I'm 75 and had a rough time at Christmas. My father was an alcoholic and would come home from the bar drunk and on several occasions would either knock down the tree or pull the light plugs out of the wall and throw the tree across the room. I would get an orange and usually one gift and that was it. We didn't have much either, but I didn't look for anything. I'm alone now and never decorate anymore. The moral of my story is to be grateful for what you do have, love your family and be kind to others. My love to all.

@randomvintagefilm273

2 жыл бұрын

Carol, I am so sorry you had to live like that but you dont have to be alone. Isnt there a church nearby where you can get involved in?

@realkreek8675

2 жыл бұрын

I can relate 100 % to what you are saying. The best part is I wouldn't change anything , because it made me who I am today. Strong, compassionate human being.

@Brind-amour

2 жыл бұрын

Bless your heart.

@sargentwaag1483

2 жыл бұрын

Times change and I think with all the things people have now they lost the ability to know what really matters. Your rough time was had by others too. God bless.

@judytramel5795

2 жыл бұрын

Sending loves ❤

I was 2 years old when this was filmed. I went to school with some of the children of these families. Today I live maybe a half mile from Pert Creek. It's a lot better. The funny thing about being raised in these mountains is no matter where in the world you go your never content until your back home. I am proud to be Appalachian.

@ralphl8055

2 жыл бұрын

Great attitude.

@jugghead-1975

Жыл бұрын

Right on Jody! Only way to be my friend

@tiredofit4761

Жыл бұрын

Born and raised in southern WV. People take care of their neighbors. My Great Granny would never let someone do without even though she didn’t have much herself (pretty much all my grandparents). I’m very proud of that heritage and I try to embody the same.

@deniseleaps

Жыл бұрын

Is the one room school house still there?

@huntingnightmares4317

Жыл бұрын

@@deniseleaps Yes, it has been used as a church and then a community center.

I live on Pert Creek near the mouth of the 'holler.' I just wanted to say that the people featured in this film were/are some of the finest. sincere and honest you could ever hope to meet. The Bakers, Sandlins and Wests are still represented in our little community. Jimmy Baker, brother to Nathan and Freddy still lives on the homeplace. I also want to say that I am proud to come from Pert Creek and just as proud to call the members of these families my friends!

@paulbird3235

Жыл бұрын

You are honoured to have known such warm sincere people, they got by on the little they had and asked for little else. Their optimism and faith carried them from day to day, never sure what tomorrow would bring. Cherish those memories and thoughts forever, they are priceless.

@michellestewart4320

Жыл бұрын

I love you guys!

@timetable5601

Жыл бұрын

What happened to Ollie Baker?

@cynthiagalante6323

11 ай бұрын

Absolutely.. Seeded in family and Faith to shoulder any struggle. ❤️

Wealth is meaningless. These people are as sweet and genuine as they come.

@dragginalinecatfishing4719

Жыл бұрын

I agree with that 100% ! Some of the greatest people that I have ever known, didn't have 2 nickels to rub together.

@alimay1011

Жыл бұрын

They are very sweet

@83wasagoodyear

Жыл бұрын

🧢

@Cat-lo7hl

Жыл бұрын

you just have to have a army to fight the wealth

@traceydevine9110

Жыл бұрын

Wealth isn't entirely meaningless. Some of these people have an extremely hard life. Not eating properly. If they had money they could eat better and celebrate Christmas. Money should be meaningless, but unfortunately it is not.

Thanks for posting this video! I'm one of the children singing in the front row. 😊

@realappalachia

2 жыл бұрын

That's awesome, love hearing from you

@reglagirl5802

Жыл бұрын

So cool

@reglagirl5802

Жыл бұрын

🎶💕👏

@eveslady100

Жыл бұрын

God bless you

@pennybentley5125

Жыл бұрын

😊💐

I B( Iven Burel) Johnson and Calvin ( Much) Johnson are my Great-uncles. The house over Goldie's shoulder with smoke coming out the chimney is where I grew up. I was born in 1961. Mickey and Rita are my cousins. Mickey lives at Bevinsville KY. He is a retired coalminer. Rita moved away for work. And the last account I had of her is she married a KY State Trooper and lived in Owensboro KY. The little girl looking at the catalog ( Paula) passed away a few years ago . She had a gallbladder surgery and had complications from that. The lady sitting beside her ( Patty Rodgers) her Mom. Passed away from Covid-19 in 2020. Yes we were poor. To most. But we were Happy. And Thankful. Things did get better for everyone. As far as stuff or things, however you want to say it. But a lot of the simple things and Happiness.Well it's kinda gone. I myself married and left Weeksbury when was 18 years old. I ended up living just outside Nashville Tennessee for about 10 years. I have since moved back to the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. Yeah things got hard sometimes. My memories are bitter sweet. We didn't have much, but we really Loved each other. We knew that people were more important than things. And guys God always makes a way. I still have my Hope even today.

@susanrobbins9079

Жыл бұрын

I Send You Love And God's Blessings. I Had A Rough Childhood also, I Had Friends That Were From Paintsville KY. I Have Faith ,Hope And Love .You Cany Buy Any Of These Precious Gifts.

@Julie-yd4yj

Жыл бұрын

Quetta, that is really neat that you are from there and knew these people--do you have any memory of Charles Kuralt coming there?

@kesmarn

Жыл бұрын

The information you supplied is so valuable. Thanks very much.

I’m Native American, when I was very young I remember living on government Commodity foods. My favorite was when my mom made pancakes and use corn syrup. I had no idea that the Appalachian areas also got commodity food. Also thank you for this video. I’ll be watching all other videos any thing about Appalachian documentaries. By the way my parents took us off the reservation. We settled in Idaho. Where my dad started working for a farmer and had income coming in.

@realappalachia

Жыл бұрын

Very interesting to see the similarities, thank you for adding your perspective and experiences.

@Maliceah

Жыл бұрын

We used to take the corn syrup and add "maple flavoring" to it. I didn't remember that until you brought it up! Thanks for the recall!

@rebeccamd7903

Жыл бұрын

I’m Appalachian and some of us in the Appalachia’s are Native American. Some Algonquin & Siouan stayed in the mountains. We have documentation. Eastern Kentucky has a lot of your distant Native cousins. You can even confirm with dna or records if you like.

@Eaglehaslanded75

Жыл бұрын

Metal cans of peanut butter and the blocks of cheese were my favorite commodity foods.

@marvinabigby5509

Жыл бұрын

@@Eaglehaslanded75 I agree the cheese was very good the peanut butter we used on pancakes 🥞

My Uncle Jack was a child of parents that traveled the South picking cotton for a living. He was moved from school to school and teased for being so poor. One teacher told him not to come back to school until he had nicer overalls, and a pair of shoes (he went barefoot). He told her "Ma'am these is the only overalls I got, and I ain't got no shoes." She said "Then don't come back here." (Breaks my heart!) My Uncle Jack was the sweetest man you could ever meet, and even without a formal education, he fought in WWII, and became a loving minister for the remainder of his life.

How I so admire Charles Kuralt. Who else did stories like this on a regular basis to show us the real America? How I miss him. A true journalist.

@morpheuszzz662

Жыл бұрын

This is how I feel about him as well. I was shocked when we learned after his death how for many years he had two families, one unknown to the other. People are weird.

@kgrimes4934

Жыл бұрын

@@purplelilacs6706I think the kids did get some toys & all got clothes but it didn’t seem to be much to me if I remember correctly but Americans donated money through CBS. Apparently the working poor Americans made up the majority of the donors of all backgrounds because there was no way for most of them to donate they went to their local affiliate stations collected that way. The figure was 70 grand over the days it aired. That’s not adjusted from inflation.

@annette2326

Жыл бұрын

And bigamist.

@sherrismith2751

Жыл бұрын

@@annette2326 ??

@sgtmomOK

Жыл бұрын

@@purplelilacs6706 My family would have been too proud to accept something like that. From time to time, a sibling here or there would be offered clothes or other things, and my parents refused. They wouldn’t allow one sibling to have a warm coat or new shoes if the others would go without. Nobody ever offered to help the entire bunch of us, 6 kids, so I don’t know if they would have accepted it or not. The welfare lady tried to convince me a “rich family” wanted to adopt me, and buy me a pony. I wouldn’t leave my siblings. In hindsight sight…I shudder to think what would have befallen me if that “ rich family” wasn’t what she claimed. Why did “rich people” want to adopt a 12 year old girl away from her siblings for, anyway…?

My grandmother was born and raised in the northwest corner of the lower peninsula of Michigan. She passed two weeks before her 100th birthday five years ago. She always told stories of her childhood. She was the youngest of five children and her mother passed when she was only five years old. Her eldest sister who was 14 became the fill-in mom for the children and especially to my gma. She told of many years, her Christmas gifts were an orange, maybe a peppermint stick or a handful of walnuts or perhaps a new pair of socks or mittens. There wasn't anything frivolous. What she always wanted was a baby doll and she never got one. She did have a rag doll or two over the years. In the early 1980s when she was in her 70s, my mom thought it was finally time and gave her a baby for Christmas. My grandpa started to say something and my mother made a noise and gave him a look that told him that he best not say a word. Gma's eyes filled with tears as she hugged her baby doll and placed her on her pillow every single morning. Mom had found a porcelain dolly that was a replica to dolls from the late teens, early 20s. She was lovely and made Gma very happy.

@Eatshit156

Жыл бұрын

Ma'am, It is 6am and I am crying over this comment 😭❤️🙏 I'm in my late 30's and have a family from very poor background. My father was able to break out of it and provide well for my sisters and mother and I. But, the many stories I've enjoyed hearing from both sides of family (mother/father) about their childhoods and my grandparents growing up. It hurts my heart to hear the extreme conditions they would go through, but it sure made me appreciate their hard work and love for the family. Thank you for sharing your story. I know I'll remember this for a long time. May your sweet grandmother rest in peace.🙏 And you be blessed by our loving Lord❤️

@debbieomi

Жыл бұрын

@@Eatshit156 You are so welcome and thank you for your kind words. :-)

@shirataka8331

9 ай бұрын

That's so beautiful. I always wondered why my grandmother kept a baby doll on her bed after my grandfather died. My dad told me after she passed that she was born and raised during the depression, and while they were better off than most, she never had "extras" like baby dolls.

@debbieomi

9 ай бұрын

@@shirataka8331 I so wish we could live in a world where a simple toy like a doll wasn't considered an "extra." Thank you for sharing.

@shirataka8331

9 ай бұрын

@@debbieomi I do too. If there's a heaven, I hope our grandmothers are there getting to enjoy the simple childhood joys they were denied. Thanks for sharing about your grandmother.

