Down In The Boondocks

Growing up on the wrong side of town, how many times have you heard this? Or something like “they live way out in the boondocks” refering that someone is from the country or their mannerisms point them in that direction.

It seems that I have always lived on the wrong side of town in someones eyes, back when I was a youngun so to say I remember sitting on the porch shucking a bunch of corn Mom had gotten for us, the whole family was sitting around pulling the shucks off and throwing them into a trash can, this was a fine mess of corn we had, and we would be eating on this for a while which was a blessing to us, a group of kids I went to school with was walking down the road and one of them yelled “Shuck that corn Country Boy” and they all laughed, they called me country boy after that and it’s pretty sad that some folks can make you feel ashamed because you were helping out with a task that would feed the family for a while.

A while later my Mom and I teamed up and rented a trailer together, we shared the bills and the groceries and made sure my two younger sisters were fed, now I had moved to another side of town and I wasn’t known as country boy anymore, now I was just pure dee Trailer Trash so to say, I had a full time job and I was paying for my own car, the bills were paid and groceries were bought and paid for so why is this a bad thing, yes we lived in a trailer park and I will never look back on that as a bad experience, my Mom and I grew up a little bit together here and I learned a lot from her on how to take care of myself and others due to this time, and many more lessons from her I did learn during this time in my life.

I moved away and got married, I ended up in Odessa Texas selling supplies in the oilfield, I nearly starved to death here, not because I wasn’t making enough money but because I was expected to spend more to get things that fit my new status in life, keeping up with the Jones, literally I rented from the Jones and worked for one, and had to buy expensive things to look as good as them, I lived way out in the “Boonies” and heaven forbid it was again a trailer house, this looked pretty bad because now not only was I trailer trash but I had the label of Oilfield Trash added on top of it, now to make matters worse I was way out west of town, not on the good end towards Midland, Texas, Good Lord only knows that I never had the knack of picking the right side of town, and Lord knows I don’t actually miss this place because being hungry is not something I really like.

Cindy and I owned our own home in New Mexico, it was a nice house and to this day I am still proud of it, but a funny comment I heard from a co worker once made me really laugh, yes for a time I lived on the west side of this town, and the west side was supposedly the bad side of town, Cindy’s and my home was actually on the east side of town so with this said it appeared that I was finally on the right side of town, one day while riding with this co worker rather than drop me off at home for lunch, he took me all the way back to the office to pick up my own vehicle to drive at lunchtime, when I asked him about it later he commented “Since you now live on the other side of town, I can’t be dropping you off there for lunch” funny thing is that we had to drive right past Cindy’s and my house to go back to the office. I suppose no matter what you do, you will never be on the right side of town all the time in everyones eyes.

Right now Cindy and I are in a rural area way out in the Boondocks, we have chickens and horses, and we grow a little garden in the backyard by the fence, yes we are consuming what we’re growing now a days in self defense, what side of town are we on you ask, I have never really thought about it nor do I care, because in my mind it is exactly the right side and whereever we are from now on we will always be on the right side of town.

One of my favorite memories from my childhood is sitting in the livingroom watching my Mom in the kitchen dancing and singing while she was stirring a pot of something good she was preparing for us to eat, the song she sang was by Billy Joe Royal and she wasn’t worrying about who was watching or where we were living because, as long as you are happy and you are eating then everything else is a non issue.

♪ Down in the boondocks

Down in the boondocks

People put me down 'cause That's the side of town I was born in

I love her she loves me but I don't fit in her society

Lord have mercy on the boy from down in the boondocks

Lord have mercy on the boy from down in the boondocks ♫