"Hungarian Recipes" Reflections On An Intriguing Cookbook From The Magyar Evangelical and Reformed Church in Elyria, Ohio, 1957

I love food.  I like to cook but I don't claim to be a good cook.  I also love cookbooks, especially interesting, odd, unusual cookbooks, and I have bought cookbooks which fit that description for many years at yard sales and discount stores such as Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc.  I don't even remember when or where I bought this little cookbook but I strayed into it again and, due to the fact that it is a piece of work from a truly unique cultural group in America and contains a few odd, interesting, and unique recipes, I decided to write about it on this blog.  My copy is the 12th printing of the book with a copyright date of 1957.  It is, amazingly, available online in whatever the current printing may be.  In the copy I own, it labeled as being "Compiled by The Dorcas Guild of the MAGYAR EV. and REF. CHURCH 119 West River Street, Elyria, Ohio".  The copy available for sale on the internet today is labeled "Compiled by The Dorcas Guild of Community of Faith United Church of Christ (formerly Magyar UCC)".  My copy sold in 1957 for one dollar with shipping available for 25 cents extra.  The copy available today online is priced at $15.00 with standard US shipping.  Inflation has obviously had some effect on the cost of cookbooks.  Interestingly, the cover of the book is exactly the same plain green it was in 1957.  The only change is the address and name of the church.  It is said to be available until December 31, 2025.  One other interesting footnote to this story is that despite my not remembering where or how I came to own this cookbook, I used to have an aunt, uncle, and three cousins who lived in Elyria, Ohio.  The book is only 40 pages in a pamphlet form but it is loaded with recipes.  

For me, the most interesting recipes in the book would be the following: Liver Dumplings, Veal Heart And Lung Soup, and Kidneys With Rice.  There is also one recipe for Chicken And Rice which calls for "1 chicken--using bony pieces: neck, feet, wings, gizzard, liver".  The wording in that ingredient is taken verbatim from the book.  Many of the meat based recipes also call for generous portions of lard.  I am forced to wonder if the 2024 version of the book still calls for lard but I doubt it.  The book also has a large section of recipes for dessert items, cakes, pies, cookies, etc.  For those of you who might not know the term Magyar, it is defined as:

"a member of a people who originated in the Urals and migrated westward to settle in what is now Hungary in the 9th century AD"

 

Basically, Magyars are Hungarians.  For those of you who have spent your entire lives in Central and Southern Appalachia and wonder what connection there is between Appalachia and Magyars or Hungarians there was once a large community of Hungarians in Martin County Kentucky who were brought into the area to staff a large, cooperatively operated coal  mine near Beauty and Lovely on the Tug River.  This is a fascinating little cookbook and you can find your copy at the link above at a considerably larger, but currently standard level, price.  I would love to try the recipes I mentioned above but doubt that I ever will due to changes in my eating habits over the last 6 or 7 years. I was raised on organ meats and love to eat them but I just don't do that anymore.  If any of you readers try the book and recipes, please leave the rest of us a comment about what you learned from the experience.  

 

 

Reflections On Reading "Accordion Crimes" by E. Annie Proulx

E. Annie Proulx, or Annie Proulx as she is sometimes known, is one of America's best known and most successful authors.  She is the author of the short story on which the movie "Broke Back Mountain" was based and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for her novel "The Shipping News" in 1994.  This is actually the third of her works which I have read and yet I have not yet written about any of them on this blog which is an unjustifiable error.  At times, she is a wonderful writer and her prose can flow smoothly, interestingly, and in a manner which consistently draws the reader deeper into her works.  But, in my opinion, at times her work falls measurably short of her best.  I like this book as much or better than either of her others which I have read.  But I have to admit that I enjoyed the earlier reads enough to go back for another dip in this one. Perhaps part of that higher level of pleasure on my part comes from the fact that, as a child in grade school in Knott County Kentucky, I was exposed on a monthly basis to live gospel accordion music from Alma Heibert, of the two "Bible Women" who were allowed to visit each small, rural grade school in the county on a monthly basis as a part of their missionary work with Camp Nathaniel in the county.  As always when I mention my experience with these two women and that fact that missionaries were allowed to visit public schools in the county, I am morally and ethically bound to state that the fact that they were allowed to do so in public schools was a clear cut violation of the Separation of Church and State and never should have been allowed to happen. But, yes, I do have fond memories of having known those women and of accordion music.  

