- [Interviewer] All right, Elmer. Elmer, where'd you grow up? Where are you from originally? - Out there in Eastern Kentucky. - [Interviewer] This is Leslie County? - [Elmer] Leslie County, yeah. - [Interviewer] Tell me
about your childhood. You had both your parents when you were- - [Elmer] Yeah, yeah. - [Interviewer] How was your childhood? - There was nine of us. - [Interviewer] Nine of you? - Yeah. I'm the baby in the family. - [Interviewer] You're the youngest? - Youngest one, yeah. - [Interviewer] How would
you describe your childhood? - Growing up pretty rough out there. Just hard living. Raised on corn bread and soup beans. Potatoes. Garden. Always grew a big garden every year. Hogs. - [Interviewer] You guys have
electricity and running water? - No, not for a long time. Yeah. - [Interviewer] How far
do you go in school? - I went through the ninth grade. - [Interviewer] Ninth grade.
- Yeah. - [Interviewer] What did you do for work after you finished school? - Well, I worked, drove a
truck about all my life. Hauled coal, logs. Been into logging last 10, 15 years. - [Interviewer] Yeah. Appalachia is a tough
region to survive in, right? - Rough. Lots of work. - [Interviewer] And finding
work, it's a hard thing now. - Yeah. - [Interviewer] Coal mine have shut down. - You didn't work, you didn't eat. My grandma always said, she said, if you gonna eat supper
with me, you gotta work. If you don't feed nobody, don't work. - [Interviewer] So you've
been married, have kids? - Yeah. I got two, boy and a girl. - [Interviewer] And you raised them? - Yeah. Yeah, my wife, she passed on. - [Interviewer] I'm sorry. So your kids stayed here in- - Yes, I raised them out here- - [Interviewer] And they
still live in Leslie County? - Yeah. - [Interviewer] Why do
people choose to stay here, even though there's very few opportunities and just such a tough life? - This mountain gets to you after a while. You just don't feel at home nowhere else. - [Interviewer] You go somewhere else and it just doesn't feel right? - Yeah. - [Interviewer] Yeah, there's
something about this region that's very special. - It's home, you know? - [Interviewer] Yeah. Drugs have kind of taken over this region. - Oh, pretty much took over, yeah. - [Interviewer] Why do
you think that's happened? - Pardon me? - [Interviewer] Why do
you think that's happened? - Don't know. Don't know. It's bad, though. Sure is. - [Interviewer] Yeah. - Bad, bad situation. - [Interviewer] You've got
involved in that, as well? - Huh? - [Interviewer] Have you gotten
involved in drugs at all? - No.
- [Interviewer] Never? - No.
- [Interviewer] Good for you. What do you think the
future is of this region? Because technology marches on
in the rest of the country, but this part of the country
is kind of being left behind. - Yeah. They'll live on. You can't starve these people to death. They know how to raise
gardens and heel hogs. Eat squirrels. - [Interviewer] What do you live on now? I mean, what's your income? - Just disability. - [Interviewer] Disability?
- Yeah. - [Interviewer] And how
much do you live on a year? - I get so much a month. - [Interviewer] What do
you get a month, roughly? - About 1100 a month. I'm on total disability. - [Interviewer] And
that's enough to live on? - Yeah. Well, I make do with what the garden grow. Still put stuff away. Doing a lot of canning. Can a lot of food. - [Interviewer] Yeah,
but are you happy here? - Yeah. Yeah, ain't no place like home. - [Interviewer] Yeah, and
you're not looking to leave? - No, no. I like to go on vacation
sometimes over to Florida. - [Interviewer] How far have you traveled? - I used to go to Florida
sometimes, about once a year. Take a vacation and
sometimes, Myrtle beach. - [Interviewer] Yeah. - Since this COVID-19 come
out, I ain't went nowhere. I stayed pretty much at the house. - [Interviewer] Yeah. Do you have any regrets in your life? Do you look back and say
you wish you had done this or wish you'd done that? - No, no. - [Interviewer] Yeah, you're happy with- - I'm happy with, yeah. - [Interviewer] What are
the best and worst things about living in Appalachia? - It's, I guess, I don't know. I don't say much bad things myself. I always try to look, at a point of looking at the good side. - [Interviewer] Mm-hmm. - I'm well happy here. Yeah, it's rough living. - [Interviewer] It's a
very simple life, though. - Yeah, you gotta get rough with it. - [Interviewer] Yeah. You raise your own food. - Right, I raise a lot
of garden food, yeah. Hogs. - [Interviewer] How old are you? - Chickens. 55.
