You kicked up dust in the dirt road dreams of my youth and still, today, I would rather jump you over a creek than have a Daisy Duke. The General Lee was an orange-painted, 4-wheeled missile; the weapon against corruption in Hazzard county.
Like a western, but a little more 1980s, The Dukes of Hazzard inspired me to become what I am today. Every night at 7 p.m., the re-runs would come on, it was the inception of my habit to procrastinate. I mean the Duke boys were not just characters in the show, they were redneck knight errants using an old race car to fight evil. Although I didn’t have to evade a Roscoe Coltrane or stomp out the fire of Boss Hogg’s malicious plans, I learned to do right even if it was wrong in the eyes of the majority.
The “General” was named after Robert E. Lee, the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. Lee had his own personal struggle, deciding to fight for his home state even though he wished for the Union to stay intact. Lee was one of the greatest leaders in American history, winning most of his battles against the more powerful Union Army. Lee was even more admirable for his admission to defeat and the humility to save the South from greater destruction and loss of life. I believe the '69 Dodge Charger was aptly named, and if it could talk it would quote its eponym, “True patriotism sometimes requires of men to act exactly contrary, at one period, to that which it does at another, and the motive which impels them the desire to do right is precisely the same.”
