My great grandfather was a miner in Jenkins KY and when his wife left him with 9 kids they were living in a company house. It burnt down and they were forced to live in a tent in the winter. The heavy snow made the tent cave in and someone took pity on them and let them live in their chicken coop. My grandfather lived in Wise Va and had to quit school at age 9 and go to work in the coal mines to support his grandmother who was raising him. Kids know nothing about hardship today. They think a low battery on their cellphone is tragic.
I’m from West Virginia but I married and moved to Missouri and I’m crying watching this. I miss my people, they’re hard working, humble and the most giving people, even when they don’t have it to give they’ll do their best. My family worked the mines of West Virginia and got baptized in the river come summer when the water warmed. We’re survivors. I learned to plant food, mill grain, tend to chickens, make soap, knit and sew and put up food from a early age. I’ve been out pulling potatoes, getting carrots and beets in the ground, starting my fall seeds under grow lights and running my water bath canner and the smoker today in triple digit heat because it’s what I’ve always done. I don’t have a big city life but I have piece of mind and the ability to grow and raise our food. I’m Appalachia strong!
Material thing can only make a person selfish. Family and God is my true heart. I've worked hard all my life, but I feel good about my life. I have truly been blessed.
This is my family history! My grandfather was a coal miner in Smith Kentucky. Family of 19 children. He only went to school until 4th grade. Had to work in the fields to feed the family until he was lucky enough to get the coal mining job! Tough people. Thank you for sharing the history. Folks now days can't hardly cook themselves a meal let alone grow their own food. I'm proud to be a coalminer's granddaughter!
we ate from the cold cellar , from hundreds of jars of canning , from a butchered pig or dry heifer , lots of wild berries to pick off trees ....... we ate good . My mother and father grew up in the 30's ......times today have sure changed .
My father, who was born in 1920, was sent to Colorado with the CCC to plant trees in a national forest. He sent most of his pay home to his family, as he was one of 13 children. He told stories of missing school in the winter because he didn't have shoes to wear. Not many of us have any idea of that kind of poverty.
My grandparents lived through the depression and never threw anything away because of that. They have both been gone since the late 80s and I live in their house and to this day I still find useful things in the garage like tools or what have u that I also use. The best part of being a kid is that even if u were poor, u never knew it.
I agree. And I love the way you use a friendly dialect with interesting grammatical patterns that may be similar to what the Appalachian people may have used.
Times got hard for my grandfather, he packed up the family and took off west. The only problem was the money ran out and he started robbing banks. Well needless to say that didn't work out so well. But he did become the boxing champion of San Quentin Prison 😜
My mother, now ninety-five, grew up during the Great Depression in a small town in North Dakota. For sure, like many of her generation, she is of very tough stock and her steadfast attitude has always been one not to hold grudges but to carry a big stick. During the Great Depression my mother's father worked odd jobs while maintaining his tenure at the rail yards as an train engineer. During the summer "hobos," men chiefly who rode the boxcars looking for work, would arrive in town. He would greet them and tell them where they could go for an evening meal and bag lunch for the next day, provided they were willing to work all day for it. Where? . . . his house! Boy, those were different days. He never had a single problem with them. When the depression came on strong in 1930 he dug up every bit of his lawn right up to the curbs and added extra garden space to an already large garden. My mother remembers many long hard hours spent working this extended food patch and helping with the canning that came from the sweat of their brows. These hobos would come and work all day in the garden and then eat a sit-down meal at the picnic bench set up near the back door. When dinner was done they were to be on their way with a sack lunch for the next day. My grandmother oversaw all this charitable work with a cheerful smile and loaded 38 revolver in her apron pocket. During the depression all was not peaceful in her small town, however. Though it was a staunchly Christian town packed with churches the theft problem was huge, and chiefly accomplished by towns folk . . . and not the hobos. Whenever produce from the garden was canned, they had to have trusted neighbors keep an eye out on their place should they leave the house for even a short while. My mom said that if it was not nailed down it was soon gone. They stole more than food, however, as they stole whatever they could to sell for a few silver dimes. This was small town rural America in a time when most folks had strong Christian morals. It appears that even "good" folks would rather steal than go hungry and many were not prepared by any means nor willing to work by the sweat of the brow. Theft was easier . . . the default position of fallen man when pressed into a corner. Our now overtly pagan culture has moved light years into depravity from then. I shudder to imagine what will transpire when our dying economy hooked on the heroin of welfare comes crashing down. Sadly, that will be none too soon. You make an excellent observation about the rural folk of Appalachia, they knew how to live off of the land no matter the times, good or bad.
Thomas McConnell, My Dad grew up in Underwood ND Born in 1924. He told me about if he wanted to take a girl to the movies he'd go into town and sell a chicken. My Grandfather, as a young man came over from Germany while working on a mechant ship. He wanted to be cowboy I was told. A man from ND was looking for a farmhand. but said he didn't think my Grandpa was strong enough. My Grandpa then lifted three sacks of grain, at once, onto a wagon and asked if that would be strong enough for him. He was hired on the spot. He then married the bosses daughter and farmed land across from his father in laws. I was told he had a team horses one tall and lanky, one short and stocky, they had a reputation of being able to pull a school bus out of the snow. Near their place the road had a very low spot between two hills and people would get stuck in the snow there quite often. My Uncle told me that when asked for his help at night. He said he would help them but not at night he would help them in the morning. My Dad and his two brother shared a bed. My Uncle said that often when they woke up there would be a stranger sleeping across the foot of the bed. Their stories to me made me feel it was a magical time rather than the hardship it must have been.
Thanks for the hobo story! There was no government welfare in those days before FDR’s New Deal. Now, there’s too much welfare and much of it goes to the wrong people. Your story of the workers in the garden reminds me of my old pastor in the early 2000’s. The church bought a cement block building originally used for storage of construction machinery. It sat in the middle of four acres of mud with a pothole-ridden gravel driveway. It wasn’t exactly the best or safest area of town and there were crowds of mostly Mexican and Hispanic men that would wait every morning, and all day to get hired for day labor. Everyone knew they were not here legally and many lived in either decrepit rooming houses or in encampments in the woods. All the “respectable” (White and Wealthy) people moved away although many returned on Sunday for church. The building and land were cheap and some thought the new pastor crazy so they switched to more upscale churches. What Paster Ted and his assistant, Pastor Keith did was to build the entire church except for a few things with day laborers. They’d each go out with a church van, 15 passengers, state their wages and jobs for the day. They’d be practically fighting each other to climb in. There were strict rules, no swearing, no taking God’s Name in vain, no fighting, stealing, slouching off. No impure discussions of women, no harassment or cat calls to women walking by on the sidewalk. The day began and ended with a short prayer. All were expected to stay the entire day unless work had to stop due to weather conditions. Homemade lunch was served everyday. Seconds we’re required! If you didn’t know how to do your job, ask! Unsatisfactory work would need to be redone. You got paid in cash at the end of the day. The pastors reserved the right to fire those who didn’t follow the rules. I have no idea what the men were paid, but that ugly cement block warehouse and muddy lot was transformed into a beautiful house of God in three month’s time, interior included. Very few men were fired. I no longer live in the area, but I know the church has added a Spanish speaking congregation with a Spanish speaking pastor and there is also a Haitian prayer group meeting there one night per week. Many of the men who worked on the church are now members. It goes to show there are still decent, God-fearing people around, probably the only reason the Lord hasn’t yet returned.
I didn't realize theft was such a problem back then. I can only imagine what it might be like if our economy completely collapses again. With all the people stockpiling weapons. And all the unemployed, and the drug addicts, doing whatever it takes to keep themselves going, Regular folks won't stand a chance of surviving all of that. Not sure I'd even want to live in that kind of chaos
My granddad was a farmer when the depression hit and he lost it all. His first wife took their child and left him. He ended up joining the military which became his career and met my grandma...7 kids later they lasted just over 50yrs when they passed within 5 months of each other.
I’m the granddaughter of two coal miners. I know and love the people who raised me by the values of the Appalachian mountains. It’s not an easy life but the love and resourcefulness of the mountain people is not lost to me. I’ll be returning soon. Much love and god bless.
You pretty much explained our way of life back then and a lot of us still gardening and canning and dang sure hunting! I tell you something else they had back in the old days .... love ! Family friends and neighbors loved 1 another and because of that the rest fell in place! Great stuff buddy ! Salute
jugghead, you said it all. Yes, perfect admit we still carry on the gardening and canning, and storing vegetables and meats for the winter months and hard times. Donnie always has a beautiful way of bringing back memories. And things we still continue to do these days. Thank you for sharing I don't have to say much more because you already have. Thank you Donnie. I'm a little behind on some of your vedios, but I sure enjoy catching up on them. Thank you so much please keep them coming. 💗 God bless you and your family, everyone who views these vedios. I hope everyone enjoys them as much as I do
@@2WOLFS I am jealous Miss Betty. You don’t see that here where I live in West Virginia. Everywhere you look there’s abandoned/burned meth houses and junk and trash everywhere. The trash is so bad that it makes me glad when it snows. At least then you can see all the trash for a while. ☹️ With my work (meals on wheels for our seniors) where I’m on the road if I stop I try to pick up trash but it’s just too much for me to even make a dent. The sides of the roads could pass for a city dump. There’s furniture and tires and loads of dead rotting deer just dumped over the mountains. Anywhere there’s a wide spot you can bet your life there’s a mound of trash just over the bank. Not to mention needles and human feces. Smh I love these mountains, doesn’t seem like too many people around here do and it’s sad. With my granddaughter (she’s 7) I try to instill all the wonderful things there are about the mountains. I teach her to never throw anything out your car window and if you’re out somewhere and there’s trash at your feet, pick it up and put it where it belongs if possible. Doesn’t matter that you weren’t the one who put it there, it’s just the right thing to pick it up. Where bouts you live Miss Betty?
My dad was born in 1915 and my mom in 1933. Born at home. Mom's family had land and she told how her grandfather or great grandfather gave away some of his land to help people have some place to live during the depression. They didn't have much but the got by. Mamaw made really nice quilts out of floursack. And she was extremely good with a needle. They never borrowed money. It was considered sinful I think. You saved up and paid for it. You made it or did without. Papaw farmed and had chickens and milk cow (Bessy). He helped a neighbor slaughter pigs and was paid in hams and bacon that he smoked in the smokehouse himself. They also raised chickens and laying hens. The rooster was my mom's pet. She said she would ride it around the yard on the front of her little wheelbarrow and it would crow. And my mom's job was to churn butter and make cream and curdled milk. and her favorite chore was to fetch butter or milk from the creek house because her reward was to sample the cream! Some nights supper was soup beans with fatback or streaked meat (similar to bacon) and hot cornbread with cold curdled milk poured over it. With slice of raw onion and tomatoes if they were in season.
My father was born in 1939 (god rest his soul). Growing up he would spend his summers on his grandparents farm up in Canada. He used to milk the cows & drink the milk right from the utter lol. There was a horse “Belle” who was not just a horse, she was their mode of transportation, she pulled the plow, etc. Dad always said those were the best days of his life. I always thought he was so silly for wanting to go back to that time. I would say “but you didn’t have TV, a phone, a car, or anything else! It must have been so boring!” Well back then there was no such thing as bored. You had chores and more chores. From sun rise to sun set there was always something to be done. I really think that’s a big problem for people today. Too much free time to get “bored”. I now have 3 kids of my own & I now completely understand why he wanted to go back. What a wonderful time to live. Even though they didn’t have a lot of money & times always got tough, but they banned together and worked hard to make sure the community was doing well. Today we don’t even say hi to our neighbors. It makes me so sad. I miss my dad, he was the last of an era. I miss his stories so much. He died in 2015 from the Prenvar13 pneumonia vaccine. No one in his family died younger then 90 years old. He was taken early at 73. A week before my wedding day. Sorry for the novel. It’s nice to take a walk down memory lane. God bless you and your family & I hope you all have exactly what you need 💜
I'd like that kind of life. It sounds like they had secure community relationships. Right now I'm living on someone else's acreage and helping out by raising chickens.
My grandparents were born in 1902 and 1904. Imagine the things they saw! Some things from the depression never left them. My gram always used her tea bags twice, she never threw a rubber band away, you couldn't rip wrapping paper- you just popped the tape. Pop was so mad when we came off the gold standard. I was just a kid then and I remember how mad he was. I wish they were still here, but somehow I'm glad they're not. They would be so disappointed. 🙏♥️🇱🇷
When I was young, everyone in my family had a large garden. We all helped each other harvest and can; we traded what we'd put up for meat sometimes. All the women sewed and made everything from blankets to pot holders to clothes, which they either gave as gifts or sold. I was the fisher of the family; I'd always come home with at least 3 or 4 fish. All of the men in my family worked for the TVA. Later, when we entered WWII, all the men in my family volunteered and went to war. Others in my family actually worked in Oak Ridge on the bomb. I'm thankful I listened to my grandparents' stories so I have to them to share with my own children.