I am English and I have visited this area many many times , not just the nice places but the small villages and the backwaters . I have always found the people to be genuine, kind, generous, honest and good folk . I would rather live with them than the money people and their false way of life . God bless them all m

@skeptigal2785

Жыл бұрын

Amen! The tone of this documentary is rather condescending. I'm sure these people and their families were happier than many with more money but less love.

@jgraham6102

Жыл бұрын

My Mom and Dad was from that area of Kentucky and that is just the way it was. They were happy and Loved the Lord Jesus. Wealth isn’t everything. My kind of people.

@ericbogar9665

Жыл бұрын

LMAO The people there are kind until you piss them off and then they either want to fight you or shoot you.

@BenDover-tj8vf

Жыл бұрын

@@ericbogar9665 good , as it should be !

@lightningbug276

Жыл бұрын

Very good people

well this is sure heartbreaking for sure. But I was raised in the hills of WV. Yes there was moonshine sold to make ends meet sometimes. But we ate squirrels, we raised hogs chickens and planted a garden and put up for the winter We dug coal out of the bank accross the creek and used it for heat momma made our clothes from the pretty feed sacks flour came in. Daddy sold hogs for new shoes for us or sold a calf for shoes We didnt have water in the house but our house was scrubbed and clean and we hauled water in for heating on the stove for baths and momma made soap from lye made from wood ash we churned our own butter but we werent poor daddy made our toys he whitteled out wood and momma made dolls for us. Daddy traded for books and an Brittania encyclopedia with only a few letters missing. By the time I was 10 I had read Charles Dickens and Mark Twain books. School was sometimes not all the time. We were rich not poor. Clean not dirty.

@dorothydemaree7544

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you, Shirol. Your shared memories brought back much of what my momma told of her growing up years in the foothills of Arkansas- the Cushman area during the 20’s & 30’s as the youngest in a family of 11 children. Throughout her later life as my Mother then ‘Granny Woman’ to her Grands, she Loved including a fragrant orange and apple with her givings at Christmas. 💕

@BlackStrawberry79

2 жыл бұрын

I suppose this is the difference between poverty now, not just financial poverty but spiritual poverty also. There’s a decline in spirit and pride and virtue, maybe that’s why it seems like a much uglier, morally decrepit situation now compared to in the past.

@scottdavis6327

2 жыл бұрын

This is a very heart warming, loving true life story. You were blessed to have innovative loving parents!

@scottdavis6327

2 жыл бұрын

This is Elaine writing the above!

@lynnettelandry6977

Жыл бұрын

But don't you know ? You were the richest. You had love for one another. That far out ways silver and gold. As my daddy explained why we had to live in a ugly house while the neighbors lived in a pretty house. Daddy said Barbie you look at that brick house it won't hold the love that our little ugly house has. Miss you Daddy

I saw a magazine spread about the poverty in Appalachia as a kid. It looked just like my home, except we had an indoor toilet that froze in the winter. I was shocked to realize we were poor. I just don’t know how I didn’t notice…Dad’s back was broken in a work accident. Mom was pregnant with her 6th child. I was the first woman from Creek County, OK to ever enlist in the military. It was my ticket out of poverty.

@eveslady100

Жыл бұрын

There's no saying I go by and that is.." You can't miss which you never had" if you never know you're poor, and everybody doesn't live like you, then you don't realize you're different in any way. God bless this video

@Kra-ri6fd

Жыл бұрын

My first ticket out of poverty was the military as well. I joined the Navy right after I turned 17.

@susanmercurio1060

Жыл бұрын

Sadly, our government doesn't want to help the people or get us out of poverty so they can have desperate people show up at the recruiting office.

@datatwo7405

Жыл бұрын

It's a sad situation for people when the only way out of poverty is to enlist into the military. I really wish we had as active and funded organization that like how the military partially exists in terms of its pay, benefits, housing, etc. but instead of war as its end concern, was for peaceful creative situations such as working in poverty-stricken areas of this country. Or any number of situations where our safety net programs are just not able to, or are barely able to, keep up with the decline in some areas. It isn't because those programs are not effective, it's that historically they've always been grossly underfunded, understaffed, and over worked. This is the same for many of the nonprofit organizations that exist to do the same with the government monies they receive to do what they do. I should know, as an elderly disabled person I have to rely on them. But they're all so horribly overworked and overburdened with case loads that they go through people like water. Not just one organization. . . all of them. And I know when it comes to this, most people don't care. There is a sickeningly disgusting attitude of despise for this country's poor, disabled, or anyone that finds themselves in the worst point of their lives where they have no choice but to turn to the state for help. Yes, I know we have AmeriCorps/Vista, but the last time that program really saw any meaningful attention was when Bill Clinton was in office. Say whatever thirty years of programming has taught you to feel about him or Hillary, but those two really did care about those down on the luck. That was why he not only propped up that program in the public arena, but expanded upon it. It was our national internal version of the Peace Corps. But after he was gone, we returned right back to where we've always been. In debt, no cash for anything but the military, and a further degradation of those parts of this country not fortunate enough to be the "go to" brand name cities. And yes, the military is grossly over funded, receiving anywhere from 50 to 60 percent of annual tax receipts. We've become exactly what President Eisenhower warned us not to become. And now it may be far too late to turn back. Because what we did as a nation, what our focus became economically, was bound to filter down into the day to day social fabric of who we are. Unless you have the vantage point of years as a cognitive being, meaning someone old enough to understand what you had been seeing over the many many years since then, you will have no ability to mark the differences clearly or at all. But it sure would be nice if young people who didn't win the birth lottery and found themselves born into either a bad situation, or a poor part of the country or both, had another alternative than just having to turn to the military as an answer to their salvation. It took me many decades to realize that we're just not that kind of country, not that kind of people. Those things either don't matter to us, or enough of us to emphasize creative and/or peace oriented kinds of alternatives. I have learned late in life also, that much of what I learned in school about us is nothing but a bucket of myths. And it is this that hurts the most. War is who we are now. It is in our daily language, our conventional casual clothing styles, in our various forms of entertainment i.e., fiction, television, movies, music, and even in the way we relate to one another. Those born in the past forty years may not know any different, but how could they? By the time they were old enough to even begin to understand, they still wouldn't notice it, as they had nothing else to compare life and the world around them to. One's base of normalcy will largely be that of the era when their personalities formed, and thus grew up in. If things were different either markedly, or occurred gradually throughout those years, they still wouldn't see it as they were in the process of growing, and learning about their worlds at the same time. However, those of us in our much later years, may see it. But even then that isn't a guarantee. Some people just are not that aware of such things. We are not the same people our parents were, let alone our grandparents. Don't mistake what I am saying here. I am not of the fantasy that likes to point to any one era of our history and say, "There! That was our golden days! Those were the years when life was good for not just us, but everyone!" Because no such era ever truly existed -- anywhere or for everyone.

@Stellabyestarlight

Жыл бұрын

@@datatwo7405 Amen 🙏

My mom and dad got fruit and nuts for Christmas. They grew up to become the Greatest Generation. They actually learned subjects in school, weren't able to graduate high school, survived the Great Depression, and won World War II. They led America into the greatest years of its history. Not a bad legacy for people who grew up without Christmas trees.

@realappalachia

Жыл бұрын

Amen to that

@user-tv1xj5ji6x

Жыл бұрын

Hello Glenda, how are you doing today, hope you’re fine and safe from the Virus?

@getin3949

Жыл бұрын

You don't have to have a pine tree to have Christmas.

@dquinn8344

Жыл бұрын

Sorry but we didn't win WWI or WWII...They were planned fratricidal wars (planned by the usual suspects) to kill over 100 million White people...

@kind2311

Жыл бұрын

not bad for people who were also likely racist as hell.

My Dad was a Coal Miner and I grew up In Appalachia, Virginia.....this video was so hard to watch I cried all the way through it. Thanks for sharing ....

@debbiecottrell291

Жыл бұрын

Im so sorry sweetie :(

@hsh1950

Жыл бұрын

I didn't cry, but it really hit me. I grew up in West Virginia.

I was 14 when Christmas in Appalachia was filmed. When I saw the boy with his shoes hardly covering his feet, I wanted to reach back in time and help so he could attend school. Automation was the downfall of these people who worked so very hard and forced them into terrible poverty. Seeing this film made me realize how absolutely wonderful my childhood was.

@realappalachia

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the comment, Kary Ann, you’re spot on

@user-tv1xj5ji6x

Жыл бұрын

Hello Kary, how are you doing today, hope you’re fine and safe from the Virus??

@terrymmm9905

Жыл бұрын

You said it! Exactly my feelings... and that little boy broke my heart

@dalemartinez1086

Жыл бұрын

There will always be changes in work place practices. That is progress. But we must be the kind of society that invests in our workers to enable them to uplift themselves in their own environment. I wonder how many of the "operators" of the new automation mentioned in the video, then were paid trainees of the companies and were local workers. It is a tale as old as time. Hate to sound like a "commie," but we all know that the workers of the world get the shaft. And now their kids get fentanyl. Sign.....

@jillneeld477

Жыл бұрын

Realize that prior to Medicaid, AFDC and food stamps - many folks lived in severe poverty.

My grandma who is passed, but was born in 1903 use to tell me about a hair bow she got for Christmas. It made her so happy and that was all she got.

My dad grew up just like this on the Tennessee/Georgia line. I have a hell of a lot of respect for folks that lived like this. Always will.

I was 4 and living in New York at the time when this was filmed. At that age we didn't know/learn about those who were much poorer than us. Even when we grew older we never did. I always thought at my young age that everyone got a dolly or a record player or new clothes under the tree. We never wanted for anything at Christmas. When I became a parent I did learn about those much less fortunate than we were and I instilled that onto my 3 kids...now adults and I'm happy and proud to say that they are so thoughtful and giving. We always donate our time and money to those less fortunate. That's what Christmas is to us. Giving and not receiving. Happy Holidays to everyone. 12/19/22

@user-sn6tg4nh1y

10 ай бұрын

Hello __🌹🌹...how are you doing today...🌻 How's everything going 🌹🌹

My mother grew up with 11 siblings in rural Alabama. My grandfather was a sharecropper, so money was always tight. But my grandparents somehow managed a new coloring book and crayons for each child, and an orange and apple in the stockings with some peppermint. They were dirt poor, but my mom said she didnt know any better until after she had grown.

