wellreadneck: Using an outhouse isn't so bad til your left with only the slick pages in the catalogue.

it could be worse

jst3p: ladyfortuna: jst3p: taurusowner: calbert:

Apparently you underestimate the value of clean water, but you wont be ashamed because you are too stupid.

Wow, as if I needed more proof you're just an ignorant asshole. Or are you pissed I remembered your stupid 'meme' that never was?

When did I ever say I didn't value clean water? And did you know you can BOIL water to make it clean, thus enough to do dishes with? Anyone with camping experience would know this; it doesn't have to be municipally treated if you're got the means to boil it for a while.

Lastly if you're referring to my dad, that was his deal and his alone; I only put two and two together about the lack of dish washing after he got insurance, told me, and had surgery for the cancer.

mrbach: These people vote against social support and universal healthcare because it goes against their principle of freedom. Good job GOP. You CAN sell ice to Eskimos.

Yet most of those people also rely on government assistance to survive.

calbert: I get that they're poor, and I get that that sucks and that their life is probably hard...but why does that mean that you can't collect and dispose of garbage?

I've lived in southeast Ky my entire life and I never understood this either. The dirty dishes in the place with no water? When I was fifteen my mom and me moved into a trailer that didn't even have a farking water meter or bathtub. That motherfarker was kept spotless,including dishes but there was a humungous pile of clothes in the bathroom until we saved up the money to buy a water meter and after that a washer. We hand washed our clothes and hung them out on clotheslines til we could afford just a washer. I can completely understand if these people didn't have a few people helping them by bringing bottles of water or didn't have a way to catch rain water. The yard wasn't littered with garbage or decaying vehicles. Yes being poor sucks but you don't have to make it even worse by being filthy. For farks sake if you can't afford garbage pickup then burn the shiat,without starting a forest fire, and take the shiatheap cars to a junk yard.

I live a couple of counties over from Owsley county and it's just like people where I live don't give a fark. You can tell you're going into a dodgy area when you start seeing unchained vicious dogs,trash in the yard and rusting cars. People where I live just don't care because why care when you're life is total shiat? Why care when landlords will evict you for not being married or having a criminal background? Why care when the best in life you can hope for is working at a factory,fast food restaurant,retail store,selling drugs or getting SSI check? There are pawn shops and payday loans everywhere here. It's nothing where I live for people to busted be for meth labs,selling pills or child abuse. I'm 23 and I've known quite a few people to die from overdosing or violence. Or some that might as well have died because of ending up with decade long prison sentences for meth/pills.

If you don't have insurance expect to be treated poorly at the local ER,the original building was where Donald Harvey got his start. The people are callous,my mother fell while walking and she shattered her wrist/bloodied her face. No one stopped to help. It took a cleaning woman at Windstream to call an ambulance for her.Being a pedestrian is a nightmare in town alone because a majority of the crosswalk signs don't work and even when they do people are willing to plow right into you. Not to mention the places where the sidewalks end. Being a pedestrian outside of town is asking to be attacked by large dogs,almost get hit by vehicles because there aren't side walks or be creeped on by guys either leering or offering rides.

From what I've seen from the housing authorities,building inspectors or health department they just doesn't give a fark and let landlords rent out places no matter how terrible the shape. I've seen and lived in places that should've been condemned. But it's either those pieces of shiat or living in a homeless shelter. If I could afford to move right now I would. The ceiling in the hallway and bathroom leaks every time someone in the apartment upstairs takes a shower. The outside unit for the heat/ac quit more than a year ago. Last winter it caught on fire because we were told to use the emergency heat setting. It sounds petty but when you have only a small amount of money to work with the amount of rent you pay just so you don't live in a total dump and the electric bills in the winter,then in the summer when you have to use windows units because the ac doesn't work,but remember you had to beg for another one after your fiance had another seizure from the heat,are damn near crippling. My mother's room when the unit worked never got warm because of something probably wrong with the duct work. Her room has a hole in the floor and the only thing that has kept any of us from falling through it is the carpet.though my mom fell from walking on it a week or so ago. She's disabled and it pisses me off that they've known about this for four farking months,she refuses to switch rooms with me.

