I love to watch these videos....imagine my surprise when I recognized this one...before our wonderful Dad passed ..my brother and I took him to where he grew up.... both of these homes belonged to our family..our Dad told us many stories of this area and specifically...these two homes...❤️
These people were smart. No excessive bills such as mortgage, credit cards, internet or car note. They grew most of their food. They washed clothes and hung them on the line to dry. They were in good shape physically, because of all the working and walking. I admire them for living a simple, but smart life.
Just someone's home that worked hard for what they had. Didn't owe anyone anything and was proud of it. A lot of good people grew up this way and it's nothing to be ashamed of.
Thank you....So true.....I'm sure it was built with love and with their own 2 hands....I can smell bacon cooking in that kitchen, happy children playing in the yard....a great garden in the yard...and a daddy who built the house himself. Going to church at least 3 times a week....and thanking God daily for all their blessings....That's what I see when I see these "hillbilly" homes......
omah I’m not sure...my Dad wasn’t sure...but I’d say that when the road went thru both of these homes were bought by the state and just haven’t been torn down...my Dad’s family lived in them many years ago....this area is heavy on urban legends of which my Dad told my brother and I on our trip over about a year or so before his passing.... this video is special to our hearts...❤️
I love how he calls these "hillbilly shacks",. My granny lived in a home a lot like these with the old asbestos siding and wood stove heat, you cooked your water for it to be heated. She had 3 huge gardens she did all by herself and canned all summer and fall to eat in the winter. We had an outside root cellar to keep potatoes and apples and canned stupid fresh all winter. We dug coal during the summer and filled our shed for the winter. She worked so hard to survive. I loved spending time with her on the mountain in her cabin.. not everyone living in an old cabin was a hillbilly!
Same with my grandparents.They lived there nearly all their lives. They raised their children in a home like this.Once they moved,their old home went down fast.They raised all their food.Mamaw canned just about everything.Ttey had three gardens.
yep...first thing I thought when I saw the old sofa out front...imagine the stories being told out front while watching the creek flow bye.....* sippin' moonshine !!! .... ;-)
@@hillbillypyro True, brother. With family. Nothing like coming in the door and having all the family there. Multiple generations, food on the stove while kids and dogs run underfoot. That's all a person needs in life.
I WAS RAISED IN ONE OF THESE SO CALLED HILLBILLY SHACKS.😊🏚😍 AND IT WAS OUR HOME!!!!!🏚🏚😊😊!!!! AND IM A PROUD AMERICAN ❤️!!!!!!! IM FROM KENTUCKY 😊.EVEN THOUGH WE WERE POOR ,IT WAS STILL A WARM, AND COZY HOME!!!!!🏠🏠😍😍
Some people like to make fun of others who aren't as fancy or materialistic as them. It's bullying, just trying to build themselves up. I would be happy to have a house like this, and am happy with my 16 year old Chevy. Don't like debts.
The people that lived in these houses did not care about being "whimsical and stylish". They cared about getting enough food to eat or treating their illnesses with very little to no money. This is not paradise.
Omg the minuet i heard the stream rollin and saw the peaceful woods it felt like home ...such peace is beyond my imagination i love these mountains and the bluegrass music ...what a blessing for us all to see ..❤
I really loved the iridescent shingles on that house! I also enjoyed how the abandoned house that looked like a hillbilly shack that had been empty since the 50s randomly had a Direct TV Satellite box inside.
I thought the same thing when I saw the Direct TV box. I assume that even though the house was abandoned, it was still used as storage. The house that my grandmother was born in still stands, but it is not lived in. It is used as storage by the farmer that works the acerage.
The iridescent siding is cool. Reminds me of the rainbow you get from a grese spill when it mixes with water, or the shell of a blue rhinoceros beetle. I love how you found two 60s/70s soda cans & a 80s/90s can of Mountain Dew all in the same sink.
What a great video. When I was a little girl some of my relatives used to live in little houses like that. We had some good times. We used to sit on the porch and make ice cream. This brings back good memories
Just a tidbit of info: chocolate brownie was sold from before 1950s until the 2000s, Brownie Chocolate was similar to Yoo-hoo . Brownie was sold in Tennessee, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama. It could be purchased until 2007, when it largely disappeared from store shelves. The can featured a Brownie elf on a surfboard on a wave of chocolate.
I was born in Virginia in 1952. We grew up drinking Brownie Chocolate drinks, only they were in glass bottles, not cans. Way better flavor than Yoohoo's!
Wow, that first house reminded me a lot of the one I grew up in. My parents kept renting it out for storage even after we moved out. In the late 90s we were still paying the same rent for it that we did back in the 70s-$75 a month. I miss it, but they tore it down and built a road where it stood. :( I still have dreams that it’s still standing and I move back into it to this day.
