Brian Fields

Brian Fields, Retrains Miners; Red Star, Kentucky, Letcher County:

“I work at LKLP, with the WIOA [Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act] Program. We do job training for people. Our shining star program, I call it, is the home program. We hire miners every day, and we’ve been busy trying to help miners get back into a job.

We train them to be linemen, [and] lot of people go into the HVAC program, heating and air, welding, electrical. We have had some luck with people totally changing their career field here. We’ve had people become barbers, law enforcement, and nurses, out of the mines. 

Most of them are second, third generation miners. They’ve growed up around work. [And] these guys and gals got a lot of work in ‘em. Their anxiety is from working so hard, to drawing unemployment. They can’t stand it. They want to get back to work ASAP. And the challenge for us is trying to find suitable employment in the area. 

[They are] very determined, a little bit shaken, because they don’t know what they’re going to do, but they’re quite easy to work with. You don’t really have to motivate ‘em. They’re very motivated to work. 

Six hundred something right now [in the program and it’s] four county wide; Leslie, Knott, Letcher, and Perry. About seventy percent is relocations. 

Unfortunately, we do have a lot that just opt to leave for the higher paying wages. But it is sad, and it’s kind of good, all in the same. Hard to see ‘em in the shape they’re in, having to leave their homes and their families, but it’s pretty good to know we had that kind of work force system. 

(Region’s economy) Coal is almost history. I do expect it to come back, it always has. [We have] a lot of natural resources, we’ve got a lot of hard-working people here. Things like this is a good example, the Farmers’ Market, the distillery on the corner is a good idea. [It’s] Getting ready to open in the next few weeks. I think it was two gentlemen, got together, and is going to have a moonshine distillery, here in the old KYVA Building. It’s a historical building [in Whitesburg]. 

The real point is not the moonshine, itself. It’s the tourism part of it. Because, when it’s all said and done, it’s just more of a novelty, than it is a drink. They’re going to have a lot of tourism, a lot of novelty items to sell out there. But that’s just a good idea. I wish we could do a lot more of that type stuff. 

[Growing up}, I did a lot of farming. Did a lot of what you could consider the typical mountain stuff. I did a lot of hunting and fishing. My family plays music. I played a lot of music, still do, on the evenings, weekends. 

[When I was] fifteen or sixteen, I’d got ready for squirrel season, and we had a lot going around the house. So, I said, ‘Let’s go down there, and walk around a little bit, and see if I can do any good.’ Took a four-wheeler down, rode about a mile and a half from the house. And my dad was working on gutters at the house. He said, ‘I looked up, and see you walking down the railroad track with no shirt on.’ 

I got in a yellow jackets’ nest, throwed the gun on the ground, stripped the shirt off, come down, bypassed the four-wheeler, and kept going. I was getting out of there! I had to strip. I was wearing a yellow and black jacket at that point. That was my first encounter with a yellow jackets’ nest. Now I know what to look for, when me and him go out. I scan the ground.

Me and my brother [and] my grandpa played music. That’s on my Mom’s side. All my uncles on my Dad’s side are musicians. And my brother, at a young age, just decided he wanted to play guitar, and as he learned, I would kind of hang loose, and pick up a piece here, and a piece there. I just kind of picked it up. 

We do what we call festival tours. We hit the Jenkins Days, and the Mountain Heritage.

[My grandfather] played a lot of gospel, a lot of gospel. He passed away two weeks ago. Of course, you know, there’s always usually an argument, when somebody passes away, but the biggest fight was [for] his three Martin guitars that everybody was going after. He retired from the mines, and was a preacher in the church, and played music, all day, ever day. 

I’ve got one [uncle], he’s a traveling Bluegrass picker. He actually played some of the music in ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter,’ the square dance. He called the square dance, and played. They had a square dance at the Blackey Community Center, and it showed a little clip of him calling the square dancing. He plays banjo. 

(Type of music played) The eighties and nineties radio rock, you know, John Mellencamp, a few Skynyrd, stuff like that. It’s easiest to learn to start out. I call it the Festival Top Ten. You got to be selective with the songs you play.

Farmers’ Market; Usually some people just do it for a pastime. Some of ‘em do it for a living. Now myself, I sell corn. I love raising a garden just ‘cause I like the practice of doing it. Just a tradition --- put up a little bit to eat. 

