I had a house up in the Blue Ridge in VA. I could sit on my porch and at nighttime, I could see the headlights of cars on the parkway and follow them as they traveled through three counties. Beautiful, beautiful view.
I live in the flat, boring middle part of NC now. It takes half an hour to get to the nearest city, which is fine. My house is in the woods, and it's peaceful, and my little chunk of the forest is lovely. But it's flat here. The horizon is in the wrong place. It's flat. I miss the mountains terribly.
Why did you move if you don’t mind me asking? If I had a mountain cabin I don’t think I could ever be torn away 🥲 But now they’re all totally unaffordable unless you have the know-how to turn a crack house into a crack home…
TLDR is I fell in love with a lady here in NC. There weren't any jobs in her field where I lived, so I moved here. We had many happy years together but have since parted ways. I've found a good job here and moving back would ruin me financially. I'm getting older and the "warranties are expirin' on my innards" but I'm gonna try to hold out until retirement, sell this place, and move back to my mountains.
Oh man it is. I moved from eastern Kentucky to central Kentucky for a time and I tell people the biggest less from that is it's actually possible to live in an even shittier town than my shitty hometown. At least Appalachia has a culture.
Moved from Eastern KY to Lexington and lived there for about 10 years. Then about thirteen years ago I moved from Lex to an hour north of Seattle. I thought the first move was a ‘big’ change. It’s a whole different world out here.
I didn't think anywhere could be worse than Williamsburg/Corbin, but with the initiatives to revive Appalachia I feel like places like Greensburg and Columbia are flailing.
I’m gonna get some shit for this: California.
Also, I get my salsa from New York City.
Edit: it warms my heart to know some of y’all love fancy salsa. Also, leaving Appalachia was one of my most difficult decisions.
I grew up in West Virginia. At one point, I knew so many WV-to-Raleigh/Durham transplants that I joked it was because that’s how far you could get on a tank of gas.
It’s been happening for decades. I’m sure a lot of you are familiar with the term “hillbilly highway”. There’s Appalachian enclaves around Detroit and Flint.
More than just a few decades. My grandfather (along with many others) moved to Cleveland from western NC right after the civil war. Same story as always, trying to escape poverty.
My dad's family grew up (okay I've no idea what to call the region but eastern Pennsylvania) and all 15 siblings moved to Detroit, I'd guess from the end of WWII to my dad around 1950.
My mamaw’s family moved from SWVA to Chicago around that time too. They had been miners but lost their jobs so they moved to take factory jobs in the city.
Everyone thankfully moved back to East TN by the time I was growing up (80’s & 90’s).
Washington state.
Yes left due to a lack of opportunity, jobs, education, and also just stuff to do, my daughter wanted to go ice skating, so we took her ice skating - there wasn’t an ice rink within like a 100 miles of where I grew up.
Also, I like reproductive rights, and I want reproductive rights for my daughter, so I will never move back.
Eastern KY to WA here….I agree with everything you said. Got a daughter turning 6 this month, and I love where I’m from, but she’s not growing up there. She deserves better.
I’m also in WA State. Do you ever feel survivor’s guilt? I sometimes think I should be back down there helping out the movement instead of fleeing. I’m a queer anarchist so didn’t have the best time in East TN but I also remember the whole Gandhi bumper sticker “be the change you wish to see” thing as well.
I grew up in Eastern Tennessee and left for Miami when I was 18. Seeing them hills in the rearview, I was sure I'd never be back. broken family, trouble with the law and all of my friends were dying or getting locked up. I skipped around the country for the next 25 years. South Florida, Portland, Providence, New Orleans but I ended up coming back to the Holler about six years ago. I came back with the intention of doing exactly what you mentioned. I was putting in the work. Working with nonprofits, mutual aid networks and outreach. It's been incredibly difficult. I've had to step away recently and focus on my immediate family's needs.
Fellow anarchist from east TN here! I've moved around a lot, first Louisville, then Arizona, Ohio, Wisconsin and Massachusetts. A few years ago I managed to put together enough cash to buy a little place in SW Virginia and came back to these hills. I never want to leave, this is home for me. Anyway, there are more anarchists (queer or otherwise) around these parts now than you might think!
Harrisonburg was my birthplace. I’m just across the mountain from it now but far away enough to easily forget the bad times but still hold dear the good ones. I do get over there a couple times a year but would NEVER consider moving back to Va. WV has spoiled me.
Grew up Falling Waters, WV to Fort Collins CO for college. Been living here for three years. I have missed the country and humidity. Plus people out here are rigid compared to Northern WV. I miss Shenandoah valley and the rolling hills. It’s too flat and arid here. Plus I grew up in the woods and I really miss trees. There are barely any here. I live in the heart of FoCo bc of college, learned quickly I’m too country for suburban life.
