I guess I share this conflict, too. I am part Jewish and part Appalachian. My mom was from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, but moved away and ended up in the Northeast, where she met my dad. I have spent my whole life living between these 2 worlds.
Yes, it is interesting how it's always the outsiders seem to try to define what a culture is really all about. Perhaps it's because they have distance from it. They are quiet, sensitive souls who feel the longing to belong, and yet are distanced enough from the culture to observe from the outside.
Their sense of alienation gives them deeper insight.
I never really considered my mother’s family to be Appalachian. I don’t think the Shenandoah Valley quite qualifies as Appalachia. It is right on the border though. My mother’s family were not poor people. My grandfather was not poor, (he had roots with the Mennonites.) My grandmother was poor, but not dirt poor. I only visited once or twice per year, but what I saw there wasn’t anything like the “Bloody Breathitt” that Vance portrays.
I read HillBilly Elegy, or most of it, I think. It was a good book. I liked how he traced the generational trauma through his grandparents and his mother. His descriptions of his mother are painful, and yet, I can see how she truly was the lost child of an alcoholic family system. Unstable relationships, drug use, outbursts of rage and threats of suicide. She had to have had BPD. So sad, too, because she was a successful nurse before the drug addiction got the best of her. It was as though her personality just disintegrated.
No, the Appalachians don't have quite the long spiritual history as the Jews, but they are similar, in the sense that their religion--Bible based Protestantism-- is deeply ingrained in their ways of thinking and their language, just like it is for the Jews. They are a people, with their own language, with a heritage, a storytelling people. In this way, I can easily equate Appalachians to Jews.
I think that a good example of an Appalachian is Tipper from “Celebrating Appalachia.” She has a blog called “The Blind Pig and the Acorn.” You should check her out. She is more like the people that I knew from Appalachia.
Mar 24, 2023·edited Mar 24, 2023Liked by Sarah Einstein
My father's people have lived in Wayne County area since at least the 1700s as far as I can tell. But he left home at 14 in response to the Depression, joined the military when he was old enough, and never went back. We visited occasionally (maybe four times?) in between overseas assignments. My mother was an English war bride and we visited her family about the same number of times. So although I am, well, comforted when I recognize any bits of their cultural heritages in myself, it would be so inaccurate for me to describe myself as British or Appalachian.
I guess I share this conflict, too. I am part Jewish and part Appalachian. My mom was from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, but moved away and ended up in the Northeast, where she met my dad. I have spent my whole life living between these 2 worlds.
Yes, it is interesting how it's always the outsiders seem to try to define what a culture is really all about. Perhaps it's because they have distance from it. They are quiet, sensitive souls who feel the longing to belong, and yet are distanced enough from the culture to observe from the outside.
Their sense of alienation gives them deeper insight.
I never really considered my mother’s family to be Appalachian. I don’t think the Shenandoah Valley quite qualifies as Appalachia. It is right on the border though. My mother’s family were not poor people. My grandfather was not poor, (he had roots with the Mennonites.) My grandmother was poor, but not dirt poor. I only visited once or twice per year, but what I saw there wasn’t anything like the “Bloody Breathitt” that Vance portrays.
I read HillBilly Elegy, or most of it, I think. It was a good book. I liked how he traced the generational trauma through his grandparents and his mother. His descriptions of his mother are painful, and yet, I can see how she truly was the lost child of an alcoholic family system. Unstable relationships, drug use, outbursts of rage and threats of suicide. She had to have had BPD. So sad, too, because she was a successful nurse before the drug addiction got the best of her. It was as though her personality just disintegrated.
No, the Appalachians don't have quite the long spiritual history as the Jews, but they are similar, in the sense that their religion--Bible based Protestantism-- is deeply ingrained in their ways of thinking and their language, just like it is for the Jews. They are a people, with their own language, with a heritage, a storytelling people. In this way, I can easily equate Appalachians to Jews.
I think that a good example of an Appalachian is Tipper from “Celebrating Appalachia.” She has a blog called “The Blind Pig and the Acorn.” You should check her out. She is more like the people that I knew from Appalachia.
My father's people have lived in Wayne County area since at least the 1700s as far as I can tell. But he left home at 14 in response to the Depression, joined the military when he was old enough, and never went back. We visited occasionally (maybe four times?) in between overseas assignments. My mother was an English war bride and we visited her family about the same number of times. So although I am, well, comforted when I recognize any bits of their cultural heritages in myself, it would be so inaccurate for me to describe myself as British or Appalachian.