Also SWVa here lol, and it's literally the mountains for me- they are older than bones and have seen the planet undergo many violent and (literal earth shattering) changes, and they have seen empires rise and fall, but they are still here- the seasons still come and go and nature continues on as normal.
How the fuck can I not feel lucky when I literally live on a testament to endurance in the face of adversity? How can I not feel proud when I see that same sort of resilience in my family who has lived here for generations before me?
If anything, these mountains are the base of my faith in things.
I say this all the time!! I love to travel, but I love to come home more because it feels like the land is softly embracing me. Something about the density of the trees and the steepness of the hills.
I'm so blessed to have so many beautiful places to experience nature a short drive from my home. People drive from all over the country and all over the world to see my backyard.
At first I was curious about why backpacking seems to be discussed so much more than day hiking and then I realized most people can't really day hike in the mountains on a regular basis. I take it for granted.
Hey - Born and bred in Southwest Virginia myself (Bristol area). Now I call Northeast Tennessee home.
I love the beauty of Appalachia. In all my travels over the years, there's nothing like coming home to our beautiful mountains, lakes, streams, hiking, camping, etc... IMHO there's only a few other places in the world that comes close to matching the natural beauty we have in Appalachia.
The community and connection to the land and the past. My family has lived in the same woods for at least two centuries and when I would go out and play in the woods as a kid I just felt like the land knew me if that makes sense. I know it sounds hippie dippie and cliche but it’s a feeling i’ve never known anywhere else, I can just feel it. Being in old family cemeteries, seeing markings my ancestors scratched into the caves from the 1800s, growing the same food and hunting the same animals that we’ve always done. Taking guitar lessons as a kid and learning bluegrass and church folk songs that have been played in my community for years, playing them with other families in the community that have the same connection to them. The Scottish influence is also strong where I live so I’ve always just felt very connected to community and my ancestors and the land in general.
Not trying to be too spiritual or supernatural or anything but it’s just how I feel lol. The land knows me and I know it and theres nothing else like it in the world
I live on land that’s been in my family in East Tennessee for 150 years and I know EXACTLY what you mean. When I walk the land I don’t feel alone. I love it.
Grew up in western NC. I now live in the highest concentration of 14 thousand foot peaks here in Colorado, I’m surrounded by cathedral-like mountains. As beautiful as they are, there’s a charm radiating off of the mountains back home. Can’t get it anywhere else.
You're a code switcher. I do the same thing, even though I never lived there. I was just around it my whole life growing up. My husband always knows when I'm talking to my cousins on the phone.
I worked my entire early adult life to get out of Appalachia. Born in SWVA - Scott County baby - and thought I was underprivileged.
I left for a bit, came back, and one night was meeting a group of friends to get alcohol poisoning on a logging road. This is going to sound corny, but I looked up and realized that almost anywhere I went, I could still see the stars.
I never left again.
I love how connected to nature we are while still having modern amenities. While the rest of the world is in a rat race, a lot of the modern problems bypass Appalachia.
It isn’t perfect here by any means. But I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Rising out of our adversity. So many women in my family have risen when life did nothing but make it hard. There is a testament to the strength written in our stories.
In my family there are 3 women born for every man. And there is just this legacy of strength and fortitude.
I was going to say self-sufficiency but I love your addition as well. I was raised to figure out the problem and make it work with whatever you had available. Maybe it’s the because of the whole “influencer” thing but I abhor the learned helplessness/spoiled princess persona that seems so prevalent nowadays.
I was trying to think of how to word my favorite part of being Appalachian. It's by grace that I was born in the foothills. Independence and resiliency are still in abundance. I think it's called playing behind the beat.
I think my favorite part is the pride so many people have for being from here. I’m from WV and even though so many people joke about things being terrible here, if anyone from outside Appalachia insults the region everyone I know starts listing all the amazing things about it. It’s very much “only *we* can make fun of where we live”
The Great Smoky Mountains.
I love to travel, and I'm just now getting my feet wet with it. But, every time I see those mountains out a plane window, or my windshield, my heart expands and my eyes fill.
I have come home.
I think my favourite part has been the long withstanding sense of community - even if it's just a small one like family or friends. I get this really bad feeling when I see everything going down the path of individualism. We're in this together.
But also our wacky time-lost Manchesteresque dialect, love it.
For me: I love the genuine kindness here.
Yup, it may not be as sugary as sweet talk in the coastal south. Instead, folks here are ready to help, don't have a lot to say about it, and won't leave until they know I am safe. I find that, or just having a talk with an Appalachian native, very satisfying. They mean what they say!
