It'll Tickle Yore Innards!

I've always had a love affair with the Ozark Mountains, and mountain life, in general. I grew up with bluegrass music, the Foxfire books, and regular trips to Branson, Missouri to visit the historical displays and traditional craftsmen at Silver Dollar City. I ended up marrying a boy from the Arkansas Ozarks. One might even go so far as to say that I like things that are "old timey". In fact, I feel such a connection to the mountains and the culture of mountain people, I often wonder if I lived in some misty hollow (or "holler" as they'd say) in a long-ago lifetime. Despite this great affinity for mountain folk and their ways, I am not without a sense of humor, and find considerable amusement in the kitschy hillbilly collectibles and souvenirs of the 50s and 60s. So for this installment of Thrifty Thursday, I thought I'd share my newest obsession collection. While going through my dad's kitchen cabinets, I found this vintage coffee cup depicting Maw hanging out of the cabin window "a hollerin'" to Paw that his coffee's ready. Paw, it seems, is taking his morning constitutional in the "$hitter", if you will, the outhouse, if you won't.

Well, wouldn't you know I'd been hankerin' to start myself a collection of hillbilly stuff, but was waiting for the right piece to cross my path. As I've said before, these things often snowball after one innocent little item falls into my lap, and this case is no different. It seems if I find a piece I love, I'm not satisfied with owning just that one thing, like any normal person would be. No, I have to collect more, more, more of it! One lil ol' hillbilly cup looks out of place in my mostly midcentury modern decor, but a whole slew of backwoods, cousin-lovin' tchochkes is an intentional point of eclecticism. Last week, after telling Mr. Sweetheart I was on the lookout for hillbilly paraphernalia, what do you think I spied that very day at a yard sale so puny I almost didn't stop? This old Mountain Dew bottle for ten cents, once filled with sugary goodness "made from flavors specially blended in the traditional hillbilly style".

Apparently, long before it was fuel for snowboarding, kayaking, skydiving and other extreme pursuits, Mountain Dew was strong enough to "tickle yore innards", and possibly shoot a hole in one's hat with its cork as it was opened.


I swear the hoarding thrifting gods were smiling on me, because that very afternoon at the thrift store I happened upon this little gem for a whopping 45 cents.


So here's the whole little inbred family. Not a bad start to a collection, and I'm only out 55 cents.


Now to find a "Maw" item or two, and one of those little novelty brown jugs I used to see all the time that said, "Lay off, this is the old man's private stuff".