I was born in Ogden, Utah. Grew up bouncing between a farm (my grandmother's) and a little house in the low-class neighborhood. I was born and bred to be Red.
It is a protected place. Sure there are all the horror stories about abusive parents, and strange men in vans with candy and other such things. But for the most part it is a safe place to raise your kids and give them something to rebel against.
What the kids always rebel against is the stifling conformity of such a place. Of fathers caught up in the rat race and mothers sinking slowly into a depression from a wasted life.
But this has as many untruths as truths. Mostly it is the place where a lot of us grew up and are growing up. Where people go to church on Sunday and can't quite imagine why the rest of the world doesn't think like them. In other words, a better off version of the self-centered ignorance that the rest of the world displays when they are at home.
More that anything the Reds are the American version of keepin' on keepin' on. The hold the same crude faith as their forefathers and have the same overwhelming desire to shove that faith down everyone's throat. Their fathers were Buick men or Ford men and they march to the same desire to get a little more than those around them. Just plain folks.
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