- [Interviewer] 55. What's the most important lesson you've learned in your life? - Trust in God. - [Interviewer] You're a religious man? - No, but I believe in God. - [Interviewer] You don't go to church? - No, I did. I kinda back slid. - [Interviewer] So how do you
spend your days, typically? What do you do? - Just worked around
the house, piddle about. You know. Do a lot of yard work. Work here and try and get set up, my trailer set up and everything. - [Interviewer] Right. What do your kids do? - My boy's a logger. He logs. And my daughter, I think she
works in the nursing home. Got good kids. They ain't old drugs, thank God. - [Interviewer] That's great. - Methamphetamines took over this place. It had, it's ruined all the young people. Well, not all of them, but a lot of them. - [Interviewer] Yeah,
it was the pain pills and then the crystal meth, yeah. - The meth, that nasty
meth they're making. It's about to do them all in. Sure is. - [Interviewer] It almost seems like almost the entire community
is affected impacted by it. - It's bad, it's bad. Sure is. - [Interviewer] It's rare
to find somebody who isn't. - Yeah. - [Interviewer] What
opportunities are there for a person staying,
choosing to stay here? Coal mines have shut down. - Log woods or like Walmart or
somewhere like that, working. It ain't much. If you get education,
you have to leave here. - [Interviewer] And to get real
job, you have to leave here. - Right. - [Interviewer] But you feel
like you've lived a life that you wanted. - Yeah. I'd like to have got with the
Lord a lot sooner, you know. It's pretty wild, my childhood days. - [Interviewer] Yeah, what
kind of stuff did you get into? - I smoked pot and drunk a lot. - [Interviewer] Yeah. - The drinking, I quit. I still smoke a little pot. I consider it as a herb, not a drug. - [Interviewer] Right. And it's illegal here. - Oh, yeah.
- [Interviewer] Yeah. - Yeah, they ain't legalized it like they have up in California. - [Interviewer] Yeah. For us, it's like, they
don't take it so seriously. - It's a good pain medicine. - [Interviewer] But you live
in this trailer behind you? - Yeah. - [Interviewer] You have electricity now? - Yeah. - [Interviewer] Do you have running water? - Yeah.
- [Interviewer] You do. - I run it out the holler up there. Got a waterfall up there it comes off of. - [Interviewer] So you tap into that? - Yeah. Can't drink it, but I bath in it and wash my clothes and dishes. - [Interviewer] Right. And you have friends? - Huh? - [Interviewer] You have friends? - Oh, yeah. Yeah, I got friends. Not many, but a few. You know. - [Interviewer] You don't need a lot. I stay a lot to myself. I'm a by myself person. I've got a wife, but she
lives in another home. I live here. - [Interviewer] I understand. And do you hunt? - Yeah. - [Interviewer] What kinda
animals do you hunt for? - Deer, squirrel, rabbit. Snakes. - [Interviewer] Do you have bear here? - Yeah. One comes in here every night. - [Interviewer] Really? - Yeah, got one coming. A big bear. He swooped my bulldog. - [Interviewer] Wow. - He tore him up pretty bad last time. Cut him up. He'll get after you. - [Interviewer] So living up
here all by yourself, Elmer, is there anything that you
do to protect yourself? - Well, I've got a pistol I pack with me. - [Interviewer] Oh, is that right? - Yeah, I keep it for the bears. The bear's bad to come in on
me out there in the night. - [Interviewer] How close
do the bears get to you? - They've come stuck their
head through the door at me. - [Interviewer] They
come into your trailer? - Yeah, I left the door open one night and there's one come stuck
its head through the door, looked at me. - [Interviewer] That's where
your gun comes in handy. - Yeah. (interviewer laughing) I had a pistol. I got a rifle and I keep it for snakes and people that's mean to
me, tries to be mean to him. I ain't able to fight them. I'd have to shoot them. It just rough living
here in the mountains. You've gotta protect yourself. Snakes is bad and the birds is bad. Some big cats running around here and some mean people running around here. But they don't bother me any. I guess, for I got a gun