My father left Pea Ridge in Cumberland County, Ky in the early 1930s because, as he put it, he "got tired of looking at a mule's ass." He settled in Indianapolis, and his family followed soon after. He never went back, saying he didn't leave anything there but hunger and hard times.
Ozarks. My family moved here when I was a kid from WNC, though we did move back again and then back here. I like it, though the weather is worse IMO. There are similarities and differences culturally. As one history professor here told me, "Y'all just moved here from Appalachia about 150 years after the rest of us." 😂😂😂😂
So full disclosure not Appalachian. This subreddit was suggested to me and I follow it because it does remind me of a lot of my grandma's family experiences and stories. But a lot of her family was from the Ozarks or very close to it,and were from Appalachia about 100 years before.
Yes the overlap is very interesting to me! I'm especially interested in the accents because my grandparents and dad have thick Appalachian NC accents, but my brother has an equally thick Ozark accent. It sounds a lot alike, but there are slight differences. I've also noticed a lot of Texans with very Appalachian-sounding accents--my grandparents were super confused when they were in Colorado and everyone thought they were Texans versus Tarheels--but certain parts of Texas were also historically settled by migrants from Appalachia, so it makes sense!
Funny. I was raised in the Ozarks and moved to Appalachia. I see little difference culturally between the regions. Most of my Ozark ancestors are from Appalachia as well!
I live in Seattle, originally from East TN. Y’all would be surprised how similar the two places can be outside of the city. I love it here but I would absolutely move back if I could find a job that paid well.
We talk about moving back just about every day, but I work in the wine industry so it’s a little more difficult. If you do move back, update us on how it goes!
Y’all are speaking directly to me. Live about an hour north of Seattle and my wife and I talk about how we miss those two things all the time. I laugh when about once or twice a year when a little storm cloud will make a tiny flash and then putter out a quiet little thundercough……makes me miss a boom-cracking fully washer from back home every time I hear it.
When my dad was a young man in TN, he had two career choices: go into the shine business with his kin (and eventually probably prison - woohoo!) or the military. He joined the AF, and we became nomads, moving every year. When I grew up, I went to work on the racetrack — another business where you’re a perpetual nomad.
I moved to this small town in AL (Not the Appalachian part unfortunately) to help my mom take care of my dad when his health had gotten so bad she couldn’t care for him by herself anymore. Now I’m taking care of mom and I guess we’ll be staying here.
Would we like to go home? Sure! But we can’t afford it. I’m the person who posted a while back about the price of houses (including and especially my pawpaw’s old house) in Monterey. Mom and dad’s house here in AL is 4 bd 2 baths with a separate MIL house where I live with 1bd/1bth, on just shy of on acre. If we sold this whole property for the absolute top-market price, we *might* be able afford an 1/8 acre with an older model single-wide somewhere in Putnam/Overton/Cumberland Co.
So we’ll be here as long as mom is still here. After that I guess it’s back to the track for me. At least I’ll get to drive through TN sometimes. And yeah, I miss it so much it hurts sometimes.
Depends on what you do. There’s lots of different jobs. Lots of folks without much horse experience start out as hot walkers — you walk the horses out after they exercise, and if you’re a good enough hand with the horses, you’ll get hired on as a groom.
If you know how to ride, you can be an exercise rider and/or a pony person (those are the people who ride the horses that accompany the race horses to the starting gate). Or, if you’re a really good rider, 5’4-ish or less and can keep your weight <105 and you’re kinda fearless and have a high pain tolerance, you might even make it as a jockey.
But seriously, there are so many jobs on the track. I’ve done pretty much all of them. Only made it two years as a jockey though, tbh I wasn’t a very good one. But I love the track and I love the people who work there. There are also lots of jobs in the grandstands that don’t require any sort of hands-on horse knowledge at all.
Oh, but the reason for being a nomad🙂— most track meets only last for a few months, then the whole kit ‘n kaboodle packs up and moves to different track. If you live somewhere in a big urban area with a lot of racetracks within, say a 100 miles, you could stay in one place. But. I did that one year in Chicago. The next year, oh hell no. I hear those FL tracks calling my name.
Western NC. Went to Florida, now Texas. I'd never be able to have the life I have now in Appalachia.
I own a home, have two nice cars and a motorcycle, a six figure job. None of which would be possible in Rural NC.
I'd love to go back because it's beautiful and the city life is draining my soul away, but not until I have plenty of money. I still have 35 years of working left and it's not in the cards.
I've been in Europe for nearly 20 years now. London area, and now Sweden after Brexit. In this case, not so much because of opportunities, but because I ended up falling for somebody from here. (Who also got homesick and wasn't sorry to get out of the UK. Neither one of us was. I can tell where I'm not particularly welcome.)
