I spent some childhood in those parts, and after seeing all the teen mothers and filth FTFA, I felt I have to say something. Those people are not stupid. Redneck? Hell yeah. But I've never met nicer, kinder and more generous people than that. You haven't had fun until you have a few beers and go rappelling down a mountainside or explored a cave. The redneck yokels from parts of Florida scare me, these people do not.

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.

This is what a low carbon footprint looks like.

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?

This.

There is no economical reason to keep dirty dishes piling up in the sink, trash on the floor, etc. Go to a rural town in Japan, where they still farm like it's the 1700s, and I bet you won't see them laying around in their own filth.

Outside forces did not make them this way. Their "fark it" mindset did. The evidence is all around them

"Low income" is $45,000 a year? But Republicans ASSURED us that School Teachers are living in the lap of luxury at 45k a year.

I see pictures of people laughing, getting together, and socializing. Poor in wealth does not mean poor in spirit. Electricity is nice and everything, but not a necessity. I do find it sort of sad they do without it, but in a way, I wish everyone would spend some time away from the Internet and tv and get back knowing their neighbors.

Depressing? Those people look a hell of a lot happier than me.

/wait, that is depressing :-(

Never been there, but I would rather hang with these type of people than all the big city millionaires. At least these people would welcome you into their home and share what they had, even if it meant doing with less.

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

"A clean house is a sign of a wasted life."

Here to represent the "slobs."

As long as the surface you are eating on is clean and your food is clean, I find the rest of cleaning to be a massive waste of time - you could be learning something interesting, solving a challenging problem, strategizing about life, or even posting on Fark!

To each his own I guess.

taurusowner: 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?

This.

There is no economical reason to keep dirty dishes piling up in the sink, trash on the floor, etc. Go to a rural town in Japan, where they still farm like it's the 1700s, and I bet you won't see them laying around in their own filth.

Outside forces did not make them this way. Their "fark it" mindset did. The evidence is all around them

they dont have electricity or running water but let's focus on dirty dishes. You should be ashamed of yourself but I know you lack a soul.

taurusowner:
There is no economical reason to keep dirty dishes piling up in the sink, trash on the floor, etc.

If you don't have running water, how do you wash dishes?

Daily fail needs to get its ass down to the ghettos and council estates in the UK. There u will see filth, backwardness, welfare leaches and the like, prolly shiat their pants to set foot in the place. Fark off with the phony 'oooh look at them' 'uncivilised' BS.

ladyfortuna: jst3p: taurusowner: calbert:

they dont have electricity or running water but let's focus on dirty dishes. You should be ashamed of yourself but I know you lack a soul.

Coming from 'baby memorial on a piano meme' guy, shut up.

The rest of the photos bear a similar resemblance to some of the more remote areas of NY I've traveled through, and probably even some in my little rural corner. The first few with the overflowing dishes smack of 'that's wimmin's work, fark it'. If a body cares about cleanliness, they clean up no matter if it's an extra bucket or two of water. If they don't, well, you get that. Sort of like living with my dad when he figured out he had cancer but hadn't yet *cough* gotten insurance *cough*

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

Mr. Coffee Nerves: I'd be willing to bet (yet not willing to do the research) that the area votes overwhelmingly Republican, and the primary reason for doing so is "because the Democrats give my hard-earned money to the ni*BONG* in the big city!"

There were 4 Eastern Kentucky counties that voted for Obama, one by a large margin, but by and large they vote Republican. Only 23% in the county in TFA voted for Obama.

And in the friendly/unfriendly debate in this thread, my opinion is they're very welcoming to individuals but very suspicious even hateful of outside groups. And they have reason to be with the corporations that rape the land but for some reason they think the corporations are run by black jew homosexuals or something.

From the comments:

Wait, where are the drive by's, muggings, rapes and burglaries that are rampant in government housing and the hoods? After all, don't we keep getting told that poverty causes crime?
- tired, home, 24/4/2012 05:21

hmmmmmmmmm......

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?

and being poor, and then sticking your dick into another poor thus creating a baby poor, isn't going to help your situation.

and yet there always seems to be money for alcohol and tobacco.

focus more on the necessities of life before you burden yourself further with extras.

/such as cable tv and 'Auction Hunters'

//and I'm not trolling, that's just how I feel

Many people live, literally, in the moment. Next week does not exist. Tomorrow is a vague, fuzzy concept. I'm sure there's some fancy name for this scenario.

