"content" is the key word in what you said !
YOU (and many others, of course, including "health and social" workers)
are of the opinion that those were "horrid living conditions," but THEY
didn't think so. Surely, you don't want to live as they did, but does that make
them automatically in error? Who's to set the standards? ! They were not
malcontents, not dissatisfied and rebellious, demanding their "rights."
Perhaps, they would look with as much disgust at the way the outside world
lived. I'm not so sure they were as lazy as you think, since they did earn a
living for themselves and their rather large families. They weren't looking
for government hand-outs. Is there something really wrong with "perpetual
pregnancy"? You speak of the pitifully high death rate of infants, but at
least they didn't kill their babies, as is done today in the form of
abortions! (An accurate comparison in numbers would be revealing, no doubt.) Maybe
they intermarried, but at least they did marry! And, who among us doesn't
have at least one instance of cousins-marrying-cousins in our Family Tree?!
If they were content and happy and weren't complaining, let them be.
Everyone needn't fit the "mold" that we create for them. Let God, their Creator,
be their Judge. Their hearts were honest and their motives were pure.
In a message dated 11/20/2012 3:37:23 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
Have read the first 30 pages of book and wish I could find the complete
book. Written by health and social professionals in the 1930's from
research on-site, it is an eye-opener to the horrid living
conditions of the folks in the five subject Hollows.
The ignorance, laziness, filth and poverty these people were content with
in the 20th century America is horrid. Intermarriage and perpetual
pregnancy, lack of health services and high death rate of infants is
pitiful.
This book does not glamorize the folks of the Hollows but reveals their
hidden communities in their mountain shacks all of which are described as
less than 100 miles from the U.S. capital.
Thanks for the link to the book.
Tree Mother
On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 3:11 PM, Lona Boudreaux
<[log in to unmask]>wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Thanks for posting. I will look for this book as my husband and I have
> enjoyed our visits to the Blue Ridge area.
>
> Lona
> Monroe, Louisiana
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Sharon Domer
> Sent: Monday, November 19, 2012 11:38 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Subject: Re: [VA-ROOTS] About bedcovers... was inventory
>
> Carole-
>
> You are right on the mark with your analysis of people then and now.
>
> Sharon Shaffer Domer
>
> From: Carole D. Bryant <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2012 3:57 PM
> Subject: Re: [VA-ROOTS] About bedcovers... was inventory
>
> "Hollow Folk" ! I reckon those folk were anything but "hollow" ! Such
> living most often results in solid personal character -- the kind of
> people
> some of us would like to have for neighbors ! ! ! Kind and generous,
> honest
> and faithful, God-fearing and spiritually strong.
>
> I know my comment is a bit "off subject," but I couldn't resist. The
term
> just jumped out at me. There are exceptions, of course, but generally
our
> "soft living" today is producing an unkind and greedy, deceitful and
> incompetent, immoral and spiritually dead society ! Give me the old
> "hollow
> folk" ANY day !
>
> Carole D. Bryant
>
>
>
>
> In a message dated 11/18/2012 3:19:52 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> Carolyn, what a nice response. Many of my kin came to the Shenandoah
> Valley in the 1730s. I can't imagine how tough the conditions were
while
> they tried to put up a cabin. I look at how spoiled I am (can't be too
> warm or too cool) and wonder how, genetically, my line survived.
>
> Your comments reminded me of a book I read ...Hollow Folk by Mandel
> Sherman
> and Thomas R. Henry. It was written in 1933 and tells of life in the
> hollows on the Blue Ridge Mountains. From the tone of your email....I
> think you may enjoy it.
>
> Regards,
> Madaline
>
>
>
> On Sun, Nov 18, 2012 at 10:11 AM, Carolyn Bruce <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>
> Quantities of blankets, quilts, and coverlids (a.k.a. counterpanes or
>> "countypins") were necessary in homes in which there was no central
>>
> heat...
>
>> and if the fire went out, no heat at all. Most homes were of wood and
had
>> no insulating materials. In addition, kinfolks might come to stay
awhile,
>> often around the holidays... maybe with numerous children, which would
>> require providing pallets or some form of bedding to be able to sleep
>> everyone comfortably. Straw or corn shucks would be stuffed into
"straw
>> ticks" which made rudimentary mattresses that were laid on the floor to
>> accommodate visitors, especially young un's.
>>
>> My mother told of growing up in a house with all her brothers and
>>
> sisters
>
>> (there were ten) at home at one time, sharing beds among them, two or
>>
> three
>
>> in a bed. There were two upstairs bedrooms, one for the boys and one
for
>> the girls... but come fall of the year, teachers often boarded at their
>> house, and the boys were pushed out into an attic space. Cold wouldn't
>>
> even
>
>> come close to describing the conditions. At times it was truly freezing
>>
> in
>
>> the bedrooms and they would have to break ice on top of the water in
the
>> wash bowl and ewer to wash their faces when they arose.
>>
>> In the time frame of your "wagoner", it was even colder than in the
20th
>> century, at least in the U.S. and Europe. Around 1700, it was so cold
in
>> the area known as Alsace-Lorraine, it is said that birds froze in
flight
>> and fell from the sky. Heavy snows fell in most of Europe, and canals
and
>> streams froze. Remember Hans Brinker, the poor boy (and his sister) who
>> competed in the traditional speed-skating race from one town to the
next
>>
> on
>
>> the frozen canal? And all those snowy Currier and Ives prints from
that
>> period? That was during a centuries-long dip in temperatures that
started
>> in the early 1300s and ended about the mid-1800s... called the "Little
>>
> Ice
>
>> Age". So your wagoner would have been most appreciative of having a
large
>> stockpile of warm blankets and other bedcovers, as would most of his
>> neighbors.
>>
>> Thank goodness for central heat.
>>
>> Carolyn
>>
>> --
>> Carolyn HALE BRUCE
>> Virginia Beach, VA
>>
>>
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>>
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--
"She is insane, of course. The family history has become a mania for her."
Hercule Poirot
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This project includes Lankford spelling also.
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