For the most part, even if I don’t need it, I’ll raise a garden, just to keep practice. I had green beans, tomatoes, corn, and watermelons this year. 

My son wanted to grow watermelons. He wanted to see how big he could get them. Now, for some reason the watermelons in this area don’t have a very sweet taste, but you can grow ‘em, till you can’t haul ‘em out of here in a truck. And that’s kind of been our game, to see what we do this year. We will not grow cucumbers with watermelons, because they will cross. The best-looking melon ever was, will taste like a cucumber. (Laughs)

(What makes this place special?) This morning is a good example. I really couldn’t tell you how much I sold, because I was too busy a-talking, to everybody I seen. Most of them I knowed, some of ‘em I didn’t, but I know ‘em now. So, there’s no strangers here. 

No matter where we go, we’re still here. I went off to college, come back. I couldn’t wait to get back. Went to Morehead and Eastern [and majored in] Social Work. My dad was a social worker, and the rest of ‘em are teachers. 

Definitely not the most prosperous place to live, but I wouldn’t go anywhere else.”

Christine Whitaker

Christine Whitaker, Rag Sale Store Owner; Blackey, Kentucky: 

“I run this rag sale. I’ve been doing it for 46 years. Before that, I was an income tax preparer. I did that part time while I was in here. I’m 80, soon be 81. I live about a quarter of a mile down the road, down below Blackey. [I’ve lived here] most all my life. 

Our family moved to Baltimore, Maryland when I was about eight years old. We stayed there maybe a year. My Dad couldn’t find work around here, so he went there and worked in a shipyard. He quit that, and come back [and] worked at the coal mines for a while. Then, he went to Indiana and we had to go there and stay about a year or two. After that, we come from there [and] we never did leave anymore. We just didn’t like it. He liked it all right but we didn’t. We had to come back to the mountains. 

I’ve got a twin sister, an identical twin sister, so that was kindly complicated in a way. People [were] always thinkin’ that I was her, or she was me. Caused a lot of confusion. She’d do something, and they’d blame me for it, or I’d do something, and they’d blame her. At school, we’d get in trouble sometimes. I’d have to take her punishment and she’d take my punishment. Yeah, [it all come out in the wash]. And I had another sister, an older sister.

We had a good life. We really did. Just like other normal kids I guess, play and work. Our parents made us work in the garden, and we didn’t like that too good. We raised about everything we eat. Back then, we didn’t have bug spray to spray our beans and they’d make us go to the bean patch, pickin’ the bugs off and put ‘em in a bottle. 

We had pigs, chickens, cows, and [an] ol’ mule to plow with. That was pretty good ‘cause we’d get to ride the ol’ mule. When Dad would go to get him to bring him to the barn every evenin’ we’d go with him, and then ride the ol’ mule back to the barn. It was our job to feed the pigs and the cows and the chickens and all that. 

When I got out of high school, I went to Indiana and stayed a while and worked out there. I worked in an office [and] I stayed there maybe a year, or two. Then, I come back and went to work in Whitesburg in the county extension office. I worked there until I got married. Oh yeah, [I missed the mountains]. I didn’t like that. Never was satisfied until I come back home. Just nothing like the good ol’ country people. 

When we was workin’ in Indiana, they would make fun of us just because we was from Kentucky. They looked down on us kinda, I guess you’d say. Sometimes, I think they [the media] kinda look down on us, too. They should show some of the better things instead of the bad things. 

I’ve enjoyed [the store] for the 46 years I’ve been here. I feel like I’m helping the people that need help. If they can’t afford to buy something, I’ll swap something for them. Just trade around like the swap shop. I have children’s clothes, shoes; just different kinds of clothes, sweaters, pants and whatever. Then, we have books and odds and ends. Just a little bit of this and a little bit of that I. 

We get a lot of it from donations. People donate a lot of stuff to us. Then there’s places my husband has always went and bought stuff. Churches you now, they’ll have sales and they’ll have some left and he’ll buy it like that. I’ve had a lot of enjoyment from this. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be with it, but I’ve enjoyed it long as I can. 

[My husband’s] been real good to help me with my store. I couldn’t do it if he didn’t help me, especially in the wintertime. I have to heat with coal, so he comes out and builds my fire for me. That’s a big help. He helps me haul stuff in here. Some days, if I don’t feel good, he comes out and stays here all day. 

