- [Mark] All right, Wren.
- Yo. - [Mark] Wren, where'd you
grow up, where are you from? - [Wren] I'm from Middle Fork, Kentucky. - [Mark] And tell me about your childhood, you had both your parents
when you were a kid? - When I was childhood, I was son of Dave Bree. And my mother was Geraldine Bree. - [Mark] Who we just spoke to. - Yeah, from Hilton,
Kentucky here in Middle Fork. - [Mark] Right. And tell me about your childhood. How would you describe your childhood? - When I was back in my childhood, I rode up as a little boy,
I always liked all them, me and my little gold cars
had all the wheels and stuff and I get on these little county roads, just dirt roads back then. We rode up and down on them, and had loads of German
shepherd puppy dogs. That made the matters real interesting. 'Cause they stayed right with me. Every which way I'd go, they'd go with me. - [Mark] You of Appalachia? You grew up here and just-- - Yeah, I grewed up in the Appalachian. - [Mark] And you chose
to stay here, not leave. - Yeah, I choose to stay here. I always wanted work life,
so that's what I've done. I made a worker out of myself. - [Mark] What kind of stuff
have you done for work? - I worked in coal mines, I worked in coal mines for about 17 years. I've done a lot of work in the coal mines and done a lot of work around the coal mines,
inside and outside both. I've done all kinds of work life. In my childhood life, I had rode a... You know, I was garden, my daddy showed me how to work the gardens so I worked gardens a lot. So that made me a farmer,
kind of like a farmer. And not much farming goin' on here, but kind of farming we'd done, you try to make a little money on it. Back in them days. So we growin' up to make money. That's what it was all
about when I was 14, 15. - [Mark] I mean, poverty is almost like, every household has to deal with. - Yeah, it was bad back in them days. I mean, nobody had money around here. So the only way you could get money was get out and work in these hills. Make this... There was illegal stuff here and you could make money off of it. - [Mark] The illegal stuff. - Yeah, the illegal stuff.
- Like what, like pot? - Yeah, marijuana, pot. Yeah, we growed it and
made a little money, you know, that kept us going year to year. There wasn't no way to make it. There was nothing here in these mountains. These Appalachian Mountains, there was nothing here but just, and that's how we made it. We growed a little pot
and sold it outta here and it made us a little
money and kept us going. Should've legalized it a long time ago. - [Mark] Yeah. But it's still illegal today. - Yeah, still illegal today, yeah. But still you have people
foolin' around a little bit, not much as they used to have did, but just a little make a
little money along, so. Somethin' in life. - [Mark] And drugs are a big deal here. - Yeah, drugs are a big deal here, yes. - [Mark] The crystal
meth has come in and... - Yeah, it's no good, that stuff is. - [Mark] And the pills are, the painkillers have been around for a couple decades, right? - Yes, that stuff's
been around a long time. It's not real good for people, and people are just kids. Stuff like that, we don't
allow that 'round here. We don't want--
- You think the reason, the reason so many people go to drugs is because of how-- - 'Cause there's nothing to do here. - Nothing to do here.
- They know there's nothing here but drugs. Pretty percentage is 95% drugs here and a lot of peoples own those drugs 'cause there's nothing else to do. You know, you have no gymnasiums, no more for people to play ball
or play any kind of sports. It's all what they had. Pretty much, yeah, drugs just took over. - [Mark] Yeah. Have you had any prison time or jail time because of drugs? - No, there wasn't prison
for drugs in my life. Never was and never
been in jail for drugs. - [Mark] Do you have kids of your own? - Yeah, I got two fine boys. Jonathan Blake Bree and Josh Bree. - [Mark] How are they doing?
- Oh, they're doing great. Got one of them a school teacher, teaches at school. And got the other one,
works for the state of, the state, works for the state. - [Mark] That's great, good for you. - Works for-- - [Mark] How much money
do you live on a year now? - Yearly, I live on about $1000 a month. I live on about $12, $14,000 a year. - [Mark] Really? - I just drive, I drive over just what the commonwealth gives me. It's just, it's my own road. - [Mark] What was your favorite thing about living in Appalachia? - Favorite thing living in Appalachians, real quiet back in here
and I can breed my dogs. And just turn my dogs
loose and let them go wild. These mountains, these creeks, and it's about the happiest place I've ever been in my life. - [Mark] It's beautiful here. - Yeah, and it's beautiful, it's quiet, and everybody's friendly here. What, people ain't on drugs, they're real friendly
and real good to you. They're real good people, in Leslie and Clay and Harlan. - [Mark] Do you ever wonder what your life would have been like if you had been born in a
big city, like Atlanta or-- - One time I left here.