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?

and being poor, and then sticking your dick into another poor thus creating a baby poor, isn't going to help your situation.

and yet there always seems to be money for alcohol and tobacco.

focus more on the necessities of life before you burden yourself further with extras.

/such as cable tv and 'Auction Hunters'

//and I'm not trolling, that's just how I feel

In their defense, I highly doubt the county pays for weekly trash collection.

Get 1 or 2 good sized squirrel, skinned out and quartered... soak in cold salt water a few hours to get the blood out... then boil in a pot until the meat comes off the bones... then take the meat out and strip it from the bones... then drop a few chopped onion and celery and carrots in that broth, and boil for a 1/2 hour... drop your dumplins in the broth, let 'em go bout 25 min, then drop in the meat ya stripped from the bone... throw the bones out. give it another 30 min... and damn it's good.

accelerus: A Terrible Human: accelerus: ...
While I don't doubt their nice tendencies (in certain situations) if I was having dinner with a common family I'm quite sure I'd have "Paw" stick the double barrel shotgun in my face if I told the truth and said I was an atheist....

Not likely. If they invited you to dinner and you were so disrespectful as to openly denigrate their religion, you'd probably just be asked or made to leave. Civilized people don't talk about religion at the dinner table, and all country people aren't fundamentalist Christians. My uber-right wing ultra conservative traditional value neighbor is an avowed atheist, while his wife goes to church every Sunday. Dunno about their kids, but they seem well adjusted enough.

I'm agnostic libertarian, my wife is Christian democrat (and black), and we get along just fine in a red county, in a red state, in the deep south. The closest non-rural town to us is Sanford, to give you an idea.

You'd be more likely to get shot talking loudly about the Martin/Zimmerman case on public transit.

Brytanica1: Janky_McGank: Brytanica1: DysphoricMania: Brytanica1:

Don't forget the wasps during the summer.

...
And how dangerous it was to get them.

Or harvesting wild honey.

As a gay man, I'm the only one of my friends that knows how to gut, skin, joint and bone everything from a squirrel to a groundhog, how to clean fish with just a butter knife, what time of year to hunt morels, and the best time and way to gig a frog.

I feel ya. Here in Florida, most of the so-called "country" folks are just pretending. They're white and have a truck, but don't know or do anything in the old ways. The real "country' folks around here are mostly black. They buy my possums and coons when I trap them, and could probably show ya a thing or two about fishing.

Country doesn't mean racist or stupid or anything like that, it means you have the knowledge and ability to do more with less, can survive when others may not, and value your friends and family more than money, It means you live as a part of nature, not apart from nature.

I'm going to start looking for wild mushrooms next week. Florida's been dry as a bone, but now that we got a little rain, I know of some bad ass trees that fruit oyster mushrooms. I've already got a plot of poke sallet going in the side yard (soak the seeds in hydrochloric acid for a little while before planting, or they won't grow), and a patch of mustard greens. Found/Free food kicks ass.

DysphoricMania: Brytanica1:
As a gay man, I'm the only one of my friends that knows how to gut, skin, joint and bone everything from a squirrel to a groundhog, how to clean fish with just a butter knife, what time of year to hunt morels, and the best time and way to gig a frog.

Being a gay man, has no issue on it. Gay man same as a non-gay man. We're all just trying to make our way, But I know you had it harder than most, so bless you for getting by.

Here is a good youtube link if you want to get a peak on the 'life' of an Appalachian man... Link It's a 3 part video...

better link here, Link

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..

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.

Wait . . .

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

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.

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.

When my mom was a kid she would go with my grandfather to Uncle Leonard's tar paper shack with no electricity or water. Her grandparents never had indoor plumbing except a well pump in the kitchen. This was the 1970s, SC.

No real point except I've been places near this poor, and there's good people there. Assholes too. Just like everywhere else.

Once again, the Daily Fail strives to keep the minds of it's fellow British off it's own horrid woes by mocking the Yanks.

W VA may be a crap hole, but at least it's not Wembley.

I live in West Virginia and visit places like this from time to time. It's quite amazing, actually, that in a 50 mile radius you can go from 20meg download speeds to no electricity, skyscraper buildings to lean-to houses made of scrap wood supporting a family of six, and college educated families to household educations that don't make it out of middle school.

I see a lot of comments about the lack of crime, but that's hardly true. Rape and fraud are rampant. When generation after generation live off of government handouts, they learn how to cheat the system.

