That bit in our American Holiday Video where we were attacked by the rednecks in the Alabama petrol station: I realise now that I should have seen it coming.

We'd been warned by some American modernists - i.e. Californians - that the southerners wouldn't take kindly to any of our light mockery of the things they hold dear - Bush, heterosexuality, NASCAR, Country and Western, short hair...

But I never really believed they would take it quite that badly.

But then, earlier that day I had stopped at another petrol station and looked at the selection of T-shirts on sale to the locals. One proclaimed 'God, pick-ups and beer' with a picture of a Dodge like Hammond's on it. Another sported some legend about the right to bear arms.

And yet another depicted the Confederate flag and a picture of, er, General Stonewall Jackson. I think this may have been a vital clue to the mentality of the hicks.

Wasn't Jackson a general from the civil war? And didn't he die from complications resulting from the amputation of his arm after he was inadvertently shot by his own men?

And, more importantly, wasn't all this rather a long time ago? And what's with the confederate flag? Do they still lament the abolition of slavery or something?

It's been pointed out to me that the old flag, rather than standing for a discredited set of social and political values, is now just a fanciful graphic.

The Dukes of Hazzard, after all, had one on the roof of their car, and no one thought it was in any way distasteful. It was just the good ol' boys from the South being sentimental about their roots.

And that seemed like a fair comment. I like a sense of history as much as anyone. But then something else occured to me.

I've never met anyone in Europe wearing a swastika T-shirt.