The main character in this novel is not a person but an accordion, hand made by a native of an Italian native who emigrated to the United State with the instrument he had made and eventually sold it.  The human characters come and go in the novel as the accordion passes from hand to hand, being used by members of different ethnicities to play the particular music of each culture as the instrument passes along its life.  The accordion is variously owned and played by Mexican Americans, African Americans, Polish Americans, Irish Americans, and other members of other cultures. Along the way during the story, Proulx weaves in a great deal of historical and musical information about accordions, their instrumental relatives, and many of the cultures which are historically connected to accordion music.  along the way, the instrument is loved, played, admired, and sometimes abandoned much as a human character might have been.  It is an interesting and unique method of constructing a novel and, I believe, is some of Proulx's best work.  In my opinion, the language and written structure of the novel is more skillful than that in either "The Shipping News" or "That Old Ace In The Hole" both of which I have also read and will, perhaps, also write about on this blog.  The accordion becomes a living, breathing character in the book.  It is more than just a musical instrument.  It is a delivery vehicle which deposits musical and cultural history at the reader's doorstep. It becomes the glue which brings all the other characters, cultures, and histories together.  And those histories are both documentations of cultures and of people, families, and individual and shared lives.  It is a book well worth reading, especially if the reader is not familiar with the work of Proulx it is a fine place to begin a relationship with the author and her work. 

Observations On Reading "Rednecks and Hillbillies: A Thematic Analysis of the Construction of Pride and High Self-Esteem Exhibited by Southern Characters of Pride and High Self-Esteem Exhibited by Southern Characters" by Dr. Casey R. White, Ph. D.

 On January 25, 2021, I received a comment on this blog from a woman known as Dr. Casey R. White, Ph. D., on a post which I had written on December 2, 2020, entitled "Hillbilly Is A Cultural And Ethnic Epithet" which was my stated opinion of many years that the term "hillbilly" is a pejorative epithet intended to demean and degrade the person(s), culture(s), or lifestyle(s) to which it refers.  In my opinion, there is not now, never has been, and will never be a positive effect from anyone calling themselves or anyone else a "hillbilly". In the post in question, I had stated that:

"I have also been able to locate a second refreshingly positively entitled doctoral dissertation by Dr. Casey R. White at South Dakota State University which states its intentions in the title:  "REDNECKS AND HILLBILLIES: A THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF PRIDE AND HIGH SELF-ESTEEM EXHIBITED BY SOUTHERN CHARACTERS".   Its stated intent to examine the "construction of pride and self-esteem exhibited by southern characters" is exactly what I hoped to engender with this blog post.  I hope to be able to read (this dissertation) fully and to report on (it) succinctly in later blog posts." (Hillbilly Is A Cultural And Ethnic Epithet, This Blog, December 2, 2020)

That statement about having located the doctoral dissertation mentioned above whic was produced and approved at South Dakota State University in 2020, and resulted in Dr. White receiving  her doctoral degree in sociology subsequent to having produced that dissertation in addition to completion of all other work required for such a degree prompted  Dr. White's comment on my blog post was triggered by a notification to her from an academic service she subscribes to which reports to authors of academic articles and dissertations when their work is cited, quoted, and read by others.  Her comment on my blog at the blog post cited above is as follows:

Hi there! There's a website that tells me whenever someone cites or mentions my dissertation and that's how I ended up here. I'm Dr. Casey White you mentioned and it's very nice to see others are finding my dissertation to read. I'd love to see what you get out of it if you end up writing another blog post.