He was a mechanic. He worked in a garage for several years, and then he worked in the mines as a mechanic. That’s where he retired from, was the coalmines. 

He’s been retired about 20 some years I guess. He’s 83 years old, so he’s been retired quite a while. He likes working with wood. He’s made furniture for my bathroom, like a hamper, trash bin, and chest of drawers. Makes little things, you know like picture frames, and all kinds of things like that. 

I read and I crochet. I crochet doilies, [doll clothes and] all kinds of things. I can do that while I’m in here. When things are kind of slow, I can sit here and crochet. My teacher taught me [to crochet] when I was in the seventh grade [and] I’ve done it ever since. I don’t remember a thing that she taught me in the classes that year, but I do remember to crochet. 

I like to read historical romances mostly. I’m not for murders and all that stuff. 

I guess I am just a country person. I’d never survive in the city I don’t think. I love the mountains. I’d say it’s a very good place to live. You can relax.”

Sarah Courtney Vaughn

Sarah Courtney Vaughn, currently unemployed; Bristol, Virginia, Raised in Letcher County, Kentucky:

“I am 24 years old, a mother of a 16 month old child, currently unemployed, and looking for work. I grew up in Letcher County, southeastern Kentucky, where there’s a lot of poverty. It’s hard to survive, but I strived to live for old times, traditions, that’s what I grew up with. 

I grew up around my stepdad’s family, and my heart is in the mountains. As a kid, we didn’t have much, but that didn’t bring anybody down. I lived for the moment. My mom divorced my dad when I was two years old, and I moved from Virginia to Kentucky, which was a shock for me. 

Growing up was honestly hard for me. I grew up in a family home where there was domestic violence, but growing up in the mountains, that wasn’t uncommon. I got my escape by being in sports. I was a cheerleader growing up and, for me to look back on it, I’m not fond of things like that now, but that made me who I am today. I would be involved in after school activities and I would stay out of the home as much as possible and then I became [part of] a group of friends of six who would be my friends throughout a lifetime. They would actually be my lifesavers at one point or another. 

My dad is currently in a nursing home. He’s about 45. After him and my mom divorced, me and my brother was his life. He never got remarried as my mom did. And as I was unaware, [he was] addicted to drugs and speed. As I got older, me and him became closer, even though I didn’t get to see him as much. As my family tells me now, my dad’s side of the family would explain that that’s all he talked about, and worried about, was his children. 

I was never adopted, but I lived with people that took care of me. They were wealthy, and it was the best decision I could have made when I was 14 years old. As my freshman teacher said, ‘if you hadn’t of gotten out of where you were, you would have been dead.’ 

I was 17 years old and it was Halloween and I was coming home from Johnson City. I got a phone call from my aunt that said that there had been an incident, and my dad was in the hospital. I was his overseer, and I was to decide whether he’d be taken off of life support. After that, he was okay, and I went to visit him in Bristol at the Bristol Regional Hospital and as I walked in the door, it was me and my mom and my brother. My dad never got over my mom, but as we walked in, he seemed fine for one moment and then as I got closer, he kind of looked away, and that was unexpected because normally he’d be excited to see us. 

As we got over there, my aunt was standing next to him, his sister, and he looked at her and said ‘who are these people?’ It was a shock to me at first because I didn’t expect that. I wasn’t aware of the severity of what had happened. Right before that, he was the only one who came to my graduation. He considered me his best friend because after him and my mom divorced he never had anybody else, and I was his closest connection. 

I’m not exactly sure [whether the drugs had an impact on his condition] but the drugs were a major part in his illness. I had spoke with him before the incident and he had went to the doctor and had had a headache, and he always said ‘there’s something wrong with my head.’ They sent him home, and he had a stroke on one side of his brain, and then went to the hospital. And after that he came home and they said that the stroke had been caused by brain aneurism on the other side. They sent him home again and he went back to the doctor and complained of headaches and whatnot, so they sent him home and my aunt, early one morning, heard a thump throughout the house so she went up to go check on my dad, and he was laying face down on the side of his bed. They took him to the hospital and he had suffered another stroke which caused him to go paralyzed on one side of his body, and it impaired his short term memory. 