Not to mention the people in this apartment complex. People who are constantly high to escape this shiat life,people who get high but neglect their children,thieves or the couples who violently fight because they've run out of drugs or because it's an ongoing terrible domestic violence situation. You have people who go door to door trying to sell stuff,funniest one was the guy trying to sell this old beat up vacuum. It's not the best idea to ever accidentally leave something valuable outside. One year they stole my neighbors ferns. You have people who like to kill the cats or at least severely injure them. A few years back there was a guy murdered on the other side of town. This woman who was legitimately crazy pulled her weekly routine of calling the police and screaming about dead bodies being everywhere,including the dumpster. The cops arrive and look around. They look in the dumpster. The cop in the dumpster jumps back quickly and says "I'm not touching this". So the cops take the dumpster. Turns out there was a bloody towel,shoes and the murdered guy's wallet in the dumpster. He was murdered for drugs and money.

The desperation of the poor here is palpable,you can even see it in the kids who in all likely hood are likely terribly abused whether through physical,mental or sexual abuse. I believe they suffer most. These places are like black holes that suck out all the hopes and dreams you ever had right out of you. You know from a young age that you may never escape the cycle. I've met a ton of people that would give you the shirt off their back just to help you,even some of the druggies,but then they're in just as bad a situation here as you are and they have that same desperate look.

/I don't really have a point.
//CSS or tl;dr

Mixolydian Master: [glassrocklife.com image 450x300]
Why do you slick, city folk wear so much clothing around your asshole for?

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...huh?..I'm sorry. What are you talki-

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Wrong state... by several hundred miles. That movie was in *sigh* Georgia...

West VA folk are ok for the most part. However, there does tend to be some clannish behavior, and meth... yeah, lotta meth. But you gotta put food on the table, right?

However, pudding7 pointed out that Link Has a good exposure to the life there of one family... worth watching.

Just to be sure, I went back and checked, and the pictures are arranged as I expected.

Mr. Noble (and his people?) appear live in a shiatty old beat-down hoarder-hole of a trailer.

The rest of those pictured do not appear to have quite the same level of filth in their lifestyle.

Once again the media does all it can to perpetuate a stereotype.

wellreadneck: Using an outhouse isn't so bad til your left with only the slick pages in the catalogue.

Have you ever had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night when there's 2 feet of snow out and the outhouse is 30 yards away?

Multiculturalism is cool when it's brown people living hand-to-mouth in medieval conditions, it's just their culture and we should respect it, even import it and study it to no end in our Universities.

White folks in Arkansas, living hand-to-mouth in medieval conditions, LOL REDNECKS.

Hypocrites. You know who you are.

Trolljegeren: wellreadneck: Using an outhouse isn't so bad til your left with only the slick pages in the catalogue.

it could be worse

No cobs round our house, dirts's too rocky by far. That's why the folks up my holler got their corn from a jar.

Holy shiat I probably should lay off posting when drunk. The typos and missing words are terrible.

A Terrible Human: calbert: I get that they're poor, and I get that that sucks and that their life is probably hard...but why does that mean that you can't collect and dispose of garbage?

I've lived in southeast Ky my entire life and I never understood this either.

Dude... hoping that post is not a troll, b/c I like you now. I think we have a similar upbringing.

FizixJunkee: wellreadneck: Using an outhouse isn't so bad til your left with only the slick pages in the catalogue.

Have you ever had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night when there's 2 feet of snow out and the outhouse is 30 yards away?

Don't forget the wasps during the summer.

DysphoricMania: Dude... hoping that post is not a troll, b/c I like you now. I think we have a similar upbringing.

It's not a troll at all. I grew up in Perry County but now live in Laurel.

Brytanica1:

Don't forget the wasps during the summer.

OMG... the wasps.... or the yellowjackets... makes me cry that one... ugh! SOOO glad for indoor plumbing.

FizixJunkee: wellreadneck: Using an outhouse isn't so bad til your left with only the slick pages in the catalogue.

Have you ever had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night when there's 2 feet of snow out and the outhouse is 30 yards away?

Ever thought of keeping a coffee can under the bed?

A Terrible Human: DysphoricMania: Dude... hoping that post is not a troll, b/c I like you now. I think we have a similar upbringing.

It's not a troll at all. I grew up in Perry County but now live in Laurel.

