Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne
Do you remember those “You might be a redneck” jokes made popular by Jeff Foxworthy? He had a bunch of them. Even had books of them.
Well, lately, I’ve been thinking about things that might mean you’re a country girl. So here goes.
If you’ve ever chased a butter-colored butterfly through a field of clover and it always zigged when you zagged, then you might be a country girl.
If you’ve ever had to brush snow off a pile of wood to fill up the woodbox inside the house, then you might be a country girl.
If you’ve ever had blisters on your thumbs from using a hoe…
If you’ve ever been stung on your toe by a bee while running through the yard…
If you’ve stepped outside late at night and seen about a million stars…
If you’ve hunted a new litter of kittens in a hayloft…
If you’ve gone swimming in a pond…
If you’ve brushed the dirt off a tomato or a cucumber and eaten it while you’re still in the garden…
If you’ve tried to de-skunk your best furry buddy…
If you’ve ever picked up sacks of walnuts to make some spending money…
If you know what nettle is and never want to touch it again…
If you’ve seen a newborn calf or bottlefed a lamb…
If you’ve had to set pans under the leaks in the roof of an old house…
If you’ve ever gone to a little country church’s dinner on the grounds and eaten home-fried chicken…
If you’ve ever had to pluck that chicken before it was fried…
If you’ve heard a whippoorwill through your open window before you went to sleep at night…
If you’ve ever caught a jar full of lightning bugs…
If you’ve seen more butterflies than you can count on your fingers and toes when you take a walk in the hay field…
If you’ve done any of these and more, you just might be a country girl!
So what would you add to the list?
Comments 32
“If you’ve ever sat on a stool and milked a cow”
“If you’ve ever ridden in the middle of freshly cut hay pulled by a tractor”
“If you’ve ever watched an Aunt catch a chicken and prepare it for Sunday dinner”
“If you’ve ever been sent out to gather eggs for breakfast”
Fond memories indeed!
Author
I used to gather the eggs, Karen. I always hated it when a hen was on the nest and I was supposed to grab her and get her off so I could get the eggs. Those hens could peck. I admit I never learned how to milk. My mother said that was probably a good thing or that would have been my chore too. Actually, when I research for my books, milking is usually the woman’s task in a family in the earlier days in our country. That’s why I could have Woody making fun of Fran for not knowing how to milk a cow. I guess milking when it was for use in the kitchen was considered part of food preparation and that was women’s work.
That’s interesting. My grandfather on Mother’s side always milked their one cow. Not a dairy farm for sure. Of course, he had my grandmother on a pedestal and did just about everything else. What he didn’t do for her they always did together—baking bread (never store bought in their home), washing the clothes in the wringer washer, hanging them out to dry and bringing them in, washing the dishes(water was heated on their wood burning stove for that chore). They didn’t have an inside bathroom until I was about 12 and then we could only put water the tub finger deep as they used water from ther cistern. He was a night watchman in Palmyra, New York so he was home all day. He slept after supper until it was time to report for work at midnight. I loved to visit there. When there my mother would take the laundry to town, if there was a lot, to save on water. I’ve rattled on long enough but so much fun to reminisce. The last time I visited with my parents I was a junior in high school.
Ever make a necklace out of acorns!!
Author
This I haven’t done. How do you make the necklace? With a string?
Yes, we would bore a hole through it and then string them on a string. Lol The things we remember!
Ever went blackberry picking and came back with more chiggers than berries!!!
Author
I’ve done that, Linda. Chiggers love me. This year since I’ve had to fight the tick over population in my fields, I’ve had some much bug killing stuff that I’ve kept the chiggers off.
I’ve done all those except one. I would add…
If you’ve ever picked berries and had your mom pick the thorns out of your fingers.
If you’ve ever stepped on a garter snake while running in the fields.
If you’ve ever made clover necklaces and bracelets.
If you’ve ever climbed a tree.
Author
Fun ones, Lucy. You must be a country girl. I have to admit, I always try to sidestep those garter snakes. 🙂 But I’ve made clover necklaces and picked plenty of berries and climbed a tree now and again.
If you’ve ever run barefoot through mud and loved the feel of it squishing through your toes you might be a country girl.
If you spend an afternoon turning the ground over for fishing worms to go fishing you might be a country girl.
If you like to wash your hair in fresh rainwater or in the creek you might be a country girl.
If you ever caught a June bug and tied it to a string you might be a country girl.
Caught crawdads to fish with in the creek….
Run around in the dark catching lightening bugs to put in a jar…
Sat in the back of a pick up truck at the drive in … I’ve done all of these and a lot of the other ones too so I know I’m a country girl and proud of it!!
Thanks Ann this was fun ..enjoyed reading your blog and all of the comments!!!
Author
Good ones, Carrie. I thought of the string around the June bug after I posted this and wondered if anyone would mention it. I’ve ridden in the back of pick up trucks and caught lightning bugs and felt that mud squish up between my toes. Never went fishing so I missed out on some of those others.
This post and all the comments made me smile. So many memories! I especially enjoyed remembering those church dinners and being baptized in a pond.
Author
Those church dinners were the best, Tammy. All those yummy desserts as the church ladies tried to outdo one another. And where there’s water and a believer, then a baptism can happen.