Teen pregnancy is out of control due mostly to ignorance. Also, when you have nothing and you're bored, you realize pretty quick that sex is fun and cheap.

Most people who live like this don't want help (to better their situation) and aren't willing to work to make their life better. They feel they have a good life and don't need much of anything to keep them happy. And really, they're right. They're minimalist. They eat what taste good to them, sit on their make-shift porches watching whatever passes by, and then sleep by a wood burning stove until morning when they get to do it all again.

namatad: I saw a lot of dumbasses with babies.
Nothing personal, but if you are in high school and you have a baby, then you are an uneducated moron.
Nothing like starting your babies life with no hope, rather than a little hope.
You couldnt wait to make a baby until you got out of school and at least one of you had a job?

LOL

In that area, I'm not sure what you think the difference would be.

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.


/You could ask them to stop having kids entirely, but that's never worked in the history of humanity.

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?

Because you have to pay a fee to the dump; if you're poor, you probably can't afford the fee. To get rid of the garbage, you have to put everything into a pick-up truck---provided you have actually have a truck that's in good working order---and drive it to the dump...the gasoline to do that also costs money.

Cheap, automatic, weekly garbage collection is just one of those things we folks in more urban areas take for granted. These folks don't have that.

and being poor, and then sticking your dick into another poor thus creating a baby poor, isn't going to help your situation.

People have sex; it's a fact of life. What we need to do is make sure everyone, male and female, has access to free birth control.

and yet there always seems to be money for alcohol and tobacco.

Sadly, this is true. It's the nature of addiction. Many of these folks got hooked on cigarettes when they were relatively affordable.

Also, many people make their own alcohol pretty cheaply.

focus more on the necessities of life before you burden yourself further with extras.

I'm willing to bet most of them would prefer indoor plumbing and electricity, but no one (e.g., the government) has made it happen for them. If these folks can't afford to keep a car in working order, how do you expect them to cough up millions of dollars to pipe running water to their houses, or string power lines from the nearest electric plant to their trailer?

I'm really surprised that these people haven't gone full Vietcong on us yet. People live on the tops of those mountains. They've been living on top of those mountains since the first ships from England came here. But then the coal companies go in, rip a mountain apart, and throw what they don't want into the rivers and streams which in turn poisons the water (the same water that we city folk depend on). And it's not all coal waste either. There's a lot of great grandfathers and great grandmothers in the mix.

TomD9938: As for the dirty dishes tragedy, there are plenty of well to do folks that keep a poor household.

Both my brothers have done much, much better than me financially. But you can't walk across any room in their homes without stepping on or in something.

Daily Fail can kiss my butt.... They have no understanding of the people that live there, why they live as they do, or why they stay there.

Sometimes, and I know this is going to be hard for some to understand.... but just sometimes, you choose a life that is not the most profitable. I would put money that most of those folks are happier with their life than I could ever have.

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".

Facts don't matter to those people. They're rolling with it and won't be stopped.

That one looks healthy, if you know what I mean... and I think you do.

I think it'd be nice to live for a couple years in these areas. Would really help people put their lives in perspective. Even just looking at pictures and watching documentaries can really make you take a step back and think about your life and how much you waste on a daily basis. It's a tragedy that many people can't see beyond themselves or see things from another perspective.

Janky_McGank: I stand corrected. In a world with google I have no excuse for bad geography. I guess I was thinking Gummo's Xenia != Appalachia, but it's not too far removed.

Ohio geography is pretty interesting



That line is basically where Ohio goes from hilly to flat (and you can tell too if you are driving I-70 across the state)

Poor is poor.

Canadian poor are a little better off due to our social safety nets, but my mother is from a coal mining town. I've lost family to black lung, drug addiction, mining accidents, alcoholism and untreated cancers. I've got cousins doing time for everything up to and including murder. My grandparents were fired upon by coal company guards in the 1920's. Same history, different company, different flag when the troops rolled in.

The best gift my parents ever gave me was moving away from that town before having kids. I grew up away from the crime, substance abuse and fighting. I brought the wife 'down home' for a visit a few years ago for vacation. We mostly did the tourism thing, but made sure to visit my grandparents homes. We were in the town my mother grew up in for about half an hour seeing the sights when she said "Can we leave? This place is so bleak and depressing. Thank god you didn't grow up here." This place has actually been undergoing gentrification and renewal as a bedroom community, and my wife still found it depressing. We didn't have any plans to actually visit family (other than a few graves to pay respects) because I turned my back on them years ago, so we got back on the highway and went back to being tourists.