Grew up in Blount County and Grainger County in E-TN... so I feel your pain.

Omahawg: wellreadneck: Using an outhouse isn't so bad til your left with only the slick pages in the catalogue.

or when the mud daubers are buzzing under your butt

I opened one of those mud dauber nests once to see what was inside.

They're full of zombie spiders being eaten alive.

The only thing more horrifying to me is wolf-worm (those giant bot-fly maggots that live in squirrel skin).

Wait . . .

Is that a brand new Camaro next to that trailer? Those folks sure look impoverished.

Those photos made Napoleon Dynamite's prom look good.

A Terrible Human: Holy shiat I probably should lay off posting when drunk. The typos and missing words are terrible.

Good post though. Even with/out all that.

MrSteve007: Wait . . .
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Is that a brand new Camaro next to that trailer? Those folks sure look impoverished.

could be the camera person's.

DysphoricMania: Grew up in Blount County and Grainger County in E-TN... so I feel your pain.

So has coal mining killed or maimed anyone you know? Have any family,like aunts or immediate family,with terrible birth defects because the generation that raised them were very suspicious about doctors,didn't have the money to even go,didn't think smoking was bad while pregnant or didn't know about prenatal care? Was the family you grew up in poor and dysfunctional as it could be or was it just poor? Talking to another person who knows about this kind of life is interesting.

Janky_McGank: could be the camera person's.

Because whenever I'm on assignment in an area of abject poverty, I always show up in a brand new, shiny muscle car. In this case though, if it had a General Lee paint job, it'd attract subjects like a moth to a flame.

Janky_McGank: Omahawg: wellreadneck: Using an outhouse isn't so bad til your left with only the slick pages in the catalogue.

or when the mud daubers are buzzing under your butt

I opened one of those mud dauber nests once to see what was inside.

They're full of zombie spiders being eaten alive.

The only thing more horrifying to me is wolf-worm (those giant bot-fly maggots that live in squirrel skin).

Cats get them, too. I used to catch each year's crop of barn kittens and remove 'wools' with a couple of toothpicks.

Hey look poor white people! Lookie there an old widower on welfare has a dirty house! See America's not perfect. We can feel better about lost Empire and declining standard of living here in Britain. Face it, if you have traveled much one thing strikes you, everywhere else in the world outside of the U.S. is second rung. It infuriates people especially in Europe. Our culture has achieved a level of cultural hegemony never seen before in the history of the world and it ain't even slowin' down.

circle of life -- or in this case ignorance and death.

When the best thing going in your family is that "high paying" job at mcdonalds -- sucks but the only thing that's going to break any of these people out of their cycle is will power and determination to not fall into the same crap their parents and grand parents fell into. teen pregnancy, drugs, crime, etc.

The pictures are just a white version of the really shiatty black neighborhoods. Every race has their poor people who just don't give a shiat.

I got sick of seeing every other picture with a newborn baby and it's 17 year old mother. Pull out or use a snickers wrapper for christs sake.

You can throw money at the problem, you can sweep it under the rug, but the only way this problem is ever going to get fixed is when the coming generations stuck in this rut take a look around and pull themselves out.

One thing though -- you can be the poorest dumbest fark in the world and still be able to pick up after yourself. Just because you have nothing is no excuse to shiat all over your own house, and leave dirt and trash everywhere just because you are too lazy to do anything about it.

Nothing is going to change till the people wake up and realize "maybe it's not a good idea to have wild dogs and chickens in my living room".

Britney Spear's Speculum: Bathia_Mapes: Did anyone notice that some commenters were trying to blame the conditions on President Obama? I guess some people have forgotten or aren't aware that such conditions were apparent when Senator Robert F Kennedy visited the area in the latter part of the 60s.

His daughter, Rory Kennedy, revisted the area again in 1999 and found that conditions hadn't changed much. She made a documentary and wrote a photo essay about an Appalachian family (the Bowlings) called "American Hollow".

Bathia, Bathia, Bathia. When are you ever gonna learn?

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I prefer this version.
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Mock26: tenpoundsofcheese: Bathia_Mapes: Did anyone notice that some commenters were trying to blame the conditions on President Obama?

