1. We obsess about the weather. Everyone in western KY considers themselves a meteorologist. They know all the terms, they watch the radar, they can predict the weather better than anyone I’ve ever seen, including those high-priced meteorologists on TV. They have to. They need to know when they will be able to get their equipment in the field, they need to know when they can get into their stands or woods to go hunting, they need to know when they can head to the lake. Our lives revolve around the weather. And if you don’t like it, wait 30 minutes, it’ll change.
2. Don’t tell us you know where we are. You don’t. We are nowhere near Owensboro or Bowling Green. If you know where Paducah is then you’re close. But you then need to head south. We are in faaarrrrr western Kentucky, close to where the Ohio & Mississippi Rivers meet. We are 30 minutes to Illinois, Missouri or Tennessee. We are two hours to Nashville, Memphis or St. Louis. We are five hours to Lexington.
3. If you want to make effective small talk with someone from west Kentucky you are safe by talking about bean or corn prices, the lack of affordable tobacco help, where you’re from or who you’re related to, why you’re in the area, or basketball. If you really want to get us riled up talk Rick Pitino up or down. There are those of us who are Louisville fans who hate him. Then there those who are Kentucky fans who love him. I don’t know.
4. #BBN. Not everyone follows Twitter but everybody follows Kentucky basketball. Any true UK fan knows all the players and their stats and what round they’ll be drafted in the NBA. Non-UK fans know Kentucky basketball because they want to argue about those stats and those players and what round the players won’t be drafted in the NBA. And just like Pitino everyone has an opinion on Coach Cal.
5. That guy, from The Voice, with the voice, yeah, he’s from Kentucky. Sweet. But did you know that guy from America’s Got Talent, that chicken catcher, he’s from western Kentucky. Don’t judge.
6. If you want to dress like somebody from western Kentucky you either need to wear camo or something UK. I tease my husband that I’m going to bury him in his blue jeans, boots and a UK shirt. Flannel works too. Women make a few changes but not enough to note here. Oh, and you can get all of this at Walmart or Tractor Supply.
7. How to sound like you are from west Kentucky? You can listen to some of Jeff Foxworthy and get pretty close. But in western Kentucky, well, some words change. Not being native to this part of the state I always noticed that some words were used differently. That’s in all parts of the state. But one word I swore I would never use, no matter what was “pack”. I was raised that you pack your bag. I was not raised to pack the groceries into the house. I was not raised to pack the baby. That was always so weird to me. But you know, I say it now. Everyone understands it. It just comes out.
8.Western Kentucky has got some great food. But you have two choices: fried or smoked. Seriously. I used to be able to lose weight by avoiding fried food. You can’t do that here. It’s going to be fried. But it’s so good, you can’t pass it up. Fried chicken, fried catfish, fried okra. Yum. So let’s talk about such things. We love fried catfish. In fact, in most restaurants that’s the only fish you can get. Don’t go asking for whitefish. They’ll look at you crazy. What’s a whitefish? And you don’t want it even if it’s on the menu. It’s usually cooked the way it comes in, pre-breaded and frozen. But the catfish, even if you don’t like catfish, is worth eating. Really worth eating. And don’t go for that imitation catfish. Can you imagine? Imitation catfish? Well, there is an asian fish that resembles catfish. But any connoisseur of catfish can tell the difference in one bite. You want pond raised catfish. Yep, that’s the best. Also, in western Kentucky we pride ourselves on our barbecue. It’s the best. We cook it low and slow, meaning on a low temperate for lots of hours, like 8, 10 or 24. And we let the meat speak for itself. That means we don’t douse it with tons of sauce. If you want sauce that’s your business but we’re not going to put it on our meat. In western Kentucky we barbecue anything: pork butts and shoulders, turkey, chicken, ribs, bologna, deer, rabbit. You name it, we can barbecue it. I’ve even known some raccoon being out on the pit. But if you’re lucky you know someone who smokes country hams or sausage. Now that’s living high on the hog. I’ll warn you though, once you eat it you won’t want to eat what you get at the grocery.
