You know, my jeep (the red one) is STILL in the shop. Our mechanic is waiting for his partner who works on the electrical systems of vehicles to show up and help with the vehicle. They have decided the issue with the Jeep is an Electrical issue.
“County Girl” Sticker with embellishment, chrome on a red 2013 Jeep. Made me wonder, am I a Country Girl? Or am I false advertising?! LOL (Copyright 2024, Peggy A Rowe-Snyder)
But, when we got it, part of what turned me on so to speak is that dog gone sticker on the back that says, “Country Girl.” I listen to country music and was raised on it. Not sure if that really makes you a country girl. Spent all my vacations in childhood on the farm with my grandparents in Woodburn, Oregon and Orland, California. That grandfather came from a long line of farmers. As did my other grandparents.
Clyde’s vision of Peggy’s new baby
Once upon a time, the town, Newark, California, I grew up in was a cow-poke town. When I was growing up, there were Clydesdale horses over where New Park Mall was. It was a part of life that we smelled cabbages and other Cole crops constantly –we were surrounded by fields of the stuff. There were herds of cattle in various fields way back in the 1960s. My sister and I had a pony named Pickles in our backyard, and dad kept chickens, and pigeons. We had pet rabbits. We had our share of fruit/veggie stands. Even when I was grown, I could go and pick 5 gallon buckets of tomatoes from a local farm, and I’d take a car load home and can them. But does any of this make me a country girl??
I asked Clyde what he thought. Am I a country girl? Maybe I should take that sticker off the Jeep ? if I ever really have it. He said something along the lines that I am at least some country girl because I am so opinionated, just like other country girls. I had to laugh at his answer, because I had no clue that is what made a girl a country girl.
Should I just say I “identify” as a country girl? LOL, My dad called himself an “Oregonian Oakie.” That might be enough to make a girl turn from identifying as a country girl. LOL
Clyde saying the opinionated word got me to thinking. It took me a while to become opinionated. I think becoming a mother and dealing with the issues I’ve had to deal with for my kids, and myself over the years have helped me, or maybe forced me into opinions that in all honesty most of us wouldn’t want to think about, let alone have opinions about. But, I let Clyde know that he is probably the most responsible for my becoming so vocal in terms of my opinions.
I have opinions, boy do I have them! Don’t get me started on vaccines for children. My kids got all available vaccines. I have two of them with an Autism diagnoses. Do I think that the vaccines caused the autism? Hell no. (I can conveniently blame the DNA no matter who supplied it) I think people who do not vaccinate their children are insane. Take a class in medical history if you don’t think I know what I’m talking about. Don’t take my word for it! LOL
So, I had to make my statement about my opinions to Clyde. My words to Clyde were more of a game, I told him I blamed him for all my vocal protests and statements of what I just happen to think of as truth. He wanted to know just why I blamed him. LOL. I told him, basically, “I am a product of many people, and places, and influences, but you have given me so much love and respect that it finally sunk in that I deserve to have the right to express myself. I know I have the right of respect now.” So, the cat is out of the bag so to speak, there is no turning back. And Clyde, after the explanation, was quite willing to take the blame. LOL.
It’s not that others didn’t treat me with love and respect. But, the people we choose to live with on an intimate level have so much influence on our lives. After all, It’s worked both ways for us, I’ve pulled him very close to the middle on political terms and from the far right to boot. But, you get that love & respect, on all levels and consistently — something that really never happened before because of a dysfunctional family, and marriages– that consistently over 20 years, can really do some miracles for some. Well, for me at least.
So, yea, I don’t think I’ve been too humble about my opinions for a long, long time–but, I certainly don’t hold back anymore. I got asked by a stranger about Trump in the grocery line. The tone of her question and the way it was worded showed she was obviously a supporter. I could do nothing more than say, we need not talk politics because I HIGHLY dislike the man, and I don’t approve of most of what he says and does, and nearly anyone else would make a better President than him. I was loud. All kinds of people were looking at me. That’s my truth, like it or not. I was happy to get out of that line and to the car.
So, I still am not so sure if I’m a country girl. Though I can say I was never comfortable in the mass of people in the Bay Area. I am far more comfortable in a rural area. All I can say, is that I agree, my translation is that yes, I’m a big mouth, who is highly opinionated, and have no trouble expressing myself–most the time. And it’s taken a bunch of love and respect from people to get here. It took a long time, but here I am.
