1940 Applalachian Pioneer's Mountain Life And Their Children

[EmeraldTriangle80]

By the New Deal era, the last remaining sections of Appalachia that hadn't had a large exposure to the outside world began to be introduced to new ideas for good and bad. But remember, most places in Appalachia by the 1930's had been influenced by "outlanders" for the last 50yrs with railroads, coal mining, and settlement schools.

[kesmarn]

Wonderful little short film. The description accompanying it should be tossed, though. The New Deal was a true life saver for many. And to imply that Appalachia was completely untouched by the outside world is contrary to history. Coal mining, unions, strikes, input from universities on better farming methods --- a lot of that "lefty stuff" made it to the hills. And that's a good thing.

[TheGoingwolf]

Same here BLUEMOONGRASS from hills of East Tenn born in mid 1940s and grew up there.Will always be home even thou i left there to serve in the military and get a degree from one of better know colleges in the midwest.GO PURDUE!!!!

[tonlo92]

These people look wealthy compared to how my Grandma "Maw Maw" lived. She didn't get her 1st pair of shoes until she was a teenager. Her mother made their dresses out of potato sacks. She told me their walls were covered in newspaper mixed with a paste they made. It looked like wallpaper but it was just newspaper. When she passed away last year she had over 50 pairs of shoes (not expensive ones) & she said she would never again not have a pair of shoes to wear.

[ginaven1]

Thats good food,I was raised poor,and ate like that and to this day it's even better

[oacmre]

this film makes me sad

[ginaven1]

@oacmre You don't know you are poor until you are told or see others have more,that's the way it is.you garden put food away (can) etc,it doesn't hurt people,we had to appreciate what we had.

[oacmre]

@ginaven1 i know what u mean, i am from a much poorer country ( with better climate though), so i know how hard the life can be when u dont have many things in life

[ginaven1]

@oacmre I live in south appalacia,have all of my life,We had gardens and sold some of our food and put food away,we made it. Wasn't fun as a small child getting up at 6am working in the garden all day,but we all had to. My dad came down with TB so we had to help. The outside world makes life look worse than it is.

[rosrychaplet]

they need to rotate those crops! corn corn corn depletes the soil. three tier rotation and crops that can bring back the minerals needed for the corn to come back.

[modernblacksmith]

I still live like this....crops in spring cut wood in winter keep the woodstoves going, busting my ass to get ahead, the more things change the more they stay the same....

[speck444]

we ate a lot of salt pork gravy it kept us going and was good with biskits and black berry jam

[centervilletn]

the narrator forgot to mention that the pig also provided the lard for biscuts and soap.

[centervilletn]

my people wouldnt work the in the mines...they too to horse and mule trading and shine.

[GrenadeChick99]

@centervilletn Would sure like to learn about that shine! ; )

[centervilletn]

@GrenadeChick99 well there is endless learning oppurtunies online- have at it

[BLUEMOONGRASS]

This video takes me right back home to East Tennessee in the early 1950's. Seems everthing I have seen in the video I have lived too. My folk came from cutters gap' Del Rio Tennessee the land of CHRISTY. This was the time of pure and honest hard workin people that still had morels they stood on that' lived off the land. Seems I have traveled everwhere and seen most all and the' one thing that still stay's fresh on my mind is my time in the APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS.

[jenzeppelin]

Does anyone know the name of the song that plays at 1:10?

[Druidbw]

This is how my mother lived in Northern Canada 1950's.

[jenzeppelin]

I live in Northern Canada and this really appeals to me.

[jenzeppelin]

@Druidbw Just out of interest, in which province? I'm in Northern Ontario.

[Druidbw]

@jenzeppelin I am in Mississauga. My mother grew up in Pickle Lake until 1960.

[gasttheplast]

@Druidbw me too.

[juslookin3]

Matthew 7:13-14

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Amen

[Sheamusj]

Thank you from Canada for posting this wonderful glimpse of 1940 Appalachian Life.

[shotgunwalter]

east ky coalminer.....we get mocked and made fun of alot, but if you watch tv, you only see the extremes....this was the the first mountain frontier, and it will be the last to go....one day alot of the "survival ignorant" will wish they could learn from us...no bailouts needed here.

[BBYMRLCCOTN]

I am glad to see that there are still people like me out there! I am going out goose hunting tommorow, and my family uses wild plants for both food and medicine. We have a garden that some would call a field, and a wood stove in the basement. Who knows, maybe if things get hard up enough, people will suddenly be very interested in folks like us who know how to live without grocery stores or fast food places.

[venusm61]

I wish I knew a family like yours. I've lived in cities my whole life. I'm building a log home off the grid. Both of my grandfathers were coal miners in WV and OH.

[BBYMRLCCOTN]

That's really cool. Good luck with the building! There are not a whole lot people like me left unfortunately. However, with the hard times on as they are, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of this traditional knowledge is being sought out and utilized. The good old ways never die, they just might get put away for a little while. I am glad to hear that you are finding your little bit of heaven on earth.

