1970, THE MOUNTAIN PEOPLE, SOUTHERN APPALACHIA 

I doubt many people remember this because history is not really taught in schools much anymore but Fentriss county was once the home of a great American hero. It is also one of the locations this Film was shot. Does anybody remember Alvin Cullum York or maybe better known as simply Sergeant York? He was born December 13, 1887 and died September 2, 1964. For those folks out there that want to make fun of our southern brothers and sisters you might do well to read up on Sergeant York. I’ll even post a link here for you to save a little bit of time. Without these folks I doubt America would have existed at all. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_York

I remember when I was a little girl, 1976 or so, I lived with my grandma. My grandpa had a job making bricks. He had saved up his brickyard money and bought grandma a toilet. She sat up all night flushing it and crying softly. I'll never forget my grandma's happiness over an indoor toilet.

I grew up in Eastern Tennessee and I am still here. I am on a farm that is close to the Kentucky and Virginia line. Grew up poor but very loved. Lost my momma in 2018. I still have my 84 year old little daddy. Daddy is building me a new chicken coop. He still works like a young man and this is due to his working his whole life. We still garden, have livestock, and work hard 8 days a week! We might be hillbilly mountain people but I would not change it for anything. I have a college education but I prefer farming and living the mountain way of life. God Bless the simple man and woman and the USA.

So proud to have come from a time and place such as this. I was born in 58 to mountain people. I grew up running the woods, playing in gaint moss covered stumps and in the nearby creek. My daddy made moonshine till he got caught. When he came home from prison he became a logger. I dearly loved my childhood and wouldnt want it any other way. I love mountain people. These are my people.

My great aunt and uncle raised 12 children in Mcminn county. Always food on the table, clothes were always clean and every Sunday morning before church there were 14 pair of freshly polished and shiney shoes lined up on the front porch. The greatest generation, yes sir. That same uncle fought in WW2 and came home. Poor doesnt mean lacking, love.

Some people don't understand that you can be poor but you don't have to be dirty and immoral.

Delmar and gladys was my grandmother and grandfather. Those 12 kids are my aunts and uncles except phyllis. That's my mother.

As a West Virginian growing up I couldn’t wait to get out into the big world, drive a fancy car and mingle with cultured folks but when you leave the mountains it creates a void in your soul that the city can’t fill and after a while you begin to long for those mountains and the simple honesty of the people until you have to return to heal your soul by sitting on the front porch in the evening listening to the whippoorwills singing in the woods as lightning bugs rise out of the meadow field and the bullfrog bellows on the creek bank. God I Love my Mountain Home

I'm from Ireland and had the great pleasure of visiting the beautiful Great Smoky Mountain National Park and other places in Tennessee in 2019 and walking a small bit of the Appalachian Trail, I hope to go back and I plan to walk as much of it as I can, this part of America is breathtaking.

You know those kids may be poor but they sure are clean. Their mom was quite the woman for raising that many kids.

Poor and they speak more eloquently than a lot of educated people out here now

I’m beyond proud to be born and raised in southern WV and raising our 2 children in these beautiful mountains. My family has been in the WV mountains longer than WV has been a state. I want to pass on as much of our culture and Appalachian traditions to them. I’d ten to one rather raise my kids in this holler than a city. A day doesn’t go by without them being in the woods. My 7 year old daughter can already identify and name dozens of edibles in the woods, process game and cook it as well as start a fire. I want to raise them to be kind hearted & decent but also to be survivors.

Here it is 2023 and I can hear the very same conversations today. That’s crazy. And I love how Gladys had received a discount from her doc for delivering her own baby. That’s an awesome story! ❤

One night in west Virginia in a severe thunderstorm my fan belt broke I had sixty cows that had to be milked the next morning back before cellphones my family in the car two boys stopped and asked what was wrong long story made short they went and got a belt wouldn't let me get out fixed it in the rain and wouldn't take anything for it.God bless them.

This is what poverty looked like before prescription drugs.

I am from Southeastern Tennessee. I am Irish, Scottish, Dutch, and Native American. I am so proud of my family. They fought awfully hard for me to be here today. I am the first generation, that I am immediately aware of, to graduate high school. I am pursuing a law degree with an english minor. I am determined to make my community a better one. I will never forget my roots.

