This weekend, my husband and I went on a small trip up into the Smoky Mountains. No, no Pigeon Forge for us or even Gatlinburg. We went to see my grandma who lives in Cosby, TN. On the trip up and back, I started a game of counting Flea Markets. I lost count, but there were plenty. Then, I started thinking about all of the "faux" county things I spotted. Here are a few:
"Kuntry Kitchen or Cookin"
"Come see um!"
"Batatoes" or "Taters"
"Yall ........"
Dixie Stampede
Anything about Sweet Tea is just overdone.
A sign in our cabin's bathroom called "Rules of the Outhouse"
(It makes it even more ridiculous that this was a really nice, expensive cabin.)
I started thinking: Does something original become cheesy and kitschy when other people outside of that culture say it/do it? If so, how can we ever avoid cliches in our writing?
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