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Rednecks, airboats and spring water

Yesterday, I took my two younger kids to the headwater spring of the
Wacissa River in Jefferson county, FL (about 20 miles east of
Tallahassee) to go canoeing and fishing. Years ago when I went there
as a kid a lot, it was beautiful with crystal clear cold spring water,
ideal for a hot summer afternoon.

We got there and it was packed with seemingly every redneck within 50
miles. Fortunately, most of em were well behaved and mostly sober.
What struck me was that most of the girls were overweight and all of
them except one good looking redhead had "Tramp Stamp" tattoos on their
lower backs. Do white trash rednecks really think tattoos look good?
I really can't be too hard on em cuz I am probably related to half of
em in a complicated way (being a local myself). My kids were apalled
and amazed at such redneckism, I think they lead a much more sheltered
life than I did since they go to upper income schools whereas I went to
the worst local schools.

What did **** me off was the airboats, there were about 8 of them. The
Wacissa River is very shallow in places and is covered with hydrilla
(invasive non-native plant) and some floating native plants so is not
easily navigable by most boats. I can understand why some people have
them for getting to fishing holes in shallow water but I wish they'd
avoid being around other people cuz they are so loud they hurt your
ears at 300'. These guys were not doing any fishing but were only
running up and down the river making noise and spoiling it for everyone
else. Every one of these airboats was piloted by a guy with a huge
beer gut, control stick in one hand and beer can in the other.

In spite of the airboats, the kids had a good time. My 15 yr old son
tried to impress his gf but he has no skill in canoeing. My 10 yr old
daughter loved the whole thing. We all watched a smallish gator
stalking a wading bird (it got away). I am trying to get my kids
familiar with the canoe so they will do more outdoors stuff instead of
wimpy computer games but watching my son trying to tie a knot makes me
want to beat my head on a tree. I thought he would just learn these
things like I did without being taught but I s'pose its a different
world.

Rednecks, airboats and spring water

Many school attendance zones are based upon proximity to the school. Newer
developed areas often have newer schools and a certain income level is
required to afford to live in those areas. Older, less popular areas often
require less income for housing, eh?

Perhaps this will result in another Supreme Court decision and new busing
requirements to level the playing field? After all, we can't have economic
segregation, can we?

Butch
"basskisser" wrote in message
oups.com...

wrote:
My kids were apalled
and amazed at such redneckism, I think they lead a much more sheltered
life than I did since they go to upper income schools whereas I went to
the worst local schools.

Do they really sort who goes to what public school in your area by
income??

Rednecks, airboats and spring water

"basskisser" wrote in message
ups.com...

Butch Davis wrote:
Many school attendance zones are based upon proximity to the school.
Newer
developed areas often have newer schools and a certain income level is
required to afford to live in those areas. Older, less popular areas
often
require less income for housing, eh?

Perhaps this will result in another Supreme Court decision and new busing
requirements to level the playing field? After all, we can't have
economic
segregation, can we?

A lot of older home areas here in these parts are selling for higher
prices than new.

Yes, but you're comparing older double-wides to the newer single-wides.

Rednecks, airboats and spring water

NOYB wrote:
"basskisser" wrote in message
ups.com...

Butch Davis wrote:
Many school attendance zones are based upon proximity to the school.
Newer
developed areas often have newer schools and a certain income level is
required to afford to live in those areas. Older, less popular areas
often
require less income for housing, eh?

Perhaps this will result in another Supreme Court decision and new busing
requirements to level the playing field? After all, we can't have
economic
segregation, can we?

A lot of older home areas here in these parts are selling for higher
prices than new.

Yes, but you're comparing older double-wides to the newer single-wides.

Well, it is a sort of self sorting process. The quality of a school
drives the prices of nearby homes here and that drives the quality of
the schools. There is actually an inverse corellation between funding
levels at a school and the standardized test scores. In other words,
poor schools have substantially more spent per student. It is
generally the income level that determines parental involvement which
determines student achievement. The local school board tries to mix
things up by making the worst high school into a mixed normal high
school and a special advanced school with limitesd success. They also
have tried the 'magnet school' concept with little success.
My wife has been a teacher in 5 different states and many different
schools so she has a very good perspective on this issue.

When I was a kid here, my family home was just above "double wide"
level (and there were 9 kids) and most of my classmates were the
poorest rednecks and the poorest blacks, a great combination. My high
school was basically a babysitting service for poor kids until they
went into the army,the guidance department had no notion of college.
Today, we live on the affluent side of town, are solidly middle class
and my kids attend one of the top 100 public high schools in the
country where 90% of the kids go to college. My kids classmates
normally own their own cars that are always nicer than what I drive.
Exposure to the extreme redneck element was a culture shock to my
sheltered kids but part of my past.

Rednecks, airboats and spring water