Have you ever been overcome with curiosity, and though you had been told ‘never touch it’, but you just had to reach out and grab hold of an electric fence, just to see what it felt like?
Have you ever sat in the hayloft on bales of hay, just relaxing and enjoying the smells of the hay?
Have you ever rung a chickens neck and cleaned it so you could fix it for supper?
Have you ever sliced a plate of tomatoes, and salted them, and ate the whole plate as a snack?
Have you grown up eating tomato sandwiches?
Have you ever rode the back of a cow?
Have you ever gathered water cress out of the river, and eaten it for supper?
Have you ever gone fishing, hoping to get a huge fish, and when you feel a bite on your line, you pull it up, and it’s a snake on the line?
Have you ever waded in a forest pool, and when you sit down and look, you see that there are leeches on your feet?
Have you ever caught crawfish under rocks in a stream?
If so, you are a country girl.
When you grow up in the country, you do all these things and more.
Author
You for sure grew up a country girl, Bessie. I have to admit that I’ve never been curious enough to touch that electric fence. Thought about it, but decided it might not be a good idea. LOL. Have played in many a hayloft and love the smell of fresh cut hay.
I swam in a creek instead of a pond, but I’m country through and through. Thanks for a moment of fun.
Author
I love being country through and through, Diana. I played in creeks too, but our cousins had a great pond where we could go swimming. No adult ever felt the need to be a lifeguard for us, but I didn’t drown in spite of being a poor swimmer. I stayed where my feet cold touch the bottom and stirred up the mud.
I remember getting water from grandma’s well ice cold on the hottest day and using the metal dippers to drink from.
Sitting on the porch listening to the guitar a family member was pl
aying
What I did today can tomatoes and hearing the jarlids popping music to my ears
Author
Love hearing those tops pop, Brenda. That’s a good sound when you’re canning or pickling or preserving.
We used to have a water bucket and a metal dipper too. We all drank out of it, but we stayed pretty healthy in spite of that.
About covered it. Waljex through a nea plowed field barefoot.
Author
I’ve walked some of those plowed fields, Lisa.
If you ever had to walk to the back of the farm to “get up” the cows so yourdaddy could milk them…
If you ever sat on a load of baled hay on the way to the barn….
If you ever “picked up sticks” or “followed the setter” while working in tobacco…..
I love these memories you have brought to my mind Ann.
Author
Yep, Lisa. Done all of those. We must be country girls. Never liked following the setter. So boring and hard on the fingers when you had to stick a plant in the ground where it was missed. Liked riding on the load of hay to the barn. That was when you got a few minutes rest.
Oh!!! My favorite subject besides Jesus!
If your favorite smells include any of the following: sweet feed, hay and saddle soap; the powdered milk for the bottle fed abandoned calves; barns hung full of tobacco in the fall …
If you’ve ever caught tobacco worms and lightening bugs in Momma’s canning jars …
If you’ve ever sucked the sweetness out of honeysuckle and clover …
If you’ve ever sat on the porch and watched the sunset as you popped beans …
If you’ve picked ticks off the dogs and squashed them (the ticks) between rocks …
If you’ve chopped thistles, called up cows, hunted crawdaddies in Green Creek, played cowboys and Indians on storm-felled trees, watched a hawk circle on the thermals, learned to bait a hook real good, and cried at the birth of the last foal dropped on the family farm …
Dear me, I could go on and on. What precious memories you have stirred up from the deep. Thank you, Ann.
Author
That smashing the tick between rocks proves your country girl status, Kristy. That’s the only way to be sure to kill them.
My grandkids love sucking the nectar out of those honeysuckle blooms. A drop of sweetness.
Done plenty of those others too. Thanks for added some country girl things.
So many- if you ever helped wash the family car in a creek bed. If your dad had you pick yellow dandelions and rub them really hard between your hands and then have you smell your hands afterwards (pew) if you dad cut and attached wood blocks to you older siblings bike so you could reach the peddles. If a summer family outing was to pack a cooler and head to the local creek swimming hole in a hot day. Went fishing with a stick and a piece of line and actually caught a fish before your brother. Sat in a chair in the front yard under a shade tree and waved at the cars passing by. Got stuck in a tree house built forts in the field behind your house shucked corn out of the back of the car
Author
I’ve done some of those, Suzanne. The washing a car in the creek. Shucked plenty of corn. Never lived close enough to a road to wave at cars passing by when I was a kid. Did go to the creek to swim or at least splash on hot days. Never heard that about dandelions. Don’t think I’ll try it now. LOL. Thanks for adding to the things country girls do.
If you were baptised in a creek…
If you’ve ever flipped over a cow patty before going fishing with an old cane pole…
If you ever milked cows before breakfast..
Thanks for digging up memories, Ann! 🙂
Author
Good ones, Lavon. I like the flipped over the cow patty to find worms one. Guess I didn’t think of that since I never went fishing. My husband properly can relate and especially with that milking before he went to school. So he might be a country boy.
If you’ve ever picked dewberries from their vines next to the railroad track. If you learned how to drive a standard pickup in a pasture. If you’ve ever seen horny toads in your garden.
Author
Great ones to add, Melanie. I’ve seen plenty of toads and I learned to drive a standard shift truck in the hay field but I haven’t picked those dewberries. Yet. 🙂