As if in confirmation of my rant above regarding the coal mines and the lack of farming compared to former days, I ran across this video on YouTube. When it said "the poorest county in America", I was certain that it was regarding the county my Dear Old Dad grew up in, but I was mistaken.
This is McDowell County, WV. It's right across the state line from where I'm sitting, so the same culture and economic area. Same accents. Same attitudes. Same everything. Even the same landscape. This is what life is like right here where I am, right now. We don't really have to wait for any economic collapse - it's already on us, and has been for some time ever since the Robber Barons came in to steal our resources, and then the Socialists came in right behind them to shut everything back down and keep us in the poor house.
Blankenship is a common name around here, and unless I'm mistaken, this Sandy Blankenship that is interviewed went to school with one of my sisters. It was a long time ago, and I left here for 30 or 35 years and didn't keep up with everyone, so I can't be sure.
There is a place in the video where the narrator says "I went outside, and there was the wood stove burning". That's not, strictly speaking, a wood stove. It's a smoke house. Someone is smoking a deer they've killed to preserve it for the coming year, until deer season rolls around again.
Not really about surviving hard times, but then again it is. Calamity doesn't always hit everywhere all at once.
.
This is McDowell County, WV. It's right across the state line from where I'm sitting, so the same culture and economic area. Same accents. Same attitudes. Same everything. Even the same landscape. This is what life is like right here where I am, right now. We don't really have to wait for any economic collapse - it's already on us, and has been for some time ever since the Robber Barons came in to steal our resources, and then the Socialists came in right behind them to shut everything back down and keep us in the poor house.
Blankenship is a common name around here, and unless I'm mistaken, this Sandy Blankenship that is interviewed went to school with one of my sisters. It was a long time ago, and I left here for 30 or 35 years and didn't keep up with everyone, so I can't be sure.
There is a place in the video where the narrator says "I went outside, and there was the wood stove burning". That's not, strictly speaking, a wood stove. It's a smoke house. Someone is smoking a deer they've killed to preserve it for the coming year, until deer season rolls around again.
Not really about surviving hard times, but then again it is. Calamity doesn't always hit everywhere all at once.
.