Small Streams

We Are a Hill People

Imagine you're twenty years old, from a small Pennsylvania town, beneficiary of a fairly good education and good dental prophylaxis, and one of your fellow educated associates brings up a fact that you live in Appalachia. Disbelief and denial follow. You might even make a few well thought arguments for why you don't necessarily live in Appalachia; but the fact remains, just like a rusted washer in the front yard, that you very well might be Appalachian.

Of course, ever since the defamatory name "hillbilly" came about, many were happy to call themselves hill people. Just like cowboys used to be thought of as useless roustabouts, but are now mimicked by lawyers and accountants everywhere, people are laying claim to whatever "hillbilliness" they can. In my own lifetime, I've seen the accents of Western Pennsylvanians become more pronounced not less, more dropped "g's," longer drawls, "oh's" and "i's" sounding more like "oi". Perhaps this is compensatory. The more we do our work on computers, the more we feel the need to get blotto on light beer and watch NASCAR races. Perhaps the urge to connect with our "folkness" is driven by universally latent urges. We all desire a woodpile. We all feel the need to take off our jacket, roll up our sleeves, and chop wood. The light beer and NASCAR races are merely a satisfying extension of a day spent chopping wood and accumulating a wood pile.

Perhaps all this and more is addressed in The Appalachians, which will be on PBS on successive Thursdays this month.

Filmmaker [Professor] Wilbur[n] Hayden was on the Saturday Light Brigade to discuss the film about this 195,000 square miles of the United States. He will also be at the Rex Theatre at 6:30 this Thursday, June 9th, to discuss The Appalachians and to screen the first hour of the three hour film.

I'm not sure if Jesco White will be part of the film, but the soundtrack has two different versions of "Wildwood Flower."

Posted by mastr at June 4, 2005 11:07 AM