@sherrypaproski9564

Жыл бұрын

I’m #5 out of 8 kids when we were young we got one present each 2 if my parents could afford it so when I married and only had step kids when they had their own children I taught them from an early age that it’s not how many gifts you get it’s about how much love you get from each person we get them 2 gifts each or maybe one big one and they are great full but mind you they are adults now except youngest under 10 yrs old

@sherrita80548

Жыл бұрын

My mother was number 8 of 11 in Louisiana bithe my grandparents worked my grandad worked on the railroad and my granny worked in the schools cafeteria they were considered rich beicase the had running water and a TV they had a three bedroom house my grandparents had one room, my mom and Aunt's had a room and my uncle's had a room they would get some homemade candy my grandaddy made, apples, oranges, walnuts, and maybe if my grandaddy got a bonus maybe a dime store toy each they were considered lucky my mother is the only sister left she will be 79 this year and I have one uncle left who is in his 80s

@pinkpanther2288

Жыл бұрын

@@sherrita80548 Hi sherritay 🌻 This sharing of your family ties is a Gold mine. I could listen for hours of the struggles, strife, beautifully funny or not, Stay your family lineage and pass it down how to be comfortable with the Good Times & Bad. Nice to meet you..✨

@Finnv830

Жыл бұрын

That’s what my grandmother always said (Farmers, KY) “we were so poor and didn’t even know it. Because everybody was in n the same boat”

@donaldschaefer6860

Жыл бұрын

Carol Garber, this sounds like my Mother's family. There were 12 children altogether. My grandfather was a farmer and a minister. He was born in 1888 and died in 1989, just one week after his 101st birthday. I only know about their poverty from what my Mom and Aunts and Uncles have told me. The kids usually got an orange and some hard candy at Christmas. Once her older siblings started working "out" (working public jobs), they probably got a Christmas gift some years. My Mom's family didn't lock their doors. They weren't afraid of anyone stealing from them. Their life wasn't easy, but there was so much love between all of them.

I wish the people of today that actually have it really good, but do nothing but complain about how bad they think they have it , would watch this.

@steemerxaxon1643

Жыл бұрын

EXACTLY... or have to experience that kind of life to really BE BROUGHT DOWN TO EARTH!!!!

@Marsha0364

Жыл бұрын

Exactly!!!

@mamabear8818

Жыл бұрын

People who have everything don’t appreciate or enjoy it, they just expect it! That is so sad!

@beautifuldreamer3991

Жыл бұрын

Or cry about white privilege

@nancylee1625

Жыл бұрын

Amen!

I'm so glad the CBS documentary ended with the mother reading the story of the birth of Jesus, and also the way in which Charles Kuralt summed up that picture of faith being instilled in the little girl. Thank you for your words in the close of the overall video as well. The story of "Christmas" is for everyone, it is the birth the savior Jesus Christ: it is eternal hope. It was this woman reading that story, in the midst of her and her family's grinding poverty, that reminded me of this. It is a gift, Jesus Christ and his salvation is the gift...the only gift. It is a gift given to all, available for all to receive. Thank you so very much for bringing me back to this perspective. It is sad that there are so many who feel that Christmas is afforded only for those able to purchase & give gifts. Christmas is for everyone and this woman who read the story to her daughter gave more than can ever be purchased from monetary means.

@tracicomstock3489

5 ай бұрын

Well said! Amen.

I come from a family of 8 children. I am number 7 in the line-up. We grew up in a prosperous little midwestern town, but we were poor. My parents worked hard all the time to barely make ends meet. When it is talked about in this documentary about the one family getting $56 per month in food stamps I gasped. My daddy spent $28 per month to feed ten people. I remember those days all too well. I remember not putting a stocking out for Christmas because I knew there would be nothing in it come Christmas morning. Christmas was just another day in our house. A few years in my growing up we had a little for Christmas, but it was rare. I haven't forgotten where I come from and where I am now. I am grateful for all that was taught to me on how to survive with grace. I haven't forgotten that my parents were generous to others in need when we barely had enough for ourselves. I knew others who were poorer than we were. It was a silent thing in our community. The poor were never spoken of. The poor were left to their own resources. The poor were left out of the community. We were lepers even though we were humans just like everyone else. Sometimes even the hardest working people fall on hard times. I wish I could say we didn't feel the sting of our hard times, hard life. It's a sad life to be poor monetarily. I thank God the Father I no longer live that way. None of my siblings live that way. We grew up, got jobs, made a new life for ourselves. But, none of us has ever forgotten where we came from.

@realappalachia

2 жыл бұрын

thanks so much for sharing those memories with us, Ruth, that was really special to read

@sharronhelms3660

Жыл бұрын

Thank-you you much for sharing that with us❣❤ I wasn't by any means rich growing up, but we didn't want for clothes, ......... My husband grew up poor for about half of his life, but after his mother started working things got better for them plus,he went to work when he was 15 and spent all his money on clothes and a car.When we got married he called me a city girl. It really bothered me for a while cause I never looked down on people that was less fortunate,( i new he was half way joking) but he stopped when I started going with him and doing things he liked to do( fishing hunting.......) Thanks again for telling your story❣❣

Children are so dear and should be loved and protected always.

Jag var två år när denna film spelades in, och med en syskonskara på 11 barn, var vi så långt från välfärd som man bara kan komma, trots min uppväxt i landet Sverige, som räknades även då som ett välfärdsland. Det fanns och finns fattiga människor även i dagens Sverige tyvärr. Det som slår mig när jag ser denna film, är hur strävsamma, stolta men framförallt hur varma och vänliga dessa människor var (är). Jag vill tacka så hjärtligt för denna film, som visar hur situationer och omständigheter kan vara lika världen över. God Bless You

@realappalachia

Жыл бұрын

God bless you too

I grew up during this time period. Not in Appalachia but for a time we were very poor. My favorite Christmas memory is the year we didn’t have any decorations for the tree but my mom was able to buy a small Christmas tree at the hardware store. She bought some glitter, sequins and plastic cups. We made our own decorations that year. My brothers and I sat at the kitchen table with Elmer’s glue and styrofoam cups making bells for the tree. We got stocking that year with fruits and nuts. It really was the most wonderful Christmas ever. Things don’t make you happy, relationships with your loved ones do.

@s.ebright7620

Жыл бұрын

that was very beautifully written. I agree with you!

I grew up poor in WV. I had no idea I was poor until middle school and I didn't even care because all my friends were poor, too. My whole street was poor, but very well kept. Every yard was clean and mowed. We cared about the little we had.

I think if I was Charles Kuralt and I did this story, there is no way I could leave there and not get at least one small gift for each of those kids. And I would have bought each family a ham or chicken or something.

@realappalachia

Жыл бұрын

Same here

@martinmaddox5315

Жыл бұрын

You can still find plenty of families and children to help today, if you look.

@BrittMFH

Жыл бұрын

Maybe he did.

@regenia8738

Жыл бұрын

I say this VERY RESPECTFULLY. How do you know he didn't? He might have and done the right thing by not telling the world. That would put the focus on him. Just my opinion...

@padebro2683

Жыл бұрын

Never assume people want your charity. Many people, including the homeless today in America, have nothing left but pride. Always gently ask if a person wants what you'd like to share and if they reply no then you simply say with a soft smile, Alright, and move along leaving them intact.

There are too many places like this all over the United States. I only give to charities that only help people in the US. I believe in helping our own before helping the world. 🇺🇸

@stephaniepersin4145

Жыл бұрын

It was a shock when in 1988, I was 23 and my 19 yr old brother was visited by us in Columbus, GA as he was in basic training for Army and across a bridge in Phenix City I saw people living in shacks with laundry hanging outside.

@marinewarrior2127

Жыл бұрын

@@stephaniepersin4145 i know, it’s terrible. It makes my heart hurt.

@tundrawomansays694

Жыл бұрын

I only give to local charities right here in my own geographically large, remote, impoverished county. This area isn’t any more fortunate than the people in this documentary.

@jenk4545

Жыл бұрын

America is one of the richest countries in the world. We could easily afford to feed, clothe, house, and educate every single American if we cut our military budget by only a third. Yet the government convinces people like you that they can't do a thing about it, so you give your hard earned money to fix the problems our politicians refuse to handle.

I was 2 weeks old when this was made. My Mom comes from WV. 60 miles from the Kentucky border. She lived in a shack with a dirt floor. Her Dad was a drunken coal miner and her Mom was a house wife trying to keep food on the table and clothes on there backs. It was a horrid upbringing. My grandma died of lung cancer when my Mom was 13. Her Dad jumped ship so she became a Mom at the age of 13. Taking care of 4 kids from the ages of 9 months to 11 years. Her older brother was 16 and went to work in the mines to take care of the family till about 2 years later when there grandma called welfare and had them all taken away. They ended up in different places. My Mom was 15 her younger brother was 10 and had polio. They got sent to a farm where an old farmer and his wife took in kids and used them for slave labor. The work was hard and with my uncle's disability he couldn't keep up and the old man started beating him so Mom picked up a shovel and beat the old man till some other kids pulled her away. He ended up in a trauma unit. They sent my Mom to a Catholic Nunery in Wheeling WV. With very little official schooling my Mom was self taught and graduated valedictorian of her class in 1958. My Mom moved to the YMCA and got a job working at the front desk at Wheeling hospital. She met my Dad in 59 got married in 60. Had 5 kids by 68 and was a housewife till she died in 2014. I remember stories Mom would tell me when she was growing up. There was no extra anything. For Christmas she got jacks and an apple if that. She told me when welfare came she didn't have any underwear and how ashamed she was. She hated where she grew up. She didn't go back till I was 8. It was the first time she'd seen her all her brothers and sister in 20 years. That was the only reason she went back was to see them. All her brothers became miners. We went to my Uncle Ronnies for the summers. It was fun for us. We'd never seen anything like that. They still had an outhouse. My uncle had livestock. A huge Veggie garden. Chickens, horses, pigs and it was all new to us. Not for my Mom tho. It brought back to many horrible memories. She loved seeing her siblings but everything about it she could have done without.

@joannemcdonald1941

Жыл бұрын

That is a real story of true grit about your Momma. She was brave and knew to get out of that town. My family were coal miners in a little town in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. We came to Canada in the early 1800s. After the mines started closing a lot of people left town as my Dad did at 19 and came to Toronto. Lots of people still live in the town where he came from but with the mines closed, most people go away to work and return back there. My Dad never wanted to go back and I'm glad he didn't. His little town is nice to visit - but wouldn't want to live there. I can tell the pride you have for your Momma and what she did to make sure you had a better life. Good on her being brave enough to return to her roots to keep in touch with her family - that took a lot of guts. Interesting - my Father passed away in 2014 too. Take good care.

@lifeasithappens

Жыл бұрын

How does this happen in the Richest most Prosperous Greatest country in the world called America????

@geraldinewarren9279

Жыл бұрын

What a book. I look forward to it ❤

@lightningbug276

Жыл бұрын

What a great momma!