Superbly filmed and edited. The kind of quiet, thoughtful filmmaking that has sadly been lost in the modern era of high gloss and short attention spans.

My ancestors came here in the 1700s from Scotland and Ireland and Wales. They lived all over. Tennessee, N. Carolina, Virginia, S. Carolina and Georgia. Riches ain't always counted in dollars.

That sweet, kind-hearted boy teaching his brothers the alphabet and to read...makes my heart burst with love.

I am from Dublin Ireland. I don't know where my obsession of the Appalachian trail came from but I am constantly watching documentaries on it and it gives me a Great feeling of Peace and I just love these people. Love to all of you thank you for the videos.

This absolutely fascinates me. I grew up a "hillbilly," a bit further west than Appalachia. Few people are aware of this particular culture. I joined the military, and went a few places. It is amazing how few people are aware of the Appalachian Culture. The man on the porch whittling reminds me of a wise man I met in Greece. He too was just an easy going man from the country. His wisdom and kindness were refreshing.

I'm 70 years old and I've lived and worked all over the nation and I've been blessed with alot of friends along the way, but I never had better friends than those in the hills of East Tennessee - they were loyal down to the bone and they always had my back. I never had better friends. I miss them very much. I feel privileged to have known them.

Enjoyed learning about the history of other cultures. I am an African American male that grew up in the Mississippi Delta in the 1960s and 70s. Like these people we had it rough but we made it...

I've spent nearly my entire life in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. Born in 1995, I was lucky enough to get just a small glimpse of the truly remote mountain life, before internet, when there were fewer roads and not everyone had a telephone or a TV. Before the mountains had been logged or strip mined. I remember vast swathes of pristine, remote mountains. I can't express how beautiful these imagines of old Appalachia are to me, before all the development and civilization. It's unfathomably beautiful. There's just so little... few roads, few houses, few cars, few stores, not much except wonderful seclusion.

This documentary proves something I’ve been saying all my life…. Class, self-respect, and respect for others doesn’t cost a dime, and has absolutely NOTHING to do with money/possessions (nor your level of education for that matter). My parents were both raised like this. They didn’t agree on anything for 55yrs, except for one thing… They were both on the same page about making sure I wasn’t a burden on society. Very loyal, considering, respectful, PROUD, hard-ass working people, that didn’t go looking for a fight form anyone, yet didn’t take an ounce of sh*t off of NO ONE. And, last but not least, they loved their country with the same level of passion that they hated their government with.

Some these mountain people most of whom probably had little education had some very wise words to say about their situation.

Grandma said, Your Riches are your Family and your Health. That’s all you need.

I lived on a farm with my grandmother when I was very young. We had an outhouse, a wash tub and a water pump. I didn’t know we were poor 😊 Now, I’m college educated, I raised a family and they are all college educated too. I live an upper middle class life but I have happy memories of grandma’s farm ❤

Im from ireland and travelled all over the states a couple of years ago. Honestly the most nice,honest and hospitable people i came across were in the applachia region. Would love to go back. A stunning part of america too.

Oldest of 7, we wore hand me downs and used shoes. I walked to school sun rain or snow. 2 room school house I was the only one in the 5th grade. I poached a deer every month for mother. Everything was made from scratch, I'd go back tomorrow even in my old age. Hard good clean life dirt poor....

God, I'm glad someone finally interviewed a mountain woman.

I am from (Almost Heaven) West Virginia. I can remember my sweet precious Granny washing clothes on her Momma's old washboard in an old galvanized wash-tub, she worked her hands until they would dry out, crack open & bleed. Then years later I can remember she bought her very first ringer style washer. I remember how thankful & proud she was to have that washer. She always hung all their clothes & bed linens outside on the line. Nothing better than smelling that fresh mountain air on your laundry. Words can't express how much I Love & still miss my beloved Granny & Pawpaw. They were the sweetest people who ever lived. ❤️❤️

