Hillbillies? What Hillbillies? (Baltimore, Dundalk, Essex: real estate, houses, neighborhood)

[Calvert Hall '62]

My understanding is that 1.5 million people lived in town during WWII and only 950,000 in 1950. After WWII, there remained a small concentration of hillbillies in places like Armistead Gardens, and a more significant presence out in Essex/Dundalk, but as I understand it, most of the 1 million who departed were hillbillies who worked here in the war industries.

What drove me from town -- back in 1974 -- was the worsening thug culture. And the thugs in question were not white hillbillies.

My stubborn parents didn't want to leave the cozy row house at 3570 Juneway where they raised their two kids. So they tolerated the verbal taunts, youths grabbing their crotches when passing them on the street, vandalized auto, theft of chairs from the front porch, and even an attempted burglary. These youths by the way were not white hillbillies.

But in 1983, at age 62, they too took flight when the elderly woman living at 3584 was raped ... on her front porch ... in broad daylight.

[barante]

Very little of this has been documented in Baltimore. I did interview Dr. Matthew Tayback who was the city health department's WWII expert in these matters before his death. But most of what he had known had disappeared with time.

Appalachian Migration to Baltimore/DC | Special Collections at Belk Library

http://books.google.com/books?id=N-5...ietila&f=false

[P47P47]

Also, "hillbilly" is NOT synonymous with "lowlife".

[santafe400]

Interesting info Calvert Hall '62. I am sorry that you had to experience the bitter end of a once vibrant neighborhood. My mother use to tell me of growing up near the zoo, just a few blocks up from Park Circle near Reisterstown Road and being able to keep the door unlocked at night and never thinking anything bad could or would happen.

Who would ever think that in the 1950's and 60's that the waterfront (ie. Fells Point, Canton) would become such a happening place. Those areas use to be the pits! In fact, long time residents of Canton tell me that back in the 1980's they couldn't even give houses away for a dollar since there were no buyers or investors interested in that part of town.

[barante]

Originally Posted by Calvert Hall '62

My understanding is that 1.5 million people lived in town during WWII and only 950,000 in 1950. After WWII, there remained a small concentration of hillbillies in places like Armistead Gardens, and a more significant presence out in Essex/Dundalk, but as I understand it, most of the 1 million who departed were hillbillies who worked here in the war industries.
.

That 1.5 million figure is far too high. Over 1 million, according to the Washington Post at the time. But that was a guesstime since censuses took place only every ten years, thus missing the peak of WWII.

The number of out-of-town workers, many of them Appalachians, was estimated at 250,000. Many went home; others moved all over the place from Arbutus to Glen Burnie.

Baltimore's population plummeted when post-WWII black migration from the Carolinas halted and would no longer compensate for whites fleeing to counties.

[Calvert Hall '62]

Originally Posted by santafe400

Interesting info Calvert Hall '62. I am sorry that you had to experience the bitter end of a once vibrant neighborhood. My mother use to tell me of growing up near the zoo, just a few blocks up from Park Circle near Reisterstown Road and being able to keep the door unlocked at night and never thinking anything bad could or would happen.

Who would ever think that in the 1950's and 60's that the waterfront (ie. Fells Point, Canton) would become such a happening place. Those areas use to be the pits! In fact, long time residents of Canton tell me that back in the 1980's they couldn't even give houses away for a dollar since there were no buyers or investors interested in that part of town.

Canton's where my paternal grandparents ended up after they got off the boat in 1915. They were greeted with "Go live among your own kind, don't apply for our jobs, and learn to speak English, ya f****** Polacks." Still they kissed the sidewalks of Canton because it was better than life under the czar. Widowed granny raised five kids by scrubbing floors and then as a cook in the cafeteria at Western Electric. Even she, poor as she was, moved on up out of the "pits" of Canton in 1955. She's probably turning in her grave over the value of Canton real estate today.

[westsideboy]

Originally Posted by P47P47

Also, "hillbilly" is NOT synonymous with "lowlife".

Thank you.

I would hope that would go without saying.......but I am not sure it is. When I leave my big jug with XXX written on the side and straw hat at home, I look just like anyone else.

[rudy_d]

Why do we need two separate threads about hillbillies?

[Woodlands]

Originally Posted by rudy_d

Why do we need two separate threads about hillbillies?

Yeah maybe not hillbililes but probably one on rednecks...Hillbillies live in the City..... Rednecks... the Counties..

[Woodlands]

Originally Posted by P47P47

Also, "hillbilly" is NOT synonymous with "lowlife".

Agreed... seems like more of a culture and a lifestyle... didnt Hillbillies invent NASCAR, Moonshine, and some forms of Country Music