I'm sure that old chest has been looked through many times. Probably someone brought it outside so they could actually see what was in it or to see if the chest itself was salvageable. BU, like everyone else, I would have loved to see what was inside it! I KNOW I would have opened it up!!
Agreed Some people just need to learn more about history of the place be for commenting.Try living in a farm house that lived in for 20 years.It's stone walls where built in 1886 and the house was completed that same year and the Barn was built in 2 years after.
Out in the boon docks people leave things alone. We were looking for land in Tennessee and found an very old house that looked like the people just got up and walked out 40 -50 years ago. Everything was untouched including clothing, maps, cigarettes and all the beds were made. All the windows were ok and the roof was holding up so the house was doing pretty good considering. Now in the city's, everything gets ransacked and looted, the difference in the people I suppose.
I lived in that same type of house in southern MS'sippi, growing up in the 60's. I haven't seen the brick-tarpaper siding since the 60's. The lace curtains were most likely plastic lace curtains. The flooring is linoleum not vinyl. The sink is porcelain coated cast iron with just hot or just cold running water, not mixed. One of the houses we lived in had a cast iron hand pump in the kitchen and a draw well out the back door. No running water, hot water heater, or indoor toilet. Outdoor toilet, way out back. The other type that I grew up in was the shotgun house, tho very similar. The rooms were just arranged different. Even tho it wasn't easy living, I have nostalgic memories watching this. Almost like homesick.
My grandmother raised 5 kids in a house smaller then this one ... my grandfather was killed in wwII ... that’s all she could afford on a military widows pension... and she did a damn fine job ! This was in Des Moines Iowa ...
I usually can't watch these type of things very long because I get motion sick but never when I watch yours. Thank you for holding the camera steadily when filming and keep'em comin'.......:)
I used to live in this area of VA, good chance I have driven past them on a rock climbing trip. There's many of these old, abandoned homes and mills in western VA and WVA, and the valley is gorgeous.
To bring the ignorant up to date Hill Billy or Hill William is an Irish term for those living in the mountains of Ireland who supported King William of England. The term made it to the USA with immigration and used by ignorant people as a slight.
Yep, the Irish immigrants didn't get any respect when they arrived to the U.S.. Lowest paying jobs that no one else would do...or sent off to the front lines to be killed in war. I love the spirit of the Irish ♡ Hill people. ;)
In colonial days, the Irish and Scots were encouraged to colonize the frontier as a way to civilize the land without the English having to face Indians. That's how Appalachia was settled, and why there's so much Irish/Scots language in use by the old timers there.
Billie is also Scots for an amiable chap, and Billy is local mountain did-not-descend-from-Ireland/UK-necessarily term for wild idiot. Confluence creates slang.
I would really love to do this, but I live in South Africa. Here if it has a ceiling and a floor, there will be squatters. And our murder rate is very high.
I used to live in Bedford county VA off route 43 right by the Blue Ridge parkway and I used to see stuff like this all the time. Beautiful, thanks for filming this!😁
It's alot of work to empty a house with years of accumulation, it's sad that no one helped to clean out, then again I find it fascinating to walk back in time and see how others lived their life.
Sad..these isolated mountain communities are being abandoned, as the coal mines close up. It is pretty hard to make a living in the mountains-you cannot eat scenery.
You can have plenty of food and a very healthy and varied diet from foraging if you just know what to look for. How do you think people fed themselves and their families before grocery stores?
coal jobs were going away before environmental regulations and they will continue to go away even if you got rid of those regulations, that's the sad truth. automation is the biggest factor. the filthy rich ceos lining their pockets and never giving back to the community or giving a damn about workers are more directly to blame than the national government.
In theory, the rise of technology should allow people to work from anywhere, so they can have the opportunity of the city and the quality of life from the country. It is beginning to happen, slowly but surely.
A buddy and myself ran across a few of these shacks riding our atvs near the valley in Elkton, VA. They are old and had family plots from the late 1700's.
I just moved back here after having been gone for 20 years and it's neat to see a lot of the houses/shacks that were abandoned when I was a kid are still standing (and abandoned!)!
Northern jews better be careful or they just might be swallowed whole. Where are the moonshine stills. Outside shots good for a Bonny and Clyde type movie or a Bluegrass video. Take those jews harps out and play a tune.
Those were the days when families helped each other get things done. Our house is a 1 bedroom stick board cabin. It used to one living part. Then me and my husband added a t.v. room, and a bedroom. The horses used to eat hay off the front porch. When we lived in the first part, I would feed the horses while standing on the front porch. The horses were given away, and now we have 4 dogs. We don't have to worry about them getting hit by cars, cause we live in a big field. We love it here.
Wow I'm in love, I'm a carpenter. I'd love to get my hands on this. Id love to gut it, remodel and make it beautiful again. Sometimes remodelling is just good for your soul. Picking up a hammer and nails is great. My family has built from the ground up tore down fixed and built off of worse. Between me the hubby and my brother we can build about any thing.