I am 70 years old and never experienced these times, but my parents did and being frugal stayed with them all of their lives, even when things got better. i learned some of this from them and have been called cheap by my wife and daughter.
A 70 year old Grannie from South Australia here. What a brilliant presentation!! So much wisdom in this man, gratitude, hard work and ingenuity in those mountain people. It brought me to tears. I used to watch a lovely woman called Clara who was in her 90s and made UA-cam episodes about Depression cooking while she reminisced those times. God bless you as you have blessed this old Aussie girl today.
My Grandpa quit school at age 10 to join the fire department, that must have been around 1912 or 1913. They couldn't officially add him on the payroll, but they paid him in food for him to take home to his Family. I'm guessing that must have helped them alot back then. He worked there for 54 years I think it was. There's an old 1932 pumper truck that was his, he drove it out of the boxcar at the train station when it arrived. I remember crawling all over that thing when I would visit him at the fire station when I was a Kid. And when he passed, they laid his casket on the back and there were firemen who sat on either sides all the way out to his final resting place. Just remembering the scene of that brings tears to my eyes. I was his favorite and he was my first Hero. I still smell the cigar or pipe smoke from him sometimes, then I know he's visiting and checking in on me. I made a video about that very thing on my channel. I sure miss that Man. Bless his heart!
My uncles brother was fire chief in a little township here. He passed in 2013 and was carried in the back of a vintage fire truck with firemen on each side as you described. So touching and so deserving.
My family is from Manchester, Ky. My granny was born in 1902 and married at 13. My grandfather cheated on her and she divorced him and raised 7 kids in the mountains by herself. They were poor but my granny was tough. My older uncles had to quit school and go work in the coal mines to help support the family. My granny was 4’11 and the toughest lady I ever met but also the sweetest most soft spoken. In her 80’s she was putting a new tin roof on her house. She lived to be 93. Her goal was to outlive that bastard(my grandfather) which she did. Never in my life have I met a more impressive person than my granny. She exemplified what people should be. She was amazing.
🌞👍wow julia, your granny roofing her house in her 80s is amazing. she sounds like one of my grannies a tough ol bird who could handle her own. great story mam thank you🛐
These are such great stories Donnie!! I love hearing about these times and I completely agree that people forget the past or refuse to learn from it. My father grew up during the depression. He came from a wealthy family but due to some of my grandfather’s bad investments his family lost pretty much everything. Growing up with my Dad I always found it so strange why he would spend so little when he had a great job and made good money as always saved everything. I remember him telling me that times were so hard that you dare not waste anything. You are absolutely right when you say how resourceful people were. My mother could take a 30lb Turkey and get about 5 or 6 huge meals out it for a family of 6 even boiling the bones down for Turkey soup. Although I was born in the 60’s my parents always had a garden where they canned vegetables and wasted nothing. The Depression must have been more difficult on my Dad as he would tell me some stories but didn’t like to talk too much about it as you could tell it really must have traumatized him. My grandmother taught him to sew growing up and he had one of those old sewing machines with the peddle. He would repair torn clothing for me all the time. I remember I opened the drawer on the sewing machine once and found these little pieces of thread that were extra from his sewing. He would wrap these little pieces of thread around his finger in little circles so he could reuse it. If we ever had bike tires where the inner tubes were shot and couldn’t be repaired he would take the inner tube and cut them across and make rubber bands out of them. Those rubber bands would last forever!😂 He even had a little notebook that he kept in his pocket as long as I could remember, and I think he was able to write down every check he had ever written in his life in it. He would write really really small so he could save the paper and still had plenty of paper in the notebook to spare. When you grow up seeing a parent do these kinds of things you know it must have affected them greatly. We live in a society where so much is wasted and thrown away that it’s mind boggling, especially with so many people going hungry and have so very little. Most people in our society these days appreciate nothing and have the mentality that these things will always be here. The Depression is really a wonderful lesson in humility as it reminds us all not to take anything we have for granted and a warning from God that unforeseeable events befall us all as there is no guarantee of tomorrow. Thank you so much for all of your wonderful heartwarming stories as they are such a pleasure to listen to.😊❤️
Wonderful things you say. They need to be told and remembered. Those hard times are upon us again. Tent cities in cities, and county, police and county code enforcement officers keeping peoole on the move. Its illegal to be homeless, its illegal to have more people than code approved living in a house or apartment. Nobody not family allowed to live onmprooerty, No RV living allowed except in paid parks for limited stays , no RVs allowed to park in towns.. Pandemic caused loss of jobs…People dont know how to survive except try to live off someone else who has a job, or stealth camping …homeless and hiding it…We just got a New New Deal from congress,.money for every county in every state to rebuild infrastructure, good blue collar jobs…it worked for FDR..so there is hope for us now. There needs to be legal campgrounds for homeless, county and state governments must provide places and shelter instead of forcing people to keep moving, sleepingnunder bridges begging on the streetcorners., peeing in the gutters its dehumanising…demoralising…I have land and room to let a few people stay a while, but county officials won’t allow it, and threaten heavy fines. If being homeless is a crime, and jails are full and property owners are forced to do police work and expel homeless…. Communities must come together and find solutions to take care of the problem. Everyone needs a space and a safe place to live, even in a car or tent or RV, with sanitary facilities, until America recovers.🇺🇸
Thanks to Donnie for putting together that great little piece about The Great Depression and thanks to Tracy for sharing the story of a father that was such a great example of the correct way to live your life.
Have watched this a few times, so far. Mom's family had 10 children, in upstate, NY, during the Depression and they were like these beautiful people...They lived off of their land and wits. They made their things and gave Thanks for what they had. They were resilient and made people happy. This video makes me feel their spirit...Thank You!
My father was born during the great depression in the mountains of Kentucky. After his dad passed away, he had to go into an orphanage until my grandma remarried and they could financially support all seven children at home.
My great grandma said the same, she didn’t really notice a depression her family were poor farmers around harrogate TN. She talked about kids thinking she was rich at school because she was able to have a pork chop in her lunch pail. Funny enough when I was 6 years old I told her I’m never getting married and never moving to Ky. (I was raised in MI) well I turned 18 got married and live in a holler in Ky 😂
My Mother's family was from Alabama and lived through the Great Depression, although she said there was nothing great about it. They were so poor , they barely even noticed. My Grandfather killed himself due to the Depression. Grandma was a nurse and always had employment. She was basically a single mom with five kids, and all turned out ok. She had help from family, not financial, but love, moral support, and food.
Ya know, people just under appreciate a loving family. More than a million dollars wouldn't cover the cost of buying a loving family. But then that's it you can't buy a loving personality.
My mom was born in 24. Family of 9 children. They lived on a farm, raised a big garden, hog or two, milk cow, horse to plow with. Grandfather worked in the mines. My mother told me that they never knew they were poor because they had as much as anyone else had. Grandmother made the girls dresses and neighbor girl’s dresses, too,from flour sacks. This story sounds just like what my parents went through. Can’t imagine what it would be like if this should happen now.
My grandparents were raised in the depression. Spent their life farming my grandmother was in education and my grandfather worked for TVA. They farmed cotton I'd love to hear more stories on the cotton industry in Appalachia
In one of your other videos, I watched a bunch of them yesterday. You mentioned how the media only portrays these folks in one light, poor, uneducated. You are very correct. I live in Canada and I must say that is exactly how they were shown to us. Even searching videos here the first you find are the " poor and uneducated, needy ". I dug deeper and started finding the stories and videos about their real life, their heart, their independence. I have watched many but I still appreciate stories from folks like you who tell the whole story, the truth. These people were unbreakable, witty, smart to their own needs. I have a completely different understanding of these folks. I think they were resilient, self supporting, hard workers and didnt take shit from nobody. I appreciate your stories, sir. I have developed almost a fascination for these folks !
Why thank you friend. That's the way people have always thought about us outside of these mountains. Things have changed a lot from years past, But it's in our blood to be self reliant. People are spoiled today and don't have to work for it anymore. Thanks for the comment.
People confuse uneducated with being unintelligent. My dad was born in 1924 on an SW Virginia farm and got expelled in 8th grade. His dad didn't fight it because a son was free labor on the farm. My dad eventually started a business that afforded us a good life. He might not have been educated but he was very intelligent.
People that dont like the coal industry, saying its dirty and polluting air, dont understand that people like me who live in coal country have respect and loyalty to coal companies for creating good paying jobs that helped feed our ancestors and ourselves today. My parents have talked about walking the railroad tracks picking up pieces of coal and cans. Gardening and saving seeds for next year is just a way of life that I learned from my grandmother and mother. My mom still cans and I will be learning that this year too along with making jams and expanding my garden. Growing up, my dad hunted deer and fished. You have school clothes and shoes, when u get home, u put on play clothes that can get dirty or torn. Chores with no money allowance because "you live under that roof, you do your part". If you were lazy and let your sibling do most of the work then the next time you will do it all by yourself. Building character, morals, internal strength, and survival skills. This was a great video!
Just terrible!! I hate it when ppl think they are all involved in incest or call mountain ppl "Hillbillies". I get really angry (my mom is a southern bell not a hillbilly) I really miss my grandparents and visiting them when I was a kid. I grew up in a intercity and I'd much rather had lived in the hills. They are the kindest, hard working, smartest , independent kind ppl. Life's so different now.
Father-in-law told me that his family didn't know there was a Depression. He said they'd always been poor so nothing changed in the Applachian mountains where they lived. He said they raised what they needed and would trade for things they didn't have like sugar and salt.
My grandparents were some of those hard working resilient people of the depression era living in the smokies of NC. I can recall the stories about the hard times my Granny would share about all the work and she would say you worked the fields from sun up to sun down or the family wouldn’t eat. They also raised all the animals for food and did their own processing…They always bartered in those days rarely using $$ to get what they needed. She said we was so poor we didn’t know there was a depression back then. But everyone always had a warm place to sleep and plenty to eat . They were rich in many ways when you compare what some families endured for sure! There was never a better time to be a mountain farmer than in those days! I so enjoyed this vlog! Thanks and blessings🙏🏻💖
Thank you. I really enjoyed listening about your life. I, myself grew up in a logger's camp. The cabins were pushed together to make up our home. We grew up poor but the whole town all looked after each other and helped one another. It had a tiny grocery store, a post office, a school, church and dance hall. We ran three miles everyday down to the creek and went swimming. Fished for our dinner, lived on deer meat. It was a wonderful childhood. How I miss the good ole days!!! 60 families lived there till they burnt us out. The powers to be always ruin what you have in love. Yes, history has a way of repeating itself. It's too bad... I'm too old to farm now. This will be called The Great Tribulation which is going to hit us all soon unless everyone stops credit cards uses cash on everything and starts their own banks and communities near waterways. Loved your true story. Thank you.❤🙏🕊🔥🧎♀️
My mom told me stories about standing in line for food and finally getting to the front and being told they were out of what she needed. Neighbors shared and traded with each other. People were different then and took care of each other.
Not now. My only daughter lives 800 miles away. She's planting a garden. My husband and I don't have any family here. We live in a small rural community. I'm hoping when times get really bad that all the neighbors and people we know will be willing to help each other out. I'm not very self sufficient as far as gardening, canning, and all those things. I should be learning now. I'm 65 and just do not feel the energy to do it. My husband still works a full time job, so he doesn't have time. But we are preparing.
Allot of mountian people who lived way back in the hills never knew about a depression. They lived off the land hunted fished. Had a garden. And done a little logging to make ends meet. That's what my granddaddy. Said. He said We was to,poor to know what the depression was all about. We didn't live in towns we lived in the mountians and hollers. Kept our money in a mason jar not a bank. So it didn't effect us he said,,,
My Dad said the same thing. They didn't know there was a depression. He was raised in Gibson Station, Virginia. Not far from Middlesboro. He said they lived off the land and was considered poor. Him and his brothers were pulled out of school as each of them got to the fourth grade to work on the farm.
Great video, Donnie. My grandparents raised six kids through this time period. My uncle's were part of the CCC. They all hung in there until the war broke out, then joined the services or worked in airplane factories. They were tough, and knew how to stretch a buck. My dad taught me much of what I know and practice still today in cooking, stretching our pennies, and making do. Based on what I see going on in this present time, I don't think most of the younger generations know how to survive. Things have dramatically changed for the worse. The photo of the family praying at their sofa brought tears to my eyes. Yes indeed. It's a different, and a much darker world. I am so grateful that I know Jesus. Blessings...
I’m so glad and Thankful that I grew up in the last of the 60’s I can survive but most people today 35 years old and younger would starve to death if something happened nowadays. It’s the truth.
I'm 65. But I don't know about gardening, canning, or any of those things. I didn't growup in the country. My mom knew how to can. They would grow tomatoes in the back yard some summers. Mom would can tomato juice from them. She grewup on a farm. But I never learned those skills. Never thought I'd need them. My 42 year old daughter is learning and planting a garden already. She's planting flowers too. She's like that, even with back problems. But she's 800 miles away.
