Appalachian Man interview-Paul

where were you born paul 1946. i was born in heightened hospital over you grew up where right here yeah uh i growed up on uh wolf creek over across the hill that's alpha holler down here the black top turned to the right that's that's where i growed up at yeah uh mom and dad yeah yeah they're they both passed away you know uh my dad my dad worked in the coal mines when we was growing up just teenagers we tend a big corn a whole side of a mountain out of corn you know and we had to have a milk cow we had milk cows chickens hogs back then if you didn't raise what you eat you would starve almost and my dad worked in the mines for a dollar hour he made forty dollars forty dollars a week into coal mines that's for i mean uh for eight hours uh eight hours a day you got a dollar error and uh and we'd take care of uh everything else with us kids we got up big enough you know they uh we attend a big garden and raise a lot of vegetables and uh we'd raise that corn feeding corn for hogs and chickens you know well he's the wrong corn and uh and daily work in the mines and we we fared good but if you didn't raise it you didn't eat by gosh back then you couldn't get a whole nothing to eat my daddy worked in the mines right now he'd catch a ride down the road you're about four mile and he'd cross over to where we lived at and he brought a 50-pound handle lard for 2.50 cents back then now 2.57 this is the truth now this ain't just a bear tail and he'd put it on his back and carry across the mountain one slot one side of the mountain and pack it all the way home after he'd worked a shift work on the ground you know mine and we we got a long good but now back then if you didn't raise it well you yeah everything was cheap but you couldn't get a whole no money couldn't hardly get a hold of money back then you have electricity back then how old were you when you got electricity well i was about 15. yeah yeah we had a yeah i'd use coil all ounce yeah and uh we got along good it till you get used to them like you feel like you're in the dark all the time you don't put much light in there just a damn light but nothing to see to get around in and eat and you bed clothing go to bed how far are you going to school i just got a chance to go to fifth grade i'm telling you just like i said back then you we had nine teachers one one uh semester you know uh nine years uh months you know they teach you know out of the year and we had nine teachers one time up some of them wouldn't teach a week they'd let they would would come back and you didn't have much of a chance to get education now like you do now no so it's but now after fifth grade you went where what do you do start working yeah yeah i i went working at the mines when i was 17 years old and we loaded it with a shale with a big shell and we loaded 60 tons uh 30 tons each man they doubled us up they had a big old broad car that went under a low hang a coal and uh they'd push it back in there where the coal pile they cut it with a with a machine it had big old bits and it cut out under that coal and uh they cut it and shoot it for us of a night and a day shift would come in and load it out and we would load 60 ton between two two men and eight hours and we got 1950 for doing that so a piece a day yeah yeah a day yep yep and then then they went uh joey's what's called a minor that loads it you know love electricity had a big old they called them digging arms would just scoop that coal right up on that conveyor that uh joey had a bit of a big old conveyor run to one end that well the tail they called the tail part you know it's about drill 15 foot long and they back a uh buggy right up under it this is underground yeah on the ground yeah and uh load it that way and hip side how they would just rake it in on the head of that loader on that conveyor and they'd take it right back in them cars and they'd haul it outside and dump it in the table so when you were a young man were there options for you other other things you could have done no no you couldn't you couldn't make no money and i didn't have no education when you you know you have to have so much education now to get anything job you know it's different everything's different ain't it but uh just i had the skill the mind and the willing mind so [Music] i never i never did dread works i don't right now i've been doing something every day going that's what keeps me going let me tell you something when you sit down you'll go down on the average when you get aging on you you know what i'm talking about stop moving not moving not moving use her to lose it and i sure appreciate the lord of shape i'm in right now you know about my breathing never that that heart doctor couldn't believe i couldn't believe it over alimony or where it hazardous my heart doctor what about your lungs how many years did you work in the mines work 20. he said say they run here on the test on me they do it every so often about my heart and launch and i had to go where i five different times for my my insurance would cover it you know and uh he said your he said your lungs is good right along with your heart that ain't been about six months ago and uh i go to him every three or four months you know just to visit and uh he he couldn't couldn't blame my alarm so that way there was me being that dust i'd come out there i'd pull clogs of dirt coat us were hit caked in my nose that long right there i'm telling you now he'd start out and just keep coming i bet you're not they'd be as long as your finger you know you didn't stop them up solid but they they didn't come out of clod like that where where i believed this much never did get on my lungs ain't that something i breathed it in my nose that must have been i'll save my lungs yeah yep yeah i i've always been a good person i've got more friends you wouldn't believe everybody that knows me i know how to talk to people and i know when to not to talk who to talk to you say a word in some people they'll just uh have you traveled have you been around the country no no i've preferred ohio i was about the