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grew up and moved back to one, spent 12 years in the other. surprise, surprise, PA is WAY more 'backward', whatever that means, imho. Rednecks in the Alleghenies are downright mean, not so much in Mississippi, at least they got that surface of friendliness (sometimes). I agree with other posters that some of the northern places are worse, objectively--South has problems, yeah, but there is the southern code of honor, southern hospitality, all that--not just a myth. PA has little of that; used to have more, but with drugs, a lot has disappeared. Too many people seem glad to be ignorant, resent you if you 'think you're better than them' (i.e. got a degree) even tho they're happy to be @$#-0-ed by politicians, their bosses, and the military. I went to school in a town which had a family everyone called the 'mushheads'--yes, they were inbred: you progressive types, this phenom actually does exist! They had various problems with their skulls, birth defects, and were very mean and scary people. This was well before meth.
There's always a little truth about Appalachia in Hollywood movies, just like there's plenty of violence in the inner city. But it doesn't mean that a casual stranger driving through is going to get harmed--that's a huge Hollywood myth, unless you're drunk and in the wrong honky-tonk. Here in PA, you can get in serious trouble if you look even a little different, and you go in to certain places. But that's everywhere.
What really gets me is how small-town people don't want to change, and then complain when the world (i.e. jobs, opportunities) passes them by. Some towns in PA--not all, but some--revel in this small-town 'good enough' attitude, which was a heck of a lot different than their ancestors on the frontier, who built a formidable economy. So anyone who is different, or has new ideas about how to do something, bring in tourists (a microbrewery? sounds like it's for f@#$ts. Not here) and money, is shunned, or ignored. You see the results with all the towns clinging to life. Their big claim to fame is an Interstate, so there's a few jobs with the businesses at the exit ramps...
As far as simply falling-down towns, try to find anything up north, or anywhere in the US, that compares to those old coal towns around Hazelton, and Pottsville. Centralia is even on fire (underground) but folks still wanted to live there until govt forced them out. As poor and proud as anywhere. OF course, if you REALLY want to be tourist with this kind of stuff, drive up Kensington Ave in Philly. Nothing compares.
A few places like this come to mind in the desert Southwest.
Ajo, AZ.
Bagdad, AZ
Elko, NV
Lordsburg, NM
Pecos, TX
Oildale, CA
Yermo, CA
Anywhere near the Salton Sea in CA
And I'm sure there are any number of backwater, "land that time forgot" towns in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and the Florida panhandle that fit the description. Jasper, TX is pretty scary and backwards. So is Vidor, TX for the same reasons.
In Washington state there are a few towns like Springdale, Republic, Chehalis, and Moses Lake that aren't too far off the mark, and I'm sure you can find many more similar towns in Idaho and Oregon.
I've never been to Xenia, Ohio, but if it's anything like the way it was portrayed in the movie "Gummo", then you'll hit pay-dirt there.
Forsyth County Georgia has a body of work that makes it among the few places deserving of scariest of the scariest consideration.That's saying something when you consider that it borders....Atlanta!!!
I live in rural Northern PA and know most of the people and I don't feel intimidated by them. When I go out west on I80 I feel afraid at gas stations. It feels like everyone in the place is super redneck and on meth while drilling holes through my head with their eyes just because I drive a Civic and don't have camo on.
Location: Metro Atlanta (Sandy Springs), by way of Macon, GA
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Driving up 75 through those rural mountain towns in East TN and East KY looked scary. The people looked much more "Scary" than your average rural dweller in the deep south (GA, Bama, etc)
A few places like this come to mind in the desert Southwest.
Ajo, AZ.
Bagdad, AZ
Elko, NV
Lordsburg, NM
Pecos, TX
Oildale, CA
Yermo, CA
Anywhere near the Salton Sea in CA
And I'm sure there are any number of backwater, "land that time forgot" towns in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and the Florida panhandle that fit the description. Jasper, TX is pretty scary and backwards. So is Vidor, TX for the same reasons.
In Washington state there are a few towns like Springdale, Republic, Chehalis, and Moses Lake that aren't too far off the mark, and I'm sure you can find many more similar towns in Idaho and Oregon.
I've never been to Xenia, Ohio, but if it's anything like the way it was portrayed in the movie "Gummo", then you'll hit pay-dirt there.
I actually know a woman from Xenia, OH, although I think she left there first chance she got. She doesn't exactly look like someone from the cast of "Gummo" though, with her blue hair and multiple piercings and the whole hardcore punk thing going. She lives here in Albuquerque, and was an extra on the show "Breaking Bad" on one of the episodes. I'll have to inquire more about it next time I see her.
I also used to know a guy from Lordsburg, NM that I met in San Francisco back in the late 1990's when i lived in the Bay Area, who ironically, was also a punk rocker. I don't really know much about Lordsburg other than it's really small and it's in the far SW corner of the state.
Since the topic of this thread is "Scary Hillbilly Towns", I looked up Lordsburg on Wikipedia and I found this interesting bit of info:
" As Lordsburg had one of the few motels in the Southwest that would accept black guests (El Paso being a notable exception), it was especially popular with African American travelers in the mid-20th century during the end of legal segregation."
So does that still qualify it as a "Scary Hillbilly Town"?
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pennsylvania vs mississippi
