Jared Hamilton

Jared Hamilton - Media Artist, Musician and Promoter, Pikeville, Kentucky:

“Growing up in the mountains is pretty amazing. A lot of time you either watch TV, or work on art, or walking around in the woods, whatever you want to do. Or waste your life on drugs. Those are pretty much your options. 

It’s a very big problem [drugs], but I don’t really see a lot of that problem area. I’m not really around the bad a lot, the bad side, you know. The bad side of boredom, that’s what I’m going to call that.

I like the word, hillbilly. I don’t see it as derogatory, unless it’s being used in a derogatory way. Hillbilly is a nice term to me. Redneck is different. A hillbilly is someone, to me, who enjoys the hills, and wants to live in the hills. And enjoys being in nature, and wants to have a farm, or at least grow some food, even a small garden, or wants to be further away from the city. It’s someone who really just loves this culture and embraces it. You don’t even have to have roots. I think you can become a hillbilly. I think it’s inside of you. There are hillbillies in Oregon, you know. There are hillbillies that are born in New York City, that have to retreat to the hills to be who they are.

I remember the first time I went to the Breaks Interstate Park, and I climbed over the edge of the bannister, and sat on the edge. That moment kind of just changed my life. I had never really felt so small until then, and then coming up to Wiley’s Last Resort also changed my life a little bit. Just being conscious about taking care of your land. Just the way that people go about things.

[The Appalachian stereotype began with media] trying to come in and help, because there was such great poverty down here. They thought they were doing a good, enlightening thing with their journalism, to show how bad it is, so people would feel bad and want to help. But people down here are proud, and they don’t want that help. And that’s only a part of the population that is even considered poor to us. And it offends people that they are lumped into that. I think the media doesn’t have bad intentions, but it comes off that way to people from here. 

Appalachian culture really breeds creative geniuses over and over again, because not a lot of people have a lot of money to go out and do things. And spend a lot of money going on trips, like whatever it is that more wealthy people do with their time. It leaves a lot of free time to be creative, and I think that’s a good thing.

The band’s called Moonshine District. We just started in October, of last year. We just got together and started playing, and it’s been going since then. (I’m not sure about these names.) Maggie Noelle, Katie Didit, Eric Smith, and myself. We have a washtub bass, fiddle, mandolin, and two female vocals. It’s hard to explain the type of music it is. It’s not really Bluegrass, but we’re definitely lumped into Bluegrass, but influences from all over, from funk to soul, to R&B to punk rock, to just like any kind of folk music.

It is mountain music though. Everything definitely draws influence from the old time traditional music. You can’t reproduce that, because we’ve been influenced by so many other things, than what people were that made that original mountain music. I think any music that comes out of here could still be considered mountain music, even if it’s old time or new time. It’s modern mountain music.

I got a guitar when I was twelve, and I never really got that good at it. For one reason, I’m stubborn, and I don’t want to learn other people’s songs. Also, because I was so consumed with having to work, and go to school for so many years. I dropped it for photography, and I did pretty well with that. But once I got my job at Appalshop, which I don’t have that job anymore, I had all this extra time in the evening. I picked up the mandolin, and I’ve been playing mandolin for probably fifteen months. I’ve only really tried to actually understand music, and keys, and scales, in the last year and a half. But it’s all I do. 

A lot of my family’s made money from coal, and definitely mountaintop removal is horrible, but it is what it is. People got to make money somehow, so you offer people who don’t really have that much twenty dollars an hour, they’re going to do what you tell them. You can’t really villain-ize the miner, but the coal companies are definitely evil.

How much more coal is there? How long can that last, if they blow up every mountain? It’s got to run out sometime. It’s not exactly a renewable resource. I don’t really care, if people are making money, and feeding their families. That’s one thing. But it’s definitely leaving, and I think we need to find a way to move on. 

What we’re doing at Wiley’s (a music festival resort on top of Pine Mountain in Kentucky) is a part of it (moving away from dependence on coal), using music to draw people in for nature tourism. Exposing people to the beautiful Pine Mountain with the trick of flashing lights and music. You come to this music festival up here, or any of the things that Jim’s ever put on; you come for the music, and you stay for Mars Rock, and the pond, and the mountain. It’s a different climate than in the valleys. It’s a rain forest up here. It’s a different climate, than in the valleys. It’s a magical place. You come here, and you never want to leave.

If you want to pursue the kind of career that I want to pursue, and make enough money to have a decent life, you’re going to have to go somewhere else to do it. My career, I consider to be photography, and I’m at least going to have to be closer to Lexington and Louisville to be able to get enough work to feed myself with that business. 

