Even as a youngster, I was about as narrow-minded, opinionated and conservative as a person could get. Eating at a cafe was a pretty rare occurance when I was small. On one of these occasions, I requested a bottle of pop. My dad gave me a dime and told me I'd have to buy it at the pop machine. I looked at the dime, put it in my pocket, and said, "I guess I will just drink water."
I can really relate to you here, Soap. When I was young, I had money saved up and would go to the store to buy some candy--- Not to eat it, but to sell it later at the ballpark to other kids who liked what I had better than what the ballpark had. My parents still laugh at that.
I paid for my own college education and even loaned money out when I was in college. I have owned several businesses and been self employed most of my life. My wife has never had that experience--she needs a steady planned income. That never happens when you own your own business so you have to handle money much different than a wage type income, and you have to be much more conservative with money.
I never really had a tv when I was growing up for a lot of the time. Ours went out and we just didn't get another one. One of my neighbors felt sorry for me and gave me an extra tv they had. I still didn't watch it more because I was always out in the woods, creek, or out tending to my livestock. We didn't have a radio either, and I listened to more music in college because I lived in a dorm and others had it going. My wife still laughs at me not knowing who plays a lot of the old songs.
My cousins were into KISS, which my mom abhorred. They came to stay out at our house one summer and my mom forbade them from bringing that kind of music in the house. When my cousins were bringing their stuff in, and they hid those albums in their stuff, they came through the living room. As my cousins went by the tv, it caught on fire. It wasn't even on. Needless to say, my mom found the albums---the real cause the tv blew up. :shock:
I believe we had the most conservative preacher in the Southern Baptist Convention but I believe my parents were more conservative than him.
When they had record and tape burnings (sounds real conservative here, doesn't it?), I found out that it was really a reaction of our pastor to his kid's music. Needless to say, we had no records or tapes to contribute to the cause.
I do like some music now but a lot of times I just can't make out the words. Usually I make up my own to fit the tune, which is fine by me. My kids laugh at it but they have to laugh at something. Now we have the "new" country which is much better than a lot of the old whiskey and cheating songs (no disrespect to those who like that). My first date in college was taking a west texas girl to a Willy Nelson concert on campus in the basketball court. Later I went to the Snake River Stampede and heard Glen Cambell (who many years later sat next to my wife and kids on an airplane---he helped out my wife with the kids and enjoyed playing with the kids on the plane -- was a real cool guy--the closest my wife was to country music).
I've known a few politicians who were all conservatives, whether they were republican or democrat. If you know anything about the South, many of the local politicians were conservative democrats, nothing like the liberal northeasterners you have pegged.
Conservatism, I learned, is a relative term.
In all cases, I consider the actions of those who profess to be a conservative, not just the label.