I've always been fascinated by words and how they change over time and their meanings. When I did my dissertation, being from Tennessee, I was fascinated by the words hillbilly and redneck. Historically, they were insults and in some scholarly research were comparable to racial slurs at one time which is something you mention above. Interestingly, I had to put a disclaimer in my dissertation when I said this because we now live in an extreme PC culture where people might get ticked off by someone saying any insults directed to white individuals can be comparable to racial slurs. Being from Appalachia and seeing mountain poverty and poor "hillbilly" culture firsthand I can make the argument easily but I'm drifting from my purpose in commenting :).
Over time the words hillbilly and redneck became more complex. Today capitalism is a big part of those words and stereotypes attached to them are big business. The point of my dissertation was to also discuss how in modern times these words could have positive meanings where on television the modern day hillbilly and redneck could be a billionaire with good family values and Christian morals. There's so much you could talk about just looking at the words hillbilly and redneck. Anyways, I thought I'd leave you a comment of encouragement since you ran across my dissertation. I think your blog is pretty neat and on a great subject I'm pretty passionate about. Keep up the good work. (Dr. Casey R. White, Blog Comment On This Blog, January 25, 2021)

As I frequently do with blog comments which merit a response, I left the following response to Dr. White's comment which said the following: 

 Dr. White:
I just found your comment on my blog post in which I mentioned your dissertation. I still have to admit that I haven't read the dissertation fully but intend to do so. I found it on Encompass which I am able to access free from the website of Eastern KY University although I have no connection to the university. I appreciate the response. I assume you know that the term "redneck" arose as a result of the Battle of Blair Mountain in WV. I was fortunate enough to know Bill Blizzard (Jr.) whose father Bill Blizzard (Sr.) led the UMWA miners at Blair Mountain and was charged with sedition and a variety of other crimes along with several others of his associates, tried and acquitted at Harper's Ferry. When Bill the younger died, mourners at his memorial service wore red bandanas in memory of both his work and that of his father. Bill the younger had been fired by the Charleston Gazette because he refused to cross a pressmen's picket line during a strike. The miners at Blair Mountain wore red bandanas to differentiate themselves from the Baldwin Felts gun thugs and thus arose the term "redneck" which has long since been relegated to negativity. If you wish to converse more directly, my e-mail is rchicks@mrtc.com Where are you working now? And where are you from in TN? Have you ever seen the AppalShop movie I mention above, "Strangers and Kin: A History of the Hillbilly Image"? I also assume you know the origin of the Appalachian State University mascot Yosef. And how on earth did you end up doing a Ph.D. in the Dakotas?(Roger D. Hicks, Blog Comment On This Blog, January 26, 2021)

I should also say that in cases when I receive comments from others who have legitimate academic, literary, or cultural credentials I often make an attempt to conduct a personal exchange with those people.  However, a basic Google Search was unable to lead me to an e-mail address for Dr. White which prompted me to respond in the blog comment section as I did.  I have found that at certain times this method of response never elicits a response from the person in question since they may never return to my blog which is why I have chosen to use the full title of her dissertation in this blog post which should trigger another notice from her service which generally works better than word of mouth or the barking and growling of a yard dog.  I am also saying at this point that I suspect many of my regular readers who are not in an academic field will find this entire blog post far too boring to read the whole thing.  I understand and will not hold it against those of you who left two or three paragraphs ago or henceforth.  But I also suspect that a few academics with a sense of humor will stick it out to the end of whatever communications take place between myself and Dr. White and are already somewhere between a soft smile and a chortle at one more silly academic argument between two suspected, or perhaps even legitimate geeks, on which many of us self-described geeks would have the world believe we thrive.  

I can now report that I have read Dr. White's dissertation, as many rural conservative Baptist preachers of a hundred different sub-denominations might say, "from kiver to kiver".  I must confess that I did not keep copious notes as I read it which might have made what I have to say more rational and cogent but I stopped that practice in most cases since I no longer have to worry about concluding such endeavors with a passing grade. I should also say that I am appreciative of the compliment Dr. White paid me by saying: "Anyways, I thought I'd leave you a comment of encouragement since you ran across my dissertation. I think your blog is pretty neat and on a great subject I'm pretty passionate about. Keep up the good work."  And since I am such a glutton for these types of compliments, and for passing them on in order to prove that I occasionally receive them, I can say that just this morning, February 9, 2021, an old friend Jerry Felty, with whom I attended the Southern Appalachian Circuit of Antioch College in the 1970's sent me an e-mail which said in part: "I finally realize that this blog is yours! I looked through some of the older posts and man is it really good and true to you and your mission on this here earth. In 2011, I was reading your lineup of local fantastic musicians. Very cool.  I love Patti Loveless, whether she believes it or not. Congratulations on being yourself dude. Not all that many people can honestly say that."  I have chosen to insert that comment from Jerry Felty into this rather rambling blog post both to prove that other intelligent people read this blog sometimes and a few of them seem to enjoy it.  Maybe, Dr. White did also. Further I insert it to state that Jerry Felty is correct in saying that I am "being myself".  In fact, one of my favorite, now timeworn, baseball caps has the caption "You be you and I'll be me."  