@augustasimone9323

Жыл бұрын

@@lifeasithappens Selfish Greedy Corporations and people who buy up the land and sit on it undeveloped to flip for a profit and incompetent state and local government. Their mistake was to trust in the coal mines during the good times. The great Depression is what was so damaging to so many Americans. They did not value reading ,writing and arithmetic .The parents needed Night School or a correspondence school.. If they were self-educated and had they worked together to grow their own food ( seed saving) and invest in their own self - employment they could have had a chance. They waited for someone to rescue them- like the government. Ignorance on many levels leads to tragic results. They became trapped in a nightmare. I am always admiring the Amish. They work hard as a community to look out for each other. If a farmer looses his barn the whole community plans to build the new one so that the farmer can keep working. We all rely on the corporations and government probably too much today. So this is a cautionary tale for all of us not to pass judgement but to lookout for our family members and communities.

This made me feel so incredibly grateful for what I have. That store owner was a saint. Thank you, truly.

I would've been around 6 yrs old when this documentary was made. Reminded me so much of the way a lot of folks lived in Belspring, Parrott & Highland. Its weird but I can remember Charles Kuralt being on TV. I remember my great-aunt who had a wooden leg would have to come stay with us & I slept in same bed with her. It would fascinate me to watch her take her leg off at bedtime & spit her snuff out in a spitoon beside the bed. Our house was heated with wood & coal, mama cooked on a wood stove until daddy redid the kitchen & added on the bathroom. We had a cistern out back we'd pump our water from. I can remember holding my hand under it & getting a drink of the best cold water ever! Mama did laundry on an old wringer washer & I loved to help her! Then the clothes would be hung up on a clothesline to dry. That was another thing that caught my attention in the documentary. We didn't have any indoor plumbing until I was 13! But we had a 2-seater outdoor toilet! I remember there always was a huge garden I helped in, we had chickens, fruit trees & hogs my daddy raised & killed around Thanksgiving & would kill & clean them for others too. We had a smokehouse daddy treated ham & hung in it & we had a cellar below it where all the canned stuff was kept. I don't ever remember being without food or clothes. Daddy & mama drove a dump truck loaded with coal out of WVa at times & mama would pick up copper wiring out of junk to sell. Then daddy got a job at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant & things got a little better for us. My sister is 7 years older than me; mama was 37 when I was born in 1958. My oldest sister was 17 when I was born & got married the next month. I also have a brother who is 12 yrs older than me! So now we are 79, 74, 69, & I'm 62! I never got to know my grandparents & feel like I missed out on so much there, especially after having my own grandson. My mama grew up in Montgomery Holler in Pulaski County not far from where I live & my daddy's parents moved to Belspring from Patrick County. He had several kin folk in Floyd, VA too. I remember when he passed away in 2004, my husband took me out riding one day & I had him stop at an old cemetery up from Mayberry Funeral Home in Floyd. I was able to use a cane then & remember finding several graves that had my daddy's last name on them. I called my oldest sister from my cell & was asking her if she remembered any of the names. I did find my daddy's cousins' graves. She asked me what in the world was I doing walking thru a cemetery & I told her I just wanted to know more about family I'd missed out on knowing. I like visiting old cemeteries for some reason. We've stopped at several on the Parkway. I think its just missing part of my family I don't know about. Sorry for this being so long, Shane, but the documentary really touched my heart. Thank you so much for all you do. God bless you.

@realappalachia

3 жыл бұрын

great story and memories, thanks for sharing

@traceyperfitt1231

2 жыл бұрын

Wonderful to hear about your childhood 🌹

@qckndrty1

2 жыл бұрын

I read the whole thing 👍

@JourneyOfFaith72

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing. I read it all!

@lilblackduc7312

2 жыл бұрын

..Debbie Epperly We're about the same age & lived very similar experiences...I was pleased to read the whole thing, too. Everything you wrote is real & true, including the 2-seater outhouse. My paternal Grandmother was born in Pulaski County, Indiana in 1889. (Weaver-Row) Thank you so much for sharing. 😎👍 ☕

Wow this video really touched my heart that little boy with his shoes I had tears coming down my eyes I've had kidney problems this year and I wasn't able to afford a Christmas dinner or any presents for my daughter she is 13 I woke up Christmas day and she said Mommy look underneath the tree there's a present and I said there's a present?? Well yes Mom it's for you she had made me a keychain from school because I lost my keys and I needed a new keychain that is the best present I have ever had in my whole life we ate regular food that day and we watched Christmas movies and that was just the best Christmas I've ever had point blank thank you for sharing this God bless and stay safe everyone

@realappalachia

3 жыл бұрын

shew, your story put tears in my eyes. What a blessing your daughter is, I love her and don't even know her lol. That was awesome and the true spirit of Christmas. I will pray for your kidney issues.

My family is all buried in Harlan (Resthaven) now. Georgia and Ben Baker were my grandparents. I was born in the miners hospital in 63 and remember the smell of the coal stoves when I was young. My family sure could cook. Honestly, everybody up in the mountains could cook ❤️❤️

@user-sn6tg4nh1y

10 ай бұрын

Hello __dear 🌻🌻 how are you doing today 👋👋__ how's everything going 🌹🌹

Born and raised here in eastern Kentucky myself I can say that this really hit me hard. My father was a coal miner (yes I am a coal miners daughter's and proud to be) he worked his life away underground until developing the black lung disease. He did the work just like it showed in this video until all the equipment came in. He sacrificed his life for his family, he went underground everyday not knowing if he would come out. I was fortunate to be born in 82' so we had a decent big school and buses so we didn't have to walk to school. My dad and mom made sure we had great Christmas's together. We were not rich by any means but I never had to go through what these kids did. Breaks my heart to see this but it also reminds me of my roots and and where I come from, which is a place filled with loving caring people. These people have always needed help but yet never really got the help they deserved. Anyone that has had to struggle for what they got has a different kind of way about them, and I think that is why I love the people here so much. They have endured hard times but they are not bitter about it and try to make the best of it. 💕 💔

@tracicomstock3489

5 ай бұрын

The bitterness can not be allowed to come into the soul or it will grow deep and tall and take over like a weed! My husband has allowed this to happen to him. He no longer sees the truth.

"He's too poor to leave, and she's too kind to make him"

This brings back a lot of memories for me, some good, some not so good. We mainly had a hard candy Christmas. My favorite present was always a stocking filled with candy, nuts, Oranges and Tangerines. Simple things that we never got through the year, but meant the world to us at Christmas.

@SimpleManGuitars1973

2 жыл бұрын

I'm a lifelong east TN boy and my papaw told me it was pretty much all they ever got for a Christmas present. He was one of 12 and they were lucky to get that. They lived in a little one room house and he told me they once got this little chicken that had a tail you could wind up and it would cause it to walk and he said they played with that thing til it just completely stopped working. All 12 of them wound up living good lives and wound up getting jobs that weren't all that great paying but they knew the value of saving and were able to live comfortable lives. I was his only grandson and he worshiped the ground I walked on and I worshiped the ground he walked on. He spoiled me honestly but he knew what it was to be a kid that would've liked to have had things and he didn't want me to feel that. I'm 40 now and I feel like I grew up in a generation that wouldn't have survived yours. I hope all is well now.

@boondocks8002

Жыл бұрын

@@SimpleManGuitars1973 what part of tenn? I was raised in the mountains of South East tenn In sequatchie county. I now live up the road a bit at the base of a mountain in Marion county. Wouldn't live in any other part of the world hard times and all. Blessings

@SimpleManGuitars1973

Жыл бұрын

@@boondocks8002 Union County TN. Born and raised.

@maryloomis8075

Жыл бұрын

My children didn't understand the orange thing. We always had nuts and oranges in our stockings. It was healthier than candy, and nuts and fruit were a sign of wealth. My mother would always make a fruitcake. It was the best. My husband and I went to whole foods just to get organic oranges for Christmas stockings. My daughter's boy friend threw hers outside on the ground. I found it washed it like all the other oranges, saved the skins, either dehydrated them, froze them or made marmalade with them. Nothing should go to waste when people are hungry. Fruitcakes and jams or jellies were always appreciated in our home as Christmas gifts. God bless all those who don't have food this Christmas...may we all share what we can.

@boondocks8002

Жыл бұрын

@@SimpleManGuitars1973 ...that's a great area as well. East tenn is much nicer I think than west tenn. I have relatives who lived in the west in Jackson County they hated it and moved back to the east. They said the people were different as well. Blessings

Amazing. These folks, many only went to school through the 2nd grade, and their command of the English language is far superior to the college graduates of today!!

@JenAmazed42

Жыл бұрын

We were, and some times still so isolated that our dialects didn't get watered down by outside influence. many of us speak many words in old Elizabethton English. We didn't have many visitors, automobiles came to us later than most, as did tv and even radio. I've heard people make fun of the dialects of hillbillies and people in the hollers. But we are usually the ones who speak more proper English.

@dquinn8344

Жыл бұрын

You mean COBBAGE graduates...Sheeit!!!!

The gentleness in the women’s eyes and voice at 6:10. What a lovely, dignified woman.

I wish everyone would watch this! The shop keeper was a wonderful man. The little girl, I just loved her and her mother. I wish I could have reached thru here and gave that little boy some of my grandsons clothes and shoes and that I could buy that baby a wagon.

@realappalachia

2 жыл бұрын

I agree 100%

@oliviamartini9700

Жыл бұрын

Well, donate those clothes to a little boy who needs it now, and buy a baby a wagon this Christmas. Heaven knows there's no shortage of poverty in modern-day Appalachia.

@stevehughes1250

Жыл бұрын

@@oliviamartini9700 Donate to who ? I would gladly buy for these children, if it actually got to them.

@saram3156

Жыл бұрын

@@stevehughes1250 You could maybe look up which counties have the people with the lowest average income in a given state, or look up newspaper articles relating to that, then maybe look up a few churches in the area, and try calling a few numbers and saying that you just had a notion of wanting to pass on some Christmas spirit, and see if you can reach anyone who sounds good? If it was a smaller church imagine being able to give every child in the Sunday School a bag of goodies and a gift certificate! or letting the SS teachers go shopping and wrap up presents! Or maybe they could get goodies and supplies and their young people could get together and make up gift baskets for the adults, or to bring to old folks homes.

