mindsay for a while and 'round and 'bout many parts for more 'en half-dozen decades doin' different stuff jes tryin' ta stay alive runnin' from some and some sometins and searchin' for sum others. Ya noe?

Now ya kin find sum answers here I 'spect. But ya shudent doen be ah'sprised at what dey mite be. I mean sum of em. Da questions sumtimes takes a liddle figerrin' to. I learnt a heap here from meny a folk yunger an me. Yunger an you two also teched me a lot here to. Mebbie ya will like here. I thin' ya can and hope ya will.

Now my parts, still in pretty good shape, reside, rest, react, rust and restore in Qingdao on the coast of China while I regularly repulse and rile restive retrograde religious right-wing redneck Republican reprobates rejoice-fully.

If'n ya ever git a good answer to the "juicy factor" item, please let me noe. Still tryin' ta figure dat one two. Sincerely, David, namaste

My neighbor (one of them) down the road to the west was out grading his lane and mowing the side of his lane.  Nothing unusual about that right?  Wrong!  He was wearing his County Sheriff's badge on the outside of his workshirt and had a red light (those flashing kind that vol. folks use in rural areas for their pick up trucks and cars) down by his feet!

 

I burst out laughing my ass off and about sideswipped the guard rail right before I got to the top of his lane where he was waiting for me to go by so he could turn around!  What made this so funny was the fact the tractor he was using to grade his lane and mow the side of his lane is such an antique thing that there was NO WAY in this wide universe he was going to catch me or anyone else with his tractor if he was going to try it!  But he just had to have that red light ready to put on top of the tractor engine cover! 

 

What was he going to do, slap that red light up top, slap that tractor in high (maybe 10 mph) and go after Thumpers brother for munching on his grass clippings!

 

My Gods we have a true blue Redneck for our County Sheriff and he is one of my neighbor's to boot!  Goddess help me!

 

 

Having been coming up this way from So. Cal. for all of my life I had heard of "The State Of Jefferson". It wasn't till I moved up here just about 9 years ago now that I understood what the heck that was. 

Driving around No. Cal. and So. Oregon you will see State Of Jefferson flags waving. Signs everywhere proclaming this as the State Of Jefferson. 

Most people believe that San Francisco is Northern California and that California ends there.  It is north of Los Angeles & San Diego ..... yes, but it is still central California.  Slice it and dice it all you want .... San Francisco is by no means "Northern California".  My basic understanding is this: Since the true Northen California was not heavily populated and So. Oregon was also scarcely populated they were ignored for the most part by their politicians.  Lack of funding and acknowledgement drove a few to make a move to pull away from No. California and So. Oregon and become their own state.  It better explained here:

There have been many attempts at forming a new state comprised of northern California and southern Oregon, but none has gained so much attention and retained it as the secession movement of 1941.

The abundant supply of minerals and timber in this region was largely inaccessible due to the lack of sufficient roads and bridges into the rugged mountain border country. The local pioneering people grew weary of unfulfilled promises from Salem and Sacramento to help fund sufficient highway projects in the region while building campgrounds in the cities where there were more votes.

Representatives from the mountain border counties involved met in Yreka, CA on November 17, 1941 to form an alliance to obtain federal aid for the construction and repair of bridges and roads. The Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors voted to allocate $100 to research the possibility of seceding from the state of California and joining the other counties to form a new 49th state. The Yreka Chamber of Commerce was very instrumental in persuading the Board.

The local newspaper ran a contest to name the new state and the winning entry was Jefferson. The winner of the contest pocketed $2 for his efforts. Yreka was designated the temporary state capital where the ‘State of Jefferson Citizen’s Committee’ was formed. 

They proceeded to stop traffic on Highway 99 outside of town and handed their ‘Proclamation of Independence’  out to travelers.

Jefferson made the papers nearly every day, competing with headlines of Germany's ravaging of Europe. The San Francisco Chronicle sent a young reporter, Stanton Delaplane, to cover the events. He traveled the rain-soaked  roads to speak with locals to get a feel for the secession movement from their point of view. He got stuck in the mud down the Klamath River but that did not stop him from writing a series of colorful articles on the rebellion which earned him the coveted Pulitzer Prize.