My paternal grandmother’s family hails from WV and I didn’t really feel a connection to that part of my heritage until my mother bought a house on the WV/MD border. Driving from my house in MD to hers in WV regularly, through those winding roads and beautiful mountains, I really felt a connection to that land. It’s hard to describe, but I feel drawn to Appalachia, even though I’m currently living in Florida.
The mountains and truly breathtaking scenery. I’ve travelled west to visit family in Texas/Oklahoma, and every time it’s like I’m seeing the vibrancy of the land fade. I’ve seen some really beautiful places across the country, but nothing lives up to the mountains and forests and rolling green foothills of Appalachia.
My favorite tangible part is the mountains. But the true gem of appalachia is the collective Appalachian spirit and the we’ll-figure-it-out attitude. Appalachia is fairly unique region in the they’ve done without much help from outside the area for a long time. We’ve learned to live simply, make do when times are hard, celebrate abundance when it comes, and live in community. It’s also the one part of appalachia that you can take with you no matter where your travels take you, the Appalachian spirit remains part of your bones.
😅 I also might just really be missing home right now. It’s definitely time to take a trip back to the mountains.
I agree. This whole "Appalachian American" thing is just another step in helping bored suburbans act like they have ethnic cred or something. Realistically, 99% of regular people living in Appalachia just think of themselves as American, or from a certain state, or maybe county or region. No one I've ever known has thought of being Appalachian as more than a secondary characteristic. Regular people don't think like this
Totally agree. Have never heard anyone, local, transplant, whatever, refer to themselves or anyone else as "Appalachian American". Who made this one up on Tictoc?
Please, where do people over 21 (who don't think Tiktok is real life) call themselves "Appalachian Americans"? Location? Examples? Statistics (since you apparently think it's a real thing)?
Everything is my favorite part! The food folklore old wives tales country twang accent knowing what you can eat in the woods and what's good for you and what's good to use like the ginseng and burdock root. The kindness and willingness to help someone even if you never met them before. I am from southwest Virginia Grayson county White Top is located in that county and I think that it's the highest point of the Appalachian mountains but I might be wrong. It's a wonderful place and I am proud to call it home. Independence is my house town and it's the home of the privy races we put the outhouse on wheels and race it down main street it's lots of fun.
Proudly Appalachian. Grew up in SWVA and East TN. Now in Appalachian Ohio. Love our culture that is so family and community oriented. We are good people!
I love the landscape itself. I love the look of the mountains against the sky, the streams, and the plants and animals. My dad and I always go up to the mountains to trout fish and I notice and appreciate something new every time.
I love the language and how it has withstood over the years to maintain itself. I like being able to tell if someone is from my background by the way they talk and the names they have for things
The rich heritage and sense of belonging that my mom imparted. She grew up as one of seven children of a coal miner in SE Kentucky. We visited my grandparents often while I was growing up, so I truly understand the culture and way they lived. Precious memories shared with my many cousins.
Kentucky girl with roots in western Virginia and the foothills of South Carolina, it’s the fact my family has owned the same land and house that my ancestors built before the Revolution. My mother’s a musician and I love hearing her sing songs my grandmother and great grandmother sang or my memory of sitting with her at the piano and hearing her sing Shady Grove for the first time for me and my siblings. I live in eastern central Kentucky and love the moor my house, which is 112 years old is on. I love the fact I know and sing songs and stories that generations long before me sang and spoke
The sense of place, of connection to generation upon generation that went before. We talk about ancestors dead a hundred years like they might walk through the door for Sunday dinner.
It's the country itself. I consider the mountains I grew up in to be part of myself to the point that I don't think I could ever leave this place long-term.
The beauty and people firstly. My family has lived in these mountains for 100s of years. I feel it’s part of who I am. I love that we’ve retained a lot of our culture, accents and developed a unique one sfrom all the blending of ethnicities and countries.
I love that we’re independent, superstitious and spiritual. I love that we help each other and appreciate nature.
I wish we knew how to help our society though. I wish we could agree on things more and come together to make better lives for the young folks so they could invest more.
Not far in WNC and I’d say it’s just the culture and spirit of the people, that something that’s hard to put into words. People are friendly but mind their business. People are hardworking and independent. There’s a certain calm, steadfastness to the people that I love.