/csb

Rapmaster2000: JackieRabbit: Rapmaster2000: UNAUTHORIZED FINGER:

Please don't denigrate people who start with nothing. My mother was no moron. Nor my grandmother.

I don't think that citing the social norms of 1916 is a good support of teen pregnancy in 2012.

How hard is it for you to get the point?

Don't like teenaged pregnancy? Call your Congressman.

UNAUTHORIZED FINGER, CSB.

My grandmother also had a child at 17. I'm not going to recommend that my daughter do the same.

One would hope not. But teen pregnancy is not the point. It has only been in the last 40 years that women in rural areas started waiting until they were at least 18 to marry. This wasn't because they were stupid or promiscuous. When my mother was a girl, most girls married at 15 or 16. It was expected. When a girl was old enough to become pregnant and a boy old enough to get a job and support himself, it was time to leave the parental home and make their own way in the world. This was simply a practical necessity in impoverished rural areas. The area in discussed in this thread is one of the most impoverished areas in the US. So it is quite possible that this sensibility survives there today.

Rapmaster2000: UNAUTHORIZED FINGER:

Please don't denigrate people who start with nothing. My mother was no moron. Nor my grandmother.

I don't think that citing the social norms of 1916 is a good support of teen pregnancy in 2012.

How hard is it for you to get the point?

Don't like teenaged pregnancy? Call your Congressman.

UNAUTHORIZED FINGER, CSB.

Sounds like a hippie's wet dream. I guarantee they pollute less than any of us. MPG? Who needs it when you can walk or ride a horse? Energy bills? Try wood burning stoves and no running water. Throw out the trash? How about we recycle/reuse some of it. This car hood makes a great awning on the house. This milk jug works great as a dog bowl! What is this pile of wood doing unused? I should make a new fence.

/These people live their lives much better than those of us who sit in front of screens all day
//their wimmins is hot too

There are people like that around here, but the overall condition of the area isn't as bleak as the pics make it (in Appalachia in general, I mean). People living at that level of poverty are the exception, not the rule.

matto22: Many of those Folk look happier than the majority of assholes I see in NYC everyday.

And they probably are, because they refuse to run the rat race. Think about it. You get up, make sure you have enough food and water, and a roof over your head, and something for heat hopefully.

No hour stuck in traffic, no sitting at a desk for 8+ hours in fluorescent lighting, no boss telling them what to do, no hour stuck in traffic to get home, no worry about bills. To them, that isn't living. The only trade off might be a shorter life due to the fact they can't pay medical bills (but really, who wants to live forever?). Everything else is a luxury.

To each his own I say.

HAMMERTOE: 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.

Actually, because it's about PRIDE. Real, actual pride over something that's actually under their control. Not accepting handouts is a lot more substantial than pride in something you actually have no control in, like skin color.

And, as was pointed out up-thread, where are the drive-by shootings, drug abuse and rampant crime supposedly caused by poverty?

Uh... seriously? Youre going to argue theres no drug or alcohol abuse in communities like these?

And there are no drivebys because they don't have cars or paved roads, duh. but jokes aside...

I don't understand the "too proud for services" things.

Calling them "handouts" is a morally charged misnomer; its not free, its not a "handout". A handout is when your gramma gives you a dollar. Receiving subsidies in the form of unemployment, or subsidized health care, or whatever sort of services you receive in your own community which are financed by your own tax dollars are things you helped pay for.

That's like saying youre too proud to get your insurance company to pay for a car crash because it's a handout, it aint no handout, you've been paying your insurance premiums, its ok to use it when you need it. That's why you have it. Theres a reason unemployment insurance is called INSURANCE. Same principle.

Mountain Doo: But I've never met nicer, kinder and more generous people than that.

As long as you're white and christian.

I've been in WV for five years. If you're white, they're nice to you until they can figure out how you're not like them.

wellreadneck: 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.

If you guys haven't seen Winter's Bone yet, you really should. Stream it off Netflix. It's the Ozarks rather than Appalachia, but the culture is similar... before meth gets tossed into the mix. It is soul-crushing, some of what goes on there.

(And the movie is win because Jennifer Lawrence (also the lead in the Hunger Games flick) carries it with sheer acting ability, instead of special effects and/or makeup.)