@brwpe7733

Жыл бұрын

Today, unfortunately you’d most likely be buying a wagon for some pajama walkers kids who are destined to also become pajama walkers. Most of the people in these videos were and are self respecting people who only needed a small glimmer of hope to make it, doesn’t work that way today with the majority. Notice they spoke about Jesus, today it’s about piercings and tattoos. You have a generation now that demands you support them instead of being grateful for any help at all. I grew up poor and am a proud Appalachian who knows first hand the reality of feeding the bears. People are controlled by their emotions to the point of creating a worsening condition, but hey you can feel like you are superior that way, better about yourself or just a good person. Don’t feed the bears

I lost my dad a week before Christmas to the coal mine, back in 1948. We were poor and destitute. Mom took a job in a factory far away while my grandparents kept us until mom could find a home for us all. She managed to put together Christmas the year dad died and every year afterwards. Life did get better but loosing dad affected sis and I all our lives. When this film was made I was on my way to Nam. I saw Christmas in the jungle.

@michelel965

Жыл бұрын

Thank you, sir, for your service! For the loss of your dad, at such a tender age, my admiration for you and your mom and sister. Y’all made it and I just know your dad is continuing to watch over you from above. May we always be grateful for good parents!! My own are gone now and I miss them everyday.

@MelissaThompson432

Жыл бұрын

Welcome home.

@nancycurtis488

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for your service…..glad you were one of the men who survived and got to come home…I hope you were not wounded and learned something that could help you make a living when you got home. Life sucks sometimes.

@Voodoofoxx

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for your service. Welcome home. Your sacrifice is appreciated.

@bethanyjohnson5598

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for your service.

In this era (I would have been 13 in 1964), on a trip from PA to TN to see relatives, my parents drove us through some very poor areas in the Appalachians and I was so surprised to see rusted old tar paper shacks with people actually living in them with rundown appliances on their porches, soft coal hunks all over their dirt yards, and raggedly dressed kids. It was a real eye-opener for us kids who lived comfortable, not wealthy, lives. We had a nice house, plenty to eat, did chores, excelled in excellent schools, with well-trained teachers, had good medical care, church-going, enough books to feed our intellects and imaginations, etc. You would think these interviewed people in the Kuralt program lived in such poverty during the Depression but this is 1964! Nowadays I think there are a lot of urban poor people -- the kids getting free breakfasts and lunches here in Florida. Yes, there are more organizations that collect and distribute free school supplies, and there are charity shops where you can get pretty good clothes for cheap prices. But in these KY hollers there weren't Goodwills, you had to travel to get food, there was so little available. NO wonder the little girl is so pleased with her books she brought home from school. And these folks were proud, like anyone else, and didn't want to be beholden to anyone. That teacher who taught seven grades in one room, cooked the lunches, cleaned the school -- what a SAINT that woman was. Thanks for this. Kuralt was a fine telejournalist back in the day. This was an important documentary that more comfortable Americans NEEDED to see.

@realappalachia

Жыл бұрын

Virginia thanks for sharing your memories and thoughts

@MrJeepin88

Жыл бұрын

My wife is from a poor area of West Virginia even In the early 2000s they were still using oil lamps she had it hard but it gave her the heart unlike anything I’ve ever seen and I’m thankful for that

My parents were born in Appalachia mountains in Virginia in the 1930s. They tell me stories about growing up in that time. They were very poor but they didn't know it at the time! As children, they were grateful for what they had and were lucky to get a new pair of shoes for Christmas. Living back then was very hard but it raised up those people to be tough as nails.

@user-sn6tg4nh1y

10 ай бұрын

Hello __jennifer🌹🌹...how are you doing today...🌻 How's everything going 🌹🌹

Elzie Hall is my father-in-law. He's a great guy. Elzie still lives in the area where he was raised.

@realappalachia

3 жыл бұрын

that is so great to hear. He was just a little boy in the video of course but his dad seemed like a good man who cared about his kids so I am glad to hear Elzie is still alive and doing well. He made an impression on me so that makes me happy.

There is NOTHING wrong with these people! Hard working everyday folks! I grew up in east TN. We got by! It's all we knew. If ya never had much,then a person didn't know what it was like to have just the nessessary items and utilities! Everyone was poor,so there was not as much envy or condescending remarks about not being rich or wealthy. We. Helped each other in those days,now it's everyone out for themselves! These people are very proud too. Wouldn't ask for nothing from much of anybody! The meek shall inherit the earth. God helped these folks,because they are very religious! Had lots of children to help each other. Work the garden and livestock,to feed the family!!!!!

@Kra-ri6fd

Жыл бұрын

I have a hard time feeling sorry for them either...reason being, there are still people this poor today and having money doesn't make you rich. I mean look at the state of this world right now. Doing without might do a few people some good. I've been homeless with children before and still live in poverty now. We heat with wood and live in a very old and drafty farm house. We can as much as we can during harvest time and I find meats on sale to can up when I am able to also. We have times money comes in...when that happens, we stock up on things we run low on in hard times. Yesterday I fell while putting the chicken feed scoop up. My shoe toe has opened up and it snagged on a stick, I hit the ground before I even knew it. We eat a lot of rice and beans right now and cook from scratch a lot. Money just keeps getting tighter too. Christmas is coming around here (MD Appalachia) soon too. I am not sure what we are going to do. I want some new shoes. I'd like a new wedding ring for my husband...his doesn't stay on anymore because he's lost a lot of weight. Yep, this is Appalachia in 2022.

@suzannerodriguez8600

Жыл бұрын

@@Kra-ri6fd, can you tell me where you live please?

@Kra-ri6fd

Жыл бұрын

@@suzannerodriguez8600 I don't know if there is a safe way to communicate my exact address. I live in Maryland...a couple hours from DC. But I would like to say that my husband found a good paying job about a week ago. He just started and has plenty of opportunities now to pick up as many shifts as he can handle! The job comes with good benefits too. It's a very physical job so he needs to work his body up to handling more and more shifts but he's working on it. He likes his manager and his manager likes him. We got our first check here today. Just in time. Things were getting very tight. That job will likely be able to pull us out of poverty. I haven't been outside of poverty in well over a decade. I did get my new shoes. My husband told me to order them and we will figure it out. Funny how when you spend money on needs (not wants) even when you know you don't really have it (it was rent money but we have a great and understanding landlord), it does work out. I know that some how all my needs will be met even if I'm not sure how. Something always comes through. There was one stretch there, a few years back, where I look back and try to do the math and the math just doesn't add up. On paper, we didn't make it. But some how we did. I was working at a local airport as a single mom. One time we had a company meal and they served ham. I asked to take the bone home and some of the finger foods like carrots and celery, and I made a big pot of soup with it. Sometimes catered food would not be picked up for a flight and we could take that home. That helped a lot. When you use your head and what you have as diligently as possible and pray real hard, everything works out. Things are looking good for us now. Work will get busy here soon for my husband ( holiday season) and he will get plenty of time to make money. We should be all caught up and able to buy Christmas gifts this year. My youngest son loves cowboy stuff. He's 15 now. He got a cowboy hat from his brother for his birthday and he looks so handsome in it. He's proud of it too. I am going to get him some more clothes to go with it. I can't get over how grown up he looks now. Anyway, I do appreciate your concern, I really do. We will be more than alright here very soon. God bless you.

@ericbogar9665

Жыл бұрын

Lies. In school we roasted the poorer kids than we were. Some came in with clothes never washed or did they take a bath. We called one kid Crud nut Tucker. We might have been mostly poor, but we were also clean compared to others. Kids were mean. That's why that one guys kids didn't want to go to school in the video. 😂😂

@lightmarker3146

Жыл бұрын

They politicians used these people to pass bills and get re-elected just like today. It was also an effort to make the South look bad. President Johnson was a teacher for poor children of migrants and really understood poverty. He did care about people but the bills passed made people more dependent on help rather than a hand up . Nothing changes sometimes.

I was 11 years old when this special ran. I remember it. You have to understand, we only had 3 network channels, a local station, and a PBS channel if you were lucky enough to live in the Chicago television area. I remember it well. Before this special, the adults thought Welfare recipients were a bunch of lazy, good-for-nothings. It was the height of the strongest economic era our country has ever experienced. There were many more jobs than there were workers. Any MAN who didn't have a job were "drunks", or lazy, or scary folks living on the fringes. This Charles Kuralt Special program really opened our eyes. What's odd is that my father was from good Appalachian Stock. My Grandfather lived in a coal mining area outside of Pittsburgh, Bel Vernon, Pennsylvania. He moved to the Chicago area to work in the steel mills because it was "safer", he could make more money and give his two-year-old son a better life. Can you imagine? Working in the steel mills in the 30s was very dangerous, but not as dangerous as working in the coal mines. This television special was part of President Johnson's War On Poverty Initiative. It was a watershed event. People were horrified. They had no idea these people even existed, and that was the problem. Johnson's initiative as well as the completion of the Interstate System opened up these pockets of extreme poverty as well as bringing electricity and telephone service into these areas. There is no way you could convince me that this television program wasn't the pivotal impetuous.

I'm from the Appalachian region of NC. This paints a bleak picture, but there's also joy in that region. My heart lifts when I head up the mountainside. There's no place like it in the world.

I am 76. I remember so much being little. Always wore hand me downs from welfare. I remember when someone would bring a basket of food at times. Thinking of my parents now my heart goes out to them. Dad would go to work sick or not. Grand father and uncles would work in mines too. I still remember the bean soup and corn bread. Two of my favorite food even today. God bless all the people that still live up in the mountains.

@realappalachia

2 жыл бұрын

thanks for sharing those memories, Bea

@stevehughes1250

Жыл бұрын

Soup beans and cornbread. Still a lot of people's favorite !

I was born in 1969, we lived pretty close to that. I remember being so completely grateful for my Christmas sock that had an orange, some peanuts and a candy cane in it. Usually one small toy and new gloves and a scarf. We just had a lot of love.

@fishlips90210

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for sharing this. I was just thinking about my Christmases as a kid. There were lots of decorations and presents and not much love.

@cherylcook1942

Жыл бұрын

My mother went overboard stupid for xmas.we got mostly clothes,which we were grateful for. But oh brother that was a lot of packages. We did not have a lot of love, we knew it and it was sorely missed. She was a mean selfish woman the rest of the year. We would pray our dad would not come home, he had a quick temper and would pester us girls.

@maryreilly5092

Жыл бұрын

My Mom had an extremely poor childhood. No toys at all. If they got an orange, a candy, one piece only, and some toasted nuts on Christmas morning, they were on Cloud Nine. This was post WW 2 in Europe in a bombed area. My Dad’s was even worse. Nothing at all on Christmas Day except for some hot corn bread with milk direct from the cow. That was THE meal for their entire Christmas Day. There were 11 kids and all had to work the cotton fields with their parents to survive, Daddy said. They just accepted it. This was in the late 1930’s and in the early 1940’s in Alabama. I think sadly about this, though. Poor children all over the world needs our prayers this Christmas.

@justaguy2365

Жыл бұрын

I was born in 83. Raised by Grandparents. It truly felt like I was living several decades behind the other kids at school.