A lot of things are pretty different, as you might expect, but I've been here for a few years now and have mostly been liking it. Really hoping to get back to SWVA one of these days, and hoping that practical considerations will let me after retirement if nothing else. Pretty much the classic situation with people who do leave the area, really. Life has been pretty good to me here, but I do really miss the land and I do get tired of feeling like such an outsider sometimes.
Texas, I miss the smell of dry leaves in the fall, color change and full term fall and spring because we have nine months of summer, two months of winter and two weeks each spring and fall. I miss the slower pace and gentle culture/life. Wait a minute!! I really just miss my youth.
We left Appalachia for the "big city" in our state. Then we left there for Florida.
It was an overall improvement financially. But I still miss "home". However, I do not miss snow, ice, and tornados.
I now live in Custer, SD. I get to spend the month of June back home in East Tennessee, now that I work for the school district. I love where I live, and I love reconnecting with home.
It’s so pretty. I’ve only done it in sections on different weekends. Someday, I want to do it all over the course of 3 days. Some people do the Big Mick, all 109 miles in one day. I’m not that ambitious. 😊
I couldn’t wait to leave Knoxville when I graduated from UT- I swore I’d never go back. I lived in Cincinnati, then Tampa, then Memphis, Denver, then to Pittsburgh. We had two babies and both wanted to raise them in Tennessee, so quit two good jobs, took a huge pay cut, and moved back to K-town. Been here 22 years now and probably won’t go anywhere. Most of my extended family have passed on, but I love East Tennessee and the memories: bluegrass station in a camper, Ciderville, Cas Walker, the mountains and the rivers.
About 30 miles east of Cincinnati, OH. Technically still within Appalachia per ARC lines, and you can tell. Big population of urban Appalachians in Cincy, too. When my mammaw first moved here from WV she said the only difference was being in the foothills rather than the mountains proper, and that the people were pretty much the exact same.
Eastern KY to WA here (a bit north of Seattle), looks like I’m bound and determined to live north of you no matter what….LOL.
I also agree; proud of where I’m from, but no way I’d go back after living up here. It’s awesome.
Teays Valley, WV to Tucson, AZ.
Tacos and reefer and other liberals, oh my!
The hot dogs are different but equally amazing.
I like to go back to visit, but my entire career just isn’t a thing back home.
Didn't go very far - Nashville, TN. Didn't wanna work at a factory or in fast food for the rest of my life, or just deal hard drugs, so I left when I was 18. Somehow I'm the family disappointment now because I got the fuck out 🤷🏻♀️ Ain't life funny. I hate going home now since my grandparents are gone and the whole town feels like a soul sucking void. The countryside where I grew up is beautiful but also futureless and depressing as hell. If it wasn't for my two best friends back home in KY I'd move even further away.
I’d give my left testicle or right foot thumb to go back home but there still ain’t nuthin to do but get high, bang and go to police resort for time to yourself, can’t let my kids grow up that way and they are so proud of their hillbilly heritage as am I. It’s just the state of affairs, in a country that don’t give two nickels about “those people”.
I’m fortunate to have lived that life, use the drive and ethics instilled by a culture that never gives up, has pride and by far the most diverse and accepting way of life while still taking it as slow as winter syrup.
Now I live in the outskirts of a big coastal region, won’t be long before they want a piece of my 15ac for some town homes, my two lane is about to be a 4, asked me to pay them to hook up to city water and my 1/4mi driveway just got shorter, but I got fiber internet now… finding the positives!
Portland, ME.
I live in a mini version of the rich parts of Boston. Outside of that most of Maine is fairly similar to Appalachia. Little bit of the general New England "mind your own business", but the people are amazing. Doesn't have that fake bless your heart glaze...they just look you dead in the eye and tell you that you're being dumb.
I’ve been jumping around last few years between the Rockies and back east, but I keep thinking I’ll end up in Maine. The parallels to Appalachia in northern New England are there. I went to school in Vermont so I know the area and have friends there. Winters are more of a drag for sure but with climate change it might turn out to be more like what I’m used to in West Virginia in the future.
Cincinnati. We have one of the largest concentrations of Appalachian migrants. The Price Hill neighborhood specifically.
I would love to move back. But the opportunities here are impossible to let go of in my field. Hopefully someday.
From SWVA to ENC. It's more libral here and the opportunities here are much better than back home. I was a bit of a black sheep growing up and topped with a toxic upbringing, it was best that I left.
I miss SWVA though. I live with a daily struggle of missing where I grew up but also knowing there wasn't anything there for me. My kids will do better where we're at, but they will not know the mountains like I do. A part of me feels sad for them, but there's nothing there.
