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That's one thing I'll always defend about this forum,the ability to discuss the positive along with the not-so-positive. Life isn't always a bowl of cherries.
That sounds like something I heard also about PA...they'd say not to wander down any dirt roads 'cause you could end up on someone's property lookin' down the barrel of a shotgun.
That probably explains why there were alot of street signs missing up there or just ones made of cardboard
I think it may be all about independence . The mountain folks are a proud bunch. Always have been. They are what they are. If I had to make a choice , live in the ghettos of a big city, or in some hollow high in the wilds of WV. NC. , or anywhere off the beaten track , I would pick the road less traveled , hands down !
Today, you'll probably find some neo-Mountaineers who fancy being called proud as justification for living a remote life. But in truth, the people who once inhabited these lands (the Appachalachians) were too concerned with bare survival - crop productivity, food storage, shelter, their livestock, sickness - to think about pride or independence, unless it happened to be threatened.
Only in Texas my friends... Only in Texas .... Too bad......
A lawyer runs a stop sign and gets pulled over by a sheriff's deputy. He thinks that he is smarter than the deputy because he is a lawyer from New York and is certain that he has a better education then any cop from Houston, Texas. He decides to prove this to himself and have some fun at the Texas deputy' s expe nse.
The deputy says," License and registration, please."
"What for?" says the lawyer.
The deputy says, "You didn't come to a complete stop at the stop sign."
Then the lawyer says, "I slowed down, and no one was coming."
"You still didn't come to a complete stop, Says the deputy. License and registration, please."
The lawyer says, "What's the difference?"
"The difference is you have to come to complete stop, that's the law License and registration, please!" the Deputy says.
Lawyer says, "If you can show me the legal difference between slow down and stop, I'll give you my license and registration; and you give me the ticket. If not, you let me go and don't give me the ticket."
"That sounds fair. Please exit your vehicle, sir," the deputy says.
At this point, the deputy takes out his nightstick and starts beating the daylights out of the lawyer and says, "Do you want me to stop, or just slow down?"
I have to ask has anyone approached this question from an analytical perspective. By that I mean what makes a location "scary"? One factor that might frighten some is the sparse populations of so-called hillbilly towns. When a man or woman is used to being constantly surrounded by other people in densley populated areas, that becomes his or her comfort zone. Conversely, he or she may find it disconcerting in a "holler" with only one or two families around. Even though these families are probably harmless. Similarly, the lack of street sounds, and street lights, and industries, and the rest of the urban infrastructure may also seem scary to an urbanite or suburbanite, though in itself the lack of infrastructure is not inherently harmful. So these sources of fear are mostly ones of perception, and not necessarily reality. And the flip side of it is that when a person from a rural area is brought into Times Square at the height of the workday, that person may also be uncomforatable, and yes even scared, because of the large number of people around.
Besides the fears of perception, there are also reality-based apprehensions about "hillbilly towns". Most of these are overblown, especially in the year 2008. How did rural America, especially the mountainous regions, get the reputation as being dangerous? In the late 19th and early 20th Centuries there were several family feuds in Appalachia, the Hatfields and McCoys being the most famous. Also regions where resources are less plentiful, or even scarce, such as modern American inner cities, have a reputation for being rough and tumble. Plus - again, like African-Americans in the inner cities - Appalachian-Americans have had a perpetual PR crisis in the media. The two are so often portrayed in an unflattering light that a low opinion of these groups is, unfortunately, not a rarity.
So, how much of these fears are justified? It is hard for me to objectively say, but rural people probably have the same core needs and desires as other people. I'll admit the bell curve may be slightly lower in some rural mountain areas, maybe centered in the mid 90s instad of 100. But every slot along the curve should be represented in these areas - from 150+ genius to profound retardation. These so called scary hillbillies might have unkept beards and grease stained clothes, but they aren't animals, and many are quite dignified. That hillbilly in the gas station may just be the high school principal or hospital manager on his day off going on a fishing trip. Yet to the couple on their way back home to Naperville he is a SCARY HILLBILLY!
Today, you'll probably find some neo-Mountaineers who fancy being called proud as justification for living a remote life. But in truth, the people who once inhabited these lands (the Appachalachians) were too concerned with bare survival - crop productivity, food storage, shelter, their livestock, sickness - to think about pride or independence, unless it happened to be threatened.
Some of the mountain folks are shy , but , it maybe cause of that still out back , or , these days , the Weed farm in the woods. I know all about it , lived in the APPs , for 18 years.
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You don't know the roads! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