Now to get back to the real point of this little exercise, as I said earlier,I did not take extensive notes on the dissertation in question and that could well leave me looking less focused than I intended to be.  As Dr. White said in her comment to me, her purpose in her dissertation was to "discuss how in modern times these words [Hillbilly and Redneck] could have positive meanings where on television the modern day hillbilly and redneck could be a billionaire with good family values and Christian morals."  I will insist on sticking to my guns and saying that there can never be a positive outcome from using those words just as there can never be positive outcomes from using the "N" word, the "K" word, the "Q" word, or the "C" word, or any other word whose intent is to demean, defame, and belittle the members of the cultural and ethnic groups to which such words refer.  Sadly, part of the problem with the words "Hillbilly" and "Redneck" is that the group or groups to which they refer are still not widely recognized as a cultural and/or ethnic minority which should be eligible to receive all the considerations which are generally accorded to the members of the other groups which are implied by such words.  As for Dr. White's dissertation, it has some positive points and, since she is a native of Tennessee, I am willing to assume that her intentions were positive.  But just as the aforementioned Baptist preachers are also fond of saying, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions".  

It is my considered opinion that no minority group ever benefits from appropriating and using as self references those slurs, insults, and epithets which have been invented and used by the prejudiced members of the majority culture as they are appropriated and used by the people in most of the television shows which Dr. White studied for her dissertation.  This practice has long been and remains common among African American youth, especially, just as it does for the participants in these television "reality" shows about southern and Appalachian people. Patrick Huber in the journal "Southern Cultures Vol 1. No. 5 Winter 1995" in an article entitled "A Short History of Redneck: The Fashioning of A Southern White Masculine Identity" wrote in his introduction: 

Rural poor and working-class white southerners have endured a broad range of slurs throughout U.S. history, many derived from geographic regions, dietary habits, physical appearance, or types of clothing. Epithets aimed at urban poor white southerners are fewer and tend to focus on cotton-mill workers: cottonhead, cotton mill trash, cottontail, factory hill trash, factory rat, and linthead, for example. A few of the rural class slurs, especially redneck and hillbilly, are also applied indiscriminately to southern white migrants working in factories in Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati, and other midwestern cities. (Patrick Huber See Citation Above)

In 2005, in nearly identical words, Anthony Harkins of Western Kentucky University wrote:

 "What defines the hillbilly more than geography are cultural traits and values. In this regard, "hillbilly" is no different than dozens of similar labels and ideological and graphic constructs of poor and working-class southern whites coined by middle-and upper-class commentators, northern and south-ern. These derisive terms were intended to indicate a diet rooted in scarcity ("clay eater," "corn-cracke~," "rabbit twister"), physical appearance and cloth-ing that denoted hard al!d specifically working-class laboring conditions ("redneck," "wool hat," "lint head"), an animal-like existence on the eco-nomic and physici\l fringes of society ("brush ape," "ridge runner," "briar hop-per"), ignorance and racism, and in all cases, economic, genetic, and cultural impoverishment (best summed up by the label "poor white," or more point-edly, "poor white trash"). Many of these derogatory labels were used inter-changeably as putdowns of working-class southern whites, especially those who had migrated to southern and midwestern urban centers." ( Harkins, Anthony, "Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon" (2005). History Faculty Book Gallery.Book 4.http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/history_book/4)

Thus we see that there is a basic flaw in any supposition that there can be positive outcomes from the use, acceptance, and appropriation of such epithets by those the epithets are intended to demean.   