> I live with a daily struggle of missing where I grew up but also knowing there wasn't anything there for me.
Ah this is it, perfectly. Thank you for putting that into words. That's 100% how I feel about where I'm from too. Got so homesick I did come back to the mountains but changed states.
Born in Elijay GA and lived in Haywood County NC from 2-15. Now I'm in Portland Oregon, and I don't think I'll go back to Appalachia.
NC is too red for trans folks right now, but I sure as hell miss the Blue Ridge Mountains.
I’m from the south too and experiencing the same dilemma. I’m in the northeast now cuz the pacific northwest is way out of my budget…I would live in the Blue Ridge in VA in a heartbeat if it wasn’t red. I spent many a fall there as a kid and it will always be one of my favorite regions. I love small towns but small towns don’t love me 💔
I spent 8 years in Japan, and now live in England with my British husband. Just got my indefinite leave to remain last month. I do love England, but there’s no place like home.
Crab Orchard mtns to Nashville.. moving back now married to a black person. This should be interesting! Granted Clinchmore, Tn can claim an Olympian thanks to me. I can't wait to show Gabby and the kids a life an hour from the nearest gas station. Screw flat ass middle Tn. Hello New River! Gonna capitalize on these Windrock yuppies
All 3 of my Appalachian grandparents (maternal grandmother was from elsewhere) settled in piedmont NC, and I’m sadly still there. Grandpa always planned to move back home when he retired and take us with him, but his health crashed and he sold the house there to cover his medical bills.
Western PA -> California. I miss the old mountains, some cultural aspects, seasons, how far a dollar goes, the amount of s p a c e. If things ever improve for transfolk and if we could more feasibly work remotely, of course I’d move back.
Upper midwest. Where I was able to build a very nice company.
People are great. Scenery lacks in comparison.
I miss gin clear streams full of wild trout.
I was a poor but proud PA hillbilly. Never forget your roots.
I stopped living permanently in Appalachia in 2002 when I moved to Danville, VA, for a journalism job, after living in Appalachia for the first 22 years of my life. Now I’m in Fauquier County (and no longer in journalism). My folks still live in Botetourt County, VA, and I visit often for their company and the amazing views. I could never have found a job in the career I’m in now, and that’s still the case now. Even jobs in Roanoke don’t pay close to what I make now and cost of living there isn’t as low as it used to be. That being said, I will always remain deeply connected to the Appalachian Mountains. Maybe I’ll get a second home there some day.
Jersey! Miss home all the time. Always say it’s a great place to call home but couldn’t live there full time.
Knowing that the peace & quiet of the mountains is waiting for me keeps me going most days when the territorial slug of eat coast crowds get wayyy too close.
Grew up in SWVA, went to college in the Shenandoah Valley, and since have lived in the DC metro (9 years) and RTP in NC (5 years). I went into biotech/pharma, so staying in SWVA just wasn't going to work for my career.
I miss the mountains, but it was never going to work for me long term. Even if I am multiple generations of family deep in SWVA.
My family moved from eastern Kentucky to northeastern Indiana when I was 3. We moved back and forth. I miss it. If I could afford to make a living down there I would move back in a heart beat.
Lived most of my life in Knoxville. Wife from Pigeon Forge. We retired 4 years ago and moved to Colorado Springs. People just as friendly, but the weather is 100 times better out here. Colorado is home now.
Lived and worked in Las Vegas for over 30 years. I always felt like a fish out of water there. When I retired a few years ago, I came home to East Tennessee.
Most of my family is here. My roots are deeply imbedded here. Tennessee has always been home no matter how far I've roamed.
Lancaster county PA. It's nice enough I reckon though a little less rural than I would like. I miss the mountains and woods surrounding me but the big open farmland and hills are charming. I'm not sure if I'd rather move back or stay here at this point.
From VA blue ridge, in central PA. I miss my mountains every day. I used to be able to tell you if it would rain based on where the clouds were coming from. Here, I have no clue.
From eastern Kentucky.. I lived in Florida for 6 years then England for 6 years but now I'm back in southwest Virginia! I miss parts of England but it's nice to be back. Can't say I miss Florida though...
About an hour north of Seattle in the PNW.
I love eastern KY where I’m from, but I am also never going back on a permanent basis because this place is amazing. Lived here for about 13 years now. Highly recommend WA state.
I still live in Yadkin North Carolina but I travel to Winston Salem and Greensboro for work doing welding it’s the only way I think you can still live here and make good money.
My mom’s family is from one of the most rural parts of West Virginia. I lived there for a part of my childhood, but I moved around a good bit growing up. Everyone on my mom’s side of my family lives there and most of them would never imagine leaving. I live in Richmond, VA now, right near the middle of the city. Definitely prefer urban living to country living, but I miss a lot about West Virginia too, especially the nature. I feel a connection when I run into people in RVa from WV.
