Writer Rick Bragg gets a Case

Good read!! Thanks for sharing. I like how he talks about how a good knife has no less than two blades and no more than three. This guy gets it. ;)
 
I liked the article, but take issue with his notion that carrying a pocket knife from youngster to an old gentleman is inherently a Southern thing. I grew up and lived in New England all my life and this is just how it was for my generation as well. And my grandson has been raised with those same values. I realize he was writing to a targeted audience, but never the less......I digress.
 
Hmmm...I guess I better get me a serious knife. This 73 I've been carrying for the past few years is just about useless. Lol...

BTW Mark are you still carrying that peanut? Haven't seen much mention of it in a while.
 
BigBiscuit said:
I liked the article, but take issue with his notion that carrying a pocket knife from youngster to an old gentleman is inherently a Southern thing. I grew up and lived in New England all my life and this is just how it was for my generation as well. And my grandson has been raised with those same values. I realize he was writing to a targeted audience, but never the less......I digress.
Click to expand...

Likewise for Los Angeles where I grew up in the 50's and 60's, Bob. Carrying a pocket knife for daily tasks was considered normal practice.
 
I'm not from the south and my kids would think it was weird if an adult didn't have a knife on them. That's mostly because I've converted many of the adults that they know into knife carriers. I still think it's OK for this guy to associate pocketknives with a southern tradition. It's simply his perspective based on his experiences. It doesn't really matter if it's the norm in other places, or even if it's not the norm where he thinks it is. The point is that he received a knife and it brought him back to a time and place where he had fond memories of quality men carrying quality slipjoints. The fact that you have different memories of different places doesn't discount his memories and vice versa. If you want to talk about how men carried knives in New England or California or Timbuktu write your own article about it. I for one would love to read that just as much as I loved reading this one. For now I say bravo to Mr. Bragg for his fine writing and kudos to Mark for sharing it.
 
I enjoyed the article. Thanks for sharing. My roots are in the south, so it did bring back some old memories for me. Coincidentally, my last name is Bragg. I wonder.............?
 
Any article about how carrying a knife now a days and a traditional at that, is a welcome read.
I think what he said still holds true and the southern bend just added flavor.
I think many folks are totally unprepared for daily life unless they can handle the situation with their phone and im happy to see someone write about the value of a bone handled pocket knife in a man's pocket.

Thanks for sharing!
 
I enjoyed the story..... I do think the writer was catering to the people who read the magazine..... or just what he knows.


If I said, "A man aught to have a pocket knife on him."

Some of the women on this board might have issue with that. ;)
 
Neko2 said:
Any article about how carrying a knife now a days and a traditional at that, is a welcome read.
I think what he said still holds true and the southern bend just added flavor.
I think many folks are totally unprepared for daily life unless they can handle the situation with their phone and im happy to see someone write about the value of a bone handled pocket knife in a man's pocket.

Thanks for sharing!
Click to expand...

Really a great response Neko2. Taking nothing away from the other responders, you nailed it in a very concise way. Where I grew up, in a small town in western NY, everybody carried a pocket knife and, during deer season, you would see guys walking around town or stopping in the local store with a big hunter on their belt.

Great short essay though. I enjoyed it.
 
Cory, I think my post meaning was missed. As I said, I liked the article and I fully realized he was writing to a targeted audience. That's all well and good. I just often see perceptions that are a little misconstrued about a way of life as in North vs South. My point being, we're not so different when it comes down to it. Carrying a traditional knife was typically a generational practice rather than regional. It's nice to see a big resurgence in those traditional generational values.
 
Great article. I read it a few months back in the magazine. I'm glad they posted it online. His articles and books reference his life and traditions of the south. I do not think that implies exclusion of other regions, just a celebration of his (and the reader's of the magazine).
 
knarfeng said:
Likewise for Los Angeles where I grew up in the 50's and 60's, Bob. Carrying a pocket knife for daily tasks was considered normal practice.
Click to expand...

Shoot I live in Santa Cruz now and carrying a pocket knife is still pretty normal. Not quite as normal as other places I would imagine but even here in hippy land most men have pocket knives. Kids far less though, makes me sad.

To be fair to the author, he is writing for "Southern Living" and clearly knows his audience.
 
BigBiscuit said:
Cory, I think my post meaning was missed. As I said, I liked the article and I fully realized he was writing to a targeted audience. That's all well and good. I just often see perceptions that are a little misconstrued about a way of life as in North vs South. My point being, we're not so different when it comes down to it. Carrying a traditional knife was typically a generational practice rather than regional. It's nice to see a big resurgence in those traditional generational values.
Click to expand...

I think the generational vs. the regional distinction makes sense. I grew up in NY--Queens to be exact--and my grandpa carried a pocket knife and didn't make a big fuss about it... it was a normal thing to have on you. My dad used blades for work, but never really carried his own pocket knife. Being close with my grandparents (parents worked, I was with my grandpa daily), their norms became my norms, and so it feels normal to have a pocket knife on hand. For the longest time it was a SAK Fieldmaster--it was my sole knife for about twenty years... my discovery of GEC changed all that in the last 5-6 years! ;)

Good read, nonetheless. :thumbup:
 
Last edited:
That was a great read! This made me smile, "all so sharp he could shave a cat if he could get it to stand still". 😀
 
BigBiscuit said:
Cory, I think my post meaning was missed. As I said, I liked the article and I fully realized he was writing to a targeted audience. That's all well and good. I just often see perceptions that are a little misconstrued about a way of life as in North vs South. My point being, we're not so different when it comes down to it. Carrying a traditional knife was typically a generational practice rather than regional. It's nice to see a big resurgence in those traditional generational values.
Click to expand...

I hear you. I'm probably oversensitive to people claiming exclusion. I don't see it as a generational gap, or at least I don't see the generation gap as the cause so much as the effect. I think it's got more to do with urban/suburban vs. rural. Or more accurately, people that work with their hands vs. those that work in an office. It's purely anecdotal, but the people I know that work with their hands carry knives whereas those that work in an office don't. Our country has had a massive shift from rural life to urban/suburban life in the last couple of generations, and I don't think it's a coincidence that this coincided with the shift from carrying a knife to not. Historically, the south has been more rural when compared to the north. Now, there are cities in the south and countryside in the north but generally speaking the south is the more rural area. I think it's natural to associate the south with country life, and as an extension carrying a pocket knife. There are always going to be exceptions. There are plenty of jobs in the city that require people to work with their hands, and there are some jobs in the country that don't. These are all generalizations, but I think that they hold up for the most part.

All of that is to say that I agree with you in that it's nice to see the resurgence of the traditional pocketknife. I'd also like to see a resurgence of people that are not afraid to work with their hands. I think a large part of having a civil society is having people that are too tired from an honest day's work to get worked up about the little things that seem to set people off nowadays. Anyways, here's the two-bladed mini-trapper that's been in my pocket most of this winter:

IMG_20170210_110752172.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top