When I was in the U.S. Navy bootcamp Great Lakes in January, 1982, there were two genuine mountain men from the "hollers" in my company. Larry Bolton was from Morning Star Kentucky so he told me. Crawford from hills of North Carolina. They were the oldest in company 006. Larry Bolton was about 5'6" tall, blond hair blue eyes and missing a few teeth. He was one of the friendliest, nicest man I met. I would give him my cake from the chow hall. He had a unique squeaky twang when he spoke. After completing the swim test Larry Bolton came up to me in a low voice, so as not to attract attention, and said, "You know, I shouldn't even be in the military, I have a partially collapsed lung. I had a hard time in the water". But he made it through no problem. He was an Army vet who had come back to the service because the construction industry at the time was down. Upon graduation, he was able to transfer his rank from the Army and boy was I impressed by the ribbons when I saw him in the Dress Blue Cracker Jack uniform (class A in Army). I think he was E7 or E8. I met other people from Appalachia in my career and I found them to be down to earth and good hearted humble folks.

I never knew how poor we were until I started public school. I thought everyone lived like us..

Never be ashamed! Be proud of your heritage, it made you what you are today. Real folks!

Thanks for putting this up! My Scotch/Irish family settled in KY/WV/Appalachia in the mid 1700’s. Bootleggers, coal miners, etc. It was wonderful to see such a documentary.

3/18/2022 52 years have past since this "film" was made, it is surprising how little has really changed in our society. Some time in the mid 1970's I came across the "FOX FIRE" books. These books clearly showed how much wisdom, knowledge, and "self reliance" the mountain people really had, way back then. If you have never read these books, read the first two, at least, it can be "eye opening". Strangely, today there is this huge movement to re-awaken those skills and knowledge, which was deemed as backward, lazy, and stupid, by our society for so long. I guess things have come full circle, so to speak. This is something everyone should see. ;-)

And here in 2021 we're watching all of this unfold before our very eyes. 🗣For a group of uneducated people they sure are intelligent💯

Most people think we are a stupid people! If they only knew how smart we are!!! 🙌🏼❤️🇺🇸🙏🏼

Scots and Irish together are a beautiful mix , I'm from Glasgow and if someone wrongs us even today first thought is revenge, brilliant video about a brilliant people and community 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿👍

Those quilts are art. Also it's crazy this was at the height of the Vietnam war.

I grew up in middle Iowa, born in the 1950s and our acreage had running water in the kitchen sink but we had no indoors bathroom. An outhouse was down by the chicken coops. We had 2 bedrooms, 5 kids in one & momma, daddy and baby in the other. Mom raised chicken's for us to eat and she sold the eggs. Daddy was a trucker. Wringer washer out on the back porch, filled from a pump in the back yard. We didn't know we were poor & I look back at that time & smile!

The Man and Woman is my uncle and aunt. Sure was good to hear their voices again. Sure do miss these days. Alot better back then than it is now!! The Brannum Family!!

I was only 7 when this came out but I 1 thing I do remember growing up in the 70S people were much more loving and helpful I really miss the GOOD Ol ' days GOD BLESS everyone

Great video. I was born, raised and still living in Campbell County tn area in this video. I was born that far back in time. However, people in this area just want to be left alone. But will do what they can to help people, but don't mess with them or their family. My grandfather told me when the stock market fell back in the depression, they didn't see a difference. They where so poor it didn't effect them..so many stories my grandfather told me..

Words from 50 years ago that are especiallly relevant today in 2020.

I'm from Swain Co. I was ten when this was filmed. All my folks lived like this .They were the salt of the earth. It was a special time to grow up there. Just thinking about it brings a tear to my eye.

Reminds me of how my 98 y/o Granny grew up here in the central Appalachian coalfields. They didn’t realize they were poor, she said. Their faith was so strong and they trusted God to provide and He did. I didn’t hear anyone in the video talk about faith. I’m certain it was part of their life too. Ty for sharing this video.

My Heart Melts Looking Into the eyes of those Precious Children.God Bless Them All.💞

My mother and father were part of the great migration north to work in the car plants. In the summer they would bring us kids back to Kentucky for the summer to stay with my grandmother . It was a beautiful simple time. We children would walk up and down the road barefoot collecting pop bottles so we could buy a treat from the local store. My Grandmother lived in a one bedroom home that she and my grandfather raised nine kids in. There was such a sense of community everyone looked out for each other. There was no sense of threat when you were out walking, until the drugs invaded that beautiful community along the creek banks . Church was amazing ,no one cared what you wore or if you were barefoot everyone just came to worship with all of their might and no one was in a hurry to leave. I love my heritage of faith and simplicity. Salt of the earth people who knew what being committed to family through the tough times was.