on me, I ain't no better. - [Interviewer] They don't mess with you? - No, they don't mess for me. I don't mess with nobody, neither. My grandpa, he was a doctor,
a lawyer, undertaker, and he'd taken the sick people and he'd take and nurse them to health. And if they died, he would
take and build a coffin and preach the funeral bury them. He did have some slaves,
back in his day and time. - [Interviewer] He had slaves? - Yeah. And my grandma out there, she
raised kids up there and stuff and she breastfed them
and panthers would come and try to claw in on her. They'd stick their paws through the door. She'd chop their paws off of a hatchet. - [Interviewer] This is your grandparents? - Yeah, they had it rough back then, but the slaves, they'd grow
corn, feed the animals with. They had mules, oxes. My grandpa was a cranky old dude, but- - [Interviewer] So he was a doctor? - A lawyer. - [Interviewer] Lawyer. - Undertaker and a preacher. - [Interviewer] Wow. - He done a little bit of all that and up there where he
lived is a big log house and he buried all of them
out in the bottom out there, all them people that
would die, he'd bury them and make graves that
ain't never been marked. I'd say 50, 60 graves up there
that ain't never been marked. He's a go-getter, that old man was. Jake Napper was his name
and he was out there. He'd whoop you. When I was a kid that there,
if you killed a piss-ant on his farm, you was whooped. He called them little people. He didn't believe in killing nothing unless you was gonna eat it. And that pretty much covered that. - [Interviewer] All right, Elmer. Well, thank you so much
for talking with me. - [Elmer] Yes, sir. - [Interviewer] Good luck with everything and the bears, too. - [Elmer] Oh, yeah. I'll tame the bears. (laughing)
This is one of the most important Youtube channels I have found. He uploads a lot (maybe 5-10 times a week), and everyone should spend some time scrolling through his videos and watching one or two from people they might not normally be exposed to. There are a lot of people on his channel that are plain bad people, and there are others that are clearly good people who have been trapped in awful circumstances. These are the people the world has forgotten, and I think this guy is doing such an amazing job bringing them to light.
I can't really put my finger on it but the interview seems a bit loaded. As if the interviewer was trying to get him to say something specific. But this man is genuine and doesn't seem to have any gripes with anyone and seems content with his life. I feel like the interviewer might have some political views that he wants this man to express?
Not sure... but though the man seems genuine the interview itself seems forced.
For example, rather than letting the interviewee make his own statements, the interviewer states "Appalachia is a tough region to survive in, right?" to which the man agrees... but I'm not sure he would have necessarily said that without the push. He seems like the kind of man to say "It's hard labor but it's an honest living," and not "I'm suffering and I don't think people should live here and yet I do"
The interviewer seems like he needs to be somewhere else? Slow down dude.
I was shocked when he said 55. I was expecting at least another 15-20 years. Rough life indeed.
The guys so wholesome and honest I love it reminds me of my grandpa
It is funny how he keeps trying to draw out bad things about this man's life. But the ol' boy aint playing "He looks on the good side" My hat is off to Elmer. He can't fight em he just would have to shoot em'. He is a hoot. He may have a rough life but I bet he would be a good friend.
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Dang - I've been hooked on this guy's interviews the last few weeks.
The most disturbing one is hands down the inbred family...the barking guy. Jeebus.
Amazing interview. Subscribed.
I respect the hell out of this man. simple, hard man that’s only known a rough life. There’s a sincerity to him that’s almost romantic. Fuck! that man said he eats snakes. Eat them damn snakes my man. Godless him.