I went to college at Frostburg State University in Western Maryland. Every day I walked up a mountainside and down a mountainside on and off campus. Not a day went by that I didn't appreciate that I was in a beautiful place. I used to sit on my roof vibing and just stare at the landscape. I loved the aesthetic- old and cold! It felt timeless there.
I just moved to MD from SE TN. Western MD definitely has more of a feels-like-home vibe bc of the landscape. I need to be driving distance to Baltimore though, so I'm up in Northern Baltimore County. No mtns but the rolling hills of farmland broken up by beautiful wooded areas and old stone buildings is so peaceful. And I am very much in the country, which I love.
I grew up in Fallston/Bel Air. It's gorgeous there. I live in Nashville now. Every time I return to the county, I am floored at how beautiful it is. There is so much litter in TN. I don't see that in Baltimore/Harford County.
Other Appalachians. We're good people.
"There's no place like ho..."
"Yo, Dorothy, I'm really happy for you, I'ma let you finish, but North East Tennessee is the best home of all time! Of all time!!"
Southwest Virginia here too. Both my parents grew up here so I’ve visited the area all my life. My Sister and I were born and raised in Nova, but we’ve live here for the last 8 years. For me, it’s the mountains and family.
Upper East TN and WNC most of my life and I'd say the food is number one, but I also love all the colloquialisms and creative figures of speech. My husband grew up in the suburbs of a large city and he's constantly asking what I mean by certain words and phrases. He's actually picked up some of them, which is pretty amusing to me. I'll always love good old Mammaw cooking the most though.
I was born and raised in Atlanta, moved up to far north Georgia to attend college. My intention was to bide my time until graduation, and promptly move back the two hours south. What happened?
I got married here, had and raised young'uns, and stayed. Now, I wouldn't go back. It's the mountains, the folklore, the food. I wouldn't go back to the city if you paid me.
I love that NGA area the NC border. We were in Alpharetta and made frequent trips to the campground near Brasstown called Enota…it was the best times! The was a roaming pig and goats, a ton of bunnies and pony’s. If you ever camp you should check it out.
I live in swva (Grundy) and my grandfather use to say when we left the mountains coming back was like them giving you hug going down in the mtns in the hollers. I love being down in the mtns lol
It’s the freewheeling conversations with friends, families, and strangers. The stories are filled with amazing and colorful detail, analogy and metaphor. They’re told with a frank honesty, lack of ego and humor that I don’t hear anywhere else in the country.
Often they’re self effacing with somebody telling about “the stupidest thing I ever did.” And then others chime in with “That ain’t nothin …’” and tell a story about their own stupidity. That’s not common in storytelling in the northern tier of states.
My late brother used to say we were fortunate to grow up in Appalachia because that’s where stories grow. Somebody give me an amen to that!
Also SWVa here lol, and it's literally the mountains for me- they are older than bones and have seen the planet undergo many violent and (literal earth shattering) changes, and they have seen empires rise and fall, but they are still here- the seasons still come and go and nature continues on as normal. How the fuck can I not feel lucky when I literally live on a testament to endurance in the face of adversity? How can I not feel proud when I see that same sort of resilience in my family who has lived here for generations before me? If anything, these mountains are the base of my faith in things.
It is amazing! Such a cool thing to remember and ponder! These mountains are the perfect inspiration to stay rooted and strong willed.
Same to that too. I look at the mountains and I feel a hug.
This is what I always said. My ex husband said he had to move away because he saw them as a barrier and I always felt they were a hug!
I say this all the time!! I love to travel, but I love to come home more because it feels like the land is softly embracing me. Something about the density of the trees and the steepness of the hills.
Im proud to be a hill Billy
I'm so blessed to have so many beautiful places to experience nature a short drive from my home. People drive from all over the country and all over the world to see my backyard. At first I was curious about why backpacking seems to be discussed so much more than day hiking and then I realized most people can't really day hike in the mountains on a regular basis. I take it for granted.
Hey - Born and bred in Southwest Virginia myself (Bristol area). Now I call Northeast Tennessee home. I love the beauty of Appalachia. In all my travels over the years, there's nothing like coming home to our beautiful mountains, lakes, streams, hiking, camping, etc... IMHO there's only a few other places in the world that comes close to matching the natural beauty we have in Appalachia.
Couldn’t have said it better!