9.If you are looking for something to drink you’ve come to the right place. You have two choices: tea or Sundrop. I’m sure you have more choices than that but you can get your tea sweet or unsweet. You can get your Sundrop regular or diet. There are other drinks, like milk, beer, other soft drinks or bourbon. If you’re ordering tea you need to stipulate sweet or “un”. Make sure if you are ordering Sundrop to order diet if that’s what you want. And these are breakfast drinks too. I know lots of people who wouldn’t touch coffee but they have to have their Sundrop first thing or they’ll get a headache. If you’re going to drink bourbon then Sundrop makes a good mixer. It’s a good mixer with screwdrivers, margaritas or any other mixed drink. Just saying. Most everyone just drinks Sundrop. In fact, back in the 80’s, when Sundrop wasn’t available everywhere, Graves County boasted selling more Sundrop than anywhere else in the country. And there are lots of people who moved away but would buy Sundrop by the case when they came home so they didn’t have to go without.
10.A lot of people think that people who live in the country are poor. I will tell you, we’re not poor. We’re not rich. But we make as much money as people in other areas of the state. The difference is we’re not driving BMW’s. We’re driving a brand new Chevy Silverado HD 3/4 ton, 4 wheel drive, crew cab. I’m sure that thing costs as much as some of the BMW’s out there, if not more. We don’t have a place in Florida. You’ll find us at Gulf Shores. We prefer to put our money back into the land. So, if we have a good year it’s pretty likely that we’re going to build a new barn or a few acres here or there. That old tractor could be restored too.
11.When you live in Louisville people know you by what high school you went to. If you’re asked there where you went to school they are not asking college, they’re asking high school. But in western Kentucky they want to know where you are from. We’re not usually asking which city, more like what county (as there are 8 counties in the Jackson Purchase area of Kentucky). If you’re from the same county then you can ask area like Water Valley, Dog Patch, Hard Money, Fancy Farm, Benton or Sharpe. If you can’t find anything to talk about after that then you must not be related to anyone in those areas or went to school with anyone from there. Because, we all usually know someone in common.
12.Camo is a fashion statement. Just saying.
13.There are some things we don’t want to talk about. We don’t care what your politics are. We don’t care what your religion is (we’ll pray for you anyway). We don’t care what you think about guns (yes, we have them. yes, we use them). We don’t want to know your liberal views. We might agree with you in some ways. We’re not going to agree with you in others. We believe what we believe. You can believe what you believe. Thank you.
14.We don’t apologize for shopping at Walmart. We push a buggy, not a shopping cart. We don’t do self-check out.
15.We know all the words to My Old Kentucky Home. We sing it. We know all the words to the Star Spangled Banner. We sing that one too. To the top of our lungs.
Any time you want to know this first hand, come on down, if you can find us. We’ll welcome you home.
So glad to see a new post! I so enjoyed our time in KY and thankful again that we met!
15 Things West Kentuckians Have to Explain to Everybody Else | Painted Hammers and Fried Okra
[…] Source: 15 Things West Kentuckians Have to Explain to Everybody Else […]
Having grown up in Fulton County, KY, I am thrilled to read this. I now live in Northern KY near Cincinnati, OH. When asked where I am from, I say South Western Kentucky. People respond with the usual, “Oh Paducah”. Once I tell them that my area is an hour South of Paducah, they ask everytime, “Kentucky goes past Paducah? “. Bless their hearts, they just don’t understand.
Wingo native here. PREACH, and pass the Sundrop.
Excellent article! Glad you pointed out you moved here and were not born and raised here.
Most people that know something about Kentucky or live in any other part of Kentucky can tell by our accent we are from Western Kentucky . So having to go beyond saying we’re from Kentucky means you’re a definite outsider. And we might as well automatically start explaining where Western Kentucky is and that we have NO idea why they call a school in Bowling Green Western Kentucky University.