first time in uh up our dating and i got some people lived up there back then it's been a long time ago it sure been 30 years ago my cousin uh he he had a sister lived up there and i went he wanted me to go up there with him and he'd come snow while we was up our horse hit block people's driveways where they couldn't get out get out of their driveways and and they come you go to them driveways and they they'd be glad to get somebody to shovel them out and we'd shovel them driveways out they'd give us 10 or 15 you know that's a whole lot of money back then yeah they couldn't get back on the main road out of the driveway from their house you know and we don't have no winners like we used to not now here lately we ain't we didn't have much snow at all last winter just a little here and yet has life gotten harder or easier living here very well has life gotten harder or easier since you were a kid well uh it's it's say it's got azer things have changed a lot oh yeah yeah gosh yeah man yep yep yep how are things changed better better uh you can get more uh more things to get food and this and that that you couldn't get back in or the coal mining is dried up so that's not around anymore well uh uh and that hurt that just happened for the last year or two they're haunted right down this creek here and it's until where they're taking it they hauled it from that you hear anybody say anything about blue diamond across this across the hill here they're hauling it from over there and then big trailers down this way uh it's not telling where it's going they said that the the coal operator is getting 300 ton for it in the temple right now it didn't hit there and see i got a nephew works works under mine so work leatherwood they get about two hundred dollars a shift for eight hours them coal miners is yep you know we're getting all surprised there was for the coal one of the miners told me that he's getting a 300 ton for it right now and the table down hit yeah what do you make of the the drug problem that's going on here well i'll tell you it's bad it's bad bad that last house up for that fella's been doing it 25 years and he's never been rested for it he lives down the road down here now about a couple miles a big old stone store a big old building right in next to the road level with a road there about a couple miles down there he lives down there right now and selling it right down there right now and and there's some guy down there's a law man law enforcement he was a game order too he's never said a word to him but uh he's got that that boy's uh uh niece the one that's selling it her and he's the game order lives out they've never he's never said a word to them and uh it's it's everywhere now this is uh crystal meth hi this is crystal meth i know i never did see one well yeah that's that's what they called it yeah and used to that you could i have raised it in time i have smoked some pot it it won't hurt you that way i mean and uh they they last summer they run a helicopter eight times over top his house back and forth to write out hinter and back they never did do that before they don't find none they spend an awesome lot of money he ever was they found a bunch here again because nobody won't raise it no more they know they hunt it's hard and they put people on me if he's that's that's what donny did right there and you know it ain't that bad when when they make it legal in so many states it might be illegal were you yes legal in california that that's what i'm saying there are a whole bunch of states it's legal in i've seen people smoking and go about their business and and not bother nobody eat it why but now that that myth will go to killing them like flies that's got so much stuff in it i hear people talk about what they put in it and when to get on it they won't get off of it or can't get off of it once it's addicted you know uh marijuana they use smoker joint maybe now not smoking for a while this and that and you you didn't crave it like that but there's something to that to that myth it's got too bad her name or their people wouldn't even fool with it what do you make of the future for the younger generation growing up here i tell you what i feel sorry for myself a young boys you know not know what they're doing you know what not knowing how bad it is it's that's that's something the the feel bad about now i'm telling you for the young generation and they will get on it because it's just and they don't try to do nothing about it they could do more about it what they they get a man up there and put him up 50 years if he's caught with it they go to changing their mind he might just quit a dealing with it that boy that man down here is what 25 years nate been caught they know him just back just like the bottom of my hand right there that he's doing it now it's it's something scary to think about for a young generation i mean it it is do you have children no no no i've never been married i've been this woman 20 years [Laughter] way too long now you never you never got married no no uh i've been staying randall well she my my nephews uh it's got uh brenda i was married to brenda's girl and she's got two kids my nephew and it's all family you know and they they think more me they do the wrong daddy he he wasn't no cow don't matter if he was my nephew the truth is true you know what i'm saying and their mommy and her she's smart as a tax son she works online and makes all kinds of money got that right in the room right in the room in there yes sir you're you're happy here you've lived here oh yeah yeah yeah yep yep you lived a good life live a good life yes sir and i'm a person and i don't hold hate against nobody just just i mean i'm satisfied any words i'm mad you don't make no difference where i'm at i'm satisfied and that that is that's what makes life so good you're satisfied anywhere yet and actually heard people say i went somewhere it's not as dissatisfied just that you know what i'm saying it's not about money yep because money is not mighty ain't all the error but you gotta have so much don't hate that true i mean so