It is good to hear about how people managed back then. My parents and grandparents lived through it, in a mill town in New England and had it hard, too. I'm worried we're going to see hardship in our own times here, coming up. We should remember these ways of resourcefulness and coping and survival of our forebears so that hopefully, God willing, we will be able to survive what is coming for us.
I remember going into the front room where the “Warm Morning “ heater was. The old farmhouse was drafty and the floor was cold in the winter time. When daddy remodeled the living room, he got a three stack 220 electric heater and got rid of the wood and coal burner. The house stayed cold and the light bill went up.
Mom said when she was a kid the water would freeze in the glass at night. WV mountains. Her dad would shoot at a particular rat that was visiting at night too. I'm sure he got it. Lol
Love hearing about the history of Appalachia. My grandfather started working in the mines when he was 10 years old. My mom went to school until 6th grade and then she went to work in the shirt factory. When she worked she handed her whole paycheck to the family so they could survive. Many people like me have no idea what the people of Appalachia went through but we live a great life today because of their hard work. Thank you Donnie for these awesome videos.
Anthony Batulis , some of Donnie's video's get me misty eyed. I sure miss the old timers from my family and its just like what one a my Uncles always said "I turned around and blinked and now I'm the old timer"
I have some of those old food ration books. They belonged to my moms parents during the Great depression. I'm 65, and my grandparents and parents are gone. I kept those ration books. A piece of history.
Collecting Pop Bottles I was born in the 50s I collected them sometimes 3Cents sometimes 2Cents I would store in are old garage in Michigan. When I had a few I would walk down to the corner store and buy a 5Cent Candy Bar. I have lived in Wonderful WV since 1974. I love the people of WV. Kind and friendly and would give you the shirt off their backs.
Great vedio!!! My family grew up in the country in central nc. I was born after WWII but we had it hard while I was growing up. I lived just like they did up in the mountains. We grew our own food, we had chickens, hunted, fished, trapped. We name it whatever it took to survive, we did it. I was a good life. Simple. We walked to church about a 1/2 mile away. We enjoyed the simple toys and made up our own entertainment. We climbed trees, walked on tin cans wrapped around our shoes, and so many other fun things. We loved our family, had a lot of company. Some stayed a day while others came and lived with us. No one was turned away!!! Now I live a simple life in the mountains. Doing a.lot the same things I did growing up. I enjoy all of it. My Lord Jesus and I spend a lot of time learning and preparing. God Bless You!!! Tks for this look into out past.
Thank you for this. I was born in 1958, child of Depression era children and grandparents. They never forgot and passed it on. For 13 years now, I’ve run a horse rescue - usually about 40 horses at any time. We are very blessed to own our property and have many supporters. The business is structured on rehabilitating horses for an affordable lesson program and this is very successful. Our lesson program is full and we have a good reputation in the area. This said, there is never enough money for feed, shavings, hay, the vet, among other things that go along with having 40 horses and 26 acres of pasture. My parents raised me with thrift and I’ve never take those lessons for granted. We can cut corners, but most wont notice. I grow a garden and can most of it, some of which are gifts for our benefactors, most just to eat or trade. We neighbors share our bounty, whatever that may be. As neighbors, we also come to each other’s aid when needed - no matter when or what - and protect each other at all times. We also have loose plan for a crisis, which makes me feel safe here in our rural GA back road.
Born in 1956. My parents grewup during the Great depression. My mom grewup on a farm. Said they always had plenty to eat. My grandmother can't too. I miss my grandparents and my parents. They are all gone. But they knew about gardening and canning. I don't know anything. But we live in a rural community with enough property for a garden. My daughter lives 800 miles away in the south. She's already planting a garden this year. She's planting all kinds of things. She's going to plant some fruit trees. I don't think she knows about canning, but she will learn. She's just that way. She's 42 and has back problems, but she's doing it. She knows whats coming. She has 3 daughters to feed.
I AM WATCHING THIS AGAIN I KNOW THEY WORKED SO HARD AND I DON'T KNOW HOW THEY DID IT BUT KNEELING ON THE COUCH AND PRAYING I KNEW THEN HOW THEY DID AND I THOUGHT IT WAS BEAUTIFUL,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Very enlightening. God bless all those folks and I hope we never wind up like them. I don't think today's people have the heart and soul to go through what they did. Many thanks for your history lessons.
My Grandpa had lost both parents by age 15 and had to raise his 5 younger siblings during the Depression. He told me with shame one time of stealing some food. It was the only time he ever stole in his life. He raised by dad on a farm and saved every penny he had working 3 shift as a janitor at Mayo Clinic. He died a very, very wealthy man. His farm was full. Took my dad and his siblings 9 months to clean out the farm. Everything was useful. He died in his sleep at 92. Was a wonderful, wonderful grandpa. His only rules were clean your plate and pick clean in the garden. Leave nothing behind. I miss him. Thanks for these video. I love the old stories.
I remember my Papaw plowing with a mule. My Mamaw pumping water out of a cistern in the kitchen. No indoor plumbing till 1958. Never lacked for food. Most people have never heard of a root cellar. Great memories. Enjoy your videos
I live in W.Canada but many things were similar. I am enjoying the old photos. At 71, these bring back many memories for me of my upbringing. Thank you Donnie for bringing these to us.
My dad was raised in East Kentucky during the great depression (born in 1919) and said they never knew much about a depression going on because they went about life as usual.
My family fathers family were from Scotland. The lived in eastern Kentucky for many years. They have and always will be very clan like. Recluse . Education was not a hall mark but hard work was and has been forever. And making do and not complaining about what you don't have. Just always being greatful for what you had. My father was in Missouri when the depression hit. They were poor but always feed and lots of love. My grandparents were very poor. My grandfather couldn't read or write. But he could fish, hunt, and make anything out of nothing. My father quite school at the age of 14 to go too work on the railroad. Because he needed to pay his way. They were very stoic people. Tears and emotions had too be kept in check most of the time . Because crying ain't gonna do yeah no good. I learned alot of of the ways and it sure has helped me out over my lifetime. Mercer was a very well know name in eastern Kentucky once upon a time.
I live outside the NC mountains. I'm in my 40s and I can our foods. People my age and younger don't know how to can anymore. I get so many people tell me I'm a old soul. I just see it as surviving and better food than the stores sells. Family hunts and fish too.
LOVED this walk down memory lane! If we can teach the younger folks some of these "old time" skills it would be so helpful. (I have been teaching my grandkids to garden, can, cook, bake, cross-stitch, sew etc. I pray that it will help them when I pass). God bless you & yours.
Thank you for this wonderful video. My grandfather worked the mines in Letcher county Kentucky in the 1920's and 1930's. My father grew up poor but never had a bad thing to say about his childhood. He remembered with fondness how they worked the land and did with very little. I hope the lessons from this era are never forgotten.
Such a beautiful and upstanding Christian people. It's a hope of mine that our nation always retains the work ethic, self-sustainability, ingenuity and Christianity of the Appalachian folk.
Thanks for your educational videos. The Depression brought my Grandpa to Gary WV. He got hired to work in the mines and within a few weeks he went back to Basset Va to get Grandma and the baby. The baby would become my Dad and he also went to work in the mines. The story you tell is the story of my family and our lives. You have a talent for teaching this huge part of American history. Your voice sounds like the voice of a brother. My Grandpa would often say the Depression would be back. He never got over it and worked over 35 years in the McDowell county mines.
Thank you my friend for them kind words and for sharing you families story. There are millions of us with the same story in these mountains my fiend. Your Grandpa is so right. People now days try to ignore the past when they should learn from it. God Bless.
I lead a mission trip to McDowell County around 2007. We had vacation bible school for the children. We helped some rebuild projects after devastating double floods hit the mining towns. Many families had moved out if they had cars. Those that didn't have, were left behind to make do. I saw men at the store just off their shift in the mines. Black coal dust covered then head to toe. We knew how it was to be poor, and we had a tough life growing up. Lived the old ways with our parents and grandparents. So, we felt like we were helping our own. God bless you all in that county. 🙏
Thank u so much for ur videos. I have complete set of the Foxfire Books, have been Prepping, so they call it now, and learning everything I can since 1965 when I married. I just put in a wood/coal cookstove and don't use my major appliances. Am in Heaven. Raised my youngins with one, kerosene lamps, made soap, wringer washer, etc. My friends think I'm crazy and was born in the wrong era. Smiles. Grew up in town, went and worked on my Great Uncles farm every summer as a youngster. Learned so much. Thank u again for these beautiful videos. Ur an amazing man as r ur People. 💖
Donnie thanks for the history lesson.The great depression devastated virtually all nation's. Not to sound gloom and doom, but the way the world is heading especially the United States. One time a God fearing country a hard working country, and compassionate for humanity. I could keep on going what made America great. But all of that has diminished in parts of the country. Not all has forsaken in God we trust or our fellow man. If people don't turn back to God because I believe he is speaking to those that have an ear to hear. But it looks like the way things are going. We could see another great depression. It will be a repeat of the past depression. Folks that don't know how to farm or garden, hunt and fish will suffer the consequences. I pray it don't happen God bless
Like him or not we just had a president that understood this ( though far from perfect I for one thought he was the best President in my life, born in '61) And they all but crucified him! God help America with these current idiots at the helm!
Another awesome video. I remember my family telling me stories about that time. They worked hard but they fed and took care of their families. I think you and I have a lot of the same memories. Great job and thanks.
My father and mother's families moved from the Appalachian mountains in Tennessee in the 1860s. The carried Appalachian culture with them. During the Depression my father's family of 16 lived in Wise County, TX. There were no jobs. They farmed, gardened, fished, trapped and hunted. My father travelled on freight trains looking for work. Eventually, the government created CCC camps that provided jobs building roads and dams. My father moved with his family to Haskell County by covered wagon to farm.
Once many yrs ago we were driving by my aunt's house when my dad saw her overheated plow horses. Dad stopped on a dime jumped out to brush, water down, and remove their bits from the plow horses which my cousins left geared up and tied to the shed. I couldn't hear dad racking out my young cousins but it wasn't pretty I am sure. My dad was a great hard working man and his love/respect for GOD still brings tears to my eyes. This channel is pure gold.
23 year old man on the edge of Appalachia in Alabama thank you for your vids I can really relate to what you post you remind me of my grandad a lot the way you talk true Appalachian down in Alabama it’s similar to the Tennessee talk like you
I’m a Okie born & bred. The dustbowl was so devastating, after effects were felt in the economy until 2018. The housing bubble that forced bank failures & foreclosures for the rest of the country didn’t change much for the folks here. See, even when the dust bowl ended thanks to weather changes, better farming practices, and oil being discovered, ups and downs in our economy stunted much growth. First, WW2 happened. Then only 30 years of prosperity came before oil prices tanked in the 1980’s. At that point, many oil boom towns began to decline. Cotton was no longer king, so farming towns began to suffer as cotton gins & the railroad left. Stability came with better market prices, but by 2018 we were still so behind the rest of the country in growth that it wasn’t felt nearly as deeply as on the coasts. Today Oklahoma is actually doing well, albeit with short term gains. Small towns that began dying 40 years ago have become abandoned to drug users & meth cooks as farmers sell out. Developers who purchase the land near big cities & along interstates create suburban sprawl, with nothing left of the small communities they’ve replaced except their names used in strip mall business logos. The exodus from Oklahoma to California in the 1930’s has reversed, sending many folks used to high prices here to quickly buy up “cheap” acreage. Ranchers began to feel the pinch as their richer neighbors built huge homes, driving up property taxes. Then, voters legalized the loosest grow laws in the US here. Now land is being snatched up by Chinese nationalists-no, that’s not a stereotype-so that farmers & ranchers, unable to keep fighting surging prices & cheap imports, are folding. Therefore, more “cheap” land comes up available. While that means economic growth, many people here fear the long term outlook. This year, the drought cycle has returned. Without proper land management techniques & rain coming soon, folks can absolutely expect a downturn from the breadbasket to the coasts as the prices for basic food increases. We are just as dry as we were in 1930. If it continues as long, we absolutely will see a massive decline. With more brush, trees & pasture today compared to then, I don’t know that it will be as ecologically devastating, but it will be just as economically.
Add to that - our water table is decreasing. With higher demands based on the type of crops (aka, weed) and water usage already allotted to big exports like wheat & cattle, even individuals not related to farming and removed from the land will begin to see the shortages on the fresh water supply. Technology, while amazing, has meant modern well drilling practices & household + commercial usages are draining the aquifer faster then it can refill. Without more rain, the lower portion of the Midwest will suffer greatly.