On December 4, Judge John L. Childs of Crescent City in Del Norte County was elected governor. A  torchlight parade complete with horses, marching bands and sign-carrying young people riding in trucks was held in Yreka followed by a ceremonious inauguration held on the courthouse lawn. 

Hollywood newsreel companies were present to record the events, including the highway barricades. The State of Jefferson was off to a banner start.

The newsreels were to air nationally the week of December 8, but tragically on December 7th Pearl Harbor was bombed and the State of Jefferson rebellion of 1941 came to an end. The people of the region went to work for the war effort and good roads were eventually built into the backcountry to access strategic minerals and timber. These same roads have helped countless numbers of rural families make a living from the land that continues to produce abundant, quality natural resources.

The State of Jefferson 'state of mind' remains in the hearts and minds of people everywhere.

HERE'S ONE for the book - the geography book. The new State of Jefferson has issued its Proclamation of Independence and will seek admission to the Union as the forty-ninth state. Jefferson is made up of rebellious northern California counties and one southern Oregon county. Yreka is the provisional capital of the secessionists. Lassen county brings into the new commonwealth the only active volcano in continental United States. The new state will have no sales tax and no income tax and no liquor tax, but will be financed through a small royalty on mining and timber developments. Strikes will be outlawed. Slot machines will be abolished as unfair competition to the stud poker industry of this "last frontier" area. The region is rich in timber, sugar pine, pine, oak, chrome, copper, manganese and gold. But until both Oregon and California consent to creation of the new state and Congress grants statehood, residents of the unhappy counties will continue to pay income, sales and liquor taxes, and perhaps, play the slot machine.

Barn off of I-5 near Yreka.



Official flag of the State of Jefferson.  These still wave all over .....

So ..... there you have it ..... more history of my area here than you ever want to know .... I'm sure. But I said once I'd post on this  ..... and now I have.  It is a truly bizzare little area I live in.  Most don't associate "redneck" with California ..... but trust me ..... it exsists .... right here in the State of Jefferson.  The State of Jefferson is a "State of Mind" for sure.

Peace.  J.

This is a first posting, as I am not familar with this blogging thing.  There is such a narrow window of ways for the comman man to express his feelings about things, and the state of this world, and be heard by others.  It is certinly hard to make a difference in this world.  The oddest element involved here is the fact that there seems to be a simple lack of common sense at the root of the absurdity. 

With that said, I will assume that no one will ever read the words that I am currently typing, and this may also lead to another seemingly usless waste of time.

 

If anyone has a suggestion on how to get the feelings comments that I have into a more mainstream local, please feel free to provide advice or useful information.

 

I am looking for people that believe the same things that I do in Ithaca, NY or the surrounding area, Tompkins County New York. 

 

I would have to say that  am a die hard conservitive living in a patsey liberal, seudo intellectual invironment.  I am a man with a family trying to survive in the worst possible place to try and exist on the planet, or so it seems.  This may very well be an overstatement on my part, but certinly seems to feel this way.  Ithaca, NY is the most rediculous place you may ever find yourself in life. 

 

I have fears living that living here in both this city and this state, that my son will not be able to attend the best schools for him, that we will continue to struggle in our lives, because our money goes to counties, cities, the state, and for what?  What do we get for it.  We certinly do not get a better way of life.  We do not seem to get better roads, better services from municiaplaties, better anything.  Costs seem to go up, and service seems to go down, and it seems to be getting worse on a daily basis.  especially around here.  I live in a place where costs grow, taxes are in a run away state, because I am to believe that our local governmental body is in need of it, then I see monies given to local liberal groups to make new trails around the lake, and I must say that we are already over run with trails and parks.    

 

 

I took this picture a few days ago. I think the label of Heinz is funny. I promise it's not my refrigerator.

Please take note of the beer and the mason jars... hahaha