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As an experiment, I posed a question to a group of pharmacists that frequent a professional forum I frequent. I asked, "When you hear the word "Appalachia" what is the first thing you think of in relation to its people and culture?"
The responses cracked me up:
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I don't even think about people or culture. I know, it's sad.
I just think of treetops and the area's eastern orientation.
That area of the country baffles me. I don't know what to think of it...
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1) hatfield vs mccoy
2) Beer
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poverty, no running water, poor health care
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Believe it or not, culture. Specifically, bluegrass and Civil War stuff.
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1) fat and dumb 2) welfare and oxys
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1) People: some are maybe kind of hickish, but most are down to earth. One of my good friends is from Boone, NC and she is really nice and genuine.
2) Culture: Not really sure...maybe really relaxed and laid back.
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1. People - outdoorsy, probably nice and fun, sort of hippie
2. Culture - mountains...?? small town, hiking...
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People - racist white trash, rednecks
Culture - beer-drinking and dropping out, maybe mining
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Sharyn McCrumb - one of my favorite authors!
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1. toothless
2. huh? what culture?
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1) poor white people who have been largely forgotten and neglected by social programs in favor of bigger cities. I imagine just very plain clothed folks, people who do mechanical sorts of jobs, and a lot of unemployment and poverty. But generally good people.
2) bluegrass music
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1. Big Foot
2. Snow covered mountains
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the movie Deliverance only in the mountains
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So first thoughts were hilljack and glorious lack of sophistication (foxworthy's definition of redneck)
though my second thoughts were miner's and college athletics
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1. Mountains.
2. (Now I've actually been in the region) Really nice people.
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1) People with calcium deficiencies
2) Culture centered around distilling liquor
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1) The first thing I think of is Appalachian Emergency Room (broken link).
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(Back to me)
It seems like most people know nothing about our region....unless they have actually experienced it. Keep in mind, these are all folks with doctorate-level degrees, too. Every one of the positive responses came from a person who studied or lives in Appalachia. To say we have a PR problem is to say that Yao Ming is kinda tall. Perhaps later I will repeat the same thing on the city-data General US forum.
Hey, WVUPharm, here is a link to a study I found in my Google wanderings (I am a Google Wandervogel). The sampling was small, about 61 people, and African-American WVians comprised about one-quarter. I found it interesting that they resisted being called "Appalachian", which they thought demeaning. I also found the following amusing - "Respondents indicated a woman is not expected to prepare food based on individual choices made by family members; it is up to the woman to decide what to prepare." My mom and grandmother to a T-This is what you are going to eat! The study seemed to indicate this was a change from the past, but I don't think so, I think women in WV had a very strong say in what went down. My great-great-grandmother looked like Mammy Yokum and smoked a corn-cob pipe. I don't think great-great Grandpa Ross would dare to cross her. Peer Reviewed: Social and Cultural Factors Influencing Health in Southern West Virginia: A Qualitative Study
WVU doctorates have nothing to do with cultural messages. Does achieving a doctorate make them magically impervious to media?
Fact is sometimes their own education gets in the way of seeing reality because they've predicated it on poor assumptions that took root in academia. Something wrong with that? Absolutely, but what of it? Fact is the only way to manifest this reality is for WV'rs to live it out by lending it credibility with their own choices. Have they done that? No, and yes.
I would encourage you to understand social psych, ref: elliot aronson, regarding pecking order group mentality need for diminishing others as some vicarious way to stand tall. Civilization evolving past it would be nice, but it's persisted in our american culture despite the framing of equality in earnest.
Can you say you've witnessed the same of WV'rs doing it to their own? Because I can, and what a crying shame that is. Emulating obnoxious movers and shakers won't make you anymore successful than a woman wearing pants makes her a man, but the perception is there so people tend to mimic superficial ideals that could more accurately be described as perverse characatures. This was more obvious to me in places like NY and cali, but it happens everywhere to one degree or another.
Theater is supposed to fool whom? I spent the whole time in my insurance agents office the other day LMAO @ him. He was carrying on waving the corporate flag at me, as if I were called into the principals office, for failing to sign a document on his timeline. Open for biz? Hard to believe I went there for serious answers about the laws involved for WV state.
No, WVU, you cannot solve things externally through superficial PR. Solving them comes from within more often than not, and WV'rs willing to take pride in what's real about themselves, and ditch the rest of the BS that's become a trapping of commercialism for the rest of america, will do fine even if some blow hard proffessor from Yale has no faith. They'll succeed despite them. If WV can't manage to instill a solid sense of worth in it's young, then you need to worry.
Glad retired navy took actions to make sure history is faithfully passed on instead of the tripe they sold me in elementary school books. Didn't hear until a few years back G washington didn't cut down a cherry tree.
Bobilee: In pioneer times the lady of the house was the 'keeper of the keys...holdover from feudal England...the rich wore the key rings around their waist as a symbol of that authority...her Larder kept life and sustenance. The meal planning was a remanant of that direction...the food stores were managed to get them through the 'Starving Times..she dictated what and how much food the meal was...and as wife in balance to the husbands work of providing the stores...her position was paramount to the familes survival...each home/ cabin on an individual basis and the sharing to others as everyone needed each others help...no stranger was ever turned away at the door who asked for food..
It was their times.. sound familiar?
I always wondered why West Virginia is always mentioned when it comes to Appalachia though. I am referring mainly to the negative stereotypes. The region spans a large area of the eastern US. In the numerical sense, Pennsylvania has the most residents in Appalachia, but rarely do you hear Pennsylvania hillbilly jokes. (I've heard it called "Pennsyltucky" before, but the jokes about West Virginia are more widespead.)
That depends on where you go. In Northern WV and OH, I've only the realistic criticisms of PA, and never heard jokes about PA being hillbilly. Go to NJ, MD, DE, NY, though, and that "Pennsyltucky" thing takes on the cruel character of the hillbilly jokes. I've heard PA made fun of as a hillbilly state around Buffalo, NY, and quite a bit in Jersey.
That depends on where you go. In Northern WV and OH, I've only the realistic criticisms of PA, and never heard jokes about PA being hillbilly. Go to NJ, MD, DE, NY, though, and that "Pennsyltucky" thing takes on the cruel character of the hillbilly jokes. I've heard PA made fun of as a hillbilly state around Buffalo, NY, and quite a bit in Jersey.
I lived in the NYC area for more than 15 years. Believe me, they think anything west of Philadelphia is out in the sticks and do not differentiate from one place to another. Pittsburgh is hicksville to them. Mention it, and the reaction is YEEE HAW!
Ask them where the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland is from, if they think we're so backwards.
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