I really enjoyed hearing you tell this story. My father & mother, lived through the Great Depression. They tried to impress upon all of their 7 children, me being the oldest, to NOT be wasteful, but saw that we always had more than we needed, with the help, from my mother's two sisters. We today, do not really understand, what they went through. My parents, and my 2 wonderful Aunts, are gone, but I will always remember, what a wonderful life, that they made for us, their children.
Sounds like you were blessed. You know a nation is only as strong as its families. It's sad to me that in our country today, families are so broken and most are not close and strong. No wonder our nation is falling apart. If a depression is coming in this country now, we are not going to do very well.
Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us! I found your channel by searching for info about the Melungeon people and now I'm binge watching. My mom's family is from that area, and I've heard them say that they didn't even know there was a depression, though that could also be on account of moonshine consumption lol. Sadly, the country store is going extinct. I love Sheetz and Wawa, but there's just something about the backwoods cash only gas station where the local retired farmers hang out all day that we don't miss until it's gone.
Thanks so much for sharing your piece of history my friend. Great story. Glad you enjoy the videos. I'm just trying to tell our story in these mountains. Thanks so much for the comment my friend.
My grandpa on my mother's side grew up around Flat Gap or Blaine, Ky area. He told me about alot things that happen when he was a child. Sunday after church they had dinner on the grounds then after that they had singin school. He had a voice that I could listen to him sing forever. Didn't know it as a kid but we know today as bluegrass music. Oh! By the way. During Roosevelt presidental time my Dad's brother was in the 3 C camp and help build bridges. Some of those bridges if they are still standing would have a concrete sides with WPA and the year stamped on them. Thanks for these stories. Getting alot of memories from my Grandpa told me about.
I love your videos and story telling. My daddy grew up very poor in the Tennessee mountains. He said they didn’t even know there was a depression because they never had any money anyway. They took care of themselves and traded. They always had a garden,
You did a great job of telling the story of this time in our history. I love listening to your stories and how you always seem to find the good in every situation.
I agree with all the positive comments and will look for more videos from you. Please, though, change the aggravating background sounds--makes it difficult to enjoy the content
Lovely! My grandfather (WW1 vet) lived in & worked at norfolk southern community. Grandmother gardened, raised beef & pork. Had dairy cow & laying hens. My Mother said they had meat only on Sundays. Until they passed away, they were SO thrifty it was painful to watch. I've missed them every day for more than 40 years. Can t wait to hear more!
I was born in 1936 and remember that times were tough. We worked from around 10 years old in the fields at the pay of 15 cents an hour. We made it with Gods grace and mercy.
We also had a warm morning stove lol I remember mom waking us up and telling us to stay in bed until she got a fire built and the trailer warm... We didn't have much or much food to eat but from the time I can remember I was out working in the garden 7 days a week raising food and we eat off that through the winter and every meal was potatoes and beans and cornbread and we lived in Appalachia mountains the lower southern end bordering Kentucky but it molded me into who I am today and I could survive when the normal person couldn't but I left and I've not been back and Don't plan on ever going back to live unless I'm retired or they take me back in a box God bless you sir
In most areas of this region, it wasn’t too much different before the depression. There wasn’t a lot of jobs and most people worked on the farms. There wasn’t a lot of money in circulation. Even less after the market crashed. So most people would trade work with each other for food or if they had something they had for something that they needed. One man had a farm a day’s wages was either a bushel or potatoes or a bushel of corn or so many pounds of meat. About once a week he’d pay them 50 cents to use to buy coffee, salt , baking powder or whatever they needed. They made whatever or grown most of their food. The cut wood for their fire. A lot of people had a small coal seam would dig it and use it with their fires. My Dad and Grandparents and Great Aunts and Uncles told me so many times how they lived that I feel like I lived those times myself. Everyone needs to listen and learn about those times. Hopefully we’ll won’t see times like that. It doesn’t hurt to learn to be prepared.
@@donnielaws7020 You're welcome! I remember as a kid walking through the woods in Summers County, West Virginia and seeing the huge dead Chestnut trees. It was really sad.
I was born in 1958 in Crum (Wayne county) WV. My daddy worked at everything he could. He did moonshining, coal mining, and ended his days logging and was a Sawyer on his own sawmill. He passed at 49 years old if lung cancer. I miss him. He drank a lot. My mom was our savior. She was born in 1938 and knew everything about seeing, cooking, canning, planting and you name it. Her herb knowledge kept half the town well. I miss her. She passed 3 years after daddy at age 46. Brain cancer. She taught me all these things. I still could survive.
My grandfather had two farms along the Clinch. TVA bought him out and he moved to a farm north of Knoxville. Every year my grandparents and their daughters would return to the site of where their town of Willow Grove had stood and to the local cemetery to visit their ancestors.
My ex-wife family during the Great Depression had had and raised tobacco and Cattle and of course a very large garden they had land and property they did pretty good and they'll have a diary this is how they would always feed the people that will come off the trains and give them a place to stay for the night all that in that diary is very interesting they were grubs and had money...now my grandparents grew up in Shelby Alabama during the Great Depression and the things that they learned stuck with them for the rest of their lives I had learned alot from my grandmother I love your videos keep up the good work my friend your great story telling I would love meet you one and just talk
I really enjoyed this video. My last grandparent that lived through the Great Depression passed in 2012. I do miss my grandparents, very much so. My grandfather grew up poor on the southern end of long beach island here in NJ, many decades before it was the vacation destination it is today. My grandmother was from Pittsburgh, PA, and I would have to ask my mom again how my grandparents met so long ago. Neither came from wealthy families, both knew hardship before the depression. As a young person, my grandmother worked at the J & L steel mill in Pittsburgh and my grandfather's family lived off of what came out of the Atlantic ocean and Barnegat bay. My grandfather's 99th birthday would've been January 12th
Real American stories and history. The greatest generation ever, I pray their strength is passed down to us for todays trials. Thank you so much for sharing. Hard work is missing in the vocabulary today.
My grand parents were farmers during the depression and they taught me many of the things u talked about/ they were very smart people to be able to keep what they had during that time
Thank you so much for putting all these together. My mom's side of the family are from the mountains in nc ( when i was small we lived in the blue ridge mtns nc. i live in the foothills now but my heart longs to return to those beautiful rolling hills and high rock outcrops) and the fact that you sound a lot like my grandpa just makes it that much more special. So thank you
Donnie my heart hurts watching this video. but is happy at the same time that your bringing back what I want more than anything and that is family ways.I’m 51 this year and have seen families that don’t even speak to each other anymore. So disrespectful and cruel. I have 4 grown children and haven’t seen 3 of them in over a year. They never come see me or their mom and we are just now realizing this has caused us both health issues from all the stress. We make mountain medicines and live off the land but a person has to get their emotions together and that’s what we are working on. I say all that to say your videos are the recipe to show people we can make it through all these tough times. Those hardships are what made people depend on each other and respect one another. Today not so much. So again thanks for your stories and you are making a difference at least I can feel the spirit you have!
Also from TN. We are going through the same thing. We haven't seen our son and his family for 2 1/2 years. The heart break never goes away but some how you keep breathing. Bless you! Maybe some day they will need us again.
I love listening to your stories. My grandparents lived through the depression and my mom was born right at the end of it. But she picked up what grandma learned during that time. Lots of canning and saving. My grandma had a 4th grade education, but you couldn't tell it. I remember as a kid going mushroom foraging in Kentucky with her and grandpa. Best memory of them.
Thank you so .uch for this account of what it was like. My mom grew up in Viper, KY. She was born in 1919; one of 7 kids that lived. My grandparents farmed and they kept a soup kitchen going in their backyard. My father, born in 1923, grew up in Nebraska. His mother died of blood poisoning in 1929 when he was going on 6. His father died of pneumonia when he was 16. Dad was very much the youngest of 7 children that lived despite having 6 much older siblings, he raised himself. He and rhenext oldest, a sister 4 1/2 older than him, had a little wagon; they took eggs in it and sold them to help make it. My payments generation were truly strong and marvelous.
My great grandfather was a miner in Jenkins KY and when his wife left him with 9 kids they were living in a company house. It burnt down and they were forced to live in a tent in the winter. The heavy snow made the tent cave in and someone took pity on them and let them live in their chicken coop. My grandfather lived in Wise Va and had to quit school at age 9 and go to work in the coal mines to support his grandmother who was raising him. Kids know nothing about hardship today. They think a low battery on their cellphone is tragic.
Hard times my friend. Thanks for sharing.
Man what a story of overcoming hardship. Thanks for sharing.
When my mama & dad married, their 1st home was a chicken coop. I had never heard of anyone else living this way. Thanks for sharing your story.
@@sandyh5653 Bless you my friend.
My dad was from Norton and my mom from Pound.
I’m from West Virginia but I married and moved to Missouri and I’m crying watching this. I miss my people, they’re hard working, humble and the most giving people, even when they don’t have it to give they’ll do their best. My family worked the mines of West Virginia and got baptized in the river come summer when the water warmed. We’re survivors. I learned to plant food, mill grain, tend to chickens, make soap, knit and sew and put up food from a early age. I’ve been out pulling potatoes, getting carrots and beets in the ground, starting my fall seeds under grow lights and running my water bath canner and the smoker today in triple digit heat because it’s what I’ve always done. I don’t have a big city life but I have piece of mind and the ability to grow and raise our food. I’m Appalachia strong!
Awesome my friend. Thanks for sharing this story with us. God bless you.
We’d all be a much happier people by working hard and having gratefulness. Thankful to the Lord. People have too much stuff now but have nothing.
Thanks my friend for sharing.
Very good comment.
Material thing can only make a person selfish. Family and God is my true heart. I've worked hard all my life, but I feel good about my life. I have truly been blessed.
Or appreciate very little.
Ppl seeking worldly happiness to fill their emptiness only a relationship w Jesus can fill that void
This is my family history! My grandfather was a coal miner in Smith Kentucky. Family of 19 children. He only went to school until 4th grade. Had to work in the fields to feed the family until he was lucky enough to get the coal mining job! Tough people. Thank you for sharing the history. Folks now days can't hardly cook themselves a meal let alone grow their own food. I'm proud to be a coalminer's granddaughter!
Thanks for Sharing. Bless you friend.
God bless you and your kin, Anita. We are honored to know you.
🙏 to you
we ate from the cold cellar , from hundreds of jars of canning , from a butchered pig or dry heifer , lots of wild berries to pick off trees ....... we ate good . My mother and father grew up in the 30's ......times today have sure changed .
Yes ma'am!!
My father, who was born in 1920, was sent to Colorado with the CCC to plant trees in a national forest. He sent most of his pay home to his family, as he was one of 13 children. He told stories of missing school in the winter because he didn't have shoes to wear. Not many of us have any idea of that kind of poverty.
It was a hard time for most. Thanks for sharing friend.
Too many children to feed and clothes
Sad but true . But God Provides
@@jimmysapien9961 always ♥
Nor of that work ethic and dedication the the family!
These videos should be submitted to Public Broadcasting stations so we can all learn what life is/was like in the mountains. Thank you, Mr. Laws.
Your welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.
I personally know what it was like i don't forget the day's of the great depression. We going to be right back in one very soon.
I think people will know soon.
My grandparents lived through the depression and never threw anything away because
of that. They have both been gone since the late 80s and I live in their house and to this day I
still find useful things in the garage like tools or what have u that I also use. The best part
of being a kid is that even if u were poor, u never knew it.
Thanks for sharing my friend.
This really makes you realize how fortunate we are today and how soft we have become.
Thank you for making this.
Your welcome my friend.
It’s called educating the people.
Hope you paid attention 'cuz it's coming back, compliments Big Joe Bidet.
Oh yes, so fortunate to be dumbed down and reliant on government.
The good fortune is about to end. Prepare while you can.
I really admire the way you tell your stories. Our local and national history is important. Please keep telling your stories ❤️❤️
Thank you, I will try just for people like you. Thanks so much for the support.
I agree. And I love the way you use a friendly dialect with interesting grammatical patterns that may be similar to what the Appalachian people may have used.
My husband and I can't get enough. ❤
All history is important ❤️ thank you for your stories I'm a big fan of the Foxfire books.
Definitely.
Times got hard for my grandfather, he packed up the family and took off west.
The only problem was the money ran out and he started robbing banks.
Well needless to say that didn't work out so well. But he did become the boxing champion of San Quentin Prison 😜
Wow, Reed you always have a great story to tell my friend. Thanks so much for sharing a piece of it.
My husband was related to Jesse James on his dad's side of the family.
LoL
My mother, now ninety-five, grew up during the Great Depression in a small town in North Dakota. For sure, like many of her generation, she is of very tough stock and her steadfast attitude has always been one not to hold grudges but to carry a big stick.
During the Great Depression my mother's father worked odd jobs while maintaining his tenure at the rail yards as an train engineer. During the summer "hobos," men chiefly who rode the boxcars looking for work, would arrive in town. He would greet them and tell them where they could go for an evening meal and bag lunch for the next day, provided they were willing to work all day for it. Where? . . . his house! Boy, those were different days. He never had a single problem with them.
