Originally Posted by Raeford
I understand 4ager.
If one has never been to this part of the country then they wouldn't understand it's allure. These hills and hollars become a part of you. Even though the area that I reside in has changed drastically due to two major universities[Va Tech & Radford U] with a combined 40K students, I'm still just ten to fifteen minutes drive from true hillbilly land in most any direction. When I head north into WV[half hours drive mostly due to winding roads] I see the devastation that the EPA has wreaked. It's hard to believe that poverty exists at that level that close. It's a totally different world yet when you look past the shanties where many of the [mostly former] coal miners live it is still beautiful country.
I guess that I am saying I couldn't image living anywhere else, ever.


Folks down there are certainly doing a whole hell of a lot better now, than they were doing back in the 50s, 60s, 70s...

Alot of folks from outside have moved down there to retire.. bringing in money besides having to rely on coal money... many folks were hillside dirt farmers, and survived off of that...

a big influx started in the early 1970s, after John Denver came out with "Almost Heaven, West Virginia" and you had the 'get back to nature crowd', moving down there from the Northeast and the Midwest....

My family roots are down there from Wyth County VA to Raleigh County WVA, and have been since that area had the first white settlers in there...My grandfather was born in Wythe County in 1907, and my grandmother in Beckley WVa in 1911...if someone has the last name of Meadows or Lily, they are probably related to me...

I was born in Bluefield in 1952, which had a population back then of about 20,000.. now adays I think it is more like 12 to 13 thousand. My mother was raised in Monroe County, and I have relatives peppering Giles Co VA, Mercer, Monroe, Greenbrier and Raleigh Counties WVa...

And Steelie's comment about they are all yankees? I remember few statues erected in small towns in WVa dedicated for the local boys that fought for the Union in the Civil War...but there are plenty dedicated to the local boys who fought for the south.....the county seat of Monroe County is named Union.. but it only has a statue for the boys who fought for the Confederacy...

Poverty has always been a fact of life in Southern WV and the counties in VA bordering it... and yeah, problems that come with poverty still exist down there also....but the locals also know how to take care of one another... you do something for someone in need, twenty years later most will not have forgotten it...

and yeah, they are Leary of outsiders...but no where near as bad as it was when I was growing up...

and despite its good and bad, many of the people down there are of Scotch, Irish and English ancestry...they were a proud independent people when they came there, and their descendents are still the same.. it may not appear to be much to outsiders, but the folks down there are DAMNED proud of where they come from.. and they don't take kindly to outsiders putting it down or pissing on them...

there are plenty of good old boys you just don't want to piss off.. they'll give ya the shirt off their backs if you are in need... and they'll cut your throat if you piss on them...

and as said, a Lot of WVa boys have served their country....I have a lot of relatives that came back from WW 2, highly decorated in combat.....they tend not to back down from a fight very easily....

each year there is a family reunion held in Beckley at Round Top...The Lily family reunion...it holds numerous entries in the Guinness Book of Records, as the largest family reunion held in the United States each year... my great grandfather and 2 of his brothers started that reunion in 1929...its attended by people from all 50 states...

I'm awfully proud of my family roots down there, that's for damned sure...they are good people...some of the most giving you'll find anywhere...much like many people use to be all over this nation.. but it has died out for many reasons... but it is still alive in those mountain hollers and hills...