 In 2013, in a senior writing project entitled "Coming to Appreciate the Redneck Stereotype: A Value Analysis of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" at California Polytechnic University, Bevie Tyo wrote: 

Reality TV ... producers selectively expose what the audience will see which in the end could lead to misinformation of a certain race, culture, or gender. When filming reality TV shows like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, they are constantly filming the family 24 hours a day for several weeks or months just to produce thirty minutes of footage for ten episodes of the first season. There is so much footage left out, giving the audience selective exposure to the most entertaining parts of their lives. This ultimately affects the viewer’s perceptions and leads the audiences to stereotype because they are only given certain information about people on reality TV. (Bevie Tyo See Citation Above)

 

Dr. White studied 110 episodes of a sizeable number of such shows for her dissertation in the effort to find ways in which those shows depicted their participants in positive ways. She studied that total of 110 episodes from a randomly chosen group of 12 different shows. The list of shows she studied included "Swamp People", "Rocket City Rednecks", "Moonshiners", "Hillbilly Blood", "Hillbilly Hand Fishin'" and 7 others. She used what is known as a convenience sample of the episodes from these shows.  A convenience sample is defined by the website "Statistics How To" as: Convenience sampling (also called accidental sampling or grab sampling) is where you include people (Or television episodes) who are easy to reach or easy to locate as was the case with Dr. White's work on this dissertation. Convenience sampling is a contrast and methodological opposite to Random Sampling which is defined by the same website as participants are randomly selected, and each has an equal chance of being chosen. In academic research, a random sample is always considered to be a higher quality sample of anything under study, or to use another word from academic research, random sampling gives a research project higher validity.  Validity is defined by the website Scribbr as: Validity refers to how accurately a method measures what it is intended to measure. If research has high validity, that means it produces results that correspond to real properties, characteristics, and variations in the physical or social world. Thus random samples always have higher validity than convenience samples.  

Now that we have explained some of the research terms related to Dr. White's dissertation, let's move on to discuss the work itself.  I must say that I almost never watch "reality" television with a few exceptions and those exceptions are not shows about those of us who are known as hillbillies and rednecks.  The one show on Dr. White's list which I have watched extensively is "Swamp People" both because I love to watch those people do high quality work in a dangerous profession and because I have spent some time in Louisiana and love to eat alligator, bullfrogs, and squirrels.  I also have watched a few episodes of "Hillbilly Handfishin'" because I wanted to see if it was possible to learn some techniques for use in that sport if I ever find an expert who is willing to take me out with them.  But, in general, I avoid like the plague those shows which attempt to present real life in the world of Central and Southern Appalachia and choose to present us as hillbillies.  I will also take umbrage with the effort to lump all southerners and all Appalachians into one group whether or not they refer to the collective group as either hillbillies or rednecks.  Central and Southern Appalachia is a very different area culturally from the greater geographic southern United States or the northeastern portions of the Appalachian mountain range.  The two areas in question do tend to overlap geographically a bit especially if you consider the greater political definition of Appalachia as being correct instead of the markedly narrower culturally based geographical boundaries which I believe are more correct. 

I also do not accept the fact that any of these types of shows are actually "reality" television.  Austin Carroll Baker on August 26, 2017, on the web page "Screen Rant" made this statement about scripting in reality television:  "Often times they will script scenarios or plant items so that they can make the show more interesting. What is real and what is fake?" One of the shows which Dr. White studied for her dissertation was "Moonshiners" which I have always believed is totally fake in one of two ways, possibly both.  The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms still regularly enforces the laws prohibiting the production of untaxed liquors and the possession of unlicensed distillation mechanisms.  As they state on this webpage dated April 15, 2019, the Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau of the United States Treasury covers thoroughly the sections of the United States Code which prohibit moonshine production.  If the television personalities and production companies responsible for "Moonshiners" were actually producing untaxed, illegal moonshine and filming the commission of the crime, they would have been arrested years ago and every pixel of their video production would have been seized as evidence, presented in US District Courts, and would have resulted in their incarceration.  They are doing one of two things: either 1) they are producing steam from clear water and distilling even more pure water; or, 2) they are operating a fully legal distilling operation.  I can assure you they are not engaging in the "unlawful production of distilled spirts" as defined in the United States Code.  They are as fake and scripted as a three dollar bill.   As further evidence of the validity of my argument, I offer the following media documentation of occasions in which the authorities have pursued, arrested, prosecuted, and convicted moonshiners in the Central and Southern Appalachian region.  This first operation was in Louisville, Jefferson County Kentucky, and therefore well outside the region of Appalachia but may well have been operated by urban Appalachians.  This story comes from Barrackville, West Virginia, and occurred only 7 months ago.  I am also adding this story which occurred less than two years ago in Mingo County West Virginia, an area in which I lived and worked for five years as a salesman. This story from roughly four years ago details an arrest involving the production and sale of moonshine in both Tennessee and Virginia.   I rest my case as to whether or not the denizens of the television show "Moonshiners" are actually producing moonshine simultaneously with the evidence to send themselves to federal prison.  