The comment about what area or county we are from explains a couple of omissions. According to our area and age determines our soft drink choice. Mountain Dew reigns for some. (Including myself) In Weatern Calloway County and Eastern Graves County Mello Yello reigns supreme. Sundrop is drank by the older population. There is a glaring similarity here, while most will accept Citrus Drop in a pinch DO NOT try and offend anyone by offering them that swill called Mountain Lightning that Wal-Mart sells. But Sweet Tea usually does reign supreme with all.
And also a well seasoned Western Kentuckian can tell by the accent and phrases another Western Kentuckian uses where they are from.
Western Kentucky university was slated for Hopkinsville but those dummies didn’t want it they picked a nut house instead. Still not much more west then bowling green but ya known to the rest it’s pretty far west.
I live in Western Ky, , Mayfield, to be exact. I understand completely! I have never lived anywhere else.
Instead of being stuck in traffic we get stuck behind farm equipment on county roads. Small town feel. Oh yes, we love our sweet tea!! We use too many slang words, but it’s all ok, everyone talks this way. We are not snobs. Everyone waves their hand at anyone we meet on the highway. Simple life yes, but it’s all I know.
Sheltered as children, yes. But I am good with it.
You have not had barbecue unless you have been in Western Kentucky. Not all parts of Kentucky know about real barbecue. It’s only in Western KY. People who visit want always want to take some home!!!
Love it !!! I am close to Owensboro and bowling green lol but Muhlenberg county hits every mark you said lol don’t forget beans and cornbread with that catfish. Whewwwww we make you pin yer ears back to keep from beatin your self to death 💕
Don’t forget the hushpuppies either! Lol
Hi from Farmington and I have never understood the fascination with Sundrop – I can take every once in a while but to get up out of bed and drink it … I think not. And another shocking fact not everyone is a fan of #BBN or basketball at all.
Dave – couldn’t agree more – I like Sundrop, on occasion and I’m a Louisville fan not a KY fan (but I’m not a Pitino fan). Sometimes I wonder why they let me live here at all. Ha!
Overwhelmed | Cynelder's Blog
[…] January 30, 2016 // 0 Today I come to you with my head bowed in humility. You have overwhelmed me. I’ll bet that you don’t even know what you did. I guess that makes me that much more humble. I don’t know what to say, except “thank you”. I have never been good at taking compliments. If someone complimented me on something I had done I would tell them that I hadn’t done much. Then I would point out how someone else had done just as well if not more. If I was complimented on how I looked I downplayed it by saying, “Thank you, but I’ve never liked my hair like this” or something just as derogatory. I was led to believe that people who “fished” for compliments were hung up on themselves. I tried everything I could to not appear to fish for compliments. That’s not who I was. But if someone did compliment me I was thrilled inside. I thought that was the best thing and I would be on cloud 9 sometimes for days. And then along came Facebook. The thing I absolutely love about Facebook is that I can put my stuff out there and sit back and wait. I have shared family pictures, comments on how my day is going, whatever. It is the ultimate support group. I don’t care if you put a horrendous picture up of yourself there are people who like that picture and others who will comment on it. A friend of mine put a non-flattering picture up and made a comment about getting old and everyone jumped on the bandwagon and said “you’re not getting old, you’re beautiful”. Things like that make my heart warm. And if they are commenting on something I have done then I just get this shy smile as if to say “shucks, ma’am”. Several years ago I started blogging and I really enjoy doing that. In my blogs I can rant and I can rave. The ones that I think are silly are the ones that everyone seems to enjoy so I have challenged myself to post more often and to include pictures and really think them through. Honestly, I am trying to maintain four different blogs because when I write you never have any idea what I’m going to say. I can sit down to write a blog on the weather and the next thing I’m talking about how beautiful is my part of the world. I just never know what I’m going to say. Sometimes I work very hard to get down on paper what I want to convey. Sometimes I stew over a piece for weeks or months on end. And sometimes I never post what I have written. Sometimes I write for me, just to get it out of my head. I wish I