West Virginia: Sounds of Down Home

Tonight I listened to an NPR story, West Virginia Floods Offer Lessons for Katrina Victims. While listening to the voices from southern WV, I heard my family. I realized that southern accents are different. Each woman I heard sounded like my aunts, grandma or great-grandma.

The stories of homes lost to the floods a few years ago were those of my family. I heard talk of condemned houses and thought about Uncle Charlie who lost everything and of my aunts who had considerable damage though their homes were salvageable.

This past August Aaron and I visited my grandpa at his trailer up Johnson Branch. When we entered his place, we entered a home that was distinctly grandpas (notice the photo in the lower left corner). One of many topics covered was a recent stabbing in the nearest town. Grandpa said that he wouldn'’t go to get his black lung check cashed there because someone was stabbed during the day. The problem is that's the only place to get a check cashed for roughly 50 miles. He has made choices that fit him, a retired West Virginia coalminer. He was born in a holler and will always live in a holler. He knows who he is and what he wants and no one can convince him otherwise.
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All photos were taken during August 2005.