And y'all thought I was bullshitting you about Macon County.....
A humor video, but these two old boy's attitudes are pretty typical of Macon County and what I run into - "If you want to move down here, that's fine, but you adapt to us, we don't adapt to you."
Right on, that's the way it should be. It's been seven years now and I've yet to have anybody treat me different because I moved here from California. Thank you for accepting me.
I was in the gun shop one day a year or so after we got here and Brent was reviewing my 4473 and decided to mess with me in front of a couple customers. "Hey Ken, where did you say you were born again?" he asked with a smile on his face.
"California," I muttered, scowling at his smug self.
An older gentleman turned to me laughing and said, "Well, you're in Tennessee now, Friend. That's all that matters, isn't it?" and then he stuck out his hand and introduced himself.
The Macon County Finger: I had to change my driving habits after I moved here. I used to drive with my hands at 4 and 8 on the wheel but I had so many people 'fingering' me that I now drive with one hand draped over the top of the wheel so I can finger back.
My sister-in-law came out here from California with her daughter and new granddaughter for a visit a couple years ago, and after a couple days I had to make a store run for diapers. I don't know shit about diapers so I took Lisa's niece with me. As we were coming back from town, Skyler asked me "Do you know all these people, Uncle Ken?"
"What do you mean, darlin'?" I asked.
"Every truck we've passed, you waved at each other!" She just couldn't wrap her head around the fact that Macon County people are just friendly to strangers for no reason other than to just say howdy to each other.
It's not just Macon County, though - I see the same thing up in Allen County, our Kentucky neighbor to the north.
I have made a couple observations about the Finger though: Women generally don't do it, and it's rare when somebody in a car does it. And it only seems to happen out in the country. As soon as I hit the 'city' limit, even before I get into town proper, it stops.
Some youngsters do it, others don't. It's the farm kids that do it, though - you can tell that they're farm kids by the equipment in the back of their muddy trucks.
It also doesn't happen on major roads like Highway 52, probably because of the amount of traffic. Why, sometimes traffic is so heavy I'll have 5 or 6 vehicles in my field of view - a man could get hand cramps from fingering so much.
But yeah, I'll be driving down my road with my hands down at the bottom of the wheel without another vehicle in sight, but as soon as I see a pickup or tractor come around a bend, my right hand goes over the top of the wheel without me even thinking about it.
Just one more reason why I love it here so much.