He has done NOTHING to improve their conditions.
It is his issue now.

0bama doesn't care about the Appalachians.


And neither did Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, etc.

A quick search shows the 5th KY LD voted Republican for the last 50 years...

DysphoricMania: Brytanica1:

Don't forget the wasps during the summer.

OMG... the wasps.... or the yellowjackets... makes me cry that one... ugh! SOOO glad for indoor plumbing.

Yellowjackets are the worst. Getting deep stung is like having a red hot nail jabbed into you.

Mud daubers are fairly docile, but a yellowjacket will chase you down like dog. A yellowjacket will make you believe in evil, anyone who has had an encounter with one can just feel a malevolent desire to inflict pain rolling off them.

accelerus: I got sick of seeing every other picture with a newborn baby and it's 17 year old mother. Pull out or use a snickers wrapper for christs sake.

Suppose due to very strong religious beliefs their parents didn't have the talk with them or they wouldn't allow them to attend a sex ed course of school,get birth control or have an abortion. Or their parents have just generally neglected them their entire childhood or maybe Ignorance is a huge problem in this area.

Mavent: "Low income" is $45,000 a year?

For two people making money to feed at least four? Hell yes that's "low income".

wellreadneck: Janky_McGank: Omahawg: wellreadneck: Using an outhouse isn't so bad til your left with only the slick pages in the catalogue.

or when the mud daubers are buzzing under your butt

I opened one of those mud dauber nests once to see what was inside.

They're full of zombie spiders being eaten alive.

The only thing more horrifying to me is wolf-worm (those giant bot-fly maggots that live in squirrel skin).

Cats get them, too. I used to catch each year's crop of barn kittens and remove 'wools' with a couple of toothpicks.

I hate them so much that I won't eat spring or summer squirrels. Fall squirrels have better fur and I don't have to cut around those nasty wolves.

Nature, you SCARY

Janky_McGank: wellreadneck: Janky_McGank: Omahawg: wellreadneck:
I hate them so much that I won't eat spring or summer squirrels. Fall squirrels have better fur and I don't have to cut around those nasty wolves.



Plus, the fatter the squirrel, the better the gravy.

Brytanica1: DysphoricMania: Brytanica1:

Don't forget the wasps during the summer.

OMG... the wasps.... or the yellowjackets... makes me cry that one... ugh! SOOO glad for indoor plumbing.

Yellowjackets are the worst. Getting deep stung is like having a red hot nail jabbed into you.

Mud daubers are fairly docile, but a yellowjacket will chase you down like dog. A yellowjacket will make you believe in evil, anyone who has had an encounter with one can just feel a malevolent desire to inflict pain rolling off them.

Yellowjackets are sociopathic, even by insect standards. Most times I got hit by them there was no reason in the world for it. Pure hateful meanness in a little flying package.

A Terrible Human: DysphoricMania: Grew up in Blount County and Grainger County in E-TN... so I feel your pain.

So has coal mining killed or maimed anyone you know? Have any family,like aunts or immediate family,with terrible birth defects because the generation that raised them were very suspicious about doctors,didn't have the money to even go,didn't think smoking was bad while pregnant or didn't know about prenatal care? Was the family you grew up in poor and dysfunctional as it could be or was it just poor? Talking to another person who knows about this kind of life is interesting.

Not coal so much, more uranium from Y-12 and the chems from the ALCOA plant. The mindset growing up was (and this is a bit of hyperbolic) This is the life given us, and make the best of it we can. Do not ask questions, just slog on... Gr.Grandparents never said those exact words, but it was understood... do with what you got, and do not biatch about it... That was my mom's side. Dad's side was from western PA, so they had the iron mills and coal... but the same mindset.

And yeah, doctors got the stink eye often... had many 'cures' growing up that had turpentine in them. You went to a doctor to get stitches or maybe a baby born, or a bone set, but otherwise they stayed in town with the lawyers and bankers, and us type just got by.

cuzsis: Thankfully with big families like that the main things a baby needs (food, clothes, diapers and a safe place to play/sleep) are taken care of as they are passed down from the last kid. After that, whether it's June 18 or June 22 (with graduation being in between somewhere), whether you have a job at Wendy's or WalMart, you're still not going to have enough money, so...yeah, not sure what you're aiming for here.

