To Poor To Paint And To Proud To White Wash

Welcome back, everyone!  I sincerely apologize for not getting anything posted this week.  I have been such a busy little bee!  I finally went back to work full time at the daycare.  Go me.  I also started physical therapy for my neck/shoulder problem.  Cross your fingers that this works and I don't need surgery.   As previously stated, I will continue to post as I write.  I am stilling tinkering around with how frequent posts will be but, hopefully, the schedule will settle down soon.  Thanks for all of your patience with me. 

Today, We’re going to go ahead and discuss one of the South's most prominent stereotypes.  For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to call it The Beverly Hillbillies Standard.  If you’ve never seen the old show, I’m positive YouTube has some clips lurking around.  Go on.  Take a Look.  Now, I’m not saying I don’t like The Beverly Hillbillies because I do.  I watched it as a kid and I still think it's pretty funny.  That said this show continues to color views and opinions of the South.  And while it may arguably be the most famous, it's hardly the only show to portray Southern culture in an unflattering light.  Others include Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, and the Dukes of Hazzard.  I am unsurprised upon first meeting to find Non-Southern folks that still believe people here live in two-room log cabins or shacks without the benefit of electricity or running water.  That we are uneducated, dirty, drunk on illegal, homemade liquor.  This is a backward area or we’re just downright racist.  

Moreover, I find it quite odd that in 2018 the majority of nonlocal folks still manage to hold on to that belief.  The bulk of the population hasn’t fit this pattern since the Great Depression when many of those issues were common throughout the nation.  The Tennessee Valley Authority (started by President Franklin D. Roosevelt) has been providing electricity, flood control, and other amenities to the Southern states since the 1930’s.  There are a ton of good universities (and their accompanying football teams) found here.  I don’t care about sports but they tell me so.  More recently, the widespread repeal of liquor bans or so-called dry county laws has left most moonshine not only legal but freely available.  The religious types protest vehemently but so far we’re winning the battle.  As with all stereotypical worldviews, there are a few facts mixed in with a good deal of hogwash.

Now I’d like to state here that the lion’s share of the information to be discussed will be about the area known as the Southern Appalachian Mountains.  This is where my family is from and I continue to live.  Here is where I gather my knowledge and experience.  To help you better understand, let’s talk about the history of the Southern Appalachian Mountain area.

  The first groups to move into this land were called the Over Mountain people.  They traveled in covered wagons for weeks to settle in isolated and mostly uncharted country.  Subsistence farming, hunting/trapping, and later on logging and mining became the way of the land.  This isolation allowed the preservation of old dialects, folk songs, and traditions.  Some Native American Tribes were present here.  Most notably, the Cherokee who now have a reservation in Cherokee, North Carolina.  Portions of the Mountains experience such extreme rainfall as to be nearly classified as temperate rainforests.  This combined with the rocky terrain made large-scale farming difficult.  As a result, there were very few of the large plantations that sprang up in other parts of the Southern states.  The Southern Appalachians stand out in other important ways as well.  For instance, considerable areas of Eastern Tennessee and, well, all of West Virginia maintained their Unionist (Northern) associations during the American Civil War.

The area was never exactly considered prosperous but the population was of a tough and independent nature.  Logging and Mining towns dotted the mountain slopes.  Attempts at Unionizing were often shut down violently.  The biggest example being the Battle of Blair Mountain in Virginia, an incident so large that the U.S. Air Force was called in.  The Depression hit us hard.  My wonderful great-grandmother, Mamaw Iris, liked to proclaim that they all would have died if they hadn’t got Hoover out of office.  Roosevelt was her President and once he got there plenty of Government support was aimed our way.  The TVA, the CCC Corps, and the beginning of the National Parks Service all had a focus on our area.  However, the implementation of the National Parks Act meant that all those folks still living in the mountains now had to find a new place to call home.  With World War II coming fast, the founding of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory brought an influx of the brightest minds of the age.  Today, you might even manage to get a tour but Oak Ridge wasn’t even on the map for decades.  Outside of an incident involving the bombing of a local high school, the Civil Rights Movement seems to have passed remarkably uneventfully in my hometown.  Auntie M, who was in high school at the time, couldn’t even recall ever hearing about the Nashville Sit-Ins which occurred only a couple of hours away.    

The Chimney Top Fire 2017

Now that you have a basic understanding of the historical perspective, let’s talk about today.  What’s going on down there?  Are the rumors true?  Not True?  In reality, the situation is much more complicated.  Today, the Southern Appalachians are considered to be one of the poorest areas in the country.  The poverty here is both tragic and real.  There are a variety of economic, social, industrial, and political reasons for this.  Some of it is geographic.  There are still places that are difficult or even impossible to get to for even basic repairs in the Mountains.  Last December there was a devastating wildfire that burned 150 something acres in the Great Smoky Mountains.  The cleanup and rebuild is ongoing because basically only local companies can even work up there without falling off.  Electricity became fairly common after TVA started but plumbing/running water took significantly longer.  Honorable and Esteemed Grandmother and Auntie M lived in a house without indoor plumbing until the mid-1960’s. Some of it is just that Southern constitution.  We’re all damn stubborn.  Great Uncle Hitchhike lived in such a house until he died in the early 2000’s.  It can even be multiple issues.  In some areas, such as West Virginia, there's only one major employer, the water supply is in a sad state, and they are taking the tops off their mountains.  Religious influences help and hinder in equal measure.  Donations and aid keep the poorest communities afloat but policies like abstinence-only sex education and science denialism harm individuals and communities alike.

So, in reality, yes, there are places and people who do live in situations that would remind you of the typical Southern stereotype.  There are very poor people and very poor places throughout both the Appalachians and the other Southern states.  If you find this subject interest you, there is a good documentary on Netflix called Blood on the Mountain you should check out.  Please feel free to ask me any questions.

Thanks For Reading,

A Southern Atheist