A Terrible Human

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.

And teenage pregnancies don't happen in the "big city" whar eddicated peoples live?????? Bigoted much?

Father_Jack: ive now read everything on fark: people discussing the pros and cons of squirrel skinning, their meat, and the best way to avoid their parasites.

what a barftastic thread.

When you are cleaning and gutting a fish it has a little "balloon" inside it that it uses to control its floating. If you are careful you can remove it intact.

Chickens really do run around after you snap their heads off, and can be hypnotized if you draw a line in front of them in the dirt.

And a snapping turtle is just as likely to take off one of your fingers even if its heads cut off.

ive now read everything on fark: people discussing the pros and cons of squirrel skinning, their meat, and the best way to avoid their parasites.

what a barftastic thread.

A Terrible Human: wellreadneck: 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.

Basically and from what I've seen and heard many people here don't care for the feds or cops no matter what age considering even some of the kids are like that too. The only real people I've seen be all right wing are the people who are super into religion. Then again I think churches are just a somewhat formal way play keeping up with the Joneses and lots of pretending to be a good christian. It just seems like the worst people I've met like to pretend to be holy and god fearing while at the same time being some of the biggest leaches and crooks around.

Some religious people are that way everywhere. When I was young, it seemed that whichever party handed out the most liquor on election day was the one in power. I'll never understand being dishonest enough to sell your vote but honest enough to keep your bargain in the voting booth.

A Terrible Human: FizixJunkee: My father never laid a hand on us, but my stepmother was quick with "the belt." My father was a truck driver; when he was out of town, my stepmother could hit us without my father knowing. And she did, too. I've been beaten for not doing my stepsister's homework, for example. I guess that (having to do her homework) was a punishment for being smart.

Don't want to turn this into one of these one up kind of this,just wanted to share this. I didn't get out of the car fast enough and my dad broke my arm. I was four. My dad beat my sister like she was a grown man because she didn't want him to take her blood sugar,she wasn't diabetic and has a phobia of needles. I watched my dad hit my mom,but she always fought back.Once he chocked her and it was bad enough she went the the hospital,the was early in their marriage. Both of them grew up in abusive households. Besides that there was the constant screaming. Screaming meant dad was getting mad enough to cut the electric off or hit someone. My dad did terrible things to my sister and creeped on me too. Weird thing was there wasn't any drugs or alcohol involved in either generation.


Yeah, that farking sucks. I can't top that.

Glad that you got out.

FizixJunkee: My father never laid a hand on us, but my stepmother was quick with "the belt." My father was a truck driver; when he was out of town, my stepmother could hit us without my father knowing. And she did, too. I've been beaten for not doing my stepsister's homework, for example. I guess that (having to do her homework) was a punishment for being smart.

Don't want to turn this into one of these one up kind of this,just wanted to share this. I didn't get out of the car fast enough and my dad broke my arm. I was four. My dad beat my sister like she was a grown man because she didn't want him to take her blood sugar,she wasn't diabetic and has a phobia of needles. I watched my dad hit my mom,but she always fought back.Once he chocked her and it was bad enough she went the the hospital,the was early in their marriage. Both of them grew up in abusive households. Besides that there was the constant screaming. Screaming meant dad was getting mad enough to cut the electric off or hit someone. My dad did terrible things to my sister and creeped on me too. Weird thing was there wasn't any drugs or alcohol involved in either generation.

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?

We lived on a farm that had an outhouse when I was growing up. The winters sucked, but it got pretty intense in the summer. Every couple of years we would dig a new hole in the ground and move the outhouse. We had running water (well) into the kitchen but no water heater. We heated all our water on a wood stove no matter what the weather. Baths were every couple of days in a galvanized wash tub (yeah, it sucked to be the smallest child) but we had family, so it was good. Our first shower was an outdoor shower with a garden hose run to it. We thought we were shiatting in tall cotton.

Maybe that's where the expression came from, "He's a pretty good kid, but he shiats a little too close to the house". I really wouldn't change the way I grew up, but wouldn't wish it on my kids, although they would probably be stronger people for it and appreciate things more.

Brytanica1: Janky_McGank: Brytanica1: DysphoricMania: Brytanica1:


As a gay man, I'm the only one of my friends that knows how to gut, skin, joint and bone everything from a squirrel to a groundhog, how to clean fish with just a butter knife, what time of year to hunt morels, and the best time and way to gig a frog.