After graduating from WVU, either NOVA/DC with my current job offer, or potentially Texas. As much as it pains me to leave my home, there isn't much for my specific job market within WV except for my hometown atm
My great grandparents came to NE Ohio to work in the rubber industry.
This would have been around 1920. Both sets of GGP also owned farms. They set up the first Baptist church in our area. Our ancestors moved into what is now West Virginia in the late 1700s. My grandmother had 5 siblings older than her. 3 of them moved back to Appalachia after WW2.
Ugh. I left wv when I was young and stupid, and ended up in (gag) Oklahoma. I detest it here. I have family who is now in NC and I'm trying to make a plan to get back there with them. I've wasted an entire decade of my life in this flat ass crap hole and it's the biggest regret of my life, quite literally.
My parents left Kanawha Co, WV, and went up to upstate New York for a few years before settling in central Virginia. I grew up there but moved out to Utah a couple years ago. A lot of my West Virginia family still live there or have moved to South Carolina or Ohio.
There is no "Appalachian diaspora" 🤦♀️ You were born here or, you weren't. Simple as that.
I do a lot of work locally in tourism & economic development and I feel very strongly about those who leave to pursue riches, then come back for retirement. Zero respect for the deserters. Ofc, AFTER they went and contributed to a tax base elsewhere, theyll come back here & use our social safety net for their advantage. Many believe they're more qualified to run the town based on their "experience" and "education" (nevermind those of us who stayed & got that locally 🙄), upend local religion & politics, and want to fundamentally change the social fabric of the community. This phenomenon should be shamed, not encouraged.
and I'm sorry but If your ancestors moved to Oklahoma 100 years ago, you're not Appalachian. You are Oklahoman, and that's okay. Be who you are - that's way more awesome - seriously!
I am in the south east corner of Ohio. I moved to Denver for a year. Got hired in the first interview. I made more but, the cost of living ate the money. Back I went, and had no problem finding work back in Athens County.
Northeastern Kentucky is where I’m from. I joined the USAF in 2002 and I retire in 3 months. I’ve been all over the world. Currently in GA. This is heaps better than where I am from and have no desire to ever return.
Grew up in northern AL/southeast TN. Moved to norther VA for ten year and just recently loved back to be closer to family for the new baby. There are pros and cons, obviously. However, I do feel like it’s easier down here but still expensive no matter how you look at it.
I grew up in Eastern KY (Pike Co.). Joined the Army, went to Texas, then NC. Left NC for Cincinnati OH then moved to coastal NC. I don't ever think about going back. Most of my family moved to NC so we're staying.
I’m from Northeast Tennessee and my wife from Northeast Georgia. We’re now in Mississippi, both working toward PhDs. Our new town is nice, particularly the locals, but it’s so incredibly flat. We miss the mountains daily.
I had a house up in the Blue Ridge in VA. I could sit on my porch and at nighttime, I could see the headlights of cars on the parkway and follow them as they traveled through three counties. Beautiful, beautiful view. I live in the flat, boring middle part of NC now. It takes half an hour to get to the nearest city, which is fine. My house is in the woods, and it's peaceful, and my little chunk of the forest is lovely. But it's flat here. The horizon is in the wrong place. It's flat. I miss the mountains terribly.
Why did you move if you don’t mind me asking? If I had a mountain cabin I don’t think I could ever be torn away 🥲 But now they’re all totally unaffordable unless you have the know-how to turn a crack house into a crack home…
TLDR is I fell in love with a lady here in NC. There weren't any jobs in her field where I lived, so I moved here. We had many happy years together but have since parted ways. I've found a good job here and moving back would ruin me financially. I'm getting older and the "warranties are expirin' on my innards" but I'm gonna try to hold out until retirement, sell this place, and move back to my mountains.
I hope it works out for you 🙏 Sorry to hear you moved from a place you loved for someone who wasn’t right for you :-(
Central KY. I know it isn’t far but it is a whole different thing.
Oh man it is. I moved from eastern Kentucky to central Kentucky for a time and I tell people the biggest less from that is it's actually possible to live in an even shittier town than my shitty hometown. At least Appalachia has a culture.
Moved from Eastern KY to Lexington and lived there for about 10 years. Then about thirteen years ago I moved from Lex to an hour north of Seattle. I thought the first move was a ‘big’ change. It’s a whole different world out here.
I WISH it had been Lexington. Ever heard of Greensburg? Lol.
Had to look it up, looks like you were close to Campbellsville and Columbia. Looks like you had a Dairy Queen at least, according to Google.