Since we have now proven that the "reality" television show "Moonshiners" is highly likely to be fictitious and illegitimate, we must consider the need to remove it and all information it might have provided from Dr. White's research.  She utilized 10 episodes of the show in her research.  With 110 total episodes of all the shows she utilized, we see that this reduces her total data base by 9% and her total useful episodes to 100 which necessitates us to discuss the importance of "N" in all academic research.  The website mathnstuff.com describes "n" in this manner: "Number, n, is the statistic describing how big the set of numbers is, how many pieces of data are in the set." In their discussion of the importance of "n", or the total size of a data set, the website tools4dev.org states that "Most statisticians agree that the minimum sample size to get any kind of meaningful result is 100. If your population is less than 100 then you really need to survey all of them."  Further, the website statisticssolutions.com states "Some researchers do, however, support a rule of thumb when using the sample size. For example, in regression analysis, many researchers say that there should be at least 10 observations per variable. If we are using three independent variables, then a clear rule would be to have a minimum sample size of 30."  If we accept the basic assumption of nearly all academic researchers that the minimum sample size should be at least 100, after the deletion of all information from the reality show "Moonshiners", Dr. White was in a position that left her without any possible room for error in her sample or findings.  Further, Dr. White attempted to analyze 11 elements or variables in the television shows she examined: Patriotism; Ancestry/Family; Outside Cultures; Diversity; Wealth/Material Possessions; Females In Non-traditional Roles; Education; Specialized Educational Skills; Religion; Occupation; and Traditional Stereotypes. If we accept the rule of thumb from Statistic Solutions that a research project must have ten samples per variable, then the minimum n which could have provided valid data for her project would have been the 110 with which she began.  But when we consider the fact that "Moonshiners" must be invalid based on the total absence of law enforcement intervention in a case with extensive video evidence, then Dr. White's findings cannot be valid due to the low n. 

But, even if I were willing to accept the data based on the low n resulting from the inclusion of data from "Moonshiners", there is a basic error of judgment involved in the acceptance and adaptation of any negative stereotype by any member of any minority group.  The individuals who accept and attempt to adapt these stereotypes to their own use as members of the group being stereotyped are assenting to their own minimalization, defamation, degradation, and public abuse and every element of that assent has negative consequences.  In her paper "What Is The Nature of Appalachian Identity?", Elizabeth Trout states:

"The stereotypes of Appalachia are predominantly negative and their effect is powerful. Both Dannenberg and Hazen et al. observed a decline in the Appalachian English. This language, while still indicative of Appalachian identity, is not as pronounced as in previous eras. What this means to the future of Appalachian identity remains to be seen, but this phenomenon does prove that language is an important facet of Appalachian identity." (Trout, Elizabeth, "What is the Nature of Appalachian Identity?" (2015).Communication Studies Student Scholarship. 2.https://digitalcommons.hollins.edu/commstudents/2)

Chelsea G. Adams, in her masters thesis at the University of Kentucky, examined perceptions of  Appalachian students regarding negative stereotypes of Appalachians and came to three basic conclusions:

(a) Appalachian students in this study are aware of and can readily identify stereotypes about Appalachia; (b) Students in this study from Appalachia believe that people who are not from the area have mostly negative perspectives about Appalachia; and (c) though aware of shortcomings within their community and culture, Appalachians often feel the need to defend and protect the integrity of their community, culture, and people. (Adams, Chelsea G., "“I WONDER WHAT YOU THINK OF ME”: A QUALITATIVE APPROACH TO EXAMINING STEREOTYPE AWARENESS IN APPALACHIAN STUDENTS" (2017). Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology. 59. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/edp_etds/59)