We will be wishing we had the skills these folks had in the very near future.

@user-tv1xj5ji6x

Жыл бұрын

Hello Jo, how are you doing today, hope you’re fine and safe from the Virus??

@debrakoch3794

Жыл бұрын

What skills? The whole point is that they didn't have any skills or education and that is why they were starving. I'm from the Ozark mountains in Arkansas and there were many people that lived like this but I was lucky that my people either moved and got jobs or were able to make a living somehow. My parents did have years where they got an orange and some hard candy but they also would get a pair of shoes and necessary items at Christmas because their parents had skills. Most all grew up and left to get jobs and none of their children ever knew hunger. My family that stayed worked and bought up land and are cattle ranchers now and some went into the military and then went to college.

The lady speaks with such gentleness and meaning. What a lovely thing to hear her again.

Mr Karault had one of the most distinctive voices in the business. He clearly could have been the voice of the nation. Even when reporting on a difficult story as this, there is something authoritative and comforting about it. He is truly missed.

@user-sn6tg4nh1y

10 ай бұрын

Hello __ faith 🌹🌹...how are you doing today...🌻 How's everything going 🌹🌹

The staggering thing besides the needles abject poverty, is the dignity that all of these people had despite their circumstances! It's a kind of dignity rarely found across all class lines today.

@realappalachia

Жыл бұрын

So true

@robertdesantis6205

Жыл бұрын

Mrs Blake seemed like such a gracious lady. Hope her kids did well. I wonder what led to the divorce?

What never ceases to amaze me is how this cycle repeats itself over and over thruout history,even to today. Workers continually exploited,used up then discarded. Whether it be because the land has been stripped bare,automation or cheaper labor has been found elsewhere. It's good to see workers today trying to take back some of that power dynamic.

@sandraclark2922

Жыл бұрын

Workers are not exploited. Technology made it easier to mine coal...who would want to work in the mine and get Black Lung if they didn't have to? These folk should have sent their children to school even if they had raggedy clothes...education and getting skills and/or moving to another area with jobs is and always will be the way out of poverty. These Appalachian people must have forgotten why their ancestors left Ireland and Scotland....for a better life IN A NEW LAND when the old life sucked.

I was a senior in high school when this was filmed, I went to a 3 room elementary school and my school mates, many in such financial constraints they had no shoes or coats and in western Maryland it got very cold. My dad had a sawmill and milled crossties for the B&O railroad. He employed 5 or 6 men from the community. Most of the community didn't have jobs. Where this community was better off than the one portrayed in the film it was still poor. My mother was the postmaster for the community, made all my clothes except formal wear and made sure any clothes that no longer fit went to families that could use them. Dad would give firewood to families who could not pay. At 75 I am ashamed that I didn't appreciate the generosity of my parents.

@cass7142

8 ай бұрын

I'm from western maryland...far western ( allegany county ) It's beautiful here with the mountians...the changing of the leafs during fall...I wouldn't wanna live no where else... I absolutely love it here!!!

Bless you, brother... thank you for this! -very moving, very humbling.

They can put a man on the moon but some kids don't have shoes, is something wrong with society ?

@michael9052

Жыл бұрын

Exactly. There is no need to go to the moon in the first place. Huge waste of billions.

@marycoughlan353

Жыл бұрын

When you have lobbies that pay politicians to prevent the billionaires from paying their fair share of taxes it’s hardly surprising. Taxation is the most equitable way of taking care of our neighbours without humiliating them.

@debbiesittard7979

Жыл бұрын

Priorities!! Of which the US government has never had straight!

@Bulvan123

Жыл бұрын

@@marycoughlan353 Billionaires don't put their money in their mattress. They invest it which creates jobs.

@susannpatton2893

Жыл бұрын

@@Bulvan123 they are the most stingy and yes, they hide their money.

Goodness, this brings back memories of my dad's people. He was born in the Depression in southeast Kansas. For a few years, his daddy was a lead and zinc miner and the large family lived a decent life in Joplin, MO for a few years - even had running water. Both of my grandparents were from the Ozarks in Missouri, and Grandma just couldn't handle living in the "big city" of Joplin and said she would go back home unless she could live in the country. Ouch! She meant it and actually took off for home and her mama. Grandpa quit that good job and took work as a caretaker for "the man in the big house" outside of Baxter Springs, Kansas. I remember the house. It was tiny - a tiny kitchen, tiny sitting room and one tiny bedroom with an outhouse in the back. They didn't have a bathroom until the grown kids put one in sometime in the early 1970's. I suppose the ten kids bedded down wherever they could. Grandpa supplemented his income by being a truck farmer. They grew vegetables and he'd sell them in town from his truck, kept a hog or two each year, and I think they had a milk cow. A childhood picture of my dad surfaced a few years ago and it's heartbreaking. Hand-me-down pants that were 3 sizes too big tied up with a scrap of rope, shirt full of holes and no shoes. I remember he said he used to be jealous of the families that took welfare because at least they had shoes. Grandpa wouldn't hear of taking welfare. Not no way, not no how. All the children got a good education in spite of it all, and ended up living decent middle class lives. Some stayed in the area, others moved on, my dad being one of them. My grandparents both lived into their 90's, which amazes me considering the mining pollution in the area. One of my biggest memories of that old house was the stink of sulfur. It got into the well shortly after my dad was born, and that's what they had to use to drink, wash and cook with. No bottled water back in those days. Lord. I've written a book. Sorry about that. This video really got me in the guts.

@realappalachia

Жыл бұрын

Great comment, that was a fantastic read

@edmundpower1250

Жыл бұрын

What an account. That was amazing

@dianemarion2644

Жыл бұрын

Maybe you would consider writing a book. I would buy it.❤

I remember growing up in Clay County. We always had food to eat, but Christmas was a time when we didn’t really get gifts. I wanted to get a doll for Christmas but I never did. We got an orange and a apple with some hard candy with some walnuts. I am thankful for what we had.

@Trevorjennings679

Ай бұрын

Hello Pauline, how are you doing today, hope you’re fine and safe from the COVID-19 virus??

I was born in 73 but I sure remember living exactly like them. Here in VA we had to Walk to the creek and get water and burned wood for heat.. I remember so much... like that ringer washing machine and the outhouse, cooking on that wood stove.. I think after we ate breakfast we had to put a pot of beans on to have for dinner.. I just love to watch things like this it makes me get into my own Life And feelings .

It is a Beautiful message how humble as a child I came from 14 children I remember getting an orange and maybe a pair of white socks I was raised in Ireland great lesson and shared

@realappalachia

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you

@garycooper9207

Жыл бұрын

My mother grew up in similar conditions as in this video in Finland. Grandpa was was a war veteran and built modest house but more like hut to them. One room, seven kids. Actually at one point my Uncle lost his hearing after high fever and had to move to boarding school to learn sign language. Grandma cried but teachers said otherwise theres no hope for the boy. There was only one school in whole country for children like him. My mother told me they got candy and apple every Christmas and woolen socks Grandma had knitted for them. They all got shoes when they started school. Before that they just wore several woolen socks playing in the snow. Poverty affected my mother a lot and she's been having lots of health problems since her childhood, mental and physical. She worked hard all her life, even that she had MS disease but she could manage it some years until got treatment and had to go on early pension. Edit. My mother was born in 50's

Great message at the end. Especially about the loss of faith. Faith pulled me through some excruciating times and also brought me to move mountains with a mustard seed. I have seen relatively well off family members as dark and unhappy as any people I have seen and they had loss their faith and they could never get enough money, property, sexual gratification or attention. I almost fell into that trap, but by the grace of God I was stricken off my high horse and reminded that I can't happily endure this terrestrial existence without Christ. Life and health issues will always throw boulders in our path. It makes it easier to ask God to help you cope with the struggle navigating around them.

@JustNess78

Жыл бұрын

Amen to that! God bless you, my dear.

@dogmonday

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for sharing. Humble reminder for us all. God protect you always.

I was 13 in 1964 and I am grateful for the Christmas joy my Mother and Father were able to give us. Family was the most important part but we had music, presents and church. A lot of our gifts were things we needed like socks and underwear but the children also each got toys and books. Also, I grew up understanding Christmas was about giving, today I give to charities with my money and time to the best of my ability. When my father died times were harder for a while, I was 17 but we made it through. Most people go through lean times, there is no shame in accepting help if you need it, especially for the children.

My daddy was 8 when this was filmed. Born & raised in East Tennessee, he told me a story about when my granddaddy was building a house for a wife & 6 kids while living in that house. My dad & his brother slept in the same bed & woke up on Xmas morning with a layer oof snow on thee blanket bc it had blown in under the eaves, which had yet to be finished. They didn't have indoor plumbing at that point. What a different world he grew up in. I think that's why he worked so hard to make sure I had everything I needed & wanted. Thank you for sharing this video. 💜

So amazing. People are not grounded anymore and the love is what makes Christmas. I blame TV, media and advertisement that has distorted the mass culture. Conscience and passive society is a huge mess

This was heartbreaking for many reasons, but I think the biggest takeaway for me from this documentary was that back in the mid 1960's, poor white working class folks, though not educated themselves, valued education and dreamed of their children benefiting from a good, well rounded education so they could live better lives. Now, not so much, it seems. Instead, ignorance and conspiracy theories have taken root. In tandem with that, the US government no longer seems much interested in helping lift up the poor and providing opportunities to get a better education. Americans no longer have hope for a better future, and that is probably the saddest thing of all. Thank you for sharing this window into the not so distant past.

@realappalachia

2 жыл бұрын

I think you nailed it

@JohnSmith-ys4nl

2 жыл бұрын

You act as if everyone in every red state is walking around shoeless with a 4th grade education. America spends more money on education than almost any country in the world, yet most kids in inner cities are reading at a 2nd grade level by the time they're in high-school.

@lilblackduc7312

2 жыл бұрын

'Religion', attending church, or having a relationship with your Creator = which seems to go hand-in-hand with modesty, manners, ethics, morals, decency, scruples, a Work Ethic, etc. is now painfully absent for millions of people. Self-esteem & self image is rooted in values. All this hopefully shapes a person into someone who desires education & to learn a skill/trade...advance their "position in life" for themselves & their children. Nowadays; evil motivates the 'Educational System' instilling ideologies contrary to the American way of life, rather than 'enrich minds'. The whole scene makes "2 Timothy Chapter 3" prophesy read like current headlines. I apologize if my post reads like a 'downer'.