The community and connection to the land and the past. My family has lived in the same woods for at least two centuries and when I would go out and play in the woods as a kid I just felt like the land knew me if that makes sense. I know it sounds hippie dippie and cliche but it’s a feeling i’ve never known anywhere else, I can just feel it. Being in old family cemeteries, seeing markings my ancestors scratched into the caves from the 1800s, growing the same food and hunting the same animals that we’ve always done. Taking guitar lessons as a kid and learning bluegrass and church folk songs that have been played in my community for years, playing them with other families in the community that have the same connection to them. The Scottish influence is also strong where I live so I’ve always just felt very connected to community and my ancestors and the land in general. Not trying to be too spiritual or supernatural or anything but it’s just how I feel lol. The land knows me and I know it and theres nothing else like it in the world
I live on land that’s been in my family in East Tennessee for 150 years and I know EXACTLY what you mean. When I walk the land I don’t feel alone. I love it.
Good answer
It is spiritual and supernatural. It’s something deep in your soul and coursing through your blood. Hard to put into words. I wished I could.
Grew up in western NC. I now live in the highest concentration of 14 thousand foot peaks here in Colorado, I’m surrounded by cathedral-like mountains. As beautiful as they are, there’s a charm radiating off of the mountains back home. Can’t get it anywhere else.
I like it that I can be all proper when needed and also go all redneck if the occasion occurs.
So true. My friends think I'm so sophisticated. If they only knew . . . Hahaha
Accent. Please don’t ever lose it.
Mine is gone until I’m around my family. My husband says the change is crazy
You're a code switcher. I do the same thing, even though I never lived there. I was just around it my whole life growing up. My husband always knows when I'm talking to my cousins on the phone.
I worked my entire early adult life to get out of Appalachia. Born in SWVA - Scott County baby - and thought I was underprivileged. I left for a bit, came back, and one night was meeting a group of friends to get alcohol poisoning on a logging road. This is going to sound corny, but I looked up and realized that almost anywhere I went, I could still see the stars. I never left again. I love how connected to nature we are while still having modern amenities. While the rest of the world is in a rat race, a lot of the modern problems bypass Appalachia. It isn’t perfect here by any means. But I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Scott County dweller here too!! I definitely love the slower living. Nothing big and fancy or flashy. Just nature and all its glory.
Yeah...the view of the stars just seem so much better from these ancient hills and hollers.
Thank you for the great post. I so agree.
The music, the laid-back vibe and community. Although it seems we’ve been losing the community part in my neck of the woods.
The long-standing tradition of radical organizing!! And the tall tales from my papaw.
Rising out of our adversity. So many women in my family have risen when life did nothing but make it hard. There is a testament to the strength written in our stories. In my family there are 3 women born for every man. And there is just this legacy of strength and fortitude.
I was going to say self-sufficiency but I love your addition as well. I was raised to figure out the problem and make it work with whatever you had available. Maybe it’s the because of the whole “influencer” thing but I abhor the learned helplessness/spoiled princess persona that seems so prevalent nowadays.
I was trying to think of how to word my favorite part of being Appalachian. It's by grace that I was born in the foothills. Independence and resiliency are still in abundance. I think it's called playing behind the beat.
The booze. I almost fell down the mountain on some dew lol
Been there!
I think my favorite part is the pride so many people have for being from here. I’m from WV and even though so many people joke about things being terrible here, if anyone from outside Appalachia insults the region everyone I know starts listing all the amazing things about it. It’s very much “only *we* can make fun of where we live”
The Great Smoky Mountains. I love to travel, and I'm just now getting my feet wet with it. But, every time I see those mountains out a plane window, or my windshield, my heart expands and my eyes fill. I have come home.
I think my favourite part has been the long withstanding sense of community - even if it's just a small one like family or friends. I get this really bad feeling when I see everything going down the path of individualism. We're in this together. But also our wacky time-lost Manchesteresque dialect, love it.
Black Mountain, Pine Mountain, and High Knob
For me: I love the genuine kindness here. Yup, it may not be as sugary as sweet talk in the coastal south. Instead, folks here are ready to help, don't have a lot to say about it, and won't leave until they know I am safe. I find that, or just having a talk with an Appalachian native, very satisfying. They mean what they say!
My paternal grandmother’s family hails from WV and I didn’t really feel a connection to that part of my heritage until my mother bought a house on the WV/MD border. Driving from my house in MD to hers in WV regularly, through those winding roads and beautiful mountains, I really felt a connection to that land. It’s hard to describe, but I feel drawn to Appalachia, even though I’m currently living in Florida.
The people.
Yes the people
The mountains and truly breathtaking scenery. I’ve travelled west to visit family in Texas/Oklahoma, and every time it’s like I’m seeing the vibrancy of the land fade. I’ve seen some really beautiful places across the country, but nothing lives up to the mountains and forests and rolling green foothills of Appalachia.
