Hometowns Response-Michael Cox

I hate to refer to the place that I was primarily raised in as my hometown, because I never really viewed it as my home and never will.

But the place the I was raised near for the greater portion of my childhood was Verndale, Minnesota. You can already tell from the name that this place is about as hickish as you can find. Population of roughly 600 people. One school which taught K-12. I did not go to that school thankfully. I was home schooled. Which was an education at a level many times greater than that of most of my friends. No exaggeration here, the education system was geared towards the children of farmers, who were expected to become farmers. I knew several people in that area that never completed an education higher than 8th grade, because that was all they needed.

Farming was the primary economic basis for that area. My father decided that he wanted to farm, which is why we ended up there. I was actually born in Atlanta and lived in Acworth for the first half of my life. My Dad was a graduate from Georgia Tech with a Masters in Computer science, had worked for almost 20 years at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, and decided to raise his kids on a farm. Go figure.

In many ways the stereotypes that people commonly think of as "Southern" actually apply across the nation. The hick/redneck lifestyle applies to basically any society or settlement that is based off of an economic system not requiring a higher level of education. It's very clearly seen in MN not just the south.