Fun_People Archive
5 Mar
Hillbilly Speak

Date: Fri,  5 Mar 93 15:40:36 PST
To: Fun_People
Subject: Hillbilly Speak

[This is from a Bluegrass list discussion of the song "Bile 'Em Cabbage Down"
and whether "Bile" is "Gaelic brogue" or "plain old Hillbilly"... -psl]

 From: "Brad Leftwich" <leftwich@indiana.edu>

... the Washington Biological Survey was studying the migratory patterns of
waterfowl. They attached to the birds' ankles a tag with the abbrieviation
Wash. Biol. Surv. and their address, so when hunters bagged them they could
report where the birds had ended up.

They got a letter from an irate Arkansas hillbilly, who fumed, "I shot one
of them birds yesterday, and did what the tag said. I washed it, biled it,
and surved it. It was turrible. I think the government should mind its own
business and not go tellin' folks how to cook."

© 1993 Peter Langston