thoughts, whims, and delusions of a middle aged mama

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Kissin' Cousins Ain't All That Uncommon

When I moved to this town in 1985, there was a countywide population of about 45,000. Now the population in the county is pushing a quarter of a million...yes, we've had a bit of growth....
But what I wanted to talk about is from 'back when'...
When the county was smaller, which it was until recent years, there were a handful of "old" county names...
And everyone knew everyone....and the old timers could tell you who had married whom...who was a newcomer (hadn't been here for five or six generations), why some married others....etc.
There were the Kresgees and the Countermans, and the Eckes, and the Aces....and the Werkheisers, and the Greys......and the LaBars and the Worthingtons....and so on.....
And some were from the West End, and some were from 'up on the mountain'.....and if a person was trashy or stupid, or better yet, stupid and trashy, they were called "cunnermans"...or a "Cunner" or "Cutter"...all derivations of "Counterman".....story had it that the original Countermans were a bit of a 'hoity-toity' family....and Papa Counterman didn't want his large brood mingling with the locals...or at least not many of them...so much so that inbreeding and incest were preferable to consorting with anyone of 'lower standing'....well, as the story has it, the gene pool was quickly corrupted and the mean I.Q. of the Countermans diminished exponentially..... hence the negative nickname(s)
The businesses had the names of the families and it was common to hear stories of marriages that were arranged to enhance business interests or land acquisition....
Anyway, y'all get my drift....
Thing is, these folks were almost all Lutherans and Methodists.....a few Presbyterians were thrown in...and Stroudsburg has a beautiful old Episcopal Church.....
None of them were Mormons...or Latter Day Saints....or FLDS.....hell, the area's only LDS meeting house was built just a few years ago, after the population explosion was well underway.....

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About Me

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First I am a mother, and grandmother....that is probably the single most important aspect of my life. Then I am a family advocate for a large, national advocacy organization. I work primarily in "systems advocay", helping to identify needs and change policies in children's behavioral health. And I love my dogs, my garden, my pond and fish, and trashy murder mysteries and the occasional shot of good scotch.... Fell free to post a note in whatever the most recent entry is...I love meeting new people!

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