The big brother helping his little brother learn to read? I'm crying. Beautiful soul 💟

Love coming across great documentaries like this that show the true grit, soul, and beauty of the 'mountain people.' Both my maternal grandparents grew up in or near Appalachia, so I'm a proud descendent of some of these hardy folk. My 99-year-old Scotch-Irish grandmother, who is currently my sole surviving grandparent, still loves to tell me stories of her hard, but good life, growing up on a tobacco farm in SW Virginia. She, and her kinfolk, are a treasure, and I hope their legacy, and contributions to our country, are never forgotten.

These are the people that this country was built on the backs of!! So much respect

It’s so strange sitting here in the middle of an upper middle class suburban environment, and thinking back to visiting my grandparents home. They were sharecroppers living in a dirt floor shack, but there was no other place in the world I would rather be. The true love and simple honesty you felt in their home is something lacking in today’s world. Thank you for posting this, and thank you to the families that allowed the filmmakers to record their lives.

Rural people look poor to City people, most country people eat well and have families close,,, most have good lives now and back then. They keep their Elderly and sick at home with them, they do not put them away or tell them to go get your own place to live to the parents that raised them.

I grew up in north east ala. This film reminds me so much of being at my grandparents. No indoor running water. Outhouse. Sharecroping having to go to the center of the room to pull the chain to turn on the lights. I still can't get some people today to grasp that. We went every Sunday to granny's to eat. There were 14 children. Their spouses and kids. I loved Sundays. The house didn't have a level place in it. One porch falling off. Roofing shingles for siding. I loved staying with my grandparents any time I could. The importance of family was so strong back then. No one was left out, judged or shunned. Work was hard but we enjoyed the daily things.

In the 1960's & early 70's when I was a kid, my family visited my grandma in a very rural part of Morgan county, KY known as Jones Creek every summer. For my brother and me, raised in the suburbs, this was always a great adventure. Dirt roads, an outhouse and a hand pump in the kitchen for water was the height of the infrastructure in the early years of our visits. And I recall just the little bits a child can pick up of the controversy when they started taking the coal out. So many of the images and faces in this video feel so familiar from those long ago days wandering the Kentucky hills and roads. Thank you to all involved in making this tribute to a little known slice of American life and history.

"and I said how much are you offering to pay these people?" still holds true in 2021.

I'm was born in 1968 in eastern KY...I had the best childhood you could ever imagine, I didn't realize how hard my mom struggled to raise me, she worked so hard and I remember, I stayed with my Granny a lot but always enjoyed it so. I miss those simpler times and think of them often. I still live in the same county I was born in and if you think times were tough then you should see it now. I wish more docs were out there focusing on this subject.

This film just popped up in my home feed on RU-vid. “When a number of people stick together, you can’t do nothing with them”. Great quote. Seems to be a forgotten people to this day. I love how they work together to hold each other up. The brother teaching his siblings letters almost brought tears to my eyes. And loved his comparison of poor whites to poor blacks and how you have to fight for your freedom. True dat.

Thank you for this wonderful Documentary of Appalachian Life. My family was from West Virginia and generations had hard/ poor upbringing. I was born in '73 & remember using out- house, our first indoor bathroom and pumping we'll water. Reminiscing, I loved seeing the part with the family reunions ; watching Elders play banjo and guitar.

Privileged adults and entitled children should watch this. This family was very self sufficient in ways that many of us would think we wouldn’t survive. God Bless them and people like them wherever they are now. This family had so many smiles with practically nothing. ❤️

This film is priceless. I'm from the Appalachian part of Alabama, and just about all my family traces back to sharecropping, before my grandparents or their parents went to live in town to work in steel mills and cotton mills. There's a lot of us in the South that is only a generation or two separated from these roots. This is our cultural heritage.

