Thursday, 14 April 2011

• Life in the Appalachians

  I watched a movie yesterday evening with one of my best friends that absolutely blew my mind.  Sadly, I wasn’t mind blown by the content.  I was amazed to find such an accurate portrayal of a big problem we have here in my area, the Appalachians.  I wish I had known about The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia when it came out.  I recommend it, even if a culture shock for most.

  Where I live, crazy crackheadedness is an epidemic.  Actually, poverty is a big issue and that horrid, often resulting means of coping has taken over to pollute our communities.  It’s like I say, I’ve never seen so many dead people walking around.  Many of them look like deteriorating corpses, and that really isn’t an exaggeration.

  Actually, the White family didn’t seem to have the kind of drug issue that’s causing this amazing transformation from life to death.  The Whites were/are pill snorting, weed smoking, booze drinking outlaws.  The real zombies are the meth addicts, though the family in the movie is precisely like all the crackheads who aren’t on meth (when I say crackheads, I’m actually referring to the whole group of drugged out folks).  As my friend and I watched, we kept saying, “these are Bobfork people.”  We talked about which characters reminded us of which people we happened to know.  It was very entertaining, even if insanity.  Family picking another family member up from the federal penitentiary, a new mother snorting a pill off the table in her hospital room with the kid asleep in its bed, violence, death, pure wildness, coal and Appalachian music.  Hank Williams III performed bits of songs about the Whites all throughout the documentary.

  Pills and alcohol seem to be a problem more prevalent among the poorer folks, but meth is a drug that seems to be crossing over from more shady parts of the community into the rest.  And I mean, of course drugs of any kind effect more lives than just the poor all over the country, but here, methamphetamine abuse is running rampant.  A box of pseudoephedrine can sell as much as $75.00, depending on the strength and pill count, and people are walking around with their meth labs in their jacket pockets.  I’m not even kidding about that.  The “shake and bake” method, as it’s called, is all contained within a plastic soda bottle.  Zombies are walking around with only pieces of their teeth left, nasty scabs on their faces, and just an overall appearance as though they’ve been aged fifteen years or so.  They’re snorting it, smoking it, and injecting it.  Aluminum foil is a basic necessity for the lot.  More well off people are starting to use it, and those who don’t wish to work are cooking and selling what they can manage to part with.  There are a lot of mountain chemists, as I call them.

  

  Sorry lady who I found on Google images.  Such sad eyes!

  I detest it.  I’d honestly rather see people zombied out on pills than to look like they literally just dug their way out of a grave.  Both suck, really, and an addict of either will resort to stealing and violence, but being meth'd out is akin to demonic possession or some such.  The people transform into a whole other species.

  All that being said, you need to know that my neck of the woods has some of the most beautiful scenery in the United States.  It truly does.  Furthermore, there are nice areas of each community (with the exception of Bobfork and most other places ending in fork) with nice homes and families who need and want for very little.  We have some of the most magnificent lakes, cliffs, and caves to be seen, and Appalachian art is pretty interesting.  I wasn’t always interested in that, but after discovering how much I love celtic and some traditional Irish music, it came to my attention just how similar our music is, having Irish/Celtic roots.  I still cringe at the sound of bluegrass tunes, but the folk music is great.  The arts and crafts are very nice as well.

  

  Mountain Dulcimer

  

  Music artist, Jean Ritchie

  

  Appalachian quiltwork

  

  Cumberland Falls during a moonbow

  

  Crystal Lake inside Mammoth Cave, KY. World's longest cave system.

  Anyway, check out the movie if you haven’t already.  It’s well done, and as Candace and I would say,“all jacked up!”

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