I do [visit him]… I haven’t seen him since my son was born. I saw him while I was pregnant, so it’s been about a year since I saw him. I have received a phone call and my dad has tried to escape the nursing home to see my son. 

[My son is] Zane Willis. His name means ‘a blessing from God.’ His dad is currently incarcerated, but just because there’s separation, to me love doesn’t have a time limit. But him and me wrote letters back and forth and we were trying to decide the name of our son. 

At first, I was told that it was going to be a girl from women because they’d told me I was pregnant before I even knew. And then, after that, they said it would be a girl and I found out it was a boy. But before that, his dad had explained ‘I’d like for her name to be Zonie.’ Later on, if I ever have a girl I would like to name her Zonie. We kept with a ‘z’ concept and we actually wrote a letter at the same time to each other and said the name Zane, so it stuck. 

(Incarceration) Some incidents happened before me and him [her boyfriend] was together that I was unaware about until a couple of months after us being together. He was going to court, back and forth, and he didn’t really explain to me what was going on. Then we got together and I lived in Appalachia at the time, Appalachia, Virginia, and then he come and lived with me. 

The love sparked the first day he come. He’s a welder and an artist and he welded me a table and brought it for my birthday and he never left. After that, we moved back with my family in Letcher County and then from there we moved to Leslie County. From there we moved to Asheville, North Carolina. He had lived there before and had friends so we had connections. 

We found a place to rent, and then after that we were trying to find jobs. By that point, I knew I was about three months pregnant, and he was skateboarding. We lived in Canton, which is about 12 miles from Asheville, and it was a family town. I was in the bedroom, and I come out and there was a cop and he had been skateboarding and someone called and said he looked suspicious. 

Come to find out, he was wanted for possession of marijuana… trafficking marijuana. After that he went to jail and, of course, at first I was devastated. I’m 23 years old, pregnant, we had our lives planned out. He goes to jail and I had to man up and do what was right so I came back here with my family. From there he was transferred from Virginia on separate charges from prior to us being together, and from there he’s now in Leslie County Detention Center. 

We write letters, we talk on occasion when we can. He’s still very much a part of my and my son’s life. I couldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for him. He has met Zane. Ever since my son was born, I’ve took him to visit. I don’t care if me and him are together, I will never keep the father away from my son. 

About four months ago, for the first time when he was transferred to Leslie County, we had a chance to do a contact visit where he got to hold his son for the first time, which was of course very emotional. No one could know the feeling of never touching their own child. Even though I’ve been through hard times and of course I can’t imagine being locked up and never holding my child and then not knowing the future of how long he’s going to be in there. Me and him couldn’t physically touch, unfortunately, but him and Zane did, and I think that was the highlight of our lives, even though I had held my son for the first time, seeing his father and the love of my life hold his son and, you know, connect, there’s nothing like it. 

Hard times can’t bring you down. I’ve learned that the hard way ever since I was younger. I’m not a very religious person, I’m a very spiritual person and that comes from experience. Growing up, like I said, there was domestic violence in the home. We were poor. We were living on a government check, but we got something from my grandmother. We tried to repay it in some way. 

One thing that changed my life and that carried on with me until I was about 18 years old was domestic violence. I saw my mother and my father abuse each other and abuse drugs. My mother was an alcoholic and my father was a coal miner that was addicted to drugs. So after that, like I said I tried to be out of the home but those memories, they never went away. I never gave to in life, I always had to try to fend for myself and get whatever I need however I could. 

That’s what you do when you live in the mountains. You strive to succeed but it’s hard. After that, it always stuck in the back of my mind, seeing the pain and the suffering that my family endured, as I got older I experienced new things, which opened my eyes to my future. What I wanted to grow up to be, what I wanted to do in life and actually live for the moment was the most important part. Always maintaining happiness because that’s where my strength comes from. 

As I got older, I moved to Lexington and tried to do what was right in the eyes of people in Letcher County, which was graduate from high school, move away, go to college and get a career which, for a man, was more than likely a coal miner and for a woman a nurse. 

But for me, I couldn’t see myself going for a career that I couldn’t enjoy. I appreciate what the men and women do to keep the mountains alive and to be there and support other people. But as I grew older I moved away and I met a whole new group of people, which opened my eyes to a whole new life. [In] Lexington, I was very unhappy, there was corporations [and] just things that I couldn’t agree with. 