WHAT a fantastic "flashback" event for me, this lucky find. The gentleman at 3:55 COULD be---is a virtual clone of---the man from whom I learned excellence in ethics beginning around age 11 in about 1971. He was the farm handyman for decades for a 297-acre spread near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The farm owner's son was my best friend; from 1971-1980 I spent countless weekends on the 12' high hay wagon catching and stacking bales, stocking the 400-ton capacity loft beneath which 30 or so horses resided. The man, whose seeming doppelganger appears herewith, was one of the wisest sages I'd ever know in my now 6+ decades...... I never even thought about $$$ when working with him. His respect and wisdom meant more than money. I'll never forget our race with Hurricane Agnes as we hurried to bale a 200-acre field; standing atop the wagon, seeing the most ominous dark mass inching toward Annapolis. The second the man in this video appeared it was like watching a home movie of one highly influential figure in my life...... only thing missing was the Case tractor, baler, and wagon :) Expecting the people of these cultures to care much about foreign relations, stock trading, linear algebra, and such would be rather senseless; however, despite any shortfalls in formal education they have skills and wisdom superior to many with higher-order academic pursuits in their history. You're more likely to find they have a superior sense of ethics, sensibility, and practicality that actually would make integration into "higher-order" society particularly challenging; "out here", money flows like water and there's plenty of allowance for impulsive failure, dishonesty, and other such senseless factors I can only lump together as "contingencies". What a thing to afford. The people of cultures considered "inferior" should not be underestimated.

In about 1950, when I was 4, my family were driving from DC down to Houston for my Dad's new job. We drove thru some areas like this. I remember we stopped in front of an old wooden house when the people on the porch waved at our car. We were going super slow because of the bad roads. About a minute later, kids (aged maybe 2 to 15) started to emerge from underneath the house. There were about 12 of them. I didn't know where we were at the time, but my dad explained all of this to me years later. It must have been in West Virginia. They were all very friendly and waving at us.

That man telling the boy how to tie his shoe reminds me so much of my papa.

I am from Somalia, Africa , this is amazing, thank you for sharing, good people, great Documentary.

BTW, this little Documentary is a time capsule! Incredible. Did you know that some urban people like myself, have never seen a fellow like him?

Thank you for sharing this film with the world...it made me realize how much I miss home! It didn't matter how cold it was or if there was even enough food for everyone we had each other and I wouldn't have changed any of it for all the money in the world. Think its about time this mountain girl goes home!

Very stong, wise, tough as nails, tenacious and proud people, I love my roots

You could literally pull quotes from this and insert them into today and they still fit.

I come from folks like this. I smiled and cried as I watched this little film. Some of the wisest people on Earth come from the Appalachian Mountains and surrounding areas. Thanks.

My kin came from Kentucky and what has been passed down to my family is the great front porch music! We use to play every weekend up on the hill and my grandparents place. It was the best times in my life! We played washboards, spoons, jugs, guitar, fiddle and most of us even sang! I would like to get together again and play someday. I miss it tremendously.

Money can't make a wealthy soul. God bless.

These are my people. Stories my great grandparents and grandparents were these people. I'm proud to have these roots!

I was born and raised in western Tennessee. We didn’t have mountains to speak of but my people were exactly like this. Thanks for a bittersweet trip back in time. Be safe and well.

My grandpa and grandma are in this video.

I remember my great grandfather ( who lived in the north GA mountains) telling me that when the stock market fell in '29 they were so poor they didn't know the difference. He wasn't bitter about it and was content with what they did have. When I get discouraged with what I don't have I think about him. Really puts things in perspective.

I love Appalachia and everything about it. The people, the country, the music , the food. I live in Augusta Ky and have been blessed in my life .....I try to give back through several charities I volunteer with. Christian Appalachian Project is one. And as poor as they are folks take care of each other . Tomorrow Im gonna split a cord of wood for my 82 y/o neighbor ......he's done so much for me..