@lrigdrenlrigdren2147

Жыл бұрын

One thing also that struck me is, the shop owner mentions "automation" as the source of the poverty. It's still a problem today. And behind that is the business drive to make more and more for less and less. I think of business as the 4th branch of government, which is un-elected and not answerable to anyone except through the combined efforts of an elected government, the (sometimes limited or blind) rule of supply and demand, good journalism (then and now) - and always, families and communities themselves. I teach young adults, from all over the world actually, and have coworkers who are young enough they could be my kids. I hope it cheers you to know how very bright and caring and generous most of them are. I grew up when the US was not really at war for many years; they grew up with so many dark things on their very doorsteps, yet they still laugh and work hard, have creativity and share kindness in open-minded ways. I love being around them, being welcomed at their lunch table, learning from their younger generation. They bring me hope. The world will always have challenges, but these kids and young adults will step up and do what they can to help.

@Julie-yd4yj

Жыл бұрын

@@lilblackduc7312 Amen, well said

Those children are loved look how clean and tidy they were.

They had so little, but were still grateful! Today, many have so much and are ungrateful 😪

@user-sn6tg4nh1y

10 ай бұрын

Hello __dear 🌻🌻 how are you doing today 👋👋__ how's everything going 🌹🌹

I remember there were times when things were bad for the family. My dad moved us to Florida to help my step-mom's mother. Dad had a promise of a great paying job from mom's friend but it was a lie. While dad was still up north getting ready for shipping and selling the rest, mom, my step-brother, brother and I for 2 months lived on one sandwich every other day. When we all moved to rural area for 1 year it was potatoes and beans and servings were small. A man who worked for Dandee delivered sandwiches to convenient stores and he would give us the out of date ones. We ate what was still good and gave the rest to a hog we had. That is until we finally started getting government commodities. My clothes came from where people dumped their trash in the woods. My shoes were 3 sizes to big and wore lots of socks to make them fit. We washed clothes with an old wringer washing machine, but despite all this we were happy. We finally had a large garden, chickens, hogs, cow, bull, and rabbits to eat.

@realappalachia

2 жыл бұрын

That's exactly what I tell people when they feel sorry or pity this area. They just dont get that happiness is just about the most important thing you can have. What good are material things if you're not happy.

I can almost see Loretta Lynn coming out of one of those cabins. My mom grew up dirt poor in North Georgia. She said they didn't ever get any gifts for Christmas. The best they ever got was one Christmas paw paw brought them all an orange. But there was plenty of LOVE. They would sit on the porch and play the fiddle and banjo. Can you imagine that? What a wonderful life. I remember my granny making the best peanut butter cookies out of the gov't commodities. The best cheese, flour, sugar, peanut butter.

@VampFaye

Жыл бұрын

My dad grew up in the North GA mountains. The family was very, very poor until jobs in the Ohio steel industry gave nearly every family a way up. Many returned to the mountains after retiring from the mill, including my grandparents. I knew people in school here in Ohio who were from Clayton and Towns County. Many were relatedto me on some way, too. I chose my gifts from a Sears catalog, not realizing that the shoes I wanted or the dolls that were so enticing were a selfish ask. Yet my grandparents always find a way to try and spoil me, since they'd only get to see me a few weeks out of the year. I do think that growing up with one foot in the mountains and one in the northern cities made me into a well rounded individual. As a parent, I understand not wanting to disappoint your child at Christmas. How hard it was to stick to a strict budget when candies and toys would made my child happy, but cause something else not to get paid that month. Now, the area in Georgia is a tourist destination thanks to the TVA dug lake. Jobs in hospitality or shops are the only ones available. Stray off the main road today and you'll see shacks like these that are still lived in, some still don't have power or running water today.

Thank you for posting. I really liked your video about the people in Letcher and Floyd counties during the December 1964 Christmas season. Also, I appreciate your statement towards the end: "Don't confuse having material things with happiness . . . They had family, they had love, they had each other." I remember my family growing up in the San Fernando Valley in California in the early 60's. We didn't have much, but we had one another. And, most importantly, we knew that God existed. God bless you Leslie and your family!

For a bit of background, I am from East Tennessee and the time period I am speaking of was the mid-60's. I am the youngest of eight children and one thing I can attest to is that being poor does not mean being lazy and because someone does not have an education does not mean that person is not intelligent. I was raised in a home with no telephone, no television, no indoor plumbing and no running water. I always carried my lunch to school because we couldn't afford to buy a hot lunch. I wore clothes that mom got at a secondhand shop in town where she could get a blouse for a quarter and a skirt for maybe 50 cents. I quite often went to school wearing shoes with holes in the sole and dad would cut an innersole out of the cardboard of an old cracker box so my feet wouldn't touch the ground. Our Christmases were very lean. In fact, the worst Christmas I can recall was when my mother called me in a couple of days before Christmas and told me that things were so bad that I would not get anything much in the way of presents. She went on to tell me that I would get only one pair of underpants for Christmas. There would be no games and no toys, and other than the underpants there would be no clothes, and she didn't want me to expect any and be disappointed. Every Christmas my mother would bake a chicken (it was cheaper than a turkey) and we would have lots of vegetables because we always put out a huge garden and mom would can everything she could possibly can so at Christmas we had enough to eat. In fact, unlike the little children in this video, we ALWAYS had enough to eat but that was only because of our garden because my parents had to keep the groceries they purchased to a bare minimum. I also very well remember going back to school the first day after the Christmas break and the teachers said that we would each get up and tell the class what we got for Christmas. The other children got up and told how they got clothes from their grandma, and they got a puzzle and a jewelry box and a doll and a bike. If you think I got up and lied to my class about what I got, you are 100% correct. I was not about to tell them "I got one pair of underwear" so I got up and rattled off a list of things I got. Looking back on that, I imagine some of those other children who were listing all the gifts they got were also lying but at the time I didn't think that. I was sure that I was the only one who basically got nothing for Christmas. Despite the way we were raised, we always knew that though we were born poor we would not stay that poor but that meant that as soon as we graduated from high school, we HAD to leave home and go to the city where we could get a job. I also knew that I would go to college, but I knew mom and dad could not help me. When I got ready to leave home, mom and dad scraped together all the money they could manage to spare, and they gave me $7.00. Yes, that's SEVEN DOLLARS, not seven thousand or seven hundred or even seventy and with those seven dollars I headed off to college. My brother was home from the Air Force, and he was going to drive me to Nashville where I would go to school. On the way he asked me how much I had, and I told him $7, and he said, "I don't think that's enough" and he gave me ten more, so I started school with $17.00. The college gave me a temporary loan to pay for my first quarter but that had to be paid by the end of the quarter or I could not enroll for the next quarter, so I went looking for a job and found one at a local hospital. My entire time at college I worked full time and went to school full time, and always took out temporary loans that had to be repaid so I could enroll the next quarter and I graduated with a degree and got my teacher's certificate and started teaching. There was a girl in the same dorm I lived in and one day as I walked by her room, I saw her crying. I went in and asked her what was wrong, and she said that daddy couldn't afford to pay for her next quarter's expenses, so she was going to have to drop out for a while. I couldn't manage to work up a lot of sympathy for her because she was not working, and she didn't even consider working that one quarter to pay her own way and give dad a break. I flat did not understand her...at all. I must add that ALL of my brothers and sisters left home to get a good job so they could have a better life than we had as children and three of us graduated from college. Our parents did not contribute to ANY of our expenses, not because they didn't want to but because they simply didn't have the money. One of my brothers got a scholarship but another brother and I worked our way through school. And of course, having worked hard to pay my way through school, I am now told that I will be expected to be responsible to help pay for the education of those who were not willing to work their way through school. Life is really strange!

@cherylcook1942

Жыл бұрын

There are different circumstances these days. For instance, the interest you paid, if you paid any at all. The shyster banks have a criminal hold on the student loan system.

@carenlissner454

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for all of that wonderful perspective and memories. As for the girl crying, her parents may not have warned her that they wouldn't be able to pay. It was probably too late to get a job at that point. As you knew, working and going to school was pretty hard; perhaps she thought she could focus on studying, and had the rug pulled out from under her. As for paying for the education of those "not willing," often people who took out loans did also have jobs, as loans alone can't pay for massive college costs today. I always appreciate all of the perspective and it's good to keep listening at any age.

My heart was saddened by the little 2 year old girl, saying what all she wanted in the Christmas 🎄 catalog. Just knowing that she wasn't going to get the gifts, made me want to hug her.

@eleanoremameli6641

Жыл бұрын

We used to call it the wish book, and circled all the things we’d like to have.

@dquinn8344

Жыл бұрын

Funny...I think all kids did that...

Wow, you have put together some really great videos. My family was from Letcher county just over Pine mountain from Cumberland, Ky. in a small town called Gordon. My grand father, Henry Sumpter owned a grocery store/ Texaco service station. He kept little book pads where people bought on credit. And like at Mitchells grocery store lots of them never paid their bills before moving or passing away. But he never let anybody go hungry. He also accepted script from people that were paid that way from the mines. My grandfather was from the Defeated Creek and Turkey Creek area before moving to Gordon. I remember we used to get a peppermint candy cane and nuts like English walnuts, Brazil nuts, hazel nuts etc. in the shells for Christmas. We always went out in the woods and cut a tree every year. I am one of the fortunate ones to have migrated from the hills of Kentucky and received an education for a better life. My older (84) brother passed away this year in Gordon after suffering from black lung as did other family members. Thanks soooo much for the memories. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Our Christmas was based on if GE were my father worked was on strike or not. The Christmas that he was on strike was sad. My and my three other siblings didn't go outside to play with the other kids who had toys. Our school would have Christmas parties with food clothing and one gift per child. When my father wasn't on strike we'd have a Christmas that was good. I as a child didn't understand why I didn't get anything. I'd tell myself I was a good girl but Santa passed me by. Now that I'm older and have 2 children I see how hard it is to for parents to make ends meet. This film is so sad. Even today the proverty is still prevalent it seems nothing has changed. This proverty is especially hard in the delta and the proverty bowl so to speak. This country must do better. It's fine to help other countries who are in need. But we must help our nation. Even though this was filmed in 1960 its still the same. .

This is heartbreaking. The thing is my parents and grandparents grew up in these mountains. Really heard life. I appreciate you sharing this. The government gets richer and the poor gets poorer. The thing is they had JESUS and when they left this world now in heaven where our FATHER owns it all. GOD BLESS you and your family.

@realappalachia

3 жыл бұрын

God bless you too, Virginia. I hope you have a merry Christmas

@wizzardofpaws2420

2 жыл бұрын

The thing is, like my mom's family, they had LOVE and JESUS. Mom always said as poor as they were, they managed to survive. She said the house was full of love and lots of life!

@KoolT

2 жыл бұрын

My parents and grandparents grew up in them too. My grandmothers were Saint's. My grandfather's weren't. But I had one wealthy great Grandfather with a huge farm in Virginia.

