Twenty years ago, my cross-country coach warned us to carry golf balls with us as we ran. His
reasoning? We should carry them in case we needed to throw them at "jealous rednecks" (his terminology) who wouldn't give us enough space on the road to run.I thought Kokomo was a "civilized" area, but there did seem to be plenty of the "jealous redneck" type who would even swerve at runners (and certainly not give any space for running, even on the shoulder). Gahanna wasn't any better. In fact, I would say that Gahanna was even worse. I was routinely forced off the road by "jealous rednecks" as I ran along. I always looked for areas with sidewalks for running, and even on my road, which had a posted speed limit of 25 (and was regularly patrolled), I was not safe.
Now that I live in a rural area where there are plenty of people who even identify themselves as "rednecks" I wondered about how they would treat a runner, but I needn't have. Drivers cross the center line to give me space. They slow down if they can't give me room. Today I heard someone yelling, "Faster!" and when I turned and looked, he gave a big, full-arm wave.
It makes me wonder which area has all the "rednecks" in it.
3 comments:
You're in such a good place for you at this time! I'm glad for you!
My area has all the Rednecks... I live in what has been labeled "The Redneck Riviera" or L.A. (Lower Alabama) it’s really the “Big Bend” of Florid or the “Panhandle.” People here are great. They give you room on the road for the most part (there are a few people I could do with out). I would not trade it for all the tea in China.
On another note, I ran a mile and a half on Monday. It pretty much killed me for the week. Today my wife and I rode our mountain bikes on almost 6 miles of off road trails. She had to walk it a few times but I was pretty impressed with her determination. (We just started exercising for me... Doctors orders).
totally unrelated to you and your rednecks, but did you realize you're now Google's #2 choice for "My brother the thief", second only to the Amazon link to the actual book in question.
dunce
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