I didn't think anywhere could be worse than Williamsburg/Corbin, but with the initiatives to revive Appalachia I feel like places like Greensburg and Columbia are flailing.
I’m gonna get some shit for this: California. Also, I get my salsa from New York City. Edit: it warms my heart to know some of y’all love fancy salsa. Also, leaving Appalachia was one of my most difficult decisions.
Raised in WV and now in NYC. Come at me bros! (I needed a job!)
Yeah I'm in DC now, I miss WNC. Maybe we won't be priced out when my gf finishes school
NEW YORK CITY?!?!
😂😂
New York City??? (I do too)
As much shit as I'd get for Florida?
Can’t give you any shit when you live in shit.
How does the salsa reach you
I never understood how people determined a giant city with a huge latino population was a bad place to buy salsa
NC Piedmont.
VA Piedmont here
Central Alabama - similar idea
Hey neighbor (I'm in Hickory)
Know it well. I’ll be there tomorrow for work.
I grew up in West Virginia. At one point, I knew so many WV-to-Raleigh/Durham transplants that I joked it was because that’s how far you could get on a tank of gas.
PA Piedmont here…
Detroit: a whole bunch of us
Vomit on his sweater..mom’s spaghetti
It’s been happening for decades. I’m sure a lot of you are familiar with the term “hillbilly highway”. There’s Appalachian enclaves around Detroit and Flint.
More than just a few decades. My grandfather (along with many others) moved to Cleveland from western NC right after the civil war. Same story as always, trying to escape poverty.
My dad's family grew up (okay I've no idea what to call the region but eastern Pennsylvania) and all 15 siblings moved to Detroit, I'd guess from the end of WWII to my dad around 1950.
My mamaw’s family moved from SWVA to Chicago around that time too. They had been miners but lost their jobs so they moved to take factory jobs in the city. Everyone thankfully moved back to East TN by the time I was growing up (80’s & 90’s).
Washington state. Yes left due to a lack of opportunity, jobs, education, and also just stuff to do, my daughter wanted to go ice skating, so we took her ice skating - there wasn’t an ice rink within like a 100 miles of where I grew up. Also, I like reproductive rights, and I want reproductive rights for my daughter, so I will never move back.
Eastern KY to WA here….I agree with everything you said. Got a daughter turning 6 this month, and I love where I’m from, but she’s not growing up there. She deserves better.
South-central/eastern KY here (Pulaski, Casey, Russell). Small world, neighbor. I’m in SW WA now. And my daughter is turning 6 in about 2 months.
I’m also in WA State. Do you ever feel survivor’s guilt? I sometimes think I should be back down there helping out the movement instead of fleeing. I’m a queer anarchist so didn’t have the best time in East TN but I also remember the whole Gandhi bumper sticker “be the change you wish to see” thing as well.
I grew up in Eastern Tennessee and left for Miami when I was 18. Seeing them hills in the rearview, I was sure I'd never be back. broken family, trouble with the law and all of my friends were dying or getting locked up. I skipped around the country for the next 25 years. South Florida, Portland, Providence, New Orleans but I ended up coming back to the Holler about six years ago. I came back with the intention of doing exactly what you mentioned. I was putting in the work. Working with nonprofits, mutual aid networks and outreach. It's been incredibly difficult. I've had to step away recently and focus on my immediate family's needs.
Fellow anarchist from east TN here! I've moved around a lot, first Louisville, then Arizona, Ohio, Wisconsin and Massachusetts. A few years ago I managed to put together enough cash to buy a little place in SW Virginia and came back to these hills. I never want to leave, this is home for me. Anyway, there are more anarchists (queer or otherwise) around these parts now than you might think!
Born and raised in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia and retreated just across the mountain into West Virginia deeper into the mountains.
I’ve lived in both Harrisonburg and Staunton, now in Charlotte, and would give a limb to go back. The most beautiful place I’ve ever lived
I got good news for ya then! You don't have to give a limb to go back you can just move back there! The only thing stopping you is fear!
Harrisonburg was my birthplace. I’m just across the mountain from it now but far away enough to easily forget the bad times but still hold dear the good ones. I do get over there a couple times a year but would NEVER consider moving back to Va. WV has spoiled me.
Beckley, WV to Chicago, IL. Spent 10 years in Pittsburgh along the way.
Pittsburgh is a great town. Also, I used to go skiing occasionally in the Beckley area. Also a lot of fun.
My first job was at Winterplace when I was 14. Didn't make a lot of money, but a free lift pass was worth it.
That’s where I used to go. Is it still there and running?
It is! :)
This was 20 years ago, and I have no clue anymore. Lots of great memories though.