I eventually moved back to the mountains. I moved back to Leslie County where I met a group of people that lived off the land, vegetarians, loved gardening, making moonshine. I’ve never seen a group of people that were there for each other more than that, and I think that’s what I had been looking for my whole life. Connection. It was beautiful to me to have other people care about me as I would them. 

I rented a house with seven other people and we all had jobs, but at the same time, we all had another addiction, which was drinking. 

Moonshine being so easy to access, we drank it on a daily basis. When I would drink I had the flashback memories of abuse and I wouldn’t say that I was depressed, but I was still trying to find the right spot in life and I couldn’t get those memories out of my head. We all became alcoholics, all seven of us. We would wake up drinking, pass out, wake up, drink again, pass out and over time it kind of destroyed the relationships in the house. 

Eventually, we all separated and I met a guy named Paul Kuczko, and he opened mine and [my friend] Katie's life to music, which we had been open to in Leslie County but we hadn’t really pursued it like he knew that we could. He had connections and pointed us in the right direction, so that’s when we started attending school and we were still living in Leslie County at Mountain Empire and we went for old time music. 

That’s when we grouped together, and realized what we really wanted to do as a lifetime goal, as a lifetime career. It actually didn’t even seem like that, it was just a part of our lives. 

The most recent and more important [happy event] is the blessing of a child. I can’t explain what it means to create a child and carry a child and then bring a child into the world. There’s so many conflicting emotions that come with that. Not only do you worry about yourself, but you have another little human being to worry about. It’s the most important thing to me. 

Music is my life. Music has carried me from childhood to where I am now. I have distant kin that are musicians, but growing up music was something that I listened to, wasn’t something that I got involved in, even though my stepdad, he is a drummer. He was in bands when he was younger. Music, through my hard times was kind of an escape. If I was happy, if I was sad, music kind of drifted me along. 

As I got older, I would go to shows and events. Then, I met a group of people during a show that played music. He later become my boyfriend and that’s where I spoke of living in Leslie County—we all moved in together and in that time period he taught me how to play. My first instrument was the mandolin. 

Me and Katie, we kind of worked along with each other, it was our first time really learning music. She was on the guitar and I was on the mandolin. I think our first song was ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb.’ After that we were on a roll! We just started writing our own songs which I think one of them was talking about true life, just six people living in a household, drinking, things like that. We kind of bounced off of each other. We had another household member, our best friend named Brando, and eventually us three would form a band. 

I was working at the Fifth Amendment in downtown Hazard at the time and I was booking events and shows. I booked an event that was called Folk Fest and that would be our first show. Other household members were in a band called The Bloodroots Barter. Ishi Wooten and Tyler Emery and that’s kind of where we got our influence from, their vibe and how people looked at them. They done everything themselves from their CDs, to their recording, to their writing of music and we were kind of part of that. That’s where our inspiration come from and our drive come from cause they were so dedicated to what they were doing. 

From that we played our first show at Folk Fest. Eventually the family, as we called it, fell apart, The Bloodroots Barter went on the road, we were renting a house and couldn’t afford it. Me and Katie moved and rented our own house. From there that’s when we started attending school at Mountain Empire for old time music. We were driving back and forth and the gas prices were high and it was hard. We were staying at people’s houses in Virginia just trying to make it to class. And of course at night have our fun, which, our fun then and now was to jam with other people. Jamming was a major part of learning music because you learn other people’s techniques and that’s what influences where our songs come from. 

I do [play] when I can. Having a 16 month old [makes it] difficult to practice. I constantly sing to him. I make up songs, it just depends on what he’s doing at the time. Mostly, I create my own songs [for] bath time, play time. ‘You Are My Sunshine,’ that’s one [favorite]. I’ve talked to other single mothers or mothers in general that want to make a lullaby album for children. Hopefully, in the future, I can still be involved in music as much as I wanna be. 

[On what makes mountain life special] The connections with each other. I hate that we’ve talked so much about bad times but like I’ve said, bad times make you who you are in the mountains. Growing up rough makes you want to do more. It makes you able to do whatever your ancestors didn’t get to do. 