From my point of view, Ms. Adams' most important finding is that the students she researched expressed their awareness "of shortcomings within their community and culture" which resulted in their  "need to defend and protect the integrity of their community, culture, and people".  That is a common element across all of the Appalachian Culture both among the educated and relatively poorly educated.  It has led to myself and two of my fourteen maternal first cousins all obtaining advanced degrees in three widely divergent fields: human services, medical anesthesia, and aircraft engineering.  It led to more than a half dozen of my high school classmates, in addition to myself, completing the same level of achievement of at least one advanced degree, while we graduated in a class which had only 58 members.  In conclusion, I must say that I find myself markedly disappointed to learn that Dr. Casey White, Ph. D. of stated Appalachian heritage failed to produce results stated in her dissertation title of finding "construction of pride and high self-esteem" in Appalachian characters and settled for supporting the adaptation of negative stereotypes by her research subjects.    

 

"Hillbilly" Is A Cultural And Ethnic Epithet

 I suppose that with a title like the one above the first thing I should do is give you a definition for the word "epithet".  The website dictionary.com gives this definition of "epithet" which I believe is the most appropriate for our purposes here: "a word, phrase, or expression used invectively as a term of abuse or contempt, to express hostility, etc." And, as bad as I hate to have to, I suspect I should also give a definition for the word "invective".  The website dictionary.com gives this definition of "invective": vehement or violent denunciation, censure, or reproach;  a railing accusation; vituperation; an insulting or abusive word or expression."  While it might still be fairly common for natives of Central and Southern Appalachia as well as the Ozark Region to sometimes use the term "hillbilly" about themselves, it is also generally understood that the use of the word of the word to refer to such residents will usually result in its being interpreted as being insulting, abusive, a reproach, a censure, or an accusation. Other cultural, ethnic, or racial epithets are also sometimes used by members of the groups they denigrate and defame but, just like "hillbilly", those words are rarely accepted by members of those groups when use by outsiders and they should never be accepted or even used by members of those groups.  In my mind, the word "hillbilly" is no different from, just as defamatory, and just as damaging as any of those other words: the "k" word, the "q" word, the "n"word, the "f" word, or the "c" word.  These words all fall within a class of language which should never be used any more than the more common, but less defamatory, curse words should be used.  Being a member of the particular group in question does not make it any more acceptable for you to use those words than it does for a stranger.  

I have recently located a nineteen year old doctoral dissertation from Lousiana State University by Dr. Laura Grace Patillo entitled Appalachia on Stage: the *Southern Mountaineer in American Drama which due to its length (379 pages) I have not completed.  But the dissertation is intriguing for its content and intention to address the "scripting of America's hillbilly other" as well as for its dedication to "a strong Appalachian woman of faith, patience, and wisdom".  I firmly believe that if more native Appalachians such as Dr. Patillo, myself, and the mentors who taught us to seek positive self image instead of accepting cultural epithets and assumptions about us all natives of Central and Southern Appalachia would have benefited both directly and indirectly.  Without having ever known Dr. Patillo or her work, it is obvious to me that she was raised and mentored by the kind of Appalachian people who sought to emulate our strong, ambitious, and self-sufficient forbears and to pass those qualities on to every person they met in some direct or indirect fashion.  

I have also been able to locate a second refreshingly positively entitled doctoral dissertation by Dr. Casey R. White at South Dakota State University which states its intentions in the title:  "REDNECKS AND HILLBILLIES: A THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF PRIDE AND HIGH SELF-ESTEEM EXHIBITED BY SOUTHERN CHARACTERS".   Its stated intent to examine the "construction of pride and self-esteem exhibited by southern characters" is exactly what I hoped to engender with this blog post.  I hope to be able to read both these dissertations fully and to report on them succinctly in later blog posts.  