@XiaohuNian

2 жыл бұрын

They might have little but they are happy. Compared to now, yes, you can have all these sweet and drinks which are bad to health, and have these bad health, and also not even happy

@johncolvin2561

Жыл бұрын

The saying is; The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, not The government gets richer and ......!

I wish every young person could watch this video. It might make them appreciate the things they have in contemporary America. I was 5 years old in 1964, and believe me, I remember those days. I grew up in the Mississippi River delta, in Arkansas. Thanks for the video.

@realappalachia

Жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it, Gregory

@rbjones72703

Жыл бұрын

♡♡♡

I watched this as a child and I cried then and I cried today after rewatching it! This should never have happened in the land of plenty!

It's 2022 and we still get oranges in our stockings. Growing up poor in MT an orange was a mystical fruit that showed us Santa existed.

The people MUST learn to hold their politicians accountable otherwise absolutely nothing will change.

@stjohnbaby

Жыл бұрын

Absolutely correct.

@kathrynwitte3398

Жыл бұрын

People vote against their own self interest and you’ll never convince them that they’ve been conned.

@tundrawomansays694

Жыл бұрын

@@kathrynwitte3398 Yep. And they do it over and over and over again. They vote for people who hold them in the utmost contempt and yet remain devoted followers of politicians who are divisive, blow hards, do nothing but fill their pockets by riding on the backs of their clueless “supporters.”

@kathrynwitte3398

Жыл бұрын

@@tundrawomansays694 keeping the population undereducated pays for itself over and over- the inability to think critically means people are more susceptible to propaganda, are easier to control, vote more conservatively against their own self interest and are less able to demand higher wages, perpetuating the cycle.

@eddiegonzalez6824

Жыл бұрын

They wont , they never will.

Watching food commodities being given to people who needed them makes me think back to the govt cheese and powdered milk my mom received to feed us with. I heard that the govt began shipping those commodity foods overseas. We need to take care of our own people first. 🙏

@nuttybar9

Жыл бұрын

The cheese was pretty good unlike they give out now.

Both me and my husband work last year we were able to get our grandkids something of $25 each this year who knows. We don't have much but we are grateful for what we do have every day

I believe the lady that had lost her faith, was deeply depressed. I hope she got her faith back before leaving this world Thanks for sharing this I live in Virgie, Ky Pike County

@user-tv1xj5ji6x

Жыл бұрын

Hello Tena, how are you doing today, hope you’re fine and safe from the Virus??

Really makes you feel so thankful for what you have. I think in these days of social media and people flaunting their possessions it's easy to begin feeling envious and always want more instead of being happy with what you have. Those folks would have thought they were royalty if they'd had even half of what we take for granted nowadays. Next time I'm not feeling particularly grateful I'm gonna come watch this again and knock myself down a peg or two and remember what's important

@realappalachia

Жыл бұрын

So true, great comment

@paulbird3235

Жыл бұрын

It's hard to imagine their hardship, we are so blessed.

Thank all of you for sharing your experiences! Although I’m not from the Kentucky Appalachia area, I can relate to the poverty and the lack of most things….heat, food, Christmas trees, and on and on. My dad was an alcoholic and couldn’t hold a job. My sweet mother finally took me out of the hills when I was in first grade. Even with all the sad memories, I still feel a need to go “home.” I have no family there to speak of, but I have memories of my grandmother to remember.

@gloriamaryhaywood2217

Жыл бұрын

I hear you, Linda. We grew up brutally poor as well. But in rural Louisiana. Never even had the basics of enough food, heat, clothing ect. Our wood-burning stove was for cooking and our only real heat supply in the winter months. Outside toilet and a hand-pump for water. Once we moved (thanks to my oldest brother) to New Orleans then things got better. We were still very poor but not starving and sick poor anymore! I'm happy to hear that your sweet mom was able to get you out of that bad living sutuation!💜

@eveslady100

Жыл бұрын

My mother was born in 1935. She was one girl in a family of two parents and two boy children. She didn't complain about what she didn't have so much when she was little, but I know that they ate beans almost every night. Her parents would not take anything from the government and my grandfather mixed around in moonshine for quite a bit of his life. I remember she told me that at Christmas time they would get a stock with Christmas candy. The hard kind lol and an apple orange and tangerine. They would also get some mixed nuts still in the shell lol. I know she had it hard when she was growing up in Harlan, Kentucky, but I never really heard her complain about it much. And God bless her and God bless this video

People like this are the salt of the earth. Humble and honest

I deeply appreciated to be able to see this video! Strong reminder of extremely hard times… Christmas is focusing on Jesus Christ and why He came…we are incredibly needy of Jesus in our hearts and in our life…every moment of every day and night! Thankyou for sharing this with us! Countless people live like “really fat cats” ! All for themselves! As you’ve done and given to the least of these my brethren…you have done it unto Me! Almighty God bless you SO much…stay real close to God! ❤

@user-sn6tg4nh1y

10 ай бұрын

Hello __ Katherine 🌹🌹...how are you doing today...🌻 How's everything going 🌹🌹

I grew up in less than a mile from an off shoot of the Appalachia trail. I grew up poor but growing up poor in a rural area is far better than growing up poor in an urban area. At least for me it was because I could roam the woods to my leisure and watch wild creatures who watched me.

This really was an eye opener for the times I look at others with envy. I don’t have much but have a small cute mobile home that’s all mine,food on the table, a car and a good job. The kids in this was really cute and I think they had more of a sense of appreciation of things that they had.Does anyone know of a way to donate to the families of Appalachia, I can’t do much but would like to help my father had to work in the coal mines when he was in his late teens to help his mom and siblings. He never gave up and had a wonderful life with lots of love and was an amazing father!

@Kra-ri6fd

Жыл бұрын

If you want to donate, I would start by finding the poorest counties in the area you are looking at and contact their local church. A lot of times, churches are where people come when they have hit rock bottom. I remember going to one once when I couldn't get any lower it felt. I had just got out of a homeless shelter with my kids. Got a house to stay in but no furniture and no sure way to pay future bills. That church threw a house warming party for us and furnished the whole house within a couple days. We had towels and sheets and beds...I literally went from laying out on the floor one night, pleading to God for help while my kids slept on a mattress made out of pull up diapers and blankets, to having a fully furnished house. Churches are where people go when they have no more strength. That is likely where you can start. God bless.

My mom grew up in Wythe County, VA the 7th of 9 children. She said she and her sisters slept 3 to a bed and used empty orange juice cans to curl their hair. They couldn’t afford dolls so they would use kittens instead. (One of my aunts went on to have an extensive collection of porcelain dolls in display cases.) They barely got anything for Christmas… mom always talked about a “Santy Clause with rocks in his head.” Their momma cooked on a wood stove and would make biscuits. Their daddy was a stern man who never told them he loved them. They had an outhouse and every child had their own cow to milk each morning before school. She was sad when hers got eaten. Mom was born in 1944, moved to Richmond VA with 2 sisters in her late teens/ early 20s. Married my dad (from Glade Spring, VA) in 1966 and had my brothers in 1968 and 1970. I was born in 1980. My dad had been in the army and had also been able to go to college at Berea College in KY (a free college) so he was an accountant and I didn’t grow up poor. Not wealthy but solid middle class. I never got to know any of my grandparents except for my dad’s mom. She was born in 1898 and died in 1993 right after I turned 13. I wish I could’ve met my mom’s parents. Watching this video helps me see her as more human, thinking about her as a little girl, wondering if her mom read to her. The mother’s voice talking to the interviewer in the beginning sounds a lot like my mom.

I was born in Appalachia, Virginia in 1961. My father was from Big Stone Gap, Virginia and my mother was from Appalachia as well as my older brother. We moved to Delaware in 1963. God showed us His grace and mercy through His son and our Savior Jesus Christ.

I thought we were poor growing up. But I realize these truly poor people probably didn't even know it and were rich with family and love. It's very humbling.

Thankyou for this. God bless all Appalachian folks ❤

and we gripe for having to stand too long in grocery line to pay for our food---thank God for our abundance of mercy!!

What a moving documentary and what struck me most was the gentleness of the people. It is apparent that their poverty and forced acceptance of their lot had worn them down. I do hope life improved for them all and that they were eventually able to enjoy family Christmases. Thank you for posting.

@wyattfitzwater3668

Жыл бұрын

What's really amazing is that as poor as some of us hill folks are, we will be the first to give when we see a need because we know what it is like to be in need.

I WATCHED THIS VIDEO SEVERAL TIMES. THEY WERE POOR MONEY BUT RICH IN LOVE.

It's important to preserve the history of Appalachia and for us to appreciate whatever it is we do have. My father was born in 1919. All my Uncles works in mining at one time or another. My Dad said he wore overalls his mother made out of flour sacks. The 1st time he went to Morgantown, he saw people wearing store bought clothes. He stoked the furnace at Morgantown U to pay his tuition.

Oh how I miss my Momma's stories. Thank you so much for the real stories ❤️.

My most favorite memory of Christmas was when I got a brown bag with a orange and candy at church . I still feel and smell that moment.

This was so interesting and heartbreaking…I’m from Knott county and so many of my family members still live there so I go back very often to visit. I keep trying to convince myself and hope the crew that were there filming and documenting helped those families out with money to help them for Christmas at least to make it more merry for the kids…especially with clothes for those kids that had to quit school just because they were ashamed, that hurt my heart so much for them.

@kathyholcomb724

Жыл бұрын

Kristi, my mother and grandmother were born in Mousie, Kentucky. My moms birth year was1933. I believe that's in Knott County Kentucky. Their last surname was Hicks. Also Stidam. Mom told us stories about her growing up there. They had food, a roof over their heads and a place to sleep. She lived in a log cabin with my great grandmother and grandfather. My grandmother, my mom's mom, would run off with some man every chance she got. She was married to a murderer at one time as well. He almost killed my mother and uncle by putting them in gunny sacks and throwing them over a bridge in to the water. My grandmother begged to keep them alive so they could beg for food from farmers. My mother should've written a series of books. She had a lot to say.

@kristiN1214

Жыл бұрын

@@kathyholcomb724 yes, she should of written down her life stories. Wow, she sure went through a lot it sounds like. I do know the older generations who grew up there had some very hard times, so many were so strong and persevered through life with such grace, honesty and high morals.

@chanchan5349

Жыл бұрын

I’ve lived in the mountains for over 40 years; in the early days families may have been poor monetarily but were so proud & strong and wouldn’t accept charity in any form. They worked hard to provide for their family. Perhaps they didn’t conform to society’s idea of a good life but they were so self sufficient and caring. I was amazed every day how so many managed on what seemed so little. We could all learn so much then and now about what is really important in life.