Every once in a while I come back here and have a watch because the wise words being shared is as true today as it was back then. Whittier, North Carolina Swain County

My grandparents grew up in southwestern West Virginia, and had to raise their own food, had no indoor plumbing or lighting. My great grandfather had a small coal mine behind his house he would dig coal out of to keep the house warm. The work was hard. I will forever be grateful and respect how hard my people in Appalachia had to work, too get us where we are today. The government threw these great, and proud people overboard 60 years ago and don't care about them. It is absolutely sad. Poor people no matter what color they are, or wherever they come from always get shafted. People can't work if there is no work being provided for them.

The best, kind hearted folks you will ever meet.

I'm watching this from AZ. I'm amazed to see how genuine these people are. They are so very rich in my eyes..

I loved it when he turned the radio on and it said 1970! I love these types of archival films and videos. You all realise that the cute kids playing in the video are in thier 50s and 60s today.

My grandparents lived in Ruleville, Miss. Their house was surrounded by a cotton field. It was built just like this one with a tin roof. My grandfather was a cotton farmer. They grew many vegetables. When you are poor and living in the country you are content with what you have. Some of the best memories I have is when I go and stay with them.

I grew up in SW Virginia and another Son of the Scotch-Irish. Tough, resolute people in the mountains. There's meanness if you deserve it and on the other hand, there's kindness up most every holler. If you have mountain folk as friends you should consider yourself blessed. Ain't no better people anywheres. "Hillbillys" are tough and can make it through hard times.

THE BIGGEST LIE IS THESE ARE POOR WHEN THEY'RE THE RICHEST, EVEN HAVE MORE AND EVERYTHING most homesteaders desire. Believing your poor is more oppressive than being without extra things. GOD BLESS APPALACHIA

I survived Memphis Tennessee and I lived there for 1 year. AMEN !!! Philadelphia USA

my family immigrated to america from sicily and settled in Kentucky, and in the 60s and 70s it was just like this for some of them, still it was the best life at the time. dang i miss my dad ,aunts and uncles

This should be required viewing in all schools. Not revisionist history. My grandaddy was born and raised in east Tennessee very much like people in this film.

Those were good folks back then - whose minds had not been destroyed by society and who were sharp as tacks even though they didn’t have much money.

God bless the south, and its way of life! Born and raised in North Carolina, still here, and after 67 years, damn proud of it! 👍

I feel like this video reminds me so much of my childhood and my papaw. I grew up in the 2000s and feel like so lucky to have experienced a part of true Appalachian culture. Growing up, we never learned about Appalachia, just Tennessee. I have had to discover Appalachia as an adult. It is sad because if I had known how special this place was, I would've paid more attention to my elders. I would've wrote down the things they did/said.

These people are the "heart & soul" of the United States. Bless them all.

I'd rather be around these people than what we have roam in the streets today. These are pure good-hearted people

I watch this film and read these comments and I can’t help but to feel like there are so many lessons missed within this film especially when it comes to repeating what’s being said to today’s society and the countries issues. Nothings changed. Not from a societal point of view, not from a political point of view, and from a social point of view. If anything some of these things are worse than ever because the government is so militant to its citizens that what these people did to get by back then can’t be done in today’s world. You try making a product without claiming a company or corporation, and the IRS are coming for you. Try coming together as a community and looking inward for support amongst yourself and the FBI and homeland security will possible eye you as domestic terrorists. If your inner city then your gangs. You had more rights back then due to the fact that a lot of our rights were taken away along with the twin towers. Right now you have corporations that run political elite; so complaining to your congressman or Senator falls on death ears being that their loyalty was sold to the industrial elite that gave them the money to get the position. These political leaders take your poor vote and still promise these people better living and education yet the minute they enter that role all of those promises are thrown out of the window while their bank accounts flourish. Churches and other organizations of the communities have been bought off by governmental funds so injustices that used to be preached from pull pits are no longer heard. We’re a country for the elite and a labor force for the 10%

Oh my gosh this was so how I grew up … meals always had beans , greens and homemade bread no matter what else was on the table that was a staple. Love this video thank you .

This is how I was raised and why it absolutely kills me when people yell white privilege.... Well watch this film and tell me who is privileged in it!!!

I think that's so sweet that their big brother is trying to teach them how to read trying to teach them their alphabet they may not have a lot of money but they're so rich in other ways

"I don't believe in violence unless it's necessary." WOW! Simply put.