There are certain words or phrases that, if we hear them come out of one mouth, they seem perfectly normal or expected. But, if we hear those same words spoken by another person in another situation, they seem so oddly out of place that we have to take pause and rerun the statement through our brains just to comprehend what we have heard.
Many years ago, while sitting through a boring English Composition class, taking notes and trying my best to stay awake, I was shocked when I thought I heard the very prim and proper professor answer a student’s question with, “Well, I ain’t never heard nuthin’ like that in my life!” During the entire semester, I had never witnessed the elderly lady make one error in grammar, but as I replayed that statement in my mind, I thought I had identified at least four major errors. Back home, that’s the way we talked, but that phrase from her mouth was like witnessing the head of someone else stuck in a cardboard cutout of her.
A few years later, I was working on a building project with a group of volunteers that included an older and well-respected minister in the community. It was a hot, steamy afternoon and we were nailing asphalt shingles onto the roof. It was late in the day and we were all tired as I found myself right beside the preacher when he missed his target and smashed his thumb with the 20 ounce hammer. “@#$%,” he screamed as he threw down the hammer and grabbed his bloody thumb. Once again, I had to process his utterance before a complete understanding came to be. The same word screamed earlier in the day by a retired Marine had no effect on me at all. I guess we all tend to stereotype individuals based on their position or training and expect them to talk as we expect they would.
Last week, I had the regular crew of cowboys out to help me work the spring calf crop. We started early and had three good-sized bunches worked by noon. I offered to take the guys out for lunch at the local café and, not surprisingly, they accepted. Over lunch, we were swapping stories and relaxing over good food. Joe, with a little prodding, was telling us of last weekend’s big roping competition down in Oklahoma where he had placed second and made some decent money. “Aw, shucks,” he stated, “Even a blind hog finds an ear of corn once in a while.”
Danny retold the story of breaking his ankle last year while working a bunch of cattle. He’d even penned a cowboy poem about the ordeal and entertained us while we ate. It was good. Ron shared a story or two as well, but seemed more intent on the meal than talking, so Brandon started telling a story about recently delivering a horse to a farm the next county over. As stories go, it wasn’t much more than small talk and to be honest, we probably weren’t listening as good as we should have until Brandon stated, “I had to back the trailer through Camelot to unload the horse.”
In unison, all four of us stopped eating and just stared straight ahead, allowing our heads to understand that we had just heard a real cowboy use the word Camelot.
“Huh?” Ron asked. “Camelot?”
“Yeah,” Brandon replied calmly, “I delivered the horse to that exotic animal ranch and had to back the trailer through the camel lot to get to the barn.”
Jerry Crownover farms in Lawrence County. He is a former professor of Agriculture Education at Missouri State University, and is an author and professional speaker. To contact Jerry, go to ozarksfn.com and click on ‘Contact Us.’