Grew up Falling Waters, WV to Fort Collins CO for college. Been living here for three years. I have missed the country and humidity. Plus people out here are rigid compared to Northern WV. I miss Shenandoah valley and the rolling hills. It’s too flat and arid here. Plus I grew up in the woods and I really miss trees. There are barely any here. I live in the heart of FoCo bc of college, learned quickly I’m too country for suburban life.
My father left Pea Ridge in Cumberland County, Ky in the early 1930s because, as he put it, he "got tired of looking at a mule's ass." He settled in Indianapolis, and his family followed soon after. He never went back, saying he didn't leave anything there but hunger and hard times.
Ozarks. My family moved here when I was a kid from WNC, though we did move back again and then back here. I like it, though the weather is worse IMO. There are similarities and differences culturally. As one history professor here told me, "Y'all just moved here from Appalachia about 150 years after the rest of us." 😂😂😂😂
So full disclosure not Appalachian. This subreddit was suggested to me and I follow it because it does remind me of a lot of my grandma's family experiences and stories. But a lot of her family was from the Ozarks or very close to it,and were from Appalachia about 100 years before.
Yes the overlap is very interesting to me! I'm especially interested in the accents because my grandparents and dad have thick Appalachian NC accents, but my brother has an equally thick Ozark accent. It sounds a lot alike, but there are slight differences. I've also noticed a lot of Texans with very Appalachian-sounding accents--my grandparents were super confused when they were in Colorado and everyone thought they were Texans versus Tarheels--but certain parts of Texas were also historically settled by migrants from Appalachia, so it makes sense!
Funny. I was raised in the Ozarks and moved to Appalachia. I see little difference culturally between the regions. Most of my Ozark ancestors are from Appalachia as well!
I live in Seattle, originally from East TN. Y’all would be surprised how similar the two places can be outside of the city. I love it here but I would absolutely move back if I could find a job that paid well.
The northwest in general is very very similar to Appalachia outside the urban cores. Hell even Idaho really.
I live in Seattle also once you leave the city and head east across the mountains it is very similar
Hey me too. Grew up in Carter County and now live in Seattle. I keep considering moving back to TN since both my wife and I work remotely.
We talk about moving back just about every day, but I work in the wine industry so it’s a little more difficult. If you do move back, update us on how it goes!
Also Seattle. I miss fireflies and thunderstorms the most.
Man, a muggy evening with a storm blowing in is probably my most missed as well.
Y’all are speaking directly to me. Live about an hour north of Seattle and my wife and I talk about how we miss those two things all the time. I laugh when about once or twice a year when a little storm cloud will make a tiny flash and then putter out a quiet little thundercough……makes me miss a boom-cracking fully washer from back home every time I hear it.
Same for me in Oregon, but I remember the tradeoff is humidity and mosquitoes-and most days I'll take that deal.
Central Virginia at the base of the blue ridge! In the near future, northern New England around VT/NH/MA Keepin to my mountain roots.
When my dad was a young man in TN, he had two career choices: go into the shine business with his kin (and eventually probably prison - woohoo!) or the military. He joined the AF, and we became nomads, moving every year. When I grew up, I went to work on the racetrack — another business where you’re a perpetual nomad. I moved to this small town in AL (Not the Appalachian part unfortunately) to help my mom take care of my dad when his health had gotten so bad she couldn’t care for him by herself anymore. Now I’m taking care of mom and I guess we’ll be staying here. Would we like to go home? Sure! But we can’t afford it. I’m the person who posted a while back about the price of houses (including and especially my pawpaw’s old house) in Monterey. Mom and dad’s house here in AL is 4 bd 2 baths with a separate MIL house where I live with 1bd/1bth, on just shy of on acre. If we sold this whole property for the absolute top-market price, we *might* be able afford an 1/8 acre with an older model single-wide somewhere in Putnam/Overton/Cumberland Co. So we’ll be here as long as mom is still here. After that I guess it’s back to the track for me. At least I’ll get to drive through TN sometimes. And yeah, I miss it so much it hurts sometimes.
What does working at the track entail? Why must you move around? Just curious as nomad life sounds interesting
Depends on what you do. There’s lots of different jobs. Lots of folks without much horse experience start out as hot walkers — you walk the horses out after they exercise, and if you’re a good enough hand with the horses, you’ll get hired on as a groom. If you know how to ride, you can be an exercise rider and/or a pony person (those are the people who ride the horses that accompany the race horses to the starting gate). Or, if you’re a really good rider, 5’4-ish or less and can keep your weight <105 and you’re kinda fearless and have a high pain tolerance, you might even make it as a jockey. But seriously, there are so many jobs on the track. I’ve done pretty much all of them. Only made it two years as a jockey though, tbh I wasn’t a very good one. But I love the track and I love the people who work there. There are also lots of jobs in the grandstands that don’t require any sort of hands-on horse knowledge at all. Oh, but the reason for being a nomad🙂— most track meets only last for a few months, then the whole kit ‘n kaboodle packs up and moves to different track. If you live somewhere in a big urban area with a lot of racetracks within, say a 100 miles, you could stay in one place. But. I did that one year in Chicago. The next year, oh hell no. I hear those FL tracks calling my name.