When the depression came on strong in 1930 he dug up every bit of his lawn right up to the curbs and added extra garden space to an already large garden. My mother remembers many long hard hours spent working this extended food patch and helping with the canning that came from the sweat of their brows. These hobos would come and work all day in the garden and then eat a sit-down meal at the picnic bench set up near the back door. When dinner was done they were to be on their way with a sack lunch for the next day. My grandmother oversaw all this charitable work with a cheerful smile and loaded 38 revolver in her apron pocket.
During the depression all was not peaceful in her small town, however. Though it was a staunchly Christian town packed with churches the theft problem was huge, and chiefly accomplished by towns folk . . . and not the hobos. Whenever produce from the garden was canned, they had to have trusted neighbors keep an eye out on their place should they leave the house for even a short while. My mom said that if it was not nailed down it was soon gone. They stole more than food, however, as they stole whatever they could to sell for a few silver dimes.
This was small town rural America in a time when most folks had strong Christian morals. It appears that even "good" folks would rather steal than go hungry and many were not prepared by any means nor willing to work by the sweat of the brow. Theft was easier . . . the default position of fallen man when pressed into a corner.
Our now overtly pagan culture has moved light years into depravity from then. I shudder to imagine what will transpire when our dying economy hooked on the heroin of welfare comes crashing down. Sadly, that will be none too soon.
You make an excellent observation about the rural folk of Appalachia, they knew how to live off of the land no matter the times, good or bad.
Wow. Thanks for sharing my friend.
Thomas McConnell, My Dad grew up in Underwood ND Born in 1924. He told me about if he wanted to take a girl to the movies he'd go into town and sell a chicken. My Grandfather, as a young man came over from Germany while working on a mechant ship. He wanted to be cowboy I was told. A man from ND was looking for a farmhand. but said he didn't think my Grandpa was strong enough. My Grandpa then lifted three sacks of grain, at once, onto a wagon and asked if that would be strong enough for him. He was hired on the spot. He then married the bosses daughter and farmed land across from his father in laws. I was told he had a team horses one tall and lanky, one short and stocky, they had a reputation of being able to pull a school bus out of the snow. Near their place the road had a very low spot between two hills and people would get stuck in the snow there quite often. My Uncle told me that when asked for his help at night. He said he would help them but not at night he would help them in the morning. My Dad and his two brother shared a bed. My Uncle said that often when they woke up there would be a stranger sleeping across the foot of the bed. Their stories to me made me feel it was a magical time rather than the hardship it must have been.
Thanks for the hobo story! There was no government welfare in those days before FDR’s New Deal. Now, there’s too much welfare and much of it goes to the wrong people. Your story of the workers in the garden reminds me of my old pastor in the early 2000’s. The church bought a cement block building originally used for storage of construction machinery. It sat in the middle of four acres of mud with a pothole-ridden gravel driveway. It wasn’t exactly the best or safest area of town and there were crowds of mostly Mexican and Hispanic men that would wait every morning, and all day to get hired for day labor. Everyone knew they were not here legally and many lived in either decrepit rooming houses or in encampments in the woods. All the “respectable” (White and Wealthy) people moved away although many returned on Sunday for church. The building and land were cheap and some thought the new pastor crazy so they switched to more upscale churches. What Paster Ted and his assistant, Pastor Keith did was to build the entire church except for a few things with day laborers. They’d each go out with a church van, 15 passengers, state their wages and jobs for the day. They’d be practically fighting each other to climb in. There were strict rules, no swearing, no taking God’s Name in vain, no fighting, stealing, slouching off. No impure discussions of women, no harassment or cat calls to women walking by on the sidewalk. The day began and ended with a short prayer. All were expected to stay the entire day unless work had to stop due to weather conditions. Homemade lunch was served everyday. Seconds we’re required! If you didn’t know how to do your job, ask! Unsatisfactory work would need to be redone. You got paid in cash at the end of the day. The pastors reserved the right to fire those who didn’t follow the rules. I have no idea what the men were paid, but that ugly cement block warehouse and muddy lot was transformed into a beautiful house of God in three month’s time, interior included. Very few men were fired. I no longer live in the area, but I know the church has added a Spanish speaking congregation with a Spanish speaking pastor and there is also a Haitian prayer group meeting there one night per week. Many of the men who worked on the church are now members. It goes to show there are still decent, God-fearing people around, probably the only reason the Lord hasn’t yet returned.
I didn't realize theft was such a problem back then. I can only imagine what it might be like if our economy completely collapses again. With all the people stockpiling weapons. And all the unemployed, and the drug addicts, doing whatever it takes to keep themselves going, Regular folks won't stand a chance of surviving all of that. Not sure I'd even want to live in that kind of chaos
My granddad was a farmer when the depression hit and he lost it all. His first wife took their child and left him. He ended up joining the military which became his career and met my grandma...7 kids later they lasted just over 50yrs when they passed within 5 months of each other.
Sorry to hear that. Thanks for sharing my friend.
I’m the granddaughter of two coal miners. I know and love the people who raised me by the values of the Appalachian mountains. It’s not an easy life but the love and resourcefulness of the mountain people is not lost to me. I’ll be returning soon.
Much love and god bless.
Good for you. Thanks for sharing my friend.
Welcome back!
Well said maam....well said
You pretty much explained our way of life back then and a lot of us still gardening and canning and dang sure hunting! I tell you something else they had back in the old days .... love ! Family friends and neighbors loved 1 another and because of that the rest fell in place! Great stuff buddy ! Salute
I couldn't agree with you more my friend.
jugghead, you said it all. Yes, perfect admit we still carry on the gardening and canning, and storing vegetables and meats for the winter months and hard times. Donnie always has a beautiful way of bringing back memories. And things we still continue to do these days. Thank you for sharing I don't have to say much more because you already have. Thank you Donnie. I'm a little behind on some of your vedios, but I sure enjoy catching up on them. Thank you so much please keep them coming. 💗 God bless you and your family, everyone who views these vedios. I hope everyone enjoys them as much as I do
And people would sit on their front porches and talk…. And you knew your neighbor. Do I dare say, it was a simpler time. Even the air was different ♥️
@@ginathompson5845 we still do
@@2WOLFS
I am jealous Miss Betty. You don’t see that here where I live in West Virginia. Everywhere you look there’s abandoned/burned meth houses and junk and trash everywhere. The trash is so bad that it makes me glad when it snows. At least then you can see all the trash for a while. ☹️
With my work (meals on wheels for our seniors) where I’m on the road if I stop I try to pick up trash but it’s just too much for me to even make a dent. The sides of the roads could pass for a city dump. There’s furniture and tires and loads of dead rotting deer just dumped over the mountains. Anywhere there’s a wide spot you can bet your life there’s a mound of trash just over the bank. Not to mention needles and human feces. Smh
I love these mountains, doesn’t seem like too many people around here do and it’s sad. With my granddaughter (she’s 7) I try to instill all the wonderful things there are about the mountains. I teach her to never throw anything out your car window and if you’re out somewhere and there’s trash at your feet, pick it up and put it where it belongs if possible. Doesn’t matter that you weren’t the one who put it there, it’s just the right thing to pick it up.
Where bouts you live Miss Betty?
My dad was born in 1915 and my mom in 1933. Born at home. Mom's family had land and she told how her grandfather or great grandfather gave away some of his land to help people have some place to live during the depression. They didn't have much but the got by. Mamaw made really nice quilts out of floursack. And she was extremely good with a needle. They never borrowed money. It was considered sinful I think. You saved up and paid for it. You made it or did without. Papaw farmed and had chickens and milk cow (Bessy). He helped a neighbor slaughter pigs and was paid in hams and bacon that he smoked in the smokehouse himself. They also raised chickens and laying hens. The rooster was my mom's pet. She said she would ride it around the yard on the front of her little wheelbarrow and it would crow.
And my mom's job was to churn butter and make cream and curdled milk. and her favorite chore was to fetch butter or milk from the creek house because her reward was to sample the cream! Some nights supper was soup beans with fatback or streaked meat (similar to bacon) and hot cornbread with cold curdled milk poured over it. With slice of raw onion and tomatoes if they were in season.
Wow. Thanks for sharing my friend.
My father was born in 1939 (god rest his soul). Growing up he would spend his summers on his grandparents farm up in Canada. He used to milk the cows & drink the milk right from the utter lol. There was a horse “Belle” who was not just a horse, she was their mode of transportation, she pulled the plow, etc. Dad always said those were the best days of his life. I always thought he was so silly for wanting to go back to that time. I would say “but you didn’t have TV, a phone, a car, or anything else! It must have been so boring!” Well back then there was no such thing as bored. You had chores and more chores. From sun rise to sun set there was always something to be done. I really think that’s a big problem for people today. Too much free time to get “bored”. I now have 3 kids of my own & I now completely understand why he wanted to go back. What a wonderful time to live. Even though they didn’t have a lot of money & times always got tough, but they banned together and worked hard to make sure the community was doing well. Today we don’t even say hi to our neighbors. It makes me so sad. I miss my dad, he was the last of an era. I miss his stories so much. He died in 2015 from the Prenvar13 pneumonia vaccine. No one in his family died younger then 90 years old. He was taken early at 73. A week before my wedding day. Sorry for the novel. It’s nice to take a walk down memory lane. God bless you and your family & I hope you all have exactly what you need 💜
Sounded like a good life!
I'd like that kind of life. It sounds like they had secure community relationships. Right now I'm living on someone else's acreage and helping out by raising chickens.
My grandparents were born in 1902 and 1904. Imagine the things they saw! Some things from the depression never left them. My gram always used her tea bags twice, she never threw a rubber band away, you couldn't rip wrapping paper- you just popped the tape. Pop was so mad when we came off the gold standard. I was just a kid then and I remember how mad he was.
I wish they were still here, but somehow I'm glad they're not. They would be so disappointed. 🙏♥️🇱🇷
Me to. Thanks for sharing my friend.
When I was young, everyone in my family had a large garden. We all helped each other harvest and can; we traded what we'd put up for meat sometimes. All the women sewed and made everything from blankets to pot holders to clothes, which they either gave as gifts or sold. I was the fisher of the family; I'd always come home with at least 3 or 4 fish. All of the men in my family worked for the TVA. Later, when we entered WWII, all the men in my family volunteered and went to war. Others in my family actually worked in Oak Ridge on the bomb. I'm thankful I listened to my grandparents' stories so I have to them to share with my own children.
Wow, Thank you for sharing my friend.
We sure have it easy today. I wish the good values people had back then weren't being destroyed today.
You had to work to live in them days. No freebies.
The only way is to live those values and be an example to your family, friends, and community.
I am 70 years old and never experienced these times, but my parents did and being frugal stayed with them all of their lives, even when things got better. i learned some of this from them and have been called cheap by my wife and daughter.
Thanks for sharing my friend.
A 70 year old Grannie from South Australia here.
What a brilliant presentation!! So much wisdom in this man, gratitude, hard work and ingenuity in those mountain people. It brought me to tears.
I used to watch a lovely woman called Clara who was in her 90s and made UA-cam episodes about Depression cooking while she reminisced those times.
God bless you as you have blessed this old Aussie girl today.
WOW! Thanks for sharing that my friend. God bless you.
My Grandpa quit school at age 10 to join the fire department, that must have been around 1912 or 1913. They couldn't officially add him on the payroll, but they paid him in food for him to take home to his Family. I'm guessing that must have helped them alot back then. He worked there for 54 years I think it was. There's an old 1932 pumper truck that was his, he drove it out of the boxcar at the train station when it arrived. I remember crawling all over that thing when I would visit him at the fire station when I was a Kid. And when he passed, they laid his casket on the back and there were firemen who sat on either sides all the way out to his final resting place. Just remembering the scene of that brings tears to my eyes. I was his favorite and he was my first Hero. I still smell the cigar or pipe smoke from him sometimes, then I know he's visiting and checking in on me. I made a video about that very thing on my channel. I sure miss that Man. Bless his heart!
Wow . Great story my friend. Thanks for sharing.
Amazing how those we loved can send us a reminder once in a while. So glad you had those precious memories.
My uncles brother was fire chief in a little township here. He passed in 2013 and was carried in the back of a vintage fire truck with firemen on each side as you described. So touching and so deserving.
@@donnafcerullo2199 Sorry my friend for your loss.
He got paid with food for 54 years?
My family is from Manchester, Ky. My granny was born in 1902 and married at 13. My grandfather cheated on her and she divorced him and raised 7 kids in the mountains by herself. They were poor but my granny was tough. My older uncles had to quit school and go work in the coal mines to help support the family. My granny was 4’11 and the toughest lady I ever met but also the sweetest most soft spoken. In her 80’s she was putting a new tin roof on her house. She lived to be 93. Her goal was to outlive that bastard(my grandfather) which she did. Never in my life have I met a more impressive person than my granny. She exemplified what people should be. She was amazing.
