Country Wisdom

[rugmaker]

Don't name a pig you plan to eat.
Country fences need to be horse high, pig tight, and bull strong.
Life is not about how fast you run, or how high you climb, but how well you bounce.
Keep skunks and bankers at a distance.
Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.
A bumble bee is faster than a John Deere tractor.
Words that soak into your ears are whispered, not yelled.
Meanness don't happen overnight.
Forgive your enemies. It messes with their heads.
Don't sell your mule to buy a plow.
Don't corner something meaner than you.
It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge.
You can't unsay a cruel thing.
Every path has some puddles.
When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.
The best sermons are lived, not preached.
Most of the stuff people worry about never happens.
Don't squat with your spurs on.
Don't judge people by their relatives.
Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll enjoy it a second time.
Don't interfere with something that ain't botherin' you none.
Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.
If a cat has her kittens in the oven, it don't make 'em biscuits.
It's better to be a has-been than a never-was.
The easiest way to eat crow is while it's still warm. The colder it gets, the harder it is to swaller.
If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.
If it don't seem like it's worth the effort, it probably ain't.
It don't take a genius to spot a goat in a flock of sheep.
Sometimes you get and sometimes you get got.
The biggest troublemaker you'll probably ever have to deal with watches you
shave his face in the mirror every morning.
If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around.
Don't worry about bitin' off more'n you can chew;
your mouth is probably a whole lot bigger'n you think.
Only cows know why they stampede.
Always drink upstream from the herd.
If you're ridin' ahead of the herd,
take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there with ya.
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.
Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back in.
You can't tell how good a man or a watermelon is 'til they get thumped.
Never miss a good chance to shut up.

 

[MinnesotaSmith]

Have to disagree with this one...

"Don't judge people by their relatives."

Especially if "relatives" includes immediate family, you can often quickly discern a great deal by spending a short amount of time around someone's relatives. Their likely physique and health when older, their eccentricities, how they were raised (and what they think is normal or not) -- you can often pick much of this up in nothing flat from seeing their family members. For example, if their parents are obese, alcoholics, violence-prone, or cannot maintain marriages, there is an above-average chance that that is their future as well, even if it does not seem applicable to them now.

 

[nanna]

There's a lot of wisdom there, IMO.

Thanks, rugmaker


nanna

 

[rugmaker]

MS, yes, there are genetics! But everyone has their own values according to their life experiences. It's a mixed bag here! I think we try to overcome negative tendencies by our forefathers.
What was done by my parents, are not necessarily done by me or my children. I know the saying that the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree, but some of us try to overcome!

 

[MinnesotaSmith]

Rugmaker...

"But everyone has their own values according to their life experiences."

Yes, and much of their "life experiences" (the determinative part, perhaps) can be how they were raised. If a woman's mother is a b***h, both of her sisters are too, and the four of them get into the foulest, loudest, near-violent arguments at the drop of a hat when together, that is a heck of a black mark against that woman as a dating prospect IMO, no matter how she has managed to be when alone with me. This is why the immediate family is so important to examine from my POV; not only are the genetics closer than with cousins and whatnot, the results of the manner in which they were raised is shown much more directly.

 

[Laurie the Mom]

Don't whiz on a 'lectric fence.

Laurie

 

[rugmaker]

Yes, MS, I see your point of view!

If all of my family were fat, violent, alcoholics that couldn't keep a marriage together...then yes, they might all have a tendency to have similiar life experiences.

I understand your problem. They say to see what a woman will be like in 20 years, just look at her mother. I would hope that someone outside of the family (you for example) might be able to downplay the genetics and bring out the hidden assets of one such individual.

By the way, thank you so much for all the imput on my Wisconsin/Minnesota thread. I've expanded my search to include the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

 

[MinnesotaSmith]

Sure thing, RM...

"I've expanded my search to include the Upper Peninsula of Michigan"

One plus about that area you may not know; with the exception of much of Alaska and part of coastal Oregon, there is hardly a place in America that is expected to receive less radioactive fallout if the U.S. is the recipient of an all-out major nuclear missile attack.

 

[rugmaker]

Low nuke risk?

Well, that is good news. I guess it's pretty cold there. I'm getting so darn hot here that I keep wanting to go north. We haven't even hit 100 yet. I guess that there isn't much population there either. That's fine with me.

I'm really doing a lot of thread drifting here, but I guess it's okay since it's my thread. I did think most of those were pretty true and it's good to think about such things from time to time.

And MS, I've been friends with some really wonderful people that I could barely stand their relatives. It seems like they really try harder to overcome what they would have been destined to become. Although I wouldn't say that I'm "wonderful", I do know of what I speak. Soooooo....give the gal another look! She might actually be what she seems and then forego all the reunions.