could pull that bestseller out of my head but it’s stubborn and just won’t let me put it on paper. I’m always intrigued to see how far my Facebook posts go. I love to see how many people have actually seen it or liked it or commented on it. And it’s not always the same person over and over again. It wouldn’t be as much fun if all of your likes and comments came from your mother. But anyway, I have found that my blog about Fancy Farm, the place I live, get the most attention. Fancy Farm is a small, unique town in southwestern Kentucky. Actually it’s world famous for the annual Fancy Farm Picnic but there are people who can trace their ancestry back to Fancy Farm and that’s sometimes as far back as they want to go. There’s a lot of people out there who are from Fancy Farm and whether they ever come back or not that will always be home to them. So, that blog has a larger audience than my other blogs (although they’re not doing too bad themselves). The first blog I wrote about Fancy Farm was right before the Picnic one year and a guy came up to me, who was originally from Fancy Farm, and asked me if I had written that post. I told him I had and I was sure that he was going to have a complaint about something that I said. But he didn’t. He told me how much he loved it and that his entire family had been sitting in the airport in Dallas, TX, reading the post aloud, so they could all hear. He told me that they all loved it and that I had hit the nail on the head about the Picnic and to keep up the posts. I thanked him for saying that and then dropped my head in that “ah, shucks, sir” stance as he walked away. But I will tell you this, when my head came back up I had the biggest, brightest smile on my face that just would not quit. The rest of the day I was skipping on the clouds, not just walking on cloud 9. I was euphoric. It was the best feeling in the world. I didn’t even know this guy. Someone had pointed me out to him and he took the time to come and tell me how much he enjoyed my writing. I could have died right there because that was a dream come true. But today, you overwhelm me. Several weeks ago, on Facebook, someone had posted 15 things that people from Kentucky had to explain to the rest of the world. I read those. Some of them were okay. Since I am originally from Louisville I got a couple of giggles out of them. But then I thought, whoever wrote this has never been to western Kentucky and if they had they would have changed some of the 15 things. So I decided to write a post on 15 things that people from western Kentucky have to explain to everyone else. Well, let me tell you, I giggled and even howled in laughter while I wrote it. I was sort of worried that I might step on some toes but I’ve come to a point in my life that it’s your problem if you have a problem with me, not mine. Anyway, I wrote it. One of the items was about Sundrop so I took a picture of Sundrop and put it in my post. I’m sure that got it some attention. But I’m also sure that it got lots of attention coming from the Fancy Farm community. Well, ladies and gentlemen, because of Facebook and everyone and their brother who shared that post it got over 18,000 hits in just a few days. I got a comment from our favorite catfish restaurant thanking me for the catfish comments. I got a text from a friend of mine telling me that post has been passed around by the people that own Sundrop to all of their facilities. She told me that they sent that to her and she said “hey, this is us! I know her!”. I have heard from people all over the world that have told me that I hit it head on. Well, I haven’t looked very sheepish here I will tell you. I have refreshed my stats page on that blog about a gazillion times. I am just amazed. But I have been so excited about it all. I am very proud of that piece but I am more than proud that there are so many people who have been moved enough about that piece to share it and comment on it. Now if I was to see you out I would probably say “do you know how many hits that piece has now?” And I would love that you would be just as excited as me. So for those of you who didn’t see the piece, here it is. I hope you enjoy it. And I am nothing but grateful, from the bottom of my heart. https://cynthiaelder.wordpress.com/2016/01/25/15-things-west-kentuckians-have-to-explain-to-everybod… […]
True for the most part. Sundrop and crown royal yes. Yes we Pack. (Guns)
I have lived in Marshal Co for 6 decades. I don’t know anybody that drinks Sundrop.
It’s Coke or RC. I knew right off this article was written by an outsider. Good article but a little off. It’s Mostly sweet tea.
Well, in Graves County it’s mainly SunDrop. I admit I’m an outsider. I’ve only lived here 25 years.