Just like I started my own business called, Appal Crafts. I wanted to carry on the tradition that most people aren’t, because nowadays you see children or adults stuck to their technology. We’re losing relationships with each other. We’re not face to face contact and with my child I’ve lost a lot of that and that’s what I miss because I think that so many people are codependent on their phones, computers, their Facebook, social media or whatever it may be. We’re losing relationships with [each other]. With Appal Crafts, I wanted to at least bring back the tradition of what our ancestors used to do, and remind each other that the simple things in life will make you happier in the long run. 

Appal Crafts is a small business that I started mostly online, I hate to say it, but through Facebook. That’s where I get the most publicity. Appal Crafts is all about reduce, recycle and reuse. I use anything recycled or things such as glass and metal or yarn and fabric or clothing, and I turn it into something else. Also, I took the techniques of sewing and crocheting from my grandmother and used my own ideas and created it into hats and clothing and assorted items that you can buy online.

[The name] comes from Appalachia and Appalachian crafts. As I grew into my own self, I wanted to make things that not only I would like, but that other people that seen me would like. 

In ten years, I think I want to be where every person in this world wants to be, and that’s happy. I want to be on the pursuit of happiness. I never want to settle down. I don’t like to be content. I think content is, I wouldn’t say boring, but I think, like in the hard times I’ve had now, being in a good spot or happy is a goal or an achievement. 

So, in ten years, I want to realistically be living my dream with my son. I’m not very religious, but I pray to the gods and I bring in good vibes, and I just want to be happy. To be able to do whatever I want to do with that given time, whether it be music or growing old with my son. Hopefully, the love of my life will be back in my life. I can’t say I want to be in any spot at any certain time, because experience is everything, and I wouldn’t be where I am right now if it hadn’t been for going from one place to the other. 

I’ve been called a hillbilly. I’ve been called mostly a hippie. I wouldn’t call myself a hillbilly, because I don’t like to be put in any sort of category like hillbilly or hippie because, in my mind, I don’t really even know myself from day to day. I’m a thousand different people in one, it just depends on what mood I’m in. I can be a hillbilly one day or one minute. Just depends on what action I’m doing. 

I’m very proud of what I’ve been through, to be able to have a smile on my face or tears running down my face. Whichever. It makes me the person I am and I just want to be me. 

I’m Courtney Vaughn, and that’s how I am.”

Elizabeth Ramey

Elizabeth Ramey, Stay-At-Home Mom; Clintwood, Virginia:

“[I have] lived in Clintwood all my life, right here actually. I am twenty-eight years old; I’ll be twenty-nine in September. I think it was wonderful [growing up here]. Mamaw had a little beauty shop in her house right here, and I would sit there while I was little and while she was doing the women’s hair I would sit there and do the men’s hair. They were patient with me. They let me roll their hair and everything. When I got a little bit older, sun’d come up and hit the woods and I’d come home around dusk and Mamaw would never worry about me. Now, I’m too afraid to let my kids do that. We knew what we could do and what we couldn’t do. We knew how far was too far to go and when we was supposed to come home.

There was a little underground spring that we used to go get water from. We’d go fill little bottles up and my mom used to take me. There’s a few huge rocks and we’d climb them. We’d play in the creeks and watch the animals. That’s what we loved to do.

[After graduating high school] I got married and started having babies. I have four, three boys and a girl. Joey he’s my oldest, he’s ten. He’s shy, but he is a really good kid. He started football this year. That’s exciting for us. Mickey, he just turned nine. He likes basketball; he loves to play games, video games and stuff. Joey is more out-doorsy. Jeremey, he just turned seven not long ago, and he is the baby boy of the family. He gets babied a little bit. He is into a little bit of everything. And then my little girl, she is four. Her name is AloraBeth. She’s named after our great-grandmas. Their names are Alora but they called them Alory. I tacked my name on the end of it there. I’ve truly been blessed with four amazing children, they couldn’t have been better.

My hobbies are mainly my kids, football mom, basketball mom whatever they want to do, I am into. I go with them and do what they want to do. My husband, he plays the guitar a little bit, I do enjoy to sing, but I don’t do that a lot in front of people. I like to hike and stuff.

This is my home. I couldn’t imagine living in a city. People around here, everybody waves at one another. It’s changed a little, but you still don’t worry about your kids as much as you would if you go to a city. 

