I watched a bit of the Country Music Awards (CMA) show on TV the other night. I didn\u2019t even know a lot of the people, but I found it interesting anyway. It occurred to me we use the word country a lot \u2014 and in a lot of different places and ways. Last weekend I was watching a football game and a pass was tipped way up in the air and finally almost intercepted. The announcer said, \u201cboy that ball stayed up for a country minute and should have been intercepted.\u201d I had never heard that term, “country minute,” before… I\u2019ve heard of a \u201cNew York minute\u201d and have never been sure what that meant exactly. I assume that it refers to the fast pace of New York and maybe even the minutes go by faster, or at least seem like it.<\/p>\n
Anyhow, I got to thinking about how often we use the word country in our conversations. I\u2019ve heard country used in politics a lot lately. Politicians talk about uniting the country, or tearing the country apart, or what\u2019s good (or bad) for the country. I\u2019ve heard terms like Mother country, it\u2019s a free country, God\u2019s country, the old country, big country and Southwest Airlines (I think) even has a slogan that says you are now free to move about the country.<\/p>\n
Of course, country is where I grew up \u2014 if you didn\u2019t live in the city, you lived in the country. I grew up hearing the term country cousin. Again I\u2019m not sure what it meant, but I think it referred to the fact that \u201ccountry\u201d people tend to be more friendly and treat everyone more like family than just acquaintances.<\/p>\n
But we really use the word a lot in our daily lives…we have country stores, country dancing, country codes, some people have a country house, I grew up in Indian country and there\u2019s a type of music called bluegrass country. Some people are members of a country club and in and around Maysville, we had a country doctor. In high school we ran \u201ccross country,\u201d and often listened to country music. Some of the more sophisticated men where I grew up were known as country gentlemen and most of the roads around Maysville were country roads.<\/p>\n
There is an old patriotic song from the 1940s titled, \u201cThis is My Country.\u201d We should all be grateful that this is<\/em> our country \u2014 it beats any other place…. by a country mile. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I watched a bit of the Country Music Awards (CMA) show on TV the other night. I didn\u2019t even know a lot of the people, but I found it interesting anyway. It occurred to me we use the word country … Continue reading
\n\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n