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Dr. Ronald P. Rogers CHIROPRACTOR Support for your body's natural healing capabilities 270-384-5554 Click here for details 
  
Columbia Gas Dept. GAS LEAK or GAS SMELL Contact Numbers 24 hrs/ 365 days 270-384-2006 or 9-1-1 Call before you dig 
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Feedback: Arisen from the use of a word Which honyock are you? Culture & Enlightenment editor, ColumbiaMagazine.com: Ed, you sort of took me aback when you labeled yourself with this word. So I did enough research to prompt me to raise this question. Definition one: A cross between a redneck and a hillbilly, but a bit dumber. I considered that this definition might be applied to you since most of us here in South-Central Kentucky are definitely hybrids produced by intimate contact between pure stock Rednecks and registered Hillbillies. Since there are no longer any of these pure genetic lineages remaining in our area, we should all be thankful that this particular hybrid can reproduce itself. However I then ruminated about the bit dumber... Definition two: Offensive slang used as a disparaging term for a person from east-central Europe, especially a laborer. I considered that this definition might be applied to you since maybe your forefathers might have been from that section of Europe. However I then contemplated the word laborer... Definition three: Youngster up to mischief. I considered that this definition might be applied to you since, although you are no longer a youngster, you might be entering your second child-hood. However I then observed that you werent up to any apparent mischief... So Ed, which honyock are you? Tongue in cheek, Billy Joe Fudge Thanks, Mr. Fudge, for the fine erudition. It's hard to choose from among your entries. I like them all. However, the term as used was picked up in ancient times at Adair County High School, when our esteemed class leader introduced the word so effectively and so often that it became a part of our class culture, so much so that the mere mention of the word "honyock" would set off roars of laughter akin to that generated by a fart joke told to first graders. "Honyock" was generally used to describe anyone whom we didn't know and over whom we required some means to define our own superiority. It was our way of practicing Freud's Narcissism of Close Proximity which, I believe, is generally stated thusly: The difference between an Adair Countian and a Russell Countian is more closely defined the nearer one lives to the county line. Even a highly educated Harvard scholar from England, confronted with the practical challenge to sort Russell Countians from Adair Countians, would admit ignorance of this basic discipline. "I can't tell them apart," he would say, "They all look alike to me." He would feign indifference, or deprecate the art, while all the time we would recognize that he lacks our Appalachian intuition. When confronted with the fine distinctions most evident at the county line, a person in Royville in Russell County can see a resident of Chicken House Road--a mile and a half away in Adair County--and immediately size him up, spotting shortcomings in dress, speech, and ambulation, characteristics inapparent to our Englishman who's wasted his time at Harvard. "Just look at him," a Royvillian could say, "you don't have to have a label to know where he's from. Adair County's written all over that bird." Across the line, and being recognizably superior Adair Countians, it was code for us to say, "Did you hear that honyock say 'fight.' He don't have to be driving a Pontiac for me to know where he's from. (Miss Frances Russell taught us better: You wouldn't say 'He do not,' would you? she would have red-penned in the margin.) With the passing of the old house, it seemed fitting to resurrect, re-dedicate, re-consecrate and hallow this useful word from the past. The house might disappear from the scene, but b'damned if another Adair County-enhanced word would do the same. This even though the class leader who introduced us to a most wonderfully useful word shall remain anonymous--at his request--and you will not get me to hint to you even that he's an Egyptian. Nor will you be able to extract from me that he's the late Gladys and Ivan Morris' boy, Michael. That you'll have beat out of his cousin Jack. Yr. humble scribe Ed Click Here to see the photograph and cutline to which Mr. Fudge refers. This story was posted on 2007-01-21 05:41:59
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