I went and stayed in Alexandria, Virginia with my aunt for a couple of weeks whenever I was younger. My two weeks were up, and I was begging Mamaw to come and get me, I missed my mountains. She come and got me and brought me home. I don’t really have a desire to leave the mountains. [When I saw the mountains] I was so excited and thankful to be home. Here, everybody knows everybody…up there you, go into a grocery store and there’s such a diversity of people and language, and language is a barrier up there for a lot of people. It was strange for me. 

[69th Annual Dutton Memorial] This is our dinner on the ground. This is our memorial meetin’. I’ve been coming here ever since I was born. Also, it’s kind of like a family reunion for us, because our family comes in. It’s a blessing to be able to do this. I know that a lot of people don’t get to experience this. It’s sad, because I grew up with this. All of our cousins would come, we would always play like they was talking about, you know, even as kids. While we was playing we could still hear the preaching and we still heard the Word and everything. 

[Dinner on the grounds is] a time for family and friends to come together and hear the word of God, and everybody brings a dish. After the singing and the preaching, you sit down and you pray over your food, and you eat your food, you sit there and you just have friendship, and you have all of these people to talk to. It’s held right here on Wildcat Ridge [at the Dutton Cemetery]. It is our family cemetery and there’s nothing like it. I can’t explain what a wonderful time it is for everybody, and we all look forward to it every year.

[Media portrayal] Well I guess they see us as old hillbillies that don’t know much. You can be a hillbilly and know more than they know sometimes. I guess they would have to come here and actually spend time with us and see how we are before they would ever understand what it’s like. We are talking, come stay a week with somebody, two weeks, a month and see that we’re not all crazy hillbillies and that we live life to the fullest that we can. 

We know how to treat one another. We treat everybody the way that we want to be treated, or we try. There’s nobody afraid to help somebody else. We know who God is. We are God fearin’ people, most of us. We know how to enjoy life and enjoy outdoors and be appreciative of it all. A lot of people don’t appreciate what’s right in front of [them]. Everybody is too busy on their cell phone, which I myself have a problem with that sometimes, but it’s good to get out and in the open, and breathe fresh air and have fun.

I think that that is very important. I think that’s important for my kids. I’m glad I live in a small town so that everybody knows everybody so I feel safe, and I feel that my kids are safe for the most part. I like that, I like them being able to do that and have their little friends.

[Passed down traits] My great-grandmother taught me how to smell the rain before it came. It’s so hard to explain, but whenever I was little, right before it would rain she’d say, ‘Can you smell that? That’s the rain, can you smell the rain?’ I recently passed that on to my oldest boy. He’s learned how to smell the rain, and that just tickles me to death. Right before it rains, the leaves turn up and they are a lighter color on the bottom, and she’d say that that was the trees begging for rain and that they needed water. She also taught me to play the pie pan.

She would sit on the porch and she would sing ‘Te I da diddle, Te I da day, Te I da diddle I day, Te I da diddle, Te I da diddle, Te I da diddle I day.’ Little sayings, there was one, I can’t remember exactly how it went --- something about ‘left Old Joe the bone.’ And then there was a ‘frog on a knot, a knot on a log, a log in the hole in a wall on the bottom of the sea.’

My Uncle Tennell, he had a little stickman, and he would put a flat stick under his leg, and the little man was on another stick and he would put the feet on the thing and he would tap it and the little man, he would dance. Oh, that was incredible for us as kids, that was our entertainment. The love of music and the love of God was passed down from generation to generation.

Cooking is another thing [that’s] been passed down. [Appalachian Food] They ain’t nothing like it. It’s the best stuff in the world. Pickled pig ears! My grandma used to love those, pigs feet or pig ears. It is definitely an acquired taste, that is. Cornbread is definitely one of my favorites. My grandma always used to throw just a pinch of salt and sugar in her cornbread. Flitters, and salad. 

We grow our own lettuce and onions and everything. That’s wonderful. There ain’t nothing like growing your own food. [Perfect comfort meal] My grandmother’s tater gravy. It’s the best stuff I’ve ate. Oh, it’s the best stuff ever was. We went on our Senior Field Trip whenever I was in school and I called her a few hours before I got home and was like “I want some tater gravy, fix me some tater gravy.” And she had it waiting on me when I got home. It’s the best stuff ever was. You take milk and butter and your boil your potatoes in it and you mash some of them up not all of them you know, and you take a mixture of oil and flour and you mix that up until it gets the right thickness. I like cornbread in mine. But yeah, that’s one of my favorites is potato gravy and I like my grandpaw’s potato soup, too. He makes some good potato soup.

