A number of years ago the late Nick Powers and I were asked to write an illustrated joke book for the ultimate redneck, Junior Samples. Junior and his manager came to Nick’s place for us to discuss the project. When I arrived, Junior in his bib “overhauls” was wading around the edge of Nick’s fishing lake, pulling “turkles” out of nests dug into the bank. While helping pull him out of the lake, I fell and cut my hand on a sharp rock.

“We’ve got some ‘store bought’ whiskey in the trunk we can pour on it to disinfect it,” said Junior’s manager. “Hit’ works better,” said Junior, “if you swallow ‘hit’ and let ‘hit’ work ‘ hits’ way out to the cut from the inside.”

Most city folks view rednecks as ignorant hicks, and tend to ridicule them. To the contrary, I think Junior’s clever reply illustrates that while rednecks have less “book larnin’,” they’re sharp people. Even though they are rural, outdoor people, with limited educational opportunity and thus not grammatically perfect, they have more intelligence and abilities about the basics of life than do city dwellers.

What I like about them is they are not pretentious, “put on” folks. What you see is what you get.

Another great attribute is their sense of humor and lack of worrying about political correctness. They have the ability to laugh at themselves, a la the exaggerated Jeff Foxworthy stories. Most other ethnic groups seem to have lost this important facility to not take themselves too seriously.

My redneck friend Bud Sims is a good example of self sufficiency, and a clever mind. “He can fix anything,” John Schulz told me when he introduced us.

“Great,” I said. “My lawnmower won’t start.” He soon proved his intellect was superior to mine when he had it running in less than two minutes. What he did was pour gasoline in the empty gas tank before cranking the engine.

Bud also illustrates the self-deprecating redneck sense of humor:

A couple of friends were lamenting the fact that their wives seemed to be the boss in their households.

“ By gawd it ain’t that way at my house,” interjected Bud, overhearing the conversation. “I run things at my house — the vacuum cleaner, the washing machine, the lawn mower … ”

All this comes to mind when I read Roman John Schulz’s new book, “Requiem for a Redneck,” one of the most fascinating, entertaining, informative and, above all, hilarious books I’ve ever read. The book is poignant in addition to its humor.

Schulz is a remarkable observer of human nature, and a master story teller! His word portraits of his characters are magnificent. For example, his description of Louann, one of my favorite characters in the book:

“Louann was a victim of numbers. With five more years of public schooling, 30 more points of IQ, and eight more teeth, she could have been a movie star. She was all right to look at when she kept her mouth shut — which was rarely.”

The chapter on Louann’s lottery experience had me laughing out loud, and is worth the price of the book all by itself.

I also enjoyed reading about the redneck sawmiller who said his saw blade was so sharp that he could cut a board so thin it only had one side.

Another thing that makes the book interesting to Floyd Countians is its local locale. It mentions landmarks such as Mount Alto, Georgia Kraft, Horseleg Creek Road, Bells Ferry Road, Kessler’s Department Store and Piggly Wiggly back when it was on Broad Street.

If you want to read a sympathetic and funny book about the redneck genre, get this book. (You can call 706-346-7772 to find out how.) As Bud Sims commented:  “If you ain’t a redneck, then read this here book, and you will want to be one.”