I grew up comparing myself with the men in my family and feeling as if I was effiminate. Not until I moved away did I realise I wasn't. My sister is more self-sufficient than most of the straight men I know now. Hell, she can probably whoop most of their asses. I caught my husband with my ability to make gravy over a campfire while baking biscuits in a bucket under it.

A Terrible Human: DysphoricMania: I look back now, at where I came from, and where I am now... I kind of miss the more 'innocent' days... I really seemed more happy then.

I can't at all say I miss anything of growing up. Just depends on the family you're raised in and whether really,really bad shiat happened almost daily. Another terrible issue that plagues this area is complete silence when it comes to child abuse. If you grow up in that kind of household your silence means one less beating.

ATH: We used to call that 'correction'... And there was plenty of it. I still got scars on my butt and legs from 'correction'. I never did it to my child, but then again when she came about, we were not in that environment. Makes me wonder if the environment shapes the discipline of children.... knowing how hard life might be in the given environment.

I know my Gr Grandpa was the hardest man I ever knew... but my Dad, not as hard b/c he was raised a bit easier. I honestly thing we evolved a bit between the 1920s and the 1960s... just look at how children were raised, and how the husband/wife dynamic changed...

I'm sorry but why all the filth in the houses?

My Grand parents didn't have running water either but they still washed the dishes? You get the water from the well and heat it on the (wood) stove.

Do you think that people couldn't clean before they had running water? We've only had mostly universal plumbing for what the last two/three generations. I remember outhouses.

DysphoricMania:

Agreed.. I remember my first time hitting a damned McDonald's... thought it was the high-end of eating then. Then KFC, then Long John Silvers was the high culinary experience, b/c like... shrimp! And omg Clams??? wtf are those?!?


Totally.

The first time I had ever eaten at a "fancy" place---a "sit down" restaurant where you're served by a waitperson who takes your order rather than a place with a counter where you give your order to a cashier---I was 17 years old and in college. I thought I was living "high on the hog," so to speak.

Yeah, when you're this poor, even Denny's is fancy. A place like Red Lobster or Applebee's is highfalutin and reserved for special occasions like high school graduation.

Before that, I'd eaten at Mickey D's a few times, and a couple other places. In general, though, we didn't eat out when I as a kid; we were too poor to (8 people in our combined family).

Brytanica1:
As a gay man, I'm the only one of my friends that knows how to gut, skin, joint and bone everything from a squirrel to a groundhog, how to clean fish with just a butter knife, what time of year to hunt morels, and the best time and way to gig a frog.

Being a gay man, has no issue on it. Gay man same as a non-gay man. We're all just trying to make our way, But I know you had it harder than most, so bless you for getting by.

Here is a good youtube link if you want to get a peak on the 'life' of an Appalachian man... Link It's a 3 part video...

DysphoricMania: I look back now, at where I came from, and where I am now... I kind of miss the more 'innocent' days... I really seemed more happy then.

I can't at all say I miss anything of growing up. Just depends on the family you're raised in and whether really,really bad shiat happened almost daily. Another terrible issue that plagues this area is complete silence when it comes to child abuse. If you grow up in that kind of household your silence means one less beating.

Mom left the Adirondacks the day after her high school graduation.
I returned there to visit. Wanted to see where she came from and the grand parents former home.
When I met a former school chum of my mom's she told me "Your mom was the smartest kid in school. She got out and didn't come back. I did the same for my kids. Both of 'em got a thousand bucks and a train ticket out. Told 'em don't come back till you have a job and a place to live, elsewhere."

Sometimes the "Forever Wild" idea doesn't really work all that well for everyone. The Appalachians though, they have to be kept poor so the mines have a ready pool of cheap labor.

if you didn't already, it's enough to make you hate the world.

accelerus:
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.


I spent a good deal of my early life poor like this. When things were better, our family moved up to the ranks of working poor. But when my father got injured at work around the time I entered high school, we fell back down to this level of poverty.

All that said, I'm extremely grateful for food stamps and the school lunch program. My sisters and I surely would have starved without those programs. As far as I'm concerned, these programs ARE worth "throwing money at."

In addition, I got a merit-based, full-ride scholarship to a state school (I probably could have gotten a full-ride to an out-of-state school if I would have tried, but being the first person in my family to go to college, I didn't even know that that was an option). That scholarship was the real life-changing event for me. Just another worthwhile expenditure of tax dollars, if you ask me. I haven't been poor since going off to college, and I don't plan on being poor ever again.