I have also frequently directed others interested in the public image of native Appalachians to watch the AppalShop movie "Strangers And Kin: A History Of The Hillbilly Image".  It is an excellent and timeless examination of the creation and proliferation of the negative image of Appalachian people as "hillbillies".  In a sidelight to this discussion, I am also reminded of a former supervisor I worked under as a mental health therapist in a juvenile treatment facility.  This person was a native of Mount Sterling, Kentucky, and I will never forget the conversation in which he informed that he did not believe that there was such a thing as an Appalachian Culture.  When we consider the Appalachian Culture in the light of the commonly recognized elements of culture, it is strikingly clear that few cultures anywhere more clearly meet those elements.  Religion, Art, Politics, Language, Economy, Customs, Society, and Geography are listed among those key factors in culture on the website Quizlet.  As we examine each of those listed elements we learn that religion in Appalachia is strikingly unique with Old Regular Baptists, Freewill Baptists, Holiness, Primitive Baptists, and Serpent Handlers all being key segments of religion in Appalachia.  Appalachia is also the home of a truly unique group of folk artists including Edgar and Donny Tolson, Minnie Adkins, and Tim Lewis.  The language of Appalachia is also incredibly unique and traces its roots directly to the British Isles of the 15th and 16th centuries.  

If you are a native Appalachian, be proud of your heritage.  Do not allow anyone to denigrate, defame, or demoralize you because you are Appalachian.  Speak out both verbally and in writing in defense of the Appalachian Culture and history.  

 

A Cultural Encounter In The Middle Of The Covid Crisis

 

 

On Thursday, June4, 2020, I had an appointment in Lexington and my wife, Candice went with me.  I stopped, as I often do, on the way there to hike for an hour plus in Hood's Branch at Natural Bridge State Park.  Then we headed on to Lexington for my mid-afternoon appointment.  We have been absolutely religious about social distancing and complying with the Covid 19 guidelines and directives from Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, who is, in my opinion, the best governor in America; but, we had also discussed possibly going to eat lunch at one of our favorite ethnic restaurants because we like the setting, the food, the employees, and the owner. But, now that restrictions are loosening up a bit, and Kentucky has done such a good job of handling the situation under the strong, competent, decisive, and compassionate leadership of Governor Beshear, we had decided we would be willing to eat lunch in this restaurant.  That decision was influenced strongly by the fact that the room is large, open, well ventilated, clean, and run by an owner with common sense and professionalism.  

 

I am not using the name of the restaurant, the particular ethnicity of the food or the owner, or any other identifying data and you will understand that choice better a bit later in this post.  When we arrived, we decided that I would go into the restaurant first, appraise the situation, and make a decision if we would go through with the lunch in light of the fact that Candice has serious health issues and has been in a wheelchair for twenty years.  I got out of the van and as I was walking to the door I realized that the owner was still only serving pickup customers.  The particular food we like to eat in that restaurant is served very hot and Candice particularly likes their soup which is not made to be eaten in a vehicle by a person with mobility and dexterity issues.  As I approached the door, the owner came out to bring food to go to another customer.  I said something or other to effect of "I see you are only serving pickup" to which he replied in his heavily accented speech, "Yes, but I be open tomorrow for dine in.  You can come tomorrow."  I responded, "I live two hours away and I won't be here tomorrow" and started to leave when he recognized me and said, "If you want, I will open for you today.  You can come in."  I agreed to do it and told him I would be right back with my wife.  

 

When I returned from the vehicle pushing Candice in her wheelchair, the owner held the single door he was using open for us to enter and seated us at a table in the dining room which actually had three men ranging in age from probably early twenties to middle seventies who were all of the same ethnicity as the owner and all speaking their native language.  The dining room was all set up for the opening the next day with one row of table eliminated and all the other tables marked in alternating spots to honor social distancing.  There were multiple hand sanitizer stations and all the usual multi-use items and utensils had been removed from the tables.  The owner and one other employee were the only people working so there were five natives of the country in question speaking their native language and Candice and I speaking English.  The owner brought us a stack of paper napkins and served us our usual dishes.  As  he was rushing around covering two, or possibly three different positions, he managed to stop by our table, give us excellent service, and we shared some stories about our previous visits to his business and a story I often tell others about the first person I ever knew from his country.  We had a leisurely lunch which was excellent, had great conversation, and most of the feeling that we were being treated as special customers, regulars, aficionados  of the place.  He gave us the schedule of how he will be open in the future including the days he will be closed and then added, "if you come when I'm not open, knock on the door, I'm usually here and I will feed you if you show up when I'm closed."  

 

After I got home, I told a relative about the incident who agreed with me that it was a special and memorable treatment from a person who probably works more hours in a week than many do in a month; a man who is open, friendly, humorous, and caring; and a fine example of how much this country has and can, in the future, benefit from welcoming immigrants forever just as we always have.  

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!