- Charlotte. - One time I left here in about 1990. I was about 18 years old, 17, and I took off and went to Dallas, Texas down in the big city. One time in my life, never
been there before in my life. Went down there one
time, and boy, I had fun, stayed three months down there. On the first day down, I met a black guy. And I never thought I'd ever get to talk to black people like this. Gave me a job, and took good
care of me down in Dallas. And I stayed there
three and a half months, and tracked and preyed back to the hills. Couldn't stay, had to come back. Had to come back to the Appalachians. - [Mark] Yeah. - So now I got, now I breed those dogs and I breed labs and the name of my dogs, Appalachian Labrador Retrievers. And I love raising dogs. - [Mark] So do you consider
yourself a hillbilly? - Yeah, I'm a hillbilly. (Mark laughs)
- Yeah, I'm a Kentucky hillbilly. - [Mark] And you're proud of it. - Proud of it, yeah. - [Mark] How do you define a
hillbilly? What is a hillbilly? - A hillbilly's when people ask you out, swing on grapevines in these mountains and climb trees like Tarzan and have fun. And the mountains is mountains, you don't have to take nothing
in the mountains to have fun. They're history, they're free, dig roots and all kinds of stuff. We dig roots, cohosh, black cohosh like the Indians used
to back in the old days to cure people's sickness. We dig ginseng, we're big
and bad at it when we go. (Mark laughs) - [Crew Member] Welcome today. - I've got the bag on. - [Mark] So this is ginseng that you-- - Okay, yeah, this is way
back on Appalachian Mountains, on the ginseng. Me and my dogs and my brothers and us, we all go in these hills, and we dig this ginseng
to send over to China, cross the water, so the China people can
have good things to eat. Like, these big four plugs, like stuff like this right here, they love it over there. And it's not like anywhere else you go, you will find big roots out of the mountains of
Leslie County, like this. The ginseng quality's real high, it's like 2000 a pound over in China. - [Mark] And what do you guys sell it for? - And over here, they rob
us and take it from us. We get only about 400 a pound for it over here in Kentucky. But you know, we should
get more than that, but we're poor and you know, we just, we let 'em have it. What makes us happy? We got it right here
forever and ever and ever. It's right here for us, and we get to get it and
then send it all to them. (Mark chuckles) - That's what we love to
do back in these hills. We love it. Yeah, here in the
mountains of Leslie County, the ginseng, it's real strong. The juice in it is strong. The Appalachians is the,
it's like marijuana, the marijuana is better here in the Appalachian
Mountains like ginseng is. That's why everybody wants it for, 'cause it's better. We always grow the best,
we always have the best. I guess if you got the best, you know, all you want to
do is have all the rest. - [Mark] Is it pronounced
Appalachia or Appalachia? - Appalachia. Appalachia. - [Mark] Appalachia. - Yeah. - [Mark] Okay, I hear different
from different people, but-- - Yeah, yeah. Well, some people call it Appalachian. - Yeah, right.
- You know, some people, Appalachian. See, mine, I got the dogs. You know, Appalachian Labrador Retrievers. And I got all the dogs that I raised today for 'em. I got about nine female
dogs and four males. And I breed them just, in these mountains, you got
to have something to do. So I breed these dogs and take them ginseng-ing with me and
stuff in the mountains. It's real fun to do that.
- All right. Appalachia has kind of been left behind. The rest of the world,
the technology has moved-- - It's moved forward.
- Advanced very forward. But here, you're kind of still. There's no cell service
here, and there's-- - No cell service in these mountains. Just very certain places
you get cell service, it's not like the cities.