much any house but now money ain't all they are nope no sir because this is this is one of the poorest parts of the country but if you stay clear of the drugs you know everyone seems to be living a great life oh yeah yeah yeah well see people would raise that i've raised some of it at time some marijuana but and then here come that along like that you know i never uh i'd but uh smokes a little now then it it don't affect it it don't affect you that way secrets have hurt you worse than anything this backer that you're seeing is giving people lung cancer and everything according to the to the doctors yeah well alcohol is probably as destructive as anything well yeah you buy that anywhere yeah yeah it and it it makes people mean on alkey hall that people smoke that pot need as peaceful as they can be it does them all way different but i've seen people make alcohol and they want to start fights with people that wasn't even bothering them or nothing and and uh i say they ain't too much to sell for alcohol now since that mess got out of the straw it's just scary to think about it now i'm telling you what the young generation's going to get into when they these teenage boys and tell you they were you won't do them buddy up with many people what were the best times of your life what was the best decade for you did what now what was the best decade in your life your success probably in the 20s when i was in the 20 years old i had a little more life about old but you wouldn't believe uh as old as i am how good my breathing is i can walk these mountains i take my time i don't rush i never smother i just feel like a young man most the time but to be that i'd be that old you see people that old and just fairly are moving all rolled over a lot of them you're working every day yeah yeah just as you as the days comes that i've been doing something though you know my grandpa lived to hebrews 102. his name was felix lewis he's 102 and when he's 85 years old he he raised his family on the farm lived on the farm all time back then and when he's 85 years old he's he go right back he had a big field up there about 20 acres cleared black dirt rich is dirty at wood and um that's all where where my house is at right now that feel that hollow right there and you'd see him with his whole hoe and corn and him in his eighties well he lived till he's a hundred and two so we did what was the hardest time of your life well up the hardest time well i i never have had it too hard you know good answer i could always i could always find something to do find something to eat i like to fish i go to tennessee fishing and i've done that for the last 30 years because the fishing is bitter down earlier this year more fish you see common lake is big yeah that's in kentucky you know but it's hard to catch him it's the big you know and i ain't got no boat and we fish from the bank a lot like that and we catch more fish from the bank of sight yep uh i take tyler with me there them them kids there never has had no daddies they feel more like i'm their daddy both of them do that right there and that girl in our years uncle yeah yeah yep what's your favorite thing about appalachia do what now what's your favorite thing about appalachia well uh it's it's the weather and it's and the hunting and the fishing while you talk about about the place yeah yeah yeah it's beautiful here yeah it's it's it's heck yeah buddy you won't find no beautiful place with you and these timber girls are getting green like that and these creeks is clean too what they used to be that water's just as clear as branch water you can see the bottom of it everywhere well it's kind of low now to you but back when them strip jobs ever let everything go in it that's that was hard on the wildlife the fishing and everything you have any regrets in your life do you have any regrets no no no i've always been happiest person i talked to anybody i you wouldn't believe i've got friends everywhere that's you same people they kind of little shy you know about talking to people strange people you know i've never been been that way from little up what do you worry about i don't worry i don't worry about nothing cause everything ain't gonna be all right you didn't take long to answer that uh i know you used to worry about nothing cause everything ain't gonna be all right no way i don't worry about nothing you know you get upset a few on a few things but it leaves you you know quick listen it's a real bad thing you know like death out of family or but now furthest me now i'm uh i'm a happy man your childhood is great sounds like yeah yeah yeah how big a factor was that in your your life how your life panned out well i just didn't get to go to school you know what i'm saying we didn't have no school uh but you know i had to quit too quick back then where you uh uh they were you got we had to walk to the school about a mile each way hit the rolling wall it ain't like that now you know they arrived everywhere to go to school you see it's changed you ever you ever wish maybe you'd grown grown up somewhere else no no no no i don't think you'd find no better place no and paul what would you say is the most important lesson you've learned in your life through what now what's the most important lesson you've learned in your life well you know uh it's liking people got friends that means a lot you have good friends go go yeah i want foe just i'm going to talk to everybody i'll speak if they don't say a word back i can tell when they grind out where they don't want to talk enough i just toast you know what i'm saying yep i've got i've got friends good friends i want food with they say i talk to everybody say i know a lot of people i can pretty well tell their actions when does something matter with them when they're not right and it's about that way right now buddy all right paul thank you so much for sharing your story you too i wish you many more wonderful years same to you thank you you

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Length: 23min 45sec (1425 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 27 2022