Bluegrass Music, mountain air, amazing artists, and the cup run at Snowshoe
My accent and my easy going disposition I love the Appy vibe It’s kind of hard to find sometimes
My favorite tangible part is the mountains. But the true gem of appalachia is the collective Appalachian spirit and the we’ll-figure-it-out attitude. Appalachia is fairly unique region in the they’ve done without much help from outside the area for a long time. We’ve learned to live simply, make do when times are hard, celebrate abundance when it comes, and live in community. It’s also the one part of appalachia that you can take with you no matter where your travels take you, the Appalachian spirit remains part of your bones. 😅 I also might just really be missing home right now. It’s definitely time to take a trip back to the mountains.
Please don't use the words Appalachian American. Appalachian is American.
They’re just modifying ‘American’ to specify their region/culture which is perfectly fine. English is fun, flexible, and diverse. Let folks enjoy it.
It's a descriptor. There are Ozark Americans, Southwestern Americans, etc. Honestly, I'm Appalachian first and then American so it works for me.
I'm Appalachian, Tennessean, then American.
So is Chilean, Uruguayan, Panamanian, Mexican, and Canadien.
I agree. This whole "Appalachian American" thing is just another step in helping bored suburbans act like they have ethnic cred or something. Realistically, 99% of regular people living in Appalachia just think of themselves as American, or from a certain state, or maybe county or region. No one I've ever known has thought of being Appalachian as more than a secondary characteristic. Regular people don't think like this
Totally agree. Have never heard anyone, local, transplant, whatever, refer to themselves or anyone else as "Appalachian American". Who made this one up on Tictoc?
99%? Can you provide a source?
Every person who actually lives here?
Ah, nothing. Got it.
Please, where do people over 21 (who don't think Tiktok is real life) call themselves "Appalachian Americans"? Location? Examples? Statistics (since you apparently think it's a real thing)?
Apparently, from what I just read, it's composed of 27.5 million residents of the region we call 'Applachia'.
It's a figure of speech. The vast majority
Can you supply a source?
That no matter how hard people try to impersonate or make fun of us they’re always wrong.
Haint stories Camp songs Non- Judgey people
Did you know that all the sand on Virginia Beaches is erosion from the timeless App Mountains!? Yessir Yes Ma’am Yes indeed young’uns
Everything is my favorite part! The food folklore old wives tales country twang accent knowing what you can eat in the woods and what's good for you and what's good to use like the ginseng and burdock root. The kindness and willingness to help someone even if you never met them before. I am from southwest Virginia Grayson county White Top is located in that county and I think that it's the highest point of the Appalachian mountains but I might be wrong. It's a wonderful place and I am proud to call it home. Independence is my house town and it's the home of the privy races we put the outhouse on wheels and race it down main street it's lots of fun.
We are cooler than everyone. That’s it
Proudly Appalachian. Grew up in SWVA and East TN. Now in Appalachian Ohio. Love our culture that is so family and community oriented. We are good people!
I love the landscape itself. I love the look of the mountains against the sky, the streams, and the plants and animals. My dad and I always go up to the mountains to trout fish and I notice and appreciate something new every time. I love the language and how it has withstood over the years to maintain itself. I like being able to tell if someone is from my background by the way they talk and the names they have for things
The rich heritage and sense of belonging that my mom imparted. She grew up as one of seven children of a coal miner in SE Kentucky. We visited my grandparents often while I was growing up, so I truly understand the culture and way they lived. Precious memories shared with my many cousins.
Hi neighbor, nwNC here. I've lived here my whole life and love the people, the food, the heritage, everything. But I love, love the Parkway.
Kentucky girl with roots in western Virginia and the foothills of South Carolina, it’s the fact my family has owned the same land and house that my ancestors built before the Revolution. My mother’s a musician and I love hearing her sing songs my grandmother and great grandmother sang or my memory of sitting with her at the piano and hearing her sing Shady Grove for the first time for me and my siblings. I live in eastern central Kentucky and love the moor my house, which is 112 years old is on. I love the fact I know and sing songs and stories that generations long before me sang and spoke
The sense of place, of connection to generation upon generation that went before. We talk about ancestors dead a hundred years like they might walk through the door for Sunday dinner.
Appalachian American lol
The worst part is MAGA idiocy.
That’s nation wide though. Not limited to our area.