Thanks for sharing your memories with us my friend. God bless you.
🌞👍wow julia, your granny roofing her house in her 80s is amazing. she sounds like one of my grannies a tough ol bird who could handle her own. great story mam thank you🛐
@@hallelujah4296 she was a tough lady. She was very soft spoken but no one messed with her. She was great with a shotgun. I really miss her.
These are such great stories Donnie!! I love hearing about these times and I completely agree that people forget the past or refuse to learn from it. My father grew up during the depression. He came from a wealthy family but due to some of my grandfather’s bad investments his family lost pretty much everything. Growing up with my Dad I always found it so strange why he would spend so little when he had a great job and made good money as always saved everything. I remember him telling me that times were so hard that you dare not waste anything. You are absolutely right when you say how resourceful people were. My mother could take a 30lb Turkey and get about 5 or 6 huge meals out it for a family of 6 even boiling the bones down for Turkey soup. Although I was born in the 60’s my parents always had a garden where they canned vegetables and wasted nothing. The Depression must have been more difficult on my Dad as he would tell me some stories but didn’t like to talk too much about it as you could tell it really must have traumatized him. My grandmother taught him to sew growing up and he had one of those old sewing machines with the peddle. He would repair torn clothing for me all the time. I remember I opened the drawer on the sewing machine once and found these little pieces of thread that were extra from his sewing. He would wrap these little pieces of thread around his finger in little circles so he could reuse it. If we ever had bike tires where the inner tubes were shot and couldn’t be repaired he would take the inner tube and cut them across and make rubber bands out of them. Those rubber bands would last forever!😂
He even had a little notebook that he kept in his pocket as long as I could remember, and I think he was able to write down every check he had ever written in his life in it. He would write really really small so he could save the paper and still had plenty of paper in the notebook to spare. When you grow up seeing a parent do these kinds of things you know it must have affected them greatly. We live in a society where so much is wasted and thrown away that it’s mind boggling, especially with so many people going hungry and have so very little. Most people in our society these days appreciate nothing and have the mentality that these things will always be here. The Depression is really a wonderful lesson in humility as it reminds us all not to take anything we have for granted and a warning from God that unforeseeable events befall us all as there is no guarantee of tomorrow. Thank you so much for all of your wonderful heartwarming stories as they are such a pleasure to listen to.😊❤️
Great story and reading my friend. Your welcome. Thanks for sharing.
Wonderful things you say. They need to be told and remembered. Those hard times are upon us again. Tent cities in cities, and county, police and county code enforcement officers keeping peoole on the move. Its illegal to be homeless, its illegal to have more people than code approved living in a house or apartment. Nobody not family allowed to live onmprooerty, No RV living allowed except in paid parks for limited stays , no RVs allowed to park in towns.. Pandemic caused loss of jobs…People dont know how to survive except try to live off someone else who has a job, or stealth camping …homeless and hiding it…We just got a New New Deal from congress,.money for every county in every state to rebuild infrastructure, good blue collar jobs…it worked for FDR..so there is hope for us now. There needs to be legal campgrounds for homeless, county and state governments must provide places and shelter instead of forcing people to keep moving, sleepingnunder bridges begging on the streetcorners., peeing in the gutters its dehumanising…demoralising…I have land and room to let a few people stay a while, but county officials won’t allow it, and threaten heavy fines. If being homeless is a crime, and jails are full and property owners are forced to do police work and expel homeless…. Communities must come together and find solutions to take care of the problem. Everyone needs a space and a safe place to live, even in a car or tent or RV, with sanitary facilities, until America recovers.🇺🇸
Thanks to Donnie for putting together that great little piece about The Great Depression and thanks to Tracy for sharing the story of a father that was such a great example of the correct way to live your life.
Tracey Fox. so well said. thanks for sharing.
Everything you said is so very true. We need to be careful because it could all happen again. Stay safe and GOD bless all.
Have watched this a few times, so far. Mom's family had 10 children, in upstate, NY, during the Depression and they were like these beautiful people...They lived off of their land and wits. They made their things and gave Thanks for what they had. They were resilient and made people happy. This video makes me feel their spirit...Thank You!
Awesome my friend. Thanks for sharing your story. God bless you.
My father was born during the great depression in the mountains of Kentucky. After his dad passed away, he had to go into an orphanage until my grandma remarried and they could financially support all seven children at home.
Hard times my friend, Glad it turned out alright for you my friend. Thanks for sharing.
My great grandma said the same, she didn’t really notice a depression her family were poor farmers around harrogate TN. She talked about kids thinking she was rich at school because she was able to have a pork chop in her lunch pail. Funny enough when I was 6 years old I told her I’m never getting married and never moving to Ky. (I was raised in MI) well I turned 18 got married and live in a holler in Ky 😂
Thanks for sharing friend.
G EVENING..THAT PUT A SMILE ON MY FACE ..CHUCKLED ..THANK YOU 😊~MANY BLESSINGS TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY~
My Mother's family was from Alabama and lived through the Great Depression, although she said there was nothing great about it. They were so poor , they barely even noticed. My Grandfather killed himself due to the Depression. Grandma was a nurse and always had employment. She was basically a single mom with five kids, and all turned out ok. She had help from family, not financial, but love, moral support, and food.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing that my friend.
Ya know, people just under appreciate a loving family. More than a million dollars wouldn't cover the cost of buying a loving family. But then that's it you can't buy a loving personality.
My grandpa killed himself also.
My mom was born in 24. Family of 9 children. They lived on a farm, raised a big garden, hog or two, milk cow, horse to plow with. Grandfather worked in the mines. My mother told me that they never knew they were poor because they had as much as anyone else had. Grandmother made the girls dresses and neighbor girl’s dresses, too,from flour sacks. This story sounds just like what my parents went through. Can’t imagine what it would be like if this should happen now.
My grandparents were raised in the depression. Spent their life farming my grandmother was in education and my grandfather worked for TVA. They farmed cotton I'd love to hear more stories on the cotton industry in Appalachia
In one of your other videos, I watched a bunch of them yesterday. You mentioned how the media only portrays these folks in one light, poor, uneducated. You are very correct. I live in Canada and I must say that is exactly how they were shown to us. Even searching videos here the first you find are the " poor and uneducated, needy ". I dug deeper and started finding the stories and videos about their real life, their heart, their independence. I have watched many but I still appreciate stories from folks like you who tell the whole story, the truth. These people were unbreakable, witty, smart to their own needs. I have a completely different understanding of these folks. I think they were resilient, self supporting, hard workers and didnt take shit from nobody. I appreciate your stories, sir. I have developed almost a fascination for these folks !
Why thank you friend. That's the way people have always thought about us outside of these mountains. Things have changed a lot from years past, But it's in our blood to be self reliant. People are spoiled today and don't have to work for it anymore. Thanks for the comment.
People confuse uneducated with being unintelligent. My dad was born in 1924 on an SW Virginia farm and got expelled in 8th grade. His dad didn't fight it because a son was free labor on the farm. My dad eventually started a business that afforded us a good life. He might not have been educated but he was very intelligent.
People that dont like the coal industry, saying its dirty and polluting air, dont understand that people like me who live in coal country have respect and loyalty to coal companies for creating good paying jobs that helped feed our ancestors and ourselves today. My parents have talked about walking the railroad tracks picking up pieces of coal and cans. Gardening and saving seeds for next year is just a way of life that I learned from my grandmother and mother. My mom still cans and I will be learning that this year too along with making jams and expanding my garden. Growing up, my dad hunted deer and fished. You have school clothes and shoes, when u get home, u put on play clothes that can get dirty or torn. Chores with no money allowance because "you live under that roof, you do your part". If you were lazy and let your sibling do most of the work then the next time you will do it all by yourself. Building character, morals, internal strength, and survival skills. This was a great video!
I think innovation is a staple with the Appalachian people
Just terrible!! I hate it when ppl think they are all involved in incest or call mountain ppl "Hillbillies". I get really angry (my mom is a southern bell not a hillbilly) I really miss my grandparents and visiting them when I was a kid. I grew up in a intercity and I'd much rather had lived in the hills. They are the kindest, hard working, smartest , independent kind ppl. Life's so different now.
America's greatest generation! Absolutely.
That's right. Thanks for watching Teressa.
Today my handyman cannot find help hauling drywall. When they won't work under the table we have a big problem.
Father-in-law told me that his family didn't know there was a Depression. He said they'd always been poor so nothing changed in the Applachian mountains where they lived. He said they raised what they needed and would trade for things they didn't have like sugar and salt.
These mountain people couldn't tell the difference. Thanks for sharing my friend.
My folks lived through this time and never changed their ways.
Thanks for sharing my friend.
Mine to and I intend to carry some of those tradition's on
Yeah. Many were quite self sufficient.
If it ain't broke don't fix it. Smart people.
I heard my moms stories about this. She was born in 33 but she could remember parts or her parents also told her stories
My grandparents were some of those hard working resilient people of the depression era living in the smokies of NC. I can recall the stories about the hard times my Granny would share about all the work and she would say you worked the fields from sun up to sun down or the family wouldn’t eat. They also raised all the animals for food and did their own processing…They always bartered in those days rarely using $$ to get what they needed. She said we was so poor we didn’t know there was a depression back then. But everyone always had a warm place to sleep and plenty to eat . They were rich in many ways when you compare what some families endured for sure! There was never a better time to be a mountain farmer than in those days! I so enjoyed this vlog! Thanks and blessings🙏🏻💖
Thanks for sharing my friend. That was the it was in the county at that time everywhere.
My grandparents and great grandparents did the same- I think it’s about time to go back to such a life.
They had. The blessing of the lord.
@@corablue5569 I totally agree!
Thank you. I really enjoyed listening about your life. I, myself grew up in a logger's camp. The cabins were pushed together to make up our home. We grew up poor but the whole town all looked after each other and helped one another. It had a tiny grocery store, a post office, a school, church and dance hall. We ran three miles everyday down to the creek and went swimming. Fished for our dinner, lived on deer meat. It was a wonderful childhood. How I miss the good ole days!!! 60 families lived there till they burnt us out. The powers to be always ruin what you have in love. Yes, history has a way of repeating itself. It's too bad... I'm too old to farm now. This will be called The Great Tribulation which is going to hit us all soon unless everyone stops credit cards uses cash on everything and starts their own banks and communities near waterways. Loved your true story. Thank you.❤🙏🕊🔥🧎♀️
Your welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.
You too.
Why did they burn y'all out? And who?
My mom told me stories about standing in line for food and finally getting to the front and being told they were out of what she needed. Neighbors shared and traded with each other. People were different then and took care of each other.
So true. Thanks for sharing friend.
Not now. My only daughter lives 800 miles away. She's planting a garden. My husband and I don't have any family here. We live in a small rural community. I'm hoping when times get really bad that all the neighbors and people we know will be willing to help each other out. I'm not very self sufficient as far as gardening, canning, and all those things. I should be learning now. I'm 65 and just do not feel the energy to do it. My husband still works a full time job, so he doesn't have time. But we are preparing.
Allot of mountian people who lived way back in the hills never knew about a depression. They lived off the land hunted fished. Had a garden. And done a little logging to make ends meet. That's what my granddaddy. Said. He said We was to,poor to know what the depression was all about. We didn't live in towns we lived in the mountians and hollers. Kept our money in a mason jar not a bank. So it didn't effect us he said,,,
So true my friend. Thanks for sharing.
Mine too!
That is what I heard, too!
My Dad said the same thing. They didn't know there was a depression. He was raised in Gibson Station, Virginia. Not far from Middlesboro. He said they lived off the land and was considered poor. Him and his brothers were pulled out of school as each of them got to the fourth grade to work on the farm.
Great video, Donnie. My grandparents raised six kids through this time period. My uncle's were part of the CCC. They all hung in there until the war broke out, then joined the services or worked in airplane factories. They were tough, and knew how to stretch a buck. My dad taught me much of what I know and practice still today in cooking, stretching our pennies, and making do. Based on what I see going on in this present time, I don't think most of the younger generations know how to survive. Things have dramatically changed for the worse. The photo of the family praying at their sofa brought tears to my eyes. Yes indeed. It's a different, and a much darker world. I am so grateful that I know Jesus. Blessings...
Wow. Thanks for sharing my friend.
@@donnielaws7020 😊
I’m so glad and Thankful that I grew up in the last of the 60’s I can survive but most people today 35 years old and younger would starve to death if something happened nowadays. It’s the truth.
That's a shame my friend. Thanks for sharing.
We would just have to show them how it's done.
I'm 65. But I don't know about gardening, canning, or any of those things. I didn't growup in the country. My mom knew how to can. They would grow tomatoes in the back yard some summers. Mom would can tomato juice from them. She grewup on a farm. But I never learned those skills. Never thought I'd need them. My 42 year old daughter is learning and planting a garden already. She's planting flowers too. She's like that, even with back problems. But she's 800 miles away.
