Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Appalachians:  residents of a mountain region that spans from southern New York through Alabama.  Many of the regions residents live in isolated mountain hollows and on hilly farms. Our ancestors chose it maybe because it reminded them of where they came from: England, low-land Scotland and the province of Ulster in Ireland.  We are called Scots-Irish, mainly.

We are not the dirty, tobacco chewing, overall-clad farmers as portrayed in the comics, such as Snuffy Smif or Lil Abner, who are perceived as lazy, backward, violent and inbred.  We are intelligent, innovative people whom some “outsiders”assume are all stupid because we look and sound different than them and because they have no idea what we are about.  Here is your “average” Appalachian citizen:

When I say I am from here, I may not be educated like some, but I am very smart and know of many mountain ways you may not and that you may want to learn.

When I say yes, I am from here, know that my great-great-grandfathers, on both sides of our family, mustered at Sycamore Shoals in 1780 and fought with the Over Mountain Men at Kings Mountain, winning one of the most important battles of the revolutionary war.

When I say yes, I am from here, know that my land has been in our family for one hundred and thirty +plus years. We worked it ourselves, being too poor to hire any help, yet we still have it.

When I say yes, I am from here, know that I am related to to every person in this county, one way or another and that I have many big, brawny male cousins too. Just sayin…

When I say yes,  I am a local, know that you are talking to someone who has a good knowledge of our area and can help you find your way around.

When I say yes, I am from here, know that you may not understand every word I use, but know it is very old English that we speak here in our isolated mountains and that’s one thing we want to keep.

When I say, I am from here, do not assume that I cannot speak proper English.  Most of us can, we just get comfortable talking to each other and use our own special dialect.

When we say, we are from here, know that we have been taught to be respectful to other people and will accept new ones as long as they don’t try to change the way we do things too much.

I am proud to be from Appalachia, born and raised and always come back.  There is no other place more beautiful nor people so down-right good as here in our part of paradise.

We are tough.  We are talented.  We are artistic.  We are intelligent.  We love our neighbors. We live in a vast wonderful mountain range called the Appalachia and we are

Proud Appalachian Americans!

You are in my prayers,

E.J.