I definitely don’t like living in the city. I would much rather be here, but it’s also a double-edged sword, because I’m a social beast. There isn’t that many social opportunities down here. At least, not for the kind of weirdo that I am, who wants [to] go to concerts, and hang out with more artistic types, musical, artsy kind of people. There is a scene for it, but just not as much as I would like. But it’s a double-edged sword, because the fast life of the city wears me out. It makes me grumpy, too.

I went to school at Western Kentucky University, and I got a Bachelor’s in photojournalism. I’ve worked in newspapers in Michigan and Pikeville, Gilbert, West Virginia, and all kinds of different places. I love it, but I’m trying to do magazine work now. It’s what I want to do. I have a bunch of friends that have really good connections, that I’ve never tried to use, because I was teaching, and I really wanted to do that. I just wanted to do something that was more like a non-profit, community servant type thing. I think being an artist is kind of self-serving. I went through a phase where I didn’t want to dedicate my life to doing something that was self-serving, so I wanted to do something that was good for my community. I got a job at AMI, and that program changes kids’ lives, and I loved every second of it, but now that I’ve had a taste of that, I’m going to really push, and see what I can do out in the world.“

Hailee Dietz

Hailee Dietz, Wal-Mart Employee; Big Stone Gap, Virginia.

“I was born in Waynesboro, but I grew up in Olinger; a little past Big Stone in Lee County. I actually grew up in the mountains on a farm for about ten years. It was a small little town and everybody was close knit; a simple little life honestly. I didn’t really live around anybody, I lived out in the middle of nowhere. I had my siblings and I played in cow patties, honestly. That’s what I did. I played in the river; we messed around with the cows and we had little go-carts and stuff. And we’d go around and play stuff like that. We were more outdoorsy than how it is now playing video games. We didn’t have that whenever I was growing up. 

I think we have a different soul about us. The way that we are and the way that we act about life in general, more slow paced, more family oriented. At least that’s how I’ve always grown up to be. Everybody’s really close knit; not very so fast paced. You think about it; it would be nice to live in the city with all the things that are going on, but I have kids now and I love to raise my kids in the mountains. The morals you can learn and the way you’re brought up. I feel like we raised some pretty decent people.

(On the farm) we had watermelon, zucchini, squash, corn for sure. My dad had the best watermelon. We would never drink (all) our sodas, and he would take our leftover sodas and get one of the big gallon water bottles, and he would pour it all in there and that’s what he would water his watermelon with, and we’d have the best watermelon each year. All the sugar made the watermelon really sweet.

There’s nothing like some home cookin’. We cook really good food actually. All the things that we grew we would really eat . My mom, she would always experiment. We would always eat different culture foods; we would always have different types of food. Mainly barbecues of course, a lot of barbecues. Sauerkraut weenies, pork, corn bread; we actually had corn bread fritters, not the actual thick kind, it's the little flat like a pancake kind. We’d have those and I really like those a lot. That’s what we’d cook.

(Grandparents) You might actually know them, Chuck and Betty Miller. Charles Miller, they were preachers, my family is a long line of preachers. I mean, you can’t go around here; there’s at least twenty churches just in our mile, our radius of our town Big Stone. First they were actually Pentecostal, then it went to Baptist and now we’re Methodist. So we’ve switched around quite a bit, but we were first Pentecostal. I grew up in church actually; there’s not a day we didn't go to church; we always had to wear dresses, no jeans. Definitely was strict on that, very old school. I think (religion) is very important, it really is. I think that’s where we get the basis of our morals to do right ‘cause everything is so wrong now. 

(On stereotyping) We’re not rednecks. You know they think we are. You know the way they think about us. We’re not that type. I wish everybody out there could see how good-natured and good-hearted and decent people are around here. Around here, we’d give the shirt off our back to somebody if they really needed it. It really don’t bother me that much cause that’s not how we are but I wish they didn't think that way.

(I’m) a hippie hillbilly. Pretty much anybody around here knows how to go out and go on the farm and how to take care of your horses and your cattle, goats and chickens and stuff like that. I kinda think that’s a hillbilly. You livin’ the old way and you know to live off with just the bare minimum. Livin’ off the land.

Hippie hillbilly? I’m really hippie I guess. I’m nature lovin’ and I love the nature. I like to use the nature, but hillbillies do that too. They like to use the nature for growin’ and livin’. I think they go together. I’m peace, love and I can grow off the land.

I actually lost a brother about five years ago to cancer. He was five years old when he passed away. I think if I wasn’t in this area it would have been a lot harder to take than it would have been somewhere else. Which, I don’t know, I’ve never been anywhere different but the people around here really helped us out, our family, in our time of need when we needed them. I’m still going through it honestly. It’s hard. I have a little girl that’s almost his age now so it’s kinda tough. The sleeve tattoo? It’s actually for my brother. It’s not finished. He loved Toy Story. That’s in memory of him.

