Weird Sign On The Way To Work

[Nanci]

So I get off the Interstate and turn onto the busiest road in Gainesville, which goes past all the big stores- Target, Best Buy, Walmart, Petsmart, and all the chain restaurants- a mile of solid shopping. As I turn onto the road, there is a flashing yellow road sign: Warning: Cattle In Area. Hmmm...I didn't see any. I was kind of disappointed.

 

[Mr.AJ]

Heh. When i read that i got a mental image of cartoon cows dressed as ninjas, Leaping out from behind bushes and cars trying to steal xmas pressies from shoppers.

 

[Susan]

Wonder if they were referring to the stampede of last-minute shoppers?

 

[Dave123]

Wonder if they were referring to the stampede of last-minute shoppers?

:roflmao: Probably!

 

[Nanci]

Last-minute shoppers trying to navigate the Interstate 75/Archer Road Christmas frenzy Monday morning had more than just crazy drivers to worry about. There were cows loose in the area as well.

Early shoppers were greeted with emergency signs that read "Cattle in area."

Alachua County Sheriff's Deputy Perry Koon said the cows made a break from a pasture on SW 34th Street near the post office. It wasn't the first time the bovines have escaped from their fencing, either.

"There is about five of them left there on the 34th Street property. They have been out there so long and encroached up with all of the growth to where they are so cut off that they have gotten wild," Koon said. "They are cracker cows - from the breed that I believe the Spanish brought over. They are like an 800-pound deer. They are just wild. They do not behave like most of the cows you see out in fields."

Koon is part of ASO's Rural Services Unit, which is responsible for crime and incidents involving farming and livestock. Five cows got out, and two were still loose at last report on Monday.

Sheriff's Sgt. Keith Faulk and Koon said a larger herd lived on 34th Street, but the owner had moved some of the cows to an area off Archer Road, west of I-75.

"The farmer has been there for 25 years. It's sort of like the song, 'Daddy Won't Sell the Farm,' " Faulk said, referring to a song by the duo Montgomery Gentry.

 

[Cegninedorf]

Cracker cows...now that's not something you hear every day...so I had to Google it. Very interesting...I did not learn about that when in the FFA!

 

[Nanci]

There are cracker horses, too!

http://www.florida-agriculture.com/livestock/cracker_cattle.htm

And a nickname for the Gopher Tortoise is "cracker chicken," because people used to (still do, although it's illegal) catch and eat them.

 

[Cegninedorf]

There are cracker horses, too!

http://www.florida-agriculture.com/livestock/cracker_cattle.htm

And a nickname for the Gopher Tortoise is "cracker chicken," because people used to (still do, although it's illegal) catch and eat them.

Wow, learn something new every day!

However, my initial thought of the cows being referred to as "cracker" was how I learned of the word (while living in upstate NY) -- a derogatory term for white people... Imagine my brain trying to wrap itself around that one!

 

[Nanci]

Wow, learn something new every day!

However, my initial thought of the cows being referred to as "cracker" was how I learned of the word (while living in upstate NY) -- a derogatory term for white people... Imagine my brain trying to wrap itself around that one!

Historical usage

The term "cracker" was in use during Elizabethan times to describe braggarts. The original root of this is the Middle English word crack meaning "entertaining conversation" (One may be said to "crack" a joke); this term and the alternate spelling "craic" are still in use in Ireland and Scotland. It is documented in Shakespeare's King John (1595): "What cracker is this ... that deafes our ears / With this abundance of superfluous breath?"

By the 1760s the English, both at home and in the American colonies, applied the term “Cracker” to Scots-Irish settlers of the remote southern back country, as noted in a passage from a letter to the Earl of Dartmouth: "I should explain to your Lordship what is meant by Crackers; a name they have got from being great boasters; they are a lawless set of rascalls on the frontiers of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia, who often change their places of abode." The word was later associated with the cowboys of Georgia and Florida, many of them descendants of those early frontiersmen.


Modern usage

The term is used as a proud or jocular self-description. Since the huge influx of new residents into Florida from the northern parts of the United States, and Latin America, in the late 20th century, "Florida Cracker" has become used informally by some Floridians to indicate that their family has lived there for many generations. For such people it is a source of pride to be descended from "frontier people who did not just live but flourished in a time before air conditioning, mosquito repellent, and screens." However, the term "white cracker" is not always used self-referentially and remains a racist term to many in the region.

 

[TandJ]

I would be a cracka.. *LOL* Being on the West Coast, it is a term that is used to describe white or white looking folks, from both the Latino and Black Communities and even White Communities, depending where you are from.. Of course I hear Whetto more often.. No one out West here, seems to give a rats behind, until it is said in a derogatory sense..

Regards.. Tim of T and J

 

[Cegninedorf]

I would be a cracka.. *LOL* Being on the West Coast, it is a term that is used to describe white or white looking folks, from both the Latino and Black Communities and even White Communities, depending where you are from.. Of course I hear Whetto more often.. No one out West here, seems to give a rats behind, until it is said in a derogatory sense..

Regards.. Tim of T and J

Do you mean "güero/güera" (pronounced "where-oh/where-ah")? Not to correct you (though I guess I am ), but is that what you hear? It's the Spanish word for anyone light-skinned..."gringo" is used more for white tourists & is kinda sarcastically used..."güero" carries more respect with it.

(For example, my boyfriend will call me "güera" to make fun of me -- even though he's a super-light-skinned Mexican himself who gets called "güero" by his compadres... )

 

[Jrgh17]

Heh. When i read that i got a mental image of cartoon cows dressed as ninjas, Leaping out from behind bushes and cars trying to steal xmas pressies from shoppers.

You know... I'm still not sure how to respond to this. The words are just not coming.

 

[TandJ]

Do you mean "güero/güera" (pronounced "where-oh/where-ah")?

Probaby the intended word.. To me it sounds like they are saying Whetto and Whettah here.. Might just be a regional thing, or worse yet.. spanglish *LOL*
Its all in light hearted fun anyways.. :cheers:


Regards.. Tim of T and J

 

[Cegninedorf]

Probaby the intended word.. To me it sounds like they are saying Whetto and Whettah here.. Might just be a regional thing, or worse yet.. spanglish *LOL*
Its all in light hearted fun anyways.. :cheers:


Regards.. Tim of T and J

Oh, gosh -- I know what you mean...after watching George Lopez's stand-up comedy dvds, I've been walking around the house speaking Spanglish in my worst americana-valley accent possible: "ay, b*sh, what you pensando?!" Drives the boyfriend bien loco.

(I just like giving the americanos que no hablan espanol a bit of a heads-up as to what people are saying so that no offense is taken...most likely comes from my roots when my German family came over & didn't understand and people gave them h*ll for it, as well as taught them improper things to say...now ya know, and now you can say it right back to them, hombre. )