- [Mark] You have very basic, like grocery stores are, they're really just gas
stations with like-- - Grocery stores here, you have to spend $20, $25
out here to get to one. To get your food, so if you
just want a pop or a cake or something like that, it's gon' cost you $20 to just get out to get that cake here in
these Appalachian Mountains. It's a long ways in and out of here. Time you get back up here to us to see us, you're out of a lot of money. - [Mark] Do you feel out of place when you go to a big city? - [Wren] Yeah, I feel out of place, yeah. It's a lot different. You're more free back up in here, like it's the free world and free land. You're more free up here in the mountains than you are out in the cities. You got all those people in
the city around you up there. Back in here, you don't have that. All you got back in here is like all the mountains and the mountain bears. We have the black bears here.
- [Mark] Yeah, you have bears, you have elk, you have deer, you have coyotes, you have-- - [Wren] Yeah, we have all the cows and we have a owl, got
squirrels, and ducks. We got all kinds of animals
here in the mountains. - [Mark] Yeah, your mom
was telling me you guys-- - [Wren] We got flying squirrels. We got coons, we got the skunks. - [Mark] And you eat a
lot of these animals. - [Wren] We eat a lot
of these animals, yeah. The coon, you can eat the coon, it's real good. You can eat the groundhogs, a lot of people eat the groundhogs. The ducks, you eat all of 'em. There's all kinds of animals in the mountains that you can eat. A lot of people also eat the black bear, they kill it, they eat it.
- [Mark] You can eat bear? - Yeah, they eat bear here too, yeah. Elk, they eat the elk. - [Mark] Yeah, interesting. So a lot of characters out here, a lot of people get in
trouble with the law, and a lot of people-- - Yeah, a lot of law right here that's been going on for
last five to 10 years, goin' on 'round here. - [Mark] A lot of like
outlaw personalities, right? - Yeah, outlaw personalities,
you got a lot-- - [Mark] The Confederate flag
to a lot of people means... It's symbolic of racism. But out here, the Confederate flag means something very different, right? - Very different, yeah. - [Mark] It means like, you're an outlaw. - Yeah, we were the rebel flag is, will be a rebel outlaw.
- It has nothing to do with racism. - No, it has nothing to do with racism. No, we don't--
- Right. There's a lot of people-- - I'm not prejudiced
with the black people. When I wore the rebel flag
for the last 20 years, I never thought about one time that it even concerned a black person. - [Mark] Right. - And back in Middle where we come from. - [Mark] I think that's
a big misunderstanding, people see the Confederate flag and they think, "Oh, that
means you're a racist." - Yeah, that's wrong. - It doesn't mean--
- No, it doesn't. And the black people should
understand that immediately, that's wrong. - [Mark] Absolutely. - We wear blue. Blue is for black, that's why I got black, blue on today is, a lot of people won't
wear blue like I do today because it's for the black boys, but I'm not prejudiced. I wear all colors. - [Mark] And you'd wear a
Confederate flag on your shirt? - I wear red, white, and blue. - [Mark] You'd wear a Confederate flag right now and be proud of it? - Be proud of it, yes, I
will. I got one to wear. - [Mark] Yeah. - Yeah, I got one. I always wear it ever since
I've been 16 year old, I've had a flag on my head and wore it every day they ever since, and I'll wear it from now on. And they have no, no whatsoever racism against no black people, never. Everybody say I'm nationwide. Everybody likes me 'cause I'm nationwide. Everybody calls me nationwide. I know everybody. I know how all kin, I am to all kinds of people 'round here. - [Mark] You know everybody in the county? - Yeah, just about. Everybody in the county. Oh, I know, I'm nationwide, I know everybody all over
the states in other states. I know a lot of people, I get to know a lot of people.
I'm antisocial, but I ain't. I am social everybody. They say, "Well, you antisocial." No, you're not, you're
sociable with everybody. So that makes me well, nationwide. I like to know everybody
and good to everybody. I want respect like I give respect. If you give respect, you'll get respect. If you're good to people,
good'll come back to you. My granny told me seven times
more great will come to you when you're good to people. Yeah. - [Mark] Wren, thank you so
much for talking with me. - Yeah. - [Mark] You're fascinating. - [Wren] Yeah, I could talk some more. I know a lot, I'm nationwide. I know a lot I could sit and tell you. I know some real good stories
I could tell that's true. - [Mark] All right, we'll
come back next time. - [Wren] Yeah, come back
and get me on the next one and put me on YouTube again, they love me there. - [Mark] All right, Wren. Thank you very much. - [Wren] Hey, thank you so much, sir. My sister talked about it for six months. - [Mark] Next time. - [Wren] Bye.