I’m a hillbilly and I am proud of it. It’s my heritage. It’s who I am. I love my mountains, I love my home. I love my people. I can go stay in the woods all day long and it don’t bother me. We take our kids hiking; we took them to Bad Branch to the waterfalls not long ago. If you go off the point back here, you can go all the way to Crane’s Nest boat dock, on the opposite side of the boat dock. 

My husband he likes to hunt, and he takes the boys when they want to go. They enjoy stuff like that. My oldest loves huntin’. My second boy, he don’t much like huntin’ but he loves to go ginsenging. He likes to go look for that ginseng. My little boy he‘s too much into them video games right now. I have never been really one to [ginseng]. My husband he does it, occasionally, not a whole lot. It’s just a plant that grows in the ground. You go looking for it, you dig it, it’s a root. You bring it and you dry it out, and you take it and go sell it. It’s pretty good money in it, if you find enough of it.

The passing of my great aunt, my nanny we called her, was one of the hardest things I have ever been through; and then the passing of my uncle. I called him Dad a lot. He was like a second dad to me. They were both very special to me. 

My nanny, she couldn’t really talk plain, and she couldn’t walk very good. Some people would say that she was handicapped. She taught us how to love. Now, she taught me what it is to love and what it is to be happy no matter what. She was special, Oh Lord! She was something else. 

She taught us how to smile no matter what. She had multiple surgeries and she had cancer, and not a day went by that she didn’t smile and laugh at us and make us happy no matter what she was going through. It takes a special person to be able to show people that and teach people that. 

Sammy, my second daddy, now he was the one that taught me to shoot a BB gun. That’s where I actually learned how to shoot. That’s something I hold very dear to my heart. I can shoot just about as good as my husband, if not better, occasionally. I don’t think he’ll admit that, but I’m a pretty good shot when I want to be. He would always take me sleigh riding in the winter. We’d go right down this big hill. Oh Lord, that was the best time. He would always have a great big fire in the garage for me and something to eat and drink. And fried flitters! Ohhh, Bonita, my second mommy, she’d have fried flitters all the time for me. It’s like a pancake but it’s also like cornbread. Oh my God, they’re wonderful. Put a little syrup on ‘em.

Lord have mercy, there’s so many [happy times]; being with the family, family reunions. Great-grandmaw’s birthday party was always a big thing. Having our cousins and our family close together mainly on the holidays and birthdays. My grandmother had, I think it was her one- hundredth birthday, down here, and you wouldn’t believe the family that was there, at least a hundred of us, easy to celebrate birthdays. So, family, being together with family, anytime that family can actually come together. That’s my most cherished memories.

My dad, he works at B & K Collision on Caney Ridge. He has been an auto body man as long as I can remember. Good man, good heart, he’s my daddy. Love him better than anything. I think that what I know a little bit about vehicles is from my Dad. If it hadn’t been for him, I probably wouldn’t know much about them. 

My mom she is a hard worker, a good woman. Right now she has been living in Surfside, Texas, working down in there and she is fixin’ to move to South Carolina and start a new job. She goes out and she works these jobs and she makes good money. She does it for us. She does it, and she helps take care of us. If we ever need anything, she is there to help us with it.

They had a rocky marriage, and loved each other and me and my sister better than anything [but they are divorced]. I can’t complain, we have been blessed with good family. My Dad has remarried, she’s nice, and I like her. She is good to me and my kids. Can’t ask for no better than that. I have two step-sisters which they have kids of their own now so that is nice. We’re still working on play dates; they are still pretty small compared to mine. Mine can be a little rambunctious.

(What Appalachia is about) Family, friends, closeness, it’s hard to explain. Heritage. Just knowing who you are really. You get to know who you are here. You get to live a life where you can find yourself and who you are and be close to your friends and family. 

It’s not all about work, and what you can do to make money. It’s enjoying your life and your friends and family and workin’ hard to make a living.“