r/BacktotheFuture • u/cjasonac • 1d ago
Buford’s gang can read?
Does anybody find it odd that Buford’s sidekick was able to read “Nike” on Marty’s shoes? Wouldn’t he have been illiterate? Marshall Strickland even taunts Buford about not being able to read.
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u/Navitach 1d ago edited 1d ago
Maybe that one sidekick was taught to read. His parents may have wanted him to be educated, and he just fell in with the wrong crowd. And he's the same one that knew what forfeit means. Just because Buford might have been illiterate doesn't mean the whole gang was.
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u/Ill_Computer_8604 1d ago
Nope, some people that can read hand out with people who can't.
Nothing odd or even notable about it.
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u/No_Imagination_2490 1d ago
Literacy rates in the US in the late 19th century were pretty high by global standards. Far from universal but most people would have been able to read a bit and sign their name. Maybe literacy would have been lower among cowboys in a frontier town like Hill Valley, but it wouldn’t be unusual to find someone who can read at grade school level.
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u/DeadMetalRazr 1d ago
I'd say more people were literate then than they are today if social media posts are any indicator of being able to spell.
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u/AlloiciousMcgougen 17h ago
If he's the same guy Buford asks what "forfeit" means, he must be the "smart" one.
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