It is good to hear about how people managed back then. My parents and grandparents lived through it, in a mill town in New England and had it hard, too. I'm worried we're going to see hardship in our own times here, coming up. We should remember these ways of resourcefulness and coping and survival of our forebears so that hopefully, God willing, we will be able to survive what is coming for us.
Thanks for sharing my friend.
I remember going into the front room where the “Warm Morning “ heater was. The old farmhouse was drafty and the floor was cold in the winter time.
When daddy remodeled the living room, he got a three stack 220 electric heater and got rid of the wood and coal burner. The house stayed cold and the light bill went up.
The heat is not the same is it. Thanks for Sharing my friend.
Many of those houses were very drafty when they were new. No insulation back then.
Mom said when she was a kid the water would freeze in the glass at night. WV mountains. Her dad would shoot at a particular rat that was visiting at night too. I'm sure he got it. Lol
@@sandrarice5575
Yes, we had a big old wharf rat 🐀 a time or two!
Love hearing about the history of Appalachia. My grandfather started working in the mines when he was 10 years old. My mom went to school until 6th grade and then she went to work in the shirt factory. When she worked she handed her whole paycheck to the family so they could survive. Many people like me have no idea what the people of Appalachia went through but we live a great life today because of their hard work. Thank you Donnie for these awesome videos.
No they don't have a clue. Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.
Anthony Batulis , some of Donnie's video's get me misty eyed. I sure miss the old timers from my family and its just like what one a my Uncles always said "I turned around and blinked and now I'm the old timer"
My family was part of this time in Estill Cty Ky. My mother was born in 1910. She told me about the hard times and the food coupons.
Thanks for sharing my friend.
I have some of those old food ration books. They belonged to my moms parents during the Great depression. I'm 65, and my grandparents and parents are gone. I kept those ration books. A piece of history.
Such a wonderful presentation period of how folks made it during the Depression
Glad you enjoyed it!
Collecting Pop Bottles I was born in the 50s I collected them sometimes 3Cents sometimes 2Cents I would store in are old garage in Michigan. When I had a few I would walk down to the corner store and buy a 5Cent Candy Bar. I have lived in Wonderful WV since 1974. I love the people of WV. Kind and friendly and would give you the shirt off their backs.
Amen, Thanks for sharing my friend.
People need to hear this about WV! Your state gets ridiculed in the media but there is a beating heart of American culture there! God bless you all!
Great vedio!!! My family grew up in the country in central nc. I was born after WWII but we had it hard while I was growing up. I lived just like they did up in the mountains. We grew our own food, we had chickens, hunted, fished, trapped. We name it whatever it took to survive, we did it. I was a good life. Simple. We walked to church about a 1/2 mile away. We enjoyed the simple toys and made up our own entertainment. We climbed trees, walked on tin cans wrapped around our shoes, and so many other fun things. We loved our family, had a lot of company. Some stayed a day while others came and lived with us. No one was turned away!!! Now I live a simple life in the mountains. Doing a.lot the same things I did growing up. I enjoy all of it. My Lord Jesus and I spend a lot of time learning and preparing. God Bless You!!! Tks for this look into out past.
Thanks for sharing my friend.
I am hooked watching and listening to your stories.
Glad you enjoy them my friend.
Thank you for this. I was born in 1958, child of Depression era children and grandparents. They never forgot and passed it on.
For 13 years now, I’ve run a horse rescue - usually about 40 horses at any time. We are very blessed to own our property and have many supporters. The business is structured on rehabilitating horses for an affordable lesson program and this is very successful. Our lesson program is full and we have a good reputation in the area.
This said, there is never enough money for feed, shavings, hay, the vet, among other things that go along with having 40 horses and 26 acres of pasture.
My parents raised me with thrift and I’ve never take those lessons for granted. We can cut corners, but most wont notice. I grow a garden and can most of it, some of which are gifts for our benefactors, most just to eat or trade. We neighbors share our bounty, whatever that may be. As neighbors, we also come to each other’s aid when needed - no matter when or what - and protect each other at all times. We also have loose plan for a crisis, which makes me feel safe here in our rural GA back road.
God has Blessed you my friend. Thanks for sharing.
@@donnielaws7020, it is work not chosen, but Led to by Our Lord. I am grateful every day. Thank you, my friend.
@@redmare133 Thanks for sharing my friend.
Born in 1956. My parents grewup during the Great depression. My mom grewup on a farm. Said they always had plenty to eat. My grandmother can't too. I miss my grandparents and my parents. They are all gone. But they knew about gardening and canning. I don't know anything. But we live in a rural community with enough property for a garden. My daughter lives 800 miles away in the south. She's already planting a garden this year. She's planting all kinds of things. She's going to plant some fruit trees. I don't think she knows about canning, but she will learn. She's just that way. She's 42 and has back problems, but she's doing it. She knows whats coming. She has 3 daughters to feed.
I love listening to you tell the story - it just flows along - no sudden drop off , smooth as silk . Good job !
Thank you so much. Thanks for sharing my friend.
I AM WATCHING THIS AGAIN I KNOW THEY WORKED SO HARD AND I DON'T KNOW HOW THEY DID IT BUT KNEELING ON THE COUCH AND PRAYING I KNEW THEN HOW THEY DID AND I THOUGHT IT WAS BEAUTIFUL,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Thank you friend. Glad you enjoyed it.
Very enlightening. God bless all those folks and I hope we never wind up like them. I don't think today's people have the heart and soul to go through what they did. Many thanks for your history lessons.
Well said. Thanks my friend for sharing.
My Grandpa had lost both parents by age 15 and had to raise his 5 younger siblings during the Depression. He told me with shame one time of stealing some food. It was the only time he ever stole in his life. He raised by dad on a farm and saved every penny he had working 3 shift as a janitor at Mayo Clinic. He died a very, very wealthy man. His farm was full. Took my dad and his siblings 9 months to clean out the farm. Everything was useful. He died in his sleep at 92. Was a wonderful, wonderful grandpa. His only rules were clean your plate and pick clean in the garden. Leave nothing behind. I miss him. Thanks for these video. I love the old stories.
WOW, That's a awesome story my friend. Times were hard. Thanks so much for sharing this with us. God bless you.
I wish we could go back to those times...great story telling Donnie, people like you are keeping our history alive
I do to. Thanks for sharing my friend.
Remember what you saying is true Iived during that time.
We are going that direction
I remember my Papaw plowing with a mule. My Mamaw pumping water out of a cistern in the kitchen. No indoor plumbing till 1958. Never lacked for food. Most people have never heard of a root cellar. Great memories. Enjoy your videos
Thanks for sharing my friend.
Best biscuits and gravy ever. Bacon eggs.
I live in W.Canada but many things were similar. I am enjoying the old photos. At 71, these bring back many memories for me of my upbringing. Thank you Donnie for bringing these to us.
Glad you enjoyed it.
My dad was raised in East Kentucky during the great depression (born in 1919) and said they never knew much about a depression going on because they went about life as usual.
My family fathers family were from Scotland. The lived in eastern Kentucky for many years. They have and always will be very clan like. Recluse . Education was not a hall mark but hard work was and has been forever. And making do and not complaining about what you don't have. Just always being greatful for what you had. My father was in Missouri when the depression hit. They were poor but always feed and lots of love. My grandparents were very poor. My grandfather couldn't read or write. But he could fish, hunt, and make anything out of nothing. My father quite school at the age of 14 to go too work on the railroad. Because he needed to pay his way. They were very stoic people. Tears and emotions had too be kept in check most of the time . Because crying ain't gonna do yeah no good. I learned alot of of the ways and it sure has helped me out over my lifetime. Mercer was a very well know name in eastern Kentucky once upon a time.
Thanks for sharing my friend.
I live outside the NC mountains. I'm in my 40s and I can our foods. People my age and younger don't know how to can anymore. I get so many people tell me I'm a old soul. I just see it as surviving and better food than the stores sells. Family hunts and fish too.
Thanks for sharing my friend.
LOVED this walk down memory lane! If we can teach the younger folks some of these "old time" skills it would be so helpful.
(I have been teaching my grandkids to garden, can, cook, bake, cross-stitch, sew etc. I pray that it will help them when I pass).
God bless you & yours.
A good thing my friend. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for this wonderful video. My grandfather worked the mines in Letcher county Kentucky in the 1920's and 1930's. My father grew up poor but never had a bad thing to say about his childhood. He remembered with fondness how they worked the land and did with very little. I hope the lessons from this era are never forgotten.
Your welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.
This is definitely a good video, i remember my granny(great granny) telling me stories of back then. She was glad they was farmers
Thanks for sharing my friend. Mine to. Thanks for commenting.
Same with my family- on farms in Rural Georgia and the NC mountains, and my dads people from northern Indiana- all farmers and carpenters
Born and raised in innercity LA and i really appreciate this channel. Sometimes these videos are my escape... Thank you.
Glad to hear it my friend.
Such a beautiful and upstanding Christian people. It's a hope of mine that our nation always retains the work ethic, self-sustainability, ingenuity and Christianity of the Appalachian folk.
That would be so nice my friend God bless you.
AMEN
Thanks for your educational videos. The Depression brought my Grandpa to Gary WV. He got hired to work in the mines and within a few weeks he went back to Basset Va to get Grandma and the baby. The baby would become my Dad and he also went to work in the mines. The story you tell is the story of my family and our lives. You have a talent for teaching this huge part of American history. Your voice sounds like the voice of a brother.
My Grandpa would often say the Depression would be back. He never got over it and worked over 35 years in the McDowell county mines.
Thank you my friend for them kind words and for sharing you families story. There are millions of us with the same story in these mountains my fiend. Your Grandpa is so right. People now days try to ignore the past when they should learn from it. God Bless.
Wow 35 years in the mines. That is tough in the body.
I lead a mission trip to McDowell County around 2007. We had vacation bible school for the children. We helped some rebuild projects after devastating double floods hit the mining towns. Many families had moved out if they had cars. Those that didn't have, were left behind to make do. I saw men at the store just off their shift in the mines. Black coal dust covered then head to toe. We knew how it was to be poor, and we had a tough life growing up. Lived the old ways with our parents and grandparents. So, we felt like we were helping our own. God bless you all in that county. 🙏
Thank u so much for ur videos. I have complete set of the Foxfire Books, have been Prepping, so they call it now, and learning everything I can since 1965 when I married. I just put in a wood/coal cookstove and don't use my major appliances. Am in Heaven. Raised my youngins with one, kerosene lamps, made soap, wringer washer, etc. My friends think I'm crazy and was born in the wrong era. Smiles. Grew up in town, went and worked on my Great Uncles farm every summer as a youngster. Learned so much. Thank u again for these beautiful videos. Ur an amazing man as r ur People. 💖
WOW Thanks for sharing this my friend. Your very welcome. God bless you.
Donnie thanks for the history lesson.The great depression devastated virtually all nation's. Not to sound gloom and doom, but the way the world is heading especially the United States. One time a God fearing country a hard working country, and compassionate for humanity. I could keep on going what made America great. But all of that has diminished in parts of the country. Not all has forsaken in God we trust or our fellow man. If people don't turn back to God because I believe he is speaking to those that have an ear to hear. But it looks like the way things are going. We could see another great depression. It will be a repeat of the past depression. Folks that don't know how to farm or garden, hunt and fish will suffer the consequences. I pray it don't happen God bless
Me to my friend. People for the most part can't do or know anything outside getting it give to them.
Jesus is coming soon for his church. Those saved through his blood! Repent and be saved!
Like him or not we just had a president that understood this
( though far from perfect I for one thought he was the best President in my life, born in '61)
And they all but crucified him! God help America with these current idiots at the helm!
Very well said my friend, & I completely agree with all u said.
@@garrywest7737 Thank you as well my friend. God bless you.
Another awesome video. I remember my family telling me stories about that time. They worked hard but they fed and took care of their families. I think you and I have a lot of the same memories. Great job and thanks.
Thanks Bobby and thanks for sharing your story.
My father and mother's families moved from the Appalachian mountains in Tennessee in the 1860s. The carried Appalachian culture with them. During the Depression my father's family of 16 lived in Wise County, TX. There were no jobs. They farmed, gardened, fished, trapped and hunted. My father travelled on freight trains looking for work. Eventually, the government created CCC camps that provided jobs building roads and dams. My father moved with his family to Haskell County by covered wagon to farm.
Thanks for sharing this my friend.
Once many yrs ago we were driving by my aunt's house when my dad saw her overheated plow horses. Dad stopped on a dime jumped out to brush, water down, and remove their bits from the plow horses which my cousins left geared up and tied to the shed. I couldn't hear dad racking out my young cousins but it wasn't pretty I am sure. My dad was a great hard working man and his love/respect for GOD still brings tears to my eyes. This channel is pure gold.
Awesome story my friend. Thank you.
23 year old man on the edge of Appalachia in Alabama thank you for your vids I can really relate to what you post you remind me of my grandad a lot the way you talk true Appalachian down in Alabama it’s similar to the Tennessee talk like you
I appreciate that. Thank you.
I’m a Okie born & bred. The dustbowl was so devastating, after effects were felt in the economy until 2018. The housing bubble that forced bank failures & foreclosures for the rest of the country didn’t change much for the folks here.
See, even when the dust bowl ended thanks to weather changes, better farming practices, and oil being discovered, ups and downs in our economy stunted much growth. First, WW2 happened. Then only 30 years of prosperity came before oil prices tanked in the 1980’s. At that point, many oil boom towns began to decline. Cotton was no longer king, so farming towns began to suffer as cotton gins & the railroad left. Stability came with better market prices, but by 2018 we were still so behind the rest of the country in growth that it wasn’t felt nearly as deeply as on the coasts. Today Oklahoma is actually doing well, albeit with short term gains. Small towns that began dying 40 years ago have become abandoned to drug users & meth cooks as farmers sell out. Developers who purchase the land near big cities & along interstates create suburban sprawl, with nothing left of the small communities they’ve replaced except their names used in strip mall business logos. The exodus from Oklahoma to California in the 1930’s has reversed, sending many folks used to high prices here to quickly buy up “cheap” acreage. Ranchers began to feel the pinch as their richer neighbors built huge homes, driving up property taxes. Then, voters legalized the loosest grow laws in the US here. Now land is being snatched up by Chinese nationalists-no, that’s not a stereotype-so that farmers & ranchers, unable to keep fighting surging prices & cheap imports, are folding. Therefore, more “cheap” land comes up available. While that means economic growth, many people here fear the long term outlook.
This year, the drought cycle has returned. Without proper land management techniques & rain coming soon, folks can absolutely expect a downturn from the breadbasket to the coasts as the prices for basic food increases. We are just as dry as we were in 1930. If it continues as long, we absolutely will see a massive decline. With more brush, trees & pasture today compared to then, I don’t know that it will be as ecologically devastating, but it will be just as economically.
Add to that - our water table is decreasing. With higher demands based on the type of crops (aka, weed) and water usage already allotted to big exports like wheat & cattle, even individuals not related to farming and removed from the land will begin to see the shortages on the fresh water supply. Technology, while amazing, has meant modern well drilling practices & household + commercial usages are draining the aquifer faster then it can refill. Without more rain, the lower portion of the Midwest will suffer greatly.
Awesome story my friend. Thanks so much for sharing your memories. God bless you.
There should be a law against selling land of american to forein countries.
My family lived in the mountains during that time. They ate very well. And there was faith and magical times that words can't fully describe.
I understand! Thanks for sharing that my friend.
I really enjoyed hearing you tell this story. My father & mother, lived through the Great Depression. They tried to impress upon all of their 7 children, me being the oldest, to NOT be wasteful, but saw that we always had more than we needed, with the help, from my mother's two sisters. We today, do not really understand, what they went through. My parents, and my 2 wonderful Aunts, are gone, but I will always remember, what a wonderful life, that they made for us, their children.
Thank for sharing my friend.
Sounds like you were blessed. You know a nation is only as strong as its families. It's sad to me that in our country today, families are so broken and most are not close and strong. No wonder our nation is falling apart. If a depression is coming in this country now, we are not going to do very well.
I notice ur name? Ky Ohio?
Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us! I found your channel by searching for info about the Melungeon people and now I'm binge watching. My mom's family is from that area, and I've heard them say that they didn't even know there was a depression, though that could also be on account of moonshine consumption lol.
Sadly, the country store is going extinct. I love Sheetz and Wawa, but there's just something about the backwoods cash only gas station where the local retired farmers hang out all day that we don't miss until it's gone.
Thanks so much for sharing your piece of history my friend. Great story. Glad you enjoy the videos. I'm just trying to tell our story in these mountains. Thanks so much for the comment my friend.
My grandpa on my mother's side grew up around Flat Gap or Blaine, Ky area. He told me about alot things that happen when he was a child. Sunday after church they had dinner on the grounds then after that they had singin school. He had a voice that I could listen to him sing forever. Didn't know it as a kid but we know today as bluegrass music. Oh! By the way. During Roosevelt presidental time my Dad's brother was in the 3 C camp and help build bridges. Some of those bridges if they are still standing would have a concrete sides with WPA and the year stamped on them. Thanks for these stories. Getting alot of memories from my Grandpa told me about.
Thank for sharing my friend.
So many people wouldn't survive like this now. Thank you for the video
I love your videos and story telling. My daddy grew up very poor in the Tennessee mountains. He said they didn’t even know there was a depression because they never had any money anyway. They took care of themselves and traded. They always had a garden,
Thanks for sharing my friend.
You did a great job of telling the story of this time in our history. I love listening to your stories and how you always seem to find the good in every situation.
Thank you mama for your comment and your support my friend.
I agree with all the positive comments and will look for more videos from you. Please, though, change the aggravating background sounds--makes it difficult to enjoy the content
Lovely! My grandfather (WW1 vet) lived in & worked at norfolk southern community. Grandmother gardened, raised beef & pork. Had dairy cow & laying hens. My Mother said they had meat only on Sundays. Until they passed away, they were SO thrifty it was painful to watch. I've missed them every day for more than 40 years. Can t wait to hear more!
Thanks for sharing my friend.
I was born in 1936 and remember that times were tough. We worked from around 10 years old in the fields at the pay of 15 cents an hour. We made it with Gods grace and mercy.
Thank you for sharing. My grandparents lived through the Great Depression and my parents still are like their parents.
Awesome my friend. Your very welcome.
Chiming in from Dickenson County. My grandfather was a farmer. Their family stories were similar to those here. A proud legacy.
Thanks for sharing my friend.
This is why Farmers are. So important. And God. Is the main ingredient.
Amen.
We also had a warm morning stove lol I remember mom waking us up and telling us to stay in bed until she got a fire built and the trailer warm... We didn't have much or much food to eat but from the time I can remember I was out working in the garden 7 days a week raising food and we eat off that through the winter and every meal was potatoes and beans and cornbread and we lived in Appalachia mountains the lower southern end bordering Kentucky but it molded me into who I am today and I could survive when the normal person couldn't but I left and I've not been back and Don't plan on ever going back to live unless I'm retired or they take me back in a box God bless you sir
Your welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.
I love these stories, thanks so much for sharing them
Glad you like them!
Love these old photos! Nice compilation ❤️
Thank you friend.
In most areas of this region, it wasn’t too much different before the depression. There wasn’t a lot of jobs and most people worked on the farms. There wasn’t a lot of money in circulation. Even less after the market crashed. So most people would trade work with each other for food or if they had something they had for something that they needed. One man had a farm a day’s wages was either a bushel or potatoes or a bushel of corn or so many pounds of meat. About once a week he’d pay them 50 cents to use to buy coffee, salt , baking powder or whatever they needed. They made whatever or grown most of their food. The cut wood for their fire. A lot of people had a small coal seam would dig it and use it with their fires. My Dad and Grandparents and Great Aunts and Uncles told me so many times how they lived that I feel like I lived those times myself. Everyone needs to listen and learn about those times. Hopefully we’ll won’t see times like that. It doesn’t hurt to learn to be prepared.
Your exactly right my friend. Thanks for sharing my friend.
I love this! I was born in 1950 in West Virginia. So much of this is familiar, based on my parents' and grandparents' stories.
Thanks for sharing my friend.
@@donnielaws7020 You're welcome! I remember as a kid walking through the woods in Summers County, West Virginia and seeing the huge dead Chestnut trees. It was really sad.
@@hsh1950 It is. Thanks for sharing my friend.
I was born in 1958 in Crum (Wayne county) WV. My daddy worked at everything he could. He did moonshining, coal mining, and ended his days logging and was a Sawyer on his own sawmill. He passed at 49 years old if lung cancer. I miss him. He drank a lot. My mom was our savior. She was born in 1938 and knew everything about seeing, cooking, canning, planting and you name it. Her herb knowledge kept half the town well. I miss her. She passed 3 years after daddy at age 46. Brain cancer. She taught me all these things. I still could survive.
I really admire the way you tell your stories.
Thank you friend.
My grandfather had two farms along the Clinch. TVA bought him out and he moved to a farm north of Knoxville. Every year my grandparents and their daughters would return to the site of where their town of Willow Grove had stood and to the local cemetery to visit their ancestors.
Thanks for sharing this my friend.
My ex-wife family during the Great Depression had had and raised tobacco and Cattle and of course a very large garden they had land and property they did pretty good and they'll have a diary this is how they would always feed the people that will come off the trains and give them a place to stay for the night all that in that diary is very interesting they were grubs and had money...now my grandparents grew up in Shelby Alabama during the Great Depression and the things that they learned stuck with them for the rest of their lives I had learned alot from my grandmother I love your videos keep up the good work my friend your great story telling I would love meet you one and just talk
Thanks so much for sharing your memories my friend. God bless you.
Wow! You really have educated me about The Great Depression I never understand before until now 💕.
Thanks for sharing this my friend.
I really enjoyed this video. My last grandparent that lived through the Great Depression passed in 2012. I do miss my grandparents, very much so. My grandfather grew up poor on the southern end of long beach island here in NJ, many decades before it was the vacation destination it is today. My grandmother was from Pittsburgh, PA, and I would have to ask my mom again how my grandparents met so long ago. Neither came from wealthy families, both knew hardship before the depression. As a young person, my grandmother worked at the J & L steel mill in Pittsburgh and my grandfather's family lived off of what came out of the Atlantic ocean and Barnegat bay. My grandfather's 99th birthday would've been January 12th
WOW, Thanks for sharing my friend.
Wow, another great documentary perfectly narrated. Thank you again Donnie!
You are very welcome
Real American stories and history. The greatest generation ever, I pray their strength is passed down to us for todays trials. Thank you so much for sharing. Hard work is missing in the vocabulary today.
Well said! Thank you for sharing my friend.
I love this channel. I can listen to it all day.
Thank you friend.
YOUR CHANNEL NOT ONLY DESCRIBES TENNESSEE BUT KENTUCKY TOO.
THANKS SO MUCH, YOU DESCRIBE OUR FAMILY LIFE TOO.
Your very welcome my friend. God bless you.
My grand parents were farmers during the depression and they taught me many of the things u talked about/ they were very smart people to be able to keep what they had during that time
Thanks for sharing my friend.
Thank you so much for putting all these together. My mom's side of the family are from the mountains in nc ( when i was small we lived in the blue ridge mtns nc. i live in the foothills now but my heart longs to return to those beautiful rolling hills and high rock outcrops) and the fact that you sound a lot like my grandpa just makes it that much more special. So thank you
Your so welcome my friend. Glad you enjoyed it.
Donnie my heart hurts watching this video. but is happy at the same time that your bringing back what I want more than anything and that is family ways.I’m 51 this year and have seen families that don’t even speak to each other anymore. So disrespectful and cruel. I have 4 grown children and haven’t seen 3 of them in over a year. They never come see me or their mom and we are just now realizing this has caused us both health issues from all the stress. We make mountain medicines and live off the land but a person has to get their emotions together and that’s what we are working on. I say all that to say your videos are the recipe to show people we can make it through all these tough times. Those hardships are what made people depend on each other and respect one another. Today not so much. So again thanks for your stories and you are making a difference at least I can feel the spirit you have!
God bless you my friend. Thanks for sharing.
Also from TN. We are going through the same thing. We haven't seen our son and his family for 2 1/2 years. The heart break never goes away but some how you keep breathing. Bless you! Maybe some day they will need us again.
I love listening to your stories. My grandparents lived through the depression and my mom was born right at the end of it. But she picked up what grandma learned during that time. Lots of canning and saving. My grandma had a 4th grade education, but you couldn't tell it. I remember as a kid going mushroom foraging in Kentucky with her and grandpa. Best memory of them.
Awesome my friend. Thanks for sharing your memories. God bless you.
Thank you so .uch for this account of what it was like. My mom grew up in Viper, KY. She was born in 1919; one of 7 kids that lived. My grandparents farmed and they kept a soup kitchen going in their backyard. My father, born in 1923, grew up in Nebraska. His mother died of blood poisoning in 1929 when he was going on 6. His father died of pneumonia when he was 16. Dad was very much the youngest of 7 children that lived despite having 6 much older siblings, he raised himself. He and rhenext oldest, a sister 4 1/2 older than him, had a little wagon; they took eggs in it and sold them to help make it. My payments generation were truly strong and marvelous.
A hard life my friend. God bless. Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing.
You tell the stories so well! Your voice & accent are very authentic & perfect for the subject matter. Thanks for sharing…. Keep ‘em comin’!
Thank you so much!