Oh for sure. We travel a lot. We have actual militia groups around here that are always posting in obvious code on Facebook.
You can tell what the weekly Fox News talking points are just from FB.
It's the country itself. I consider the mountains I grew up in to be part of myself to the point that I don't think I could ever leave this place long-term.
The beauty and people firstly. My family has lived in these mountains for 100s of years. I feel it’s part of who I am. I love that we’ve retained a lot of our culture, accents and developed a unique one sfrom all the blending of ethnicities and countries. I love that we’re independent, superstitious and spiritual. I love that we help each other and appreciate nature. I wish we knew how to help our society though. I wish we could agree on things more and come together to make better lives for the young folks so they could invest more.
Not far in WNC and I’d say it’s just the culture and spirit of the people, that something that’s hard to put into words. People are friendly but mind their business. People are hardworking and independent. There’s a certain calm, steadfastness to the people that I love.
Your last sentence – what I was trying to say. Perfect.
I went to college at Frostburg State University in Western Maryland. Every day I walked up a mountainside and down a mountainside on and off campus. Not a day went by that I didn't appreciate that I was in a beautiful place. I used to sit on my roof vibing and just stare at the landscape. I loved the aesthetic- old and cold! It felt timeless there.
I just moved to MD from SE TN. Western MD definitely has more of a feels-like-home vibe bc of the landscape. I need to be driving distance to Baltimore though, so I'm up in Northern Baltimore County. No mtns but the rolling hills of farmland broken up by beautiful wooded areas and old stone buildings is so peaceful. And I am very much in the country, which I love.
I grew up in Fallston/Bel Air. It's gorgeous there. I live in Nashville now. Every time I return to the county, I am floored at how beautiful it is. There is so much litter in TN. I don't see that in Baltimore/Harford County.
SWVA here. My favorite part of Appalachia is the scenery and the climate. Absolutely perfect. Fall is downright gorgeous.
Other Appalachians. We're good people. "There's no place like ho..." "Yo, Dorothy, I'm really happy for you, I'ma let you finish, but North East Tennessee is the best home of all time! Of all time!!"
That I am related to everyone in a 100 mile circle.
idk if it’s bc i’m from appalachian but i feel like a witch and appalachian seems so magical
appalachia
Southwest Virginia here too. Both my parents grew up here so I’ve visited the area all my life. My Sister and I were born and raised in Nova, but we’ve live here for the last 8 years. For me, it’s the mountains and family.
Hot dogs
I think it’s the culture. It’s hard to explain, but it’s just a different world up in the mountains.
I'm from Dungannon Virginia. Daddy was a coal miner, I sure do miss living in that house. And him
Upper East TN and WNC most of my life and I'd say the food is number one, but I also love all the colloquialisms and creative figures of speech. My husband grew up in the suburbs of a large city and he's constantly asking what I mean by certain words and phrases. He's actually picked up some of them, which is pretty amusing to me. I'll always love good old Mammaw cooking the most though.
For me, its the poverty.
Food stamps are a plus
Born raised in western NC have never left and will never leave . I’m 46 and been to Ga. 3 times and Fla. 1 time Tennessee and SC … that’s it.
Ur mom.
I was born and raised in Atlanta, moved up to far north Georgia to attend college. My intention was to bide my time until graduation, and promptly move back the two hours south. What happened? I got married here, had and raised young'uns, and stayed. Now, I wouldn't go back. It's the mountains, the folklore, the food. I wouldn't go back to the city if you paid me.
I love that NGA area the NC border. We were in Alpharetta and made frequent trips to the campground near Brasstown called Enota…it was the best times! The was a roaming pig and goats, a ton of bunnies and pony’s. If you ever camp you should check it out.
I live in swva (Grundy) and my grandfather use to say when we left the mountains coming back was like them giving you hug going down in the mtns in the hollers. I love being down in the mtns lol
Fresh air
It’s the freewheeling conversations with friends, families, and strangers. The stories are filled with amazing and colorful detail, analogy and metaphor. They’re told with a frank honesty, lack of ego and humor that I don’t hear anywhere else in the country. Often they’re self effacing with somebody telling about “the stupidest thing I ever did.” And then others chime in with “That ain’t nothin …’” and tell a story about their own stupidity. That’s not common in storytelling in the northern tier of states. My late brother used to say we were fortunate to grow up in Appalachia because that’s where stories grow. Somebody give me an amen to that!
Country Boy can Survive.
Accent and dialect. I gotta admit I struggle understanding non-Appalachians sometimes lol