A Cricker Or a Sheet Cricker

He is a cricker, I was told when I got to Kirksville, Missouri. What is a cricker? “They might be crickers, but at least they ain’t sheet-crickers”. There is laughter all over the place. Now I am truly confused. A cricker and sheet-crickers. Are they people dressed as ghosts? Dancing in a summer meadow with the crickets? I ask, and there is more laughter. It’s a private joke. Not for outsiders, and I am new in town. Anyone who is not sixteenth-generation-born is new In Kirksville, Missouri. It took me years to ascertain that crickers means creekers Creekers are people who live beside a creek. Sheet-crickers are people who live beside sewage. They can kick sheet with their boots from the outhouse It also means hillbilly and redneck, only more demoralizing.