Vinceland

I fish 4 bass. I enjoy shooting guns. I will drink cheap beer when available. I enjoy rock and roll, sometimes classic. I like motorcycles and loud, fast cars and big-rig trucks.

I spent a lot of time in Vermont growing up, and lived there for over 10 years. Those things make me happy and excited.

I just completed fishing unsuccessfully for 4 days in a Father's Day fishing tournament. It was not unsuccessful for not catching anything, but unsuccessful in terms of winning the damn thing. It was successful in terms of spending time thinking about nothing but friends, beer and bass.

There was a split pretty much right down the middle of the rest of the field. Most fisher-people in the tournament on Lake Champlain were either super-bass-rig/ $40k truck/ big time action guys, or rednecks in shitty boats.

I know people who write off all rednecks as dirtbags. It's a stereotype. Think about it, there's dirtbags in every strata of society, in every geographic location. Not all rednecks are dirtbags and not all dirtbags are country-folk.

I find that I respect the simplicity and single-minded bliss with which these dudes with shitty boats, shitty cars and shitty homes live. Their life boils down to pleasures that I can believe in: beer, women, motorsports, the outdoors and blowing stuff up. Life as an eternal teen-ager.

These days, it's popular to act, think, look and pretend to be a redneck. It's always popular to make fun of them types.

But it's not popular to believe in the lifestyle and see the good parts of it. In fact, it's not about the lifestyle, but it's about a style of living that really does not give a shit about what other people think.

Most other lifestyles (including mine) are BUILT around what other people think. That's kinda jacked.