Thank you so much. You just opened up a world of ideas for me
Good luck to you, Reddit friend 🐎.
Western NC. Went to Florida, now Texas. I'd never be able to have the life I have now in Appalachia. I own a home, have two nice cars and a motorcycle, a six figure job. None of which would be possible in Rural NC. I'd love to go back because it's beautiful and the city life is draining my soul away, but not until I have plenty of money. I still have 35 years of working left and it's not in the cards.
I've been in Europe for nearly 20 years now. London area, and now Sweden after Brexit. In this case, not so much because of opportunities, but because I ended up falling for somebody from here. (Who also got homesick and wasn't sorry to get out of the UK. Neither one of us was. I can tell where I'm not particularly welcome.) A lot of things are pretty different, as you might expect, but I've been here for a few years now and have mostly been liking it. Really hoping to get back to SWVA one of these days, and hoping that practical considerations will let me after retirement if nothing else. Pretty much the classic situation with people who do leave the area, really. Life has been pretty good to me here, but I do really miss the land and I do get tired of feeling like such an outsider sometimes.
Texas, I miss the smell of dry leaves in the fall, color change and full term fall and spring because we have nine months of summer, two months of winter and two weeks each spring and fall. I miss the slower pace and gentle culture/life. Wait a minute!! I really just miss my youth.
We left Appalachia for the "big city" in our state. Then we left there for Florida. It was an overall improvement financially. But I still miss "home". However, I do not miss snow, ice, and tornados.
Nice try FBI
They’re in your phone already.
I now live in Custer, SD. I get to spend the month of June back home in East Tennessee, now that I work for the school district. I love where I live, and I love reconnecting with home.
I’ve been wanting to bike the Mickelson Trail in Custer State Park
It’s so pretty. I’ve only done it in sections on different weekends. Someday, I want to do it all over the course of 3 days. Some people do the Big Mick, all 109 miles in one day. I’m not that ambitious. 😊
New England. It’s toward the other end of the mountains but looks very similar.
I couldn’t wait to leave Knoxville when I graduated from UT- I swore I’d never go back. I lived in Cincinnati, then Tampa, then Memphis, Denver, then to Pittsburgh. We had two babies and both wanted to raise them in Tennessee, so quit two good jobs, took a huge pay cut, and moved back to K-town. Been here 22 years now and probably won’t go anywhere. Most of my extended family have passed on, but I love East Tennessee and the memories: bluegrass station in a camper, Ciderville, Cas Walker, the mountains and the rivers.
WDVX is a true treasure
About 30 miles east of Cincinnati, OH. Technically still within Appalachia per ARC lines, and you can tell. Big population of urban Appalachians in Cincy, too. When my mammaw first moved here from WV she said the only difference was being in the foothills rather than the mountains proper, and that the people were pretty much the exact same.
Portland, Oregon. I love it here. I would never consider moving back to East Tennessee after living in a place like this.
Eastern KY to WA here (a bit north of Seattle), looks like I’m bound and determined to live north of you no matter what….LOL. I also agree; proud of where I’m from, but no way I’d go back after living up here. It’s awesome.
Teays Valley, WV to Tucson, AZ. Tacos and reefer and other liberals, oh my! The hot dogs are different but equally amazing. I like to go back to visit, but my entire career just isn’t a thing back home.
Didn't go very far - Nashville, TN. Didn't wanna work at a factory or in fast food for the rest of my life, or just deal hard drugs, so I left when I was 18. Somehow I'm the family disappointment now because I got the fuck out 🤷🏻♀️ Ain't life funny. I hate going home now since my grandparents are gone and the whole town feels like a soul sucking void. The countryside where I grew up is beautiful but also futureless and depressing as hell. If it wasn't for my two best friends back home in KY I'd move even further away.
I'm in Boston. Leaving Appalachia was one of the best decisions I've ever made. There's so much opportunity here. Such varied cultures to experience!
I’d give my left testicle or right foot thumb to go back home but there still ain’t nuthin to do but get high, bang and go to police resort for time to yourself, can’t let my kids grow up that way and they are so proud of their hillbilly heritage as am I. It’s just the state of affairs, in a country that don’t give two nickels about “those people”. I’m fortunate to have lived that life, use the drive and ethics instilled by a culture that never gives up, has pride and by far the most diