Tag: #Appalachia

Posted in Appalachia

Stories of Appalachia: The Beauty Queen

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

Country women are the hardest working women around. Particularly country women who live in Appalachia. All work hard at home which is often a farm, or these days, land that was a former farm. Many also have jobs outside the home, more now than in the past.

Sarah was a woman of the past, living her entire life in Appalachia. She was born in the 1930’s, so her life spanned the century mark in 2000. Most of her life was like women had lived in Appalachia in the past centuries, but parts of her life were very much in the present and future. She was most comfortable with the traditions of the past but valiantly tried to embrace the present and look toward the future.

She was the kindest, most caring person I’ve ever known. She was beautiful inside and out. She met the love of her life, Randall, as a small child. They were neighbors and playmates in the hills of Eastern Kentucky. Teenage sweethearts, they even went off to college together after they married. Randall became a biology and general sciences teacher in the local school system. Sarah went to work for the county’s Board of Education.

They had a rich life, full of friends and family although they had no biological children. They did have a very special daughter who came to them through Randall’s family. Sarah loved her, as did Randall, as if she were their biological child. After they cared for her as she grew up into a successful and kind adult, she spent many years caring for them.

Their special daughter is still caring for Randall. Sarah considered her to be her own. Until the last twenty years, Sarah and Randall also cared for Sarah’s mother. Such is the way of the rather clannish people of Appalachia. Family still means something to them. They take care of their own.

Sarah and Randall lived in Sarah’s grandparents home place. It was most of the way up a “holler,” which is the Appalachian slang for a long, narrow valley between close mountains. Most of that holler was part of Sarah’s grandfather’s large farm until the grandparents passed away. Sarah’s mother retained land and the house. When Sarah’s mother passed away, Sarah inherited it. They made their home there for the rest of their lives. It was a beautiful place.

Before the opioid epidemic that affected Eastern Kentucky among many other areas, the entire region was green and lush with farms here and there. Then, one of the area’s major industries, coal mining, began to die and the unemployment rate started to rise. Not only did the area lose the coal mining jobs, but their major cash crop of tobacco also vanished.

Many left the area, but just as many did not. They didn’t want to leave their families. Drugs found a foothold due to joblessness and poverty. Suddenly, it wasn’t quite as beautiful as it had been in Sarah’s childhood, but she and Randall remained in the family home place after Sarah’s mother passed away.

Sarah’s grandfather and grandmother had a large family. There were many aunts, uncles, and cousins. Especially in the last years, Sarah graciously welcomed any family member who knocked on her door and planned family get-together’s and reunions. After all, that was the family home place for Sarah’s side of the family. In the present day, the family is dwindling away until mostly cousins remain, but the cousins were always welcome.

Then, tragedy struck. Sarah was struck down by a heart attack probably caused by underlying health conditions. Other health issues cropped up and Sarah was transferred to the nearest city where her health issues could be addressed. Sarah was 83 and Randall was 86. Beautiful Sarah survived for a number of days, but finally, the doctors could do nothing else and hospice was recommended. Sarah only briefly survived in hospice with her daughter and Randall right beside her. Tragically, to Sarah’s family and friends, she passed away after a long life with her soulmate.

I always thought of Sarah as a beauty queen. Beautiful inside and out, she positively affected everyone’s life that she touched. She was rather eccentric, (I just thought of her as her own special person), but filled with common sense. She often advised me and other members of the family. She will be so missed by her family and friends. I will be lonely for Sarah the rest of my life. Randall is, thankfully, still with us, but he is failing.

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Note: Why am I writing about Sarah? She was my beloved first cousin and we always stayed close. Without Sarah, I will be lonely for the rest of my life for her unique personality, the culture she represented, and my own family which is lost to me. She represented a dying culture that was beautiful to its core. People who cared about their family and friends and were willing to sacrifice to care for them describes the Appalachian people in general and Sarah specifically. May Sarah, who was a beauty queen to me, rest in peace.

Posted in Appalachia, Creative Nonfiction Essays, Eastern Kentucky

Appalachia: Hillbilly and Redneck

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

When we hear the term “hillbilly” or “redneck,” we automatically have a negative connotation associated with them. To those who aren’t familiar with Southern Appalachia, we think of the TV show, “The Beverly Hillbillies,” or the movie, “Deliverance,” and the associated depiction of the two terms. Those images are only caricatures dreamed up by show business.

The term “hillbilly” is an old term that simply refers to people who live in the mountains, in rather remote areas, and live their own way. It doesn’t mean they don’t wear shoes or that they’re ignorant, but we tend to use the term as a slur to refer to people we consider hillbillies. Hillbilly seems to have somehow gotten tied up in a social class definition. That couldn’t be further from the truth. My grandfather, who was born deep in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, was certainly a hillbilly, but he and his family were of at least the high middle socio-economic class regarding income, social standing, and education.

The word “hillbilly” originally referred to a type of music played and developed in the mountains. Hillbilly music was the original bluegrass music. Pure, original Bluegrass music originated in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s in isolated pockets in the mountains, usually through the music of family groups or bands. Somehow, the word shifted from the music of the people to the people themselves. Most mountain people don’t mind being called hillbillies. When it is used as a slur based on an imagined stereotype, that shows the ignorance of the user and not the hillbilly.

The word “redneck” is thrown around today as a slang word referring to people with, usually, a particular way of life and political persuasion. We think of rednecks and we immediately see the Confederate flag, conservative leanings, and guns. Perhaps that is the modern definition of “redneck,” but it is not what the word originally referred to.

The word “redneck” originally came from Scotland and referred to those who worked outdoors and had a sunburned neck as a result. It also referred to peaceful protestors against mining officials because the protestors tied a red bandana around their necks.

The word “redneck” is not a word tied to the mountains or to any geographic region. You can be from the middle of the largest cities. If your beliefs are based on the Second Amendment, you fly the Confederate flag in the back of your pickup truck, and you believe in far right-wing politics, you are the modern definition of a redneck.

When I was growing up, I never saw a Confederate flag at my grandfather’s house in Eastern Kentucky. The only guns I saw were a couple of hunting rifles used to deer hunt for food. My grandfather was a centrist in his politics but leaned left. The modern definitions of “hillbilly” and “redneck” would not fit him even though he was one of the originals.

Copyright Rosemary Carlson @2020