These kinds of folks are lucky if they live within a reasonable distance to a Wendy's or a WalMart, let alone have a job there.

Bathia_Mapes: even have a way to get to a polling place if they're registered to vote in the first place.

Not that easy to vote when you're guaranteed a very long walk or having to pay someone to go.

As somebody that grew up poor in the West Side of Kentucky, as long as you aren't nosing into their business , they can be the nicest people ever. Just don't insult them or make them feel poor. They will string you up for that. As far as the kids having kids stuff.....did you see any bowling alleys or movie theatres? When kids have nothing else to do they drink and fark. Lots of drinking and lots of farking.....and 45k is the new poverty line? Hell, that is the whole freaking state. $10 an hour is the average pay at most jobs here......I need to move....

Janky_McGank: wellreadneck: Janky_McGank: Omahawg: wellreadneck: Using an outhouse isn't so bad til your left with only the slick pages in the catalogue.

or when the mud daubers are buzzing under your butt

I opened one of those mud dauber nests once to see what was inside.

They're full of zombie spiders being eaten alive.

The only thing more horrifying to me is wolf-worm (those giant bot-fly maggots that live in squirrel skin).

Cats get them, too. I used to catch each year's crop of barn kittens and remove 'wools' with a couple of toothpicks.

I hate them so much that I won't eat spring or summer squirrels. Fall squirrels have better fur and I don't have to cut around those nasty wolves.

Nature, you SCARY

OMG... we called them 'wobbles' where I grew up... big nasty olive shaped lumps on a squirrel. We tried to wait until first frost to take them, but sometimes... ya had to do what ya had to do. If you skinned them right, then soaked them in salt water (rabbits too) you could get shed of those... but it was best to wait until cold weather.

Wind Chimes: I live in the coalfields of southern WV. I am a native WV'ian, but not from the coalfields, so living here for the past three years has been eye-opening for me.

This level of poverty is pervasive throughout Appalachia. And Mountain Doo is correct, these are not stupid people. There are by and large honest, intelligent, kind, generous, hard-working people. They and their ancestors have been exploited for over 100 years; those generational wounds don't heal themselves overnight. All I hear from younger people here is how they have to get out, get away, that there is nothing for them here. That's heartbreaking on so many levels.



Poverty? You're on a MOUNTAIN! Move where the jobs are! AAAARRRRRRGH!

IlGreven: These kinds of folks are lucky if they live within a reasonable distance to a Wendy's or a WalMart, let alone have a job there.

Exactly! I've lived in places that are at least 10 miles away from even a gas station,would you like for a good 1/4 of your paycheck eaten paying for a ride if you don't have a car?. Or they aren't hiring even if you live close enough to walk.

Bathia_Mapes: one of Ripley's Bad Guys: Mock26: tenpoundsofcheese: Bathia_Mapes:
That's not surprising, but I wonder how many of those pictured in the article, and their neighbors, actually vote or even have a way to get to a polling place if they're registered to vote in the first place.

A lot of them don't care about which party is in power, they don't see any difference between the two. Also, some of the oldest still have some animosity towards the Feds, what with those revenuers and the dropping bombs on them during the Coalfield Wars and all.

mrbach: These people vote against social support and universal healthcare because it goes against their principle of freedom ni**ers, queers, and cain't pray in school. Good job GOP. You CAN sell ice to Eskimos.

They've got no problem with social programs. A large chunk of them are on disabilitiy, Medicaid, WIC and anything else they can get. They just don't want any of it maybe gettin' to them colored welfare queens (white meth and pill-heads is a-ok), and they don't want to be agin Jesus, and they don't want nobody gettin' no idears about how maybe they's fa**ots a'cause they been votin' fer pansy-smoochin' Democrats.

I sympathize with their plight, but they're the living embodiment of being hoisted on the petard of their own narrow-minded bigotry.

As others have said, they can be some of the kindest people you'll ever meet... if you're white, straight, and Christian... and a whole lot of them will even be nice to you if you're not. But, these communities still play a weird sociological version of chicken, where they're all daring themselves to toe this close-minded, intolerant, Bible-thumping us-and-them line... wherein you've gotta be careful about just how nice you are if you don't want to get called out..