AE 1187

Old Hillbilly Wisdom

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I’ve been surfing the Net recently and stumbled upon this webpage with beautiful “old farmer” sayings.

You know that type of excellent life advise that gets passed from generation to generation, and usually comes from “old men”.

Listen to me as I read these to you, or you can always pause and repeat what I said.

This is a great practice for your English pronunciation, added vocabulary, and gives you significant life advise — defo shareable!

Here’s a bonus: These “old man wisdom” quotes are a great conversation starter. Try it with a friend and let me know how it went!

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Transcript of AE 1187 - Old Hillbilly Wisdom

So I found this floating around on Facebook tonight, and I thought it would read it out for you guys because I kind of found it pretty interesting.

So it's a post from a page called Nature Journal, and it's called Old Hillbilly Wisdom. And a "hillbilly", for those of you who don't know, it's an American term and it refers to an unsophisticated country person as associated originally with the remote regions of the Appalachians.

So effectively, these people, quote unquote, "hillbillies", the people that live up in the mountains. And the stereotype is usually that they're poor, uneducated farming types that live in small towns.

So I'm going to read this out.

"Old Hillbilly Wisdom. Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong. Keeps skunks, bankers, and politicians at a distance. Life is simpler when you plough around the stump. A bumblebee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor. Words that soak into your ears are whispered, not yelled. The best sermons are lived, not preached. If you don't take the time to do it right, you'll find the time to do it twice."

"Don't corner something that is meaner than you. Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he's too old to fight, he'll just kill you. It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge. You cannot unsay a cruel word. Every path has a few puddles. When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty. Don't be banging your shin on a stool that's not in the way. Borrowing trouble from the future doesn't deplete the supply."

"Most of the stuff people worry about ain't never going to happen anyway. Don't judge folks by their relatives. Silence is sometimes the best answer. Don't interfere with something that ain't bothering you none. Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance. If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging. Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got."

"The biggest troublemaker you'll ever have to deal with watches you from the mirror every morning. Always drink upstream from the herd. Good judgement comes from experience and most of that comes from bad judgement. Letting the cat out of the bag is a whole lot easier than putting it back in. If you get to thinking you're a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else's dog around."

"Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll enjoy it a second time. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And leave the rest to God. Most times it just gets down to common sense."

So I hope you enjoyed that, guys. I'd advise reading the transcript for this episode. Obviously, if you're a Premium Podcast member, you can sign up at www.AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast and then listening to the episode and pausing it after each sentence. Because there is quite a lot of wisdom, as the title suggests, in each one of these statements. So I'll leave you with that. I hope you enjoyed this episode, guys, and I'll chat to you next time!