Originally posted by pulykamell
But why would they know any better? Average Joe in Chicago isn’t interested in Budapest any more than he’s interested in farms, for instance. When we don’t know, we obviously rely on our stereotypes of farms and foreign countries that we’ve gotten from TV or literature or wherever. My mother grew up on a farm in Poland, and it’s exactly the kind of farm your physician acquaintance described. Dogs, hens, horses, cows, pigs, rabbits, cats. No sheep, though.
Actually, the question about electricity is not that outlandish. My sister has been living in Georgia, that’s the former Soviet Republic, y’all. She is not in the boonies, but in the capital Tbilisi. Even her apartment, which is on a good power grid (Soviet officials used to live in that area) only gets electricity about4-5 hours each day. Every person of even moderate means has a gas/kerosene heater. There are also still shellholes in the parliament building from years back. About 3 years ago there was a well orchestrated, but unsuccessful rocket attack on President Schevardnadze’s (sp?) motorcade.
Now granted, Hungary has always been one of the least repressive of the eastern bloc countries, but there are still noticable differences between that and neighboring Austria.
Muttering-"Why won’t my damn signature line work?"grumble
Abe- I don’t think the “do you have electricity” question is outlandish, but if you lived in Budapest and realized that it’s more-or-less Western European in living standard, the question would seem silly to you. You head one country east (Romania) and things change. In the villages people do use horses and carriages. Paved roads seem to vanish. My main point was that this is my reality now. It seems so obvious to me living here for 2 1/2 years that it’s easy to forget that others may not have a conception of what it is. Yes, it’s different than farms. Most Chicagoans haven’t driven through Budapest. But the point is simply what is obvious for me, and what I take for granted, others haven’t the faintest clue.
Please excuse me, SexyWriter. Where abouts were you raised? I was brought up in rural IL too. My stomping grounds includes Burlington, IL (holding about 300 fine upstanding farming folk), to Oregon, IL (with a beautiful river running through it, you just have to make it past the hog farms), and my oldest brother living outside Peoria, IL(um, no farm comment here).
Sorry for posting so late, it’s just that I keep meaning to ask.
I, too, feel your pain SexyWriter. My parents owned a dog kennel while I was in high school. Our house was on the grounds. I grew up in a dog kennel, bark-bark, woof-slurp. So, I got the nickname of “Spot” from my friends in high school. Charming bunch, they were.
Sorry for my late post as well, for some reason, I just never thought to open a thread called “Did you hear the one about the farmer’s daughter?” Poor judgement call on my part, in retrospect.
Living in Colorado, We were in a nice town (Ft. Collins), surrounded by miles and miles of wheat and barley (plus a few cattle operations). We had more, and more diversity of, animals on our property, than could be found in half a county of grain farms. When I went to live in Maryland, I discovered that farms might have a multiplicity of animals on one farm. What a shock: Dairy cattle, angus, sheep, pigs, all one one farm!
My wife is from Decatur, IL (actualy, Mt. Zion, but no one knows where that is!), and her idea of a farm is miles and miles of soybeans, all going to ADM in Decatur. She, of course, is a ‘city kid’, as am I, but not to the yahoos in the big cities! Living, now, in DE, and spending much of our time in rural DE, MD, and PA, we’re surounded by all kinds of farms, and don’t hear any dumb questions about them any more.
Wow, I’m so ignorant I don’t even know “the one about the farmers daughter”. What in the world are you talking about?
On a related note, however, I do tech support for an ISP and whenever (and I mean EVERY FREAKIN TIME) I tell someone that I get some sort of reference to CD-ROMs and coffee cup holders. My rule is that if you don’t or haven’t worked in tech support (or at least, if you haven’t read and understood every comic strip in User Friendly you are not allowed to make tech support jokes. Just my little gripe.
Let’s not call you ignorant, drewcosten; you’re just under-informed. The thread title is a winking reference to any one of hundreds of jokes, usually involving the following elements:
A traveling salesman whose car has broken down and asks to spend the night at a farmhouse.
The lonely, oversexed farmer’s daughter.
The over-protective farmer himself.
The joke usually begins with a bizarre warning from the farmer, i.e. “if you go near my daughter, I’ll have to butter the hotdog” or something else that makes no obvious (or onvious) sense.
The salesman’s libido gets the better of him, then the salesman gets the better of the daughter, only to learn, to his horror, what the warning meant in the tragicomic punchline.
Has our OP ever been in a “farmer’s daughter” situation? From all I know about her, I’d be ineffably disappointed if she hasn’t.
Not to turn this into a rural IL love fest …but… I know Pontiac, SW, one of my brothers lives in Marseilles. Even though I live an hour and a half from either the beautiful Gulf Coast or Atlantic Ocean beaches, there is a quiet calm to the flat land farming towns.
My fear is that her father will kick down the door in a raging fury, and I’ll squirm out a window and scramble across snow-covered fields while packs of hounds and men with shotguns track me.
Well, two dogs. And they’re not in the habit of sending the hounds after new boyfriends, but there’s always a first time. I wooed Laura’s cats by bringing catnip toys; maybe I should bring some rawhide bones to woo her parents’ dogs. (And yes, I have wooed Laura with things other than pet toys.)
Just gotta remember to omit the jokes about the farmer who got an award for being outstanding in his field. There’s probably an amendment to the Illinois constitution that allows a farmer to shoot his daughter’s suitor during the first meeting if said suitor makes farmer jokes.
Hey, now, everybody deserves cheesy pick up lines! They’re one of life’s little pleasures. Now all you have to do is learn to deliver one with a straight face.
Oh, wait…My mistake, I see you already have!! haha
interesting, you know post 1 is closed but 2 is still open. Hey and it just turned 2 yrs old on the 12th, hmm. Somebody should resurrect that, although there doesn’t seem to be much reason to. But it’s a fascinating post all about the fallibility of gods.
anyhoo I too was born on a farm, well maybe orchard would be better term. My father grew antheriums and … um … well heck pakalolo. Luckily when people ask where I was born I tend to reply not that I was born on a farm but that I was born in a 6x6 foot sheed built by my father so my mother wouldn’thave to give birth in a tent. Although sure enough people don’t believe it. In these modern days people are born in hospitals. Oh this was in 1974. But the questions that get me the most I get from living in Hawaii. Some are just bizarre. My mom has been told she speaks really good English for being a foreigner. And tons of other interesting questions that shows that many people have no idea Hawaii is a state of the Union.
add that with the tall stuff, I’m 6’5". Whoosh, it’s no wonder I’m such an introvert
