Life from the eyes of a West Virginia “Hollow Dweller” (Part 1: Hollow vs Holler)

Now don’t let the title fool you, anyone who comes from just about any rural area knows it as a “holler” including myself, so for my own sanity sake that’s the term I’ll be using. I just gave it the proper title for all the readers who might just think I’m talking about screaming at the top of my lungs in West Virginia. I wanted to sort of talk a bit about how weird it was for me to see this large shift in life here in West Virginia, my experiences growing up, a little background from friends and family on the past and the sad state that the, well state, is in today. This small series that I’m going to start is going to get into a lot of sad topics of conversations, I don’t think I’ll be saying anything outlandish, but still if topics of poverty and substance abuse make you uncomfortable then this might be a tough read in some parts. Well with the warning out of the way, let us get started shall we?

So, first things first, just what is a holler? Simple, you live so close to your neighbors, you just have to stand on your porch and holler to get their attention. Now that my terrible joke is out of the way, let me really explain. See now I’m definitely no expert on geography, but from what I can tell you about the hollers here in the Mountain State, they are small and compact areas tucked in between two mountains. Most of them have small creeks running through them, some don’t and it’s just one long road that gets further and further from civilization as you know it. Seriously, some of these roads go on for crazy amounts of miles. Like we’re talking 20–30 minutes and even more sometimes just to get to the mouths of some of them, then you have to drive however many miles to your destination, THEN drive all the way back up the holler to go home. I guess the one good thing about that is sometimes it’s a peaceful drive. It’s usually not jammed up like any highway and there are usually plenty of twists and turns so you actually have to pay attention to your driving. It’s also good that most of the people from the same holler know a good deal of the people who also live in there. So at anytime if you saw someone sitting on their porch or cutting grass, you could stop in and say hi, just to break up the monotony or maybe get some fresh produce from their gardens. That one is always a gamble though, because most of the time it’s just tomatoes that they were too afraid to eat themselves cause it had a few too many black spots, or cucumbers that are shaped too weird cause it laid on the ground funny. It’s the thought that counts though, because now you get to take them home to throw away yourself instead of having them do it. It really is a symbiotic relationship. They grow the vegetables, we throw them away. Circle of life.

See, the purpose of this series is for me to explain to someone out there, just how different life was for the people raised in these hollers. There are plenty of people who still live in these communities who know these stories and accounts all too well. I want to explain what it was like for someone like me who lived through the 90’s in one such community, but I first have to go back and explain how a lot of us came to be holler dwellers.

See, way back in the semi-distant past, coal mining was the absolute bread and butter for this state. It’s still a thriving industry and main source of income for many folks around here to this day. I’m not here to really get political and give some kinda soap box rally behind anything I just want to present the history as it was presented to me. Mining for this state goes back as far as the 1700’s, even though we didn’t become a state till 1863. It just show’s how rich our area was for mining. Now I’m not saying mining was the ONLY job available around here but for the vast majority of people, it was the only one that was plentiful and “steady”. I really want to focus on “Post-Depression era” United States, because that’s where a lot of things are going to start making sense.

See many of us that have remained in the hollers, at the very least the one I was from, was because we were descendants of “Company Familes”. See the mining industry basically would have these large swaths of land around profitable mining sites that they turned into their own sustainable economy. They would build these houses for their miners and families to stay in, they had their own stores called “Company Stores” and you essentially never had to leave the holler to get anything, usually. See the mines would pay you, but you had to pay them for your house that they owned, most of the time the stores would only have the bare minimum and you would have to borrow against it on credit just to afford most basics. Sometimes the mine would only pay you in company credits just to be able to spend at the store. So poverty was still a major problem despite having a roof over your head and a nearby grocery store. You essentially were trapped here in this large holler with only your neighbors to keep you sane, or if you were lucky they would open dance halls or something nearby but leaving the holler was always seen as a major trip. Most people early on didn’t have vehicles of their own, because it’s was simply just too lavish of an expense. I do however want to argue that because of this poorer lifestyle and never being able to leave when you wanted to helped teach and pass on alternative ways of doing things. Such as hunting for food like deer and squirrels. Learning and perfecting growing vegetables and how to can them to store for the really rough days. That’s why as the generations have passed, these skills to a great deal of people, are still practiced and passed on to this day. Not because we have anymore company owned towns, which I’m sure there probably are but none to the extent they were from the 1920’s-1980’s, but because poverty is still a huge issue. Living off of the land is a practice that’s been tried and true since anything on this planet came into existence

“You never know when something crazy might happen. Never being able to shop at the store again would ruin a lot of people. Not you though, you’ll know how to provide when others can’t”. That’s a quote from someone I knew growing up, who taught me how important it is to rely on yourself in times of trouble. That’s a statement that not only lives true in me, but true inside all of us holler dwellers. Now obviously I’m no historian, I’ve only gathered stories and what little bit I knew to create these scenes for you. Naturally the coal towns broke apart and people were already free to do as they pleased but a great many of us stayed. Why? Its an easy question to answer, it’s home. You feel far enough away from towns that its out in the country, but close enough to friends that it doesn’t feel like you’re stranded. This part was just a basic overview on what it means to come from hollers, again, at least mine. Join me in part 2 later on to see where I finally come into the story.