\our savings just hit the $100,000 mark
\\in our early 30's
\\\getting my PhD now, courtesy of the NSF

This is also the kind of area where the "company store" was king, so you're talking generations upon generations of people just being farked coming and going, so the fact that they can be pretty clannish and distrustful is more than a little understandable...

And a lot of it goes back even farther than that. They're descendants of the Ulster Scots/Scotch-Irish. They've got that whole "honor culture" bullshiat reverberating through their background. (not unlike prison culture)

Um.. they look poor, but a lot of the pictures were actually nice, just showing people going about their lives and making the best of things, like anyone else.

It reminded me of a family my family is old friends with (my mom is friends with the mother from when they were both girls) that lives in an obscure village in upstate NY. They've had a hell of a lot of troubles over the years, but they're resilient. They're rather poor and their lifestyle fills a few redneck or country-song stereotypes, but they're actually good-humored, well-informed (the wife comes from a more educated background, the husband less-so, but he's smart enough to have figured things out for himself, and the kids are smart too), and sweet, genuine people.

(Not really kids anymore, I guess. My mom goes upstate and sees the family a couple times a year, but I've only seen the father the past few years, on once- or twice- yearly trips he makes down to NYC.)

Anyway, of course I don't know the people in the photographs, but don't just assume because of some photo essay that their lives are some sort of lifelong span of misery to be pitied. (Of course, that doesn't mean I'm against any additional services to such areas for those who desire them. I'm just saying be wary of automatically thinking something like "OMG how can they all live like that out there!")

/does this count as white knighting?
//eh, whatever
///Anyway, hoarder clutter can happen anywhere. I have a packrat-ish tendency to edge a bit in that direction, myself.
////Not toenail-collecting level, mind you; I just have sentimental trouble parting with old souvenirs, books, computers, etc.
//...I should stop talking now

wellreadneck: 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.

Basically and from what I've seen and heard many people here don't care for the feds or cops no matter what age considering even some of the kids are like that too. The only real people I've seen be all right wing are the people who are super into religion. Then again I think churches are just a somewhat formal way play keeping up with the Joneses and lots of pretending to be a good christian. It just seems like the worst people I've met like to pretend to be holy and god fearing while at the same time being some of the biggest leaches and crooks around.

A Terrible Human: 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.

Agreed.. I remember my first time hitting a damned McDonald's... thought it was the high-end of eating then. Then KFC, then Long John Silvers was the high culinary experience, b/c like... shrimp! And omg Clams??? wtf are those?!?

I look back now, at where I came from, and where I am now... I kind of miss the more 'innocent' days... I really seemed more happy then.

Janky_McGank: 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.

I can look back on a lot of this stuff and laugh. I remember it being quite the thing when I was a kid in the late 70's and early '80s to have one of those big honkin' hornets nests as a decoration in your house.

And how dangerous it was to get them.

Or harvesting wild honey.

As a gay man, I'm the only one of my friends that knows how to gut, skin, joint and bone everything from a squirrel to a groundhog, how to clean fish with just a butter knife, what time of year to hunt morels, and the best time and way to gig a frog.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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....

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

Cool pictures. Until recently our cabin didn't have water. We still don't have running water in the traditional sense and the sewage issue was something to get used to. I was very taken back at first, but, really, not having running water is no big deal once you figure out some basic work arounds. I know quite a few around me that don't have electricity either. They're fine. I'm sure its a good life, but you'll pry my electricity out of my smoking, burned corpse thank you very much. I'd like to just sit and talk with these people though. Look like fun.

/has sudden need to clean my kitchen
//damn, I need more storage.

FizixJunkee: Didn't the article say that the average (or median?) household income in that county was around $19K/year? That's well below poverty line.

Yeah, it said this
The U.S. Census Bureau considers low income roughly $45,000 a year for a family of four. In Owsley, the median household income is $19,351 - the lowest in the country outside of Puerto Rico.

My part is in bold, yours in italics

My dad is from the Appalachian area of eastern Kentucky. First time I ever went there was when I was 13 and we went for my great granny's funeral and I got to meet my HUGE extended family.

I noticed pretty quickly that a rather sizeable portion of them seemed...off, either physically or mentally and brought it up to him.

He got really flustered and embarassed as he had to explain the concept of inbreeding and its effects.

Had this crazy great aunt named Evelyn who kept thinking I was married to my cousin Lisa and asking us when we were gonna have babies. i was like "ummm...were 13, and first cousins!"

Also, I was going through this germophobic/ultrahygenic phase and the lack of running water and using an outhouse complety freaked me out.

I sure would like to get my hands on those cast iron pots that Mose Noble owns. I bet that they are probably 100+ years old.

Is this where all the Fark douchebags make fun of how other people live?

/Must be fun being a douchebag.

rogue_L_chick: I live in the Ozarks as well, I now live in the sweetest spot in Arkansas, but these are my kind. My family and my friends, on average, have too many kids, too little education, and ever enough money...but they are the best people in the world as far as I am concerned. My kind will clothe and feed you, best they can, rather than see someone in front of them suffer. Yeah, we have our bad apples, but dammit if the good ones won't make you the best damn apple pie you've ever had.

I wouldn't mind visiting and stopping for awhile. I live in Las Vegas and I've forgotten what real people are like.

I've never seen a horse as sick as I've seen them in eastern Kentucky.

Or the trailers sitting in the front lawn of great big farm houses the people there allowed to get all sorts of run down when they could've spent the same amount of money they spent on those trailers, ATV's, and whatnot to keep it up over the years.

Also, it ain't littering if you put it under a damned rock.

I'm not hating the people, just how hilarious it is to document it like the way they did there.

Maybe it's an fx issue, but the USA poverty line is around 22,350 not 40k something. These families have an income closer to 18k a year.

I guess I'm just annoyed because it looks like the writer took the per capita income and multiplied by 4. That's not how family income works.

jtown: 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?

and being poor, and then sticking your dick into another poor thus creating a baby poor, isn't going to help your situation.

and yet there always seems to be money for alcohol and tobacco.

focus more on the necessities of life before you burden yourself further with extras.

/such as cable tv and 'Auction Hunters'

//and I'm not trolling, that's just how I feel

Many people live, literally, in the moment. Next week does not exist. Tomorrow is a vague, fuzzy concept. I'm sure there's some fancy name for this scenario.

Meth addiction?

Forget the lack of running water and electricity, they have bigger problems to deal with. Apparently according to the pictures they also have gingers.

DysphoricMania: Daily Fail can kiss my butt.... They have no understanding of the people that live there, why they live as they do, or why they stay there.

Seems like that's the usual mode of operation for the Fail; remember the 'Traveler' wedding a while back? I mean yeah the families were dressed in what metropolitan people consider tacky and had a similar vibe of poverty and 'marry young breed young' going on, but overall they looked relatively happy.

Mr. Coffee Nerves: I'd be willing to bet (yet not willing to do the research) that the area votes overwhelmingly Republican, and the primary reason for doing so is "because the Democrats give my hard-earned money to the ni*BONG* in the big city!"

Here is some recent data for Owsley County, KY.
Yes, overwhelmingly Republican. But also overwhelmingly white. Does that make all white people poor and stupid?

TWX: I'd bet that this area has looked like this, roughly, since the civil war,

Except for the time when all the trees were flattened by logging companies and the mountaintops getting blown off now.

I'd bet that this area has looked like this, roughly, since the civil war, and that the occasional new technology that has creeped in (automobiles, trailers) have only adopted into the mix, rather than having changed it. The only way I could see this changing would be an intervention, as in the rest of the country gathers in a room and when the Appalachians walk in, we tell 'em we've gotta talk...

jst3p: taurusowner: calbert:

they dont have electricity or running water but let's focus on dirty dishes. You should be ashamed of yourself but I know you lack a soul.

Coming from 'baby memorial on a piano meme' guy, shut up.

The rest of the photos bear a similar resemblance to some of the more remote areas of NY I've traveled through, and probably even some in my little rural corner. The first few with the overflowing dishes smack of 'that's wimmin's work, fark it'. If a body cares about cleanliness, they clean up no matter if it's an extra bucket or two of water. If they don't, well, you get that. Sort of like living with my dad when he figured out he had cancer but hadn't yet *cough* gotten insurance *cough*

They look happy enough, why all the hate?

Seem like nice enough people.

As for the dirty dishes tragedy, there are plenty of well to do folks that keep a poor household.

In my own rather limited experience in the south, what I've observed is an almost perfect pattern of nice house, shiatty house, nice house, shiatty house....