My grandmother lived in West Virginia on the side of a mountain in a house just like these. Grandfather was a coal miner. They worked hard for what they had. Her house was spotless. He hunted and they raised gardens every year. Never asked for a hand out.
Your videos are so relaxing to watch by the way - could go through these abandoned places all day long they're SO fascinating! Keep up the great work I'm a big fan :-)
Oh wow. I used to live in Asheville, North Carolina, right by the Blue Ridge Mountains. I miss those ranges, so much beauty. I was happy to stumble upon this!
Its been 50 years or so since I've seen a tar paper shack. Our house had tar paper on the outside that looked like brown brick. Don't see that stuff anymore.
Gatorade was in glass bottles when I was a kid in the 80s. These aren't shacks. They're homesteads or as we "hill billies" say, 'Old home places'. They were the original homes placed on a family's land. Other houses were often added as children married off, or the original house was abandoned and a new house built closer to the main roads as running water and electric became more available.
Yor Videos are great I have been a fan for sometime now. I am loving those old cans and bottles you are finding here. This the kind of thing I can spend all day doing. Keep them coming.
The blue ridge mountains are absolutely breathtaking!! I took my kids to Elijay Georgia last summer and we didn’t want to leave!! Obviously not near to where you are but close enough. Lol. Great video!! I would have loved to stumble upon this little hidden gem.
Grand Negus oh yes that movie,this reminds me of it I wouldn't want to be caught alone driving down that route my vehicle might stop on me and there she wrote😆😆
Oh man, wished you would have looked at the newspaper on that box at the end, that might given us a timeframe of when they were abandoned. Those drink containers appeared to be tin, which leads me to believe that had to have been there at least 30 years, and probably 40 years
My parents and I took a trip to Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains in the 1970's when I was a young teenager. The brown house looks exactly like the house we saw where we saw a teenage boy washing his hair under the eaves trough off the front porch. It had just rained and the eaves trough above the porch was spilling over. I remember the house sit close to the road and had another house sitting close to it. Oh my gosh, I think it is the same house! I have a partial picture of the house somewhere. It put an impression on all of us and we remarked about it often throughout the years. Of coarse we never made fun of the boy doing that, but just hadn't seen that before. I remember he was a good looking kid. And I remember Chocolate Brownie soda. I didn't like it because it tasted like watered down chocolate.
Great Video Dan! But I just gotta say that I LOL'ed when you were surprised that Gatorade once came in glass bottles... Personally I remember as a child when Gatorade was only in glass bottles. Also, I too remember Chocolate Browne drink in the very early '80's at Highs Convenience Stores.
The armrest on the couch is the very definition of "form over function." According to Packagingpedia, Gatorade was originally sold in cans in the 60s & was sold in glass bottles between the 70s & 2002. The one you had appears to be from the early 90s. It seems it was once available as a carbonated soda too.
living in Johnson City, TN, the wife and I have motorcycled all OVER east TN, western NC, southeast VA..........seen LOTS of such homes ! There are a LOT of scenic sites to enjoy right here in your own backyard.
Yes I remember when Gatorade bottles were glass. We used them to throw at the dinosaurs as they would chases home. And chocolate brownie was a damn good drink. Yes you definitely wanted to shake it well. LOL it wasn't that long ago. Just back in the day
Looks to me like someone lived there until as recent as the early 90's. They were probably very elderly. I've noticed when you visit the homes of elderly people, it seems as if you stepped into a time capsule. When you reach a certain age, you tend to stop buying so many new things. When you go to an abandon home, it will seems older than you think until you see a satellite TV box. That's usually one of the few newer items you'll find in an elderly home. My great aunt and uncle (both in their early 80's) have a 20 year old computer they still use. The only conspicuous newer item in their house is the television. Other than that the countertop appliances are all 20 years old, but still work fine.
I miss these videos. I love all of your content Dan and I'm somewhat out of the loop. Where are you posting most of your work nowadays? If I need to contribute to watch I'd be more than happy to. Thanks
Why do hillbilly houses all have couches on the porch? LOL! That hole isn't a snake hole, it's a Crawdad hole AKA Crawfish, AKA Mud Bug... LOL! Awesome video!
a shack would be a crude put together structure with dried/rotten wood stacked or nailed roughly together,no insulation,dry wall,electrical,plumbing...but maybe has a tin roof....this is actually a house rather
It was cool to see the inside of one of these places. There are many similar places in Eastern Kentucky, but I never got the chance to investigate any of them.
+Dan Bell / Film It Dan you don't have to apologize.. you are always steady with that camera..very good job walking with dry trigs and branches..keep up the great work
I recall glass Gatorade bottles in the early 80s. Probably lasted into the late 80s at least but I know I used to buy it in glass bottles in the early 80s along with packs of GatorGum and Marathon bars...
I look at places like this and see every ounce of potential it has. What a beautiful location and with a little work it could be a beautiful home again!