Right now, my girls are my happy times. They’re really making everything a lot easier to deal with. Two little girls, Willow and Prim. Willow will be three in August and Prim just turned one. 

I absolutely love it (here). I don’t think I ever could leave the mountains. I always try. I always say, ‘I want out of here.’ But when I think about it, no. When I’m on vacation I get homesick. I love it, I do, I honestly love it. There’s just a sense of comfort. “

Beldon Scott Mullins

Beldon Scott Mullins, Police Officer of 20 Years; Wise, Virginia:

“I was born and raised in Wise out on Pole Bridge Road. I went to school in Wise Schools. I started out at Wise Primary, L. F. Addington, then I graduated in 1993 from Kelly High School. Everybody knows everybody, or if you don’t know the person, someone you know, knows that person. It is a community where everybody tries to help people, it is a community where people care for people and we all come together as one.

I think if they (outsiders) lived in this region, in the mountains of this beautiful part of Wise County, I think they would have a change of heart and probably would want a part of living in our area instead of city life. I have been made fun of many times [because] of my accent. One time, I was in Richmond for some (police) training and we had to introduce ourselves and talk about where we were from and things like that, and they all kinda made fun of me because of my accent. I just laughed it off. It didn’t bother me any. This is who I am and this is who I will be.

I have two girls. They have been here all of their life. They have been to local schools. I have one who has already graduated and she is going to UVA Wise. She is following in my footsteps. She is majoring in criminal Justice, and my other one is an upcoming senior this year. I instill in them to help each other, be kind to each other. I am old fashioned. I believe in respect of my elders. I believe in respect of anybody, but truthfully respect my elders and that is something I was taught by my father. Open the door for them, helping them, just like out here today on the street, if an elderly person needs something, just step in and try to help them.

[I am] a hillbilly at heart. It means that I am an old fashioned person, old fashioned beliefs. I believe in respect, respect one another in the way they want to be treated. I believe in respect for our community. I believe in respect and being proud of yourself and proud of where you’re from. Living a life of good values and living a life of being raised in a family with good Christian values, good moral character.

I don’t have a whole lot of off time, but when I do I just spend time with my family. I am a family man. I love to spend time with my family. My life is my family. The best times of my life were when my children were born. Those were the best two days of my life. I love my daughters to death, and then the day I married my beautiful wife. That is another good thing. 

I’m thankful to still have a father. He gets around well, still works well, he tinkers with old cars all the time. We have an excellent relationship. He worked in the coal business. He worked above ground on a surface mine. And then for a few years he had coal trucks also and hauled coal.

The biggest challenge (in law enforcement) is being able to learn, whether starting new or being a several year veteran, to leave the job at the job and not take it home to your family. That’s one of the hardest things to learn. Because there is a lot of things that we see that personally I mean bother ya, it’s always in your mind. You have to learn how to leave that at your job and not bring it home to your family.

When I first started law enforcement back in 1995, things have progressively changed over the years. We had some problems back then with illegal narcotics, mostly crack cocaine. Over the years, that kinda got better and now, today, we have problems with prescription medications and synthetic drugs.

Some things that you would never dream would ever cause a problem in the future. These people make methamphetamines out of Drano and different types of chemicals that you would think, if they ever got into your body that you would immediately die. If these people would get an education, obviously they have very good intelligence, they probably could become scientists and maybe find some cures for these illnesses in the world. If they would put forth an effort and do that instead of in the life of drugs.

Drugs is a lot more than what people think. We do have a drug problem here. There is a drug problem all over the country, but we do have a drug problem here. We, as law enforcement, we try to do our best to try to just take a little piece of it and fix it. We are never going to (completely) fix it; there is nothing we can do to totally fix it. It’s always gonna be here. When you have drugs, you have other crimes of domestic violence, larceny, people breaking into buildings and taking things like that. My pet peeve is actually intoxicated drivers.

In my job, there has been a lot of sadness. We see a whole lot. I have been to homes where children have died or in the process of dying, or choking to death. I have been to car accidents where people have lost their lives. That’s one of the parts of the job, you know, that is hard. You just gotta kinda put it behind ya; put it in the back of your mind. 

Like I said, you don’t want to take it home to your family. You don’t want to be so depressed yourself that you will depress the whole family, and the family will be concerned about you. You know you don’t want to do that.”

April Johnson

April Johnson, Mom and Volunteer Firefighter; Prestonsburg, Kentucky:

“I was born at McDowell, Kentucky, and raised in David, until I was a teenager, and then I lived in Wilson Creek, in Maytown, for a couple of years. 

When I was a little girl, back in those days you didn’t have to worry about people kidnapping you, or the things that you worry about now. I climbed the hills, and played in the creek. [In] our little holler, it was just my cousins and me.