[mossrun]

I grew up in WV with newspapers glued with flour and water to the walls of slats... that you could see cracks to the outside... where the paper had been broken. My dad was a colsl miner and we lived in the company houses and the miners were paid in script... which we took to the Island Creek Coal Company store to get their groceries. If you did not shop at the company store you could only get 80% of the script in legal money.

[BBYMRLCCOTN]

There was an old song about the Island Creek Mine Fire. Is this the same outfit?

[mossrun]

The mines that my dad worked in were owned by the Island Creek Coal Company. They had company stores in Logan and Charleston WV. I believe that was the same company where the deadly fires were but I forget which mine.

[BBYMRLCCOTN]

Thanks for the info!

[guitorb]

The coal barons make it like it's the hill folk's fault that they're poor and illiterate. The industrialists can't own the charm and integrity of these people(something of far greater value than coal).

[jalollybad]

I grew up there...

[his2re]

Never forget the past you just might have to revisit it.

[bethky2000]

YamadaKeisai -We dont have moonshiners in our county. Its a wet county and we have bars and clubs Liquor store on every corner. lol

[Jamwitholdies]

I was born and reared in WV and I never saw this kind of nonsense, and never heard a lace curtain Irish singing when I went to sleep in my beautiful mountain home,

[Commentarian1]

I don't get this, either. It is too sugar coated.

[HMAwill]

At least we all share the same experience of getting kids out of bed.

[bethky2000]

My God people I live in pikeville Ky.WE have three McDonalds. A Walmart we ware Aeropostale.We have our Hair and nails done. We have pc and Ipods. WE have a college two high schools.Our Kentucky Miners are a professional basketball team in the CBA.We love Tpain "boots with the fur" .This film is good but we don,t live like that any more.South East kentucky has come a long way.We still know how to all the things like in the film . but WE also know more.Latter ya all

[YamadaKeisai]

How many moonshiners you got in your county?

[thrustiswaspinator]

I grew up in Wayland and there are several people who still live life like this, my parents included. Southeastern Kentucky still has a LONG way to go, believe me.

[venusm61]

This was filmed in 1940.I'm sure you don't think the"people up north" think you live like this at present. My husband grew up in Northern Ontario Canada. He was born in 1939. He helped cut ice out of the lake and took his bucket down there for water in the winter.Had no indoor plumbing or electricty until 1948. He remembers looking out the window and crying when he was a baby because his mom had to go light the fire at the one room school house down the road.

[elisharivers]

This film is very sophisticated for the 40s. I love how it contrasts the magazines the wall is papered with the life inside the home; the fancy couture, the balanced farming. Love it.

[RosyB9]

America used to be such a proud, independent nation with people like these actually growing their own food and our factories actually PRODUCING goods that we used. Now, everything comes from overseas and much of it is not even safe to eat or use!!

Just recall the horrible pet food scare from last year for instance.

[fromthispoint]

so much for farmers factory farming has robed farmers and put everyone on a checks and now say Ohh people of Appalachia are lazy and want work, while Drs protected by Government laws rob the hell out of our Government and disgrace the people of what once was USA we are loosening a war from the inside out like cancer eating inside a nation ...it should be a law that if you go to school in Appalachia and become a dr you should have to practice in SeKy or loose your MD. we are being robed.

[fromthispoint]

if you are a Dr from India or any other nation that has come to Kentucky not because you want to help the people but for the Government money from Medicare & Medicaid and insurance co we dont want you here any more with your big large homes on the tops of what used to belong to the people of Appalachia you and the government has put the people in a mountain reservation Drs Lawyers and money hungry government drug dealers get the hell out of seky we dont want your ass here any longer.

[fromthispoint]

I was raised just like this I am 46 years now, so the text books took away the mountain peoples understanding of self and land, now all we have is Drs from India,and rich political figures in Kentucky join forces to destroy the legacy of the best people that is left in America, like the native American's chased off there land by whites people of south east ky are being called lazy while rich lawers and Drs take away any self respect they have left , all of them should leave south east Ky.

[DevSodDribble]

68 years later, do these people still live here? Or did they say 'Ef it' and move to like, Las Vegas? Also, I hear what sounds like a Theramin being used in the soundtrack. I know the first Theramin was invented in the '20's, yet it isn't til the 50's that you hear them used a lot. How odd.

[pyratesteele]

Its funny you should say that DevDosDribble. I am over 40,my family is from the southern Appalachians since the late 1600s and I live in Vegas! Yes, many many people still live there and choose to live in the "old ways".  There's nothing wrong with it or them, it's just a choice of a lifestyle. And although I live in Vegas in the "modern ways" I still can goods, cook from scratch, do crafts, grow goods. I love sushi and at the same time love me some collard greens, beans, and corn bread.

[DevSodDribble]

OK I made my last comment when I was a tad intoxicated: I live in Salem, NH, and never left the east coast until age 30, on a trip to Vegas, hence that's the high mark of going 'someplace new and crazy' to me. I recognize that these people who live off the land are much tougher and more rugged than a 'suburban weenie' like me, and if a nuclear war ever happened, people like this would make it. Soft spoiled people like me, with our malls and McDonald's, would perish. I meant no disrespect.