My cousin, Dwayne, he was a few years younger than I am, but he was always like the older one, he acted the oldest of us all. We took my baby brother, who was at that time, probably three or four, and we went hill climbing. They were looking for my baby brother, and they couldn’t find him. When we got back, we got in so much trouble. We got the best spanking of our lives. (Laughs) And we never done that again.

The people [in Appalachia] are more willing to help you. Everybody cares about everybody else, and you know if you need help, that you’ve got it. 
It makes me angry sometimes, because they [media] act like we’re nothing, but hillbilly hicks, and we’re not. Yeah, I’m sure there’s some that live way up in a head of a holler that never come out but once a month, but that doesn’t affect everybody. We’re just down to earth people.

I was married twice before. My first husband was a fireman, and he passed away when he was thirty-seven. My three older children are by him. He had diabetes really bad, and it was really sudden, very unexpected. He had been on duty the night before, and went home. An hour or so later he just…he just died. Like literally, died. His heart exploded. That was hard. We’d been divorced for eleven years. He was somewhat abusive, when I was married to him, and that was why I left. 

But, he had realized what he had done, and he had changed, and he was my best friend. We got closer that last six months to a year that he was alive, than we had ever been, and that was hard. It’s still hard, because my youngest one by him has a baby due in December, and he’s married. When they [the children] go through major life events like that it, bothers me and I cry a lot, and I don’t understand it sometimes. 

And my second husband, he was abusive, and my three babies are by him. We’ve been divorced since 2008.

I’m a volunteer at the fire department. I do just whatever they tell me to do. I’ve not went inside of a fire at this time. 

The kids love the animals. We’ve got a miniature mule, a miniature donkey, got cats, and dogs, and chickens. So that keeps them entertained. We have rescued a horse once. At one time, we had eight dogs, where we’d rescued them, and cats. It’s a lot work, and costs a lot of money, so we’re down to four dogs, I think. And we have two cats, and two kittens. 

I’m not real crazy about having the animals. They’re so much work, but I do like the mule and the donkey, because they’re just so loving. And they’ll come over, and they’ll lick you, like a dog. If you don’t pay attention to Dumpling, that’s the mule, he’ll get your shirt and pull at it with his teeth to get your attention. 

My mother was very abusive, so there were a lot of hard times [during childhood]. My mom was crazy. The whole family’s crazy. My great grandfathers, both of them died playing Russian roulette. When I was a little girl, my papaw would tell me that. I blocked most of my childhood out, so I don’t remember a whole lot about it.

Have you ever heard of Marlow Tackett? [Tackett was a Kentucky native and RCA recording artist. He passed away in 2014, and was later honored by having his name added to the Country Music Highway. For years, he owned a music venue, Marlow's Country Palace in Pike County, Kentucky.] 

I love the man. Love him. When my mom was being abusive, she would take me up there when I was nine years old, and just leave me. And she would go find her whoever she wanted to be with, and I’d wander around there by myself. Well, he noticed that, [and] every time my mother would take me, he would have a bouncer follow me around to make sure I was okay. His family just took me in, just like I was theirs, and would always make sure I was taken care of; and my baby brother [who] was about four at this time. 

They had a car auction up there, and my mother would take my brother and me up there and just leave. They had a booth, and the cars would come, and they would sign in. Well, Junior, one of the bouncers put us in that booth while he was signing the cars in, to make sure we were all right. 

[On meeting husband, Tim Johnson] I met him when I was a volunteer at the fire department. He used to run a gas station, so I would go up there and get gas all the time. He was married at the time, and I was married when I met him, to my first husband. And after my first husband, I kind of got stupid for a little while, because I married my first husband when I was seventeen. And when I was in my twenties, I had already had three kids. So I went stupid for a little while. 

I would go up there [Marlow's Country Palace], and I would drink and get drunk. And I’d end up calling Tim, and he would come up there. There was one point in time, that he came up there, and literally threw me over his shoulder. And see at this time, all the bouncers were still protective of me. And he threw me over his shoulder, and carried me out of there, and I will never forget, one of the biggest bouncers up there was Donnie. Tim just about had to fight him to get me out of there. It was funny, to hear him tell it. 

Tim walked me down the aisle with my second husband because my dad wouldn’t come to my [wedding]. Tim was like a big brother at that time. He walked me down the aisle, and he looked at me before we went, and he said, ‘Please don’t do this.’ At that time, I didn’t know he and his wife were having problems. He had feelings for me, and I had feelings for him, but we never done anything, or told anybody because he was married, and I wasn’t going to mess his marriage up. 

He divorced her, I think it was ’05 or ’06, and I was married. It took us forever to get where neither one of was dating anybody. After we did, the very, very first date he took me on, he proposed. 

He’s been good to me. At that time, I was a single mom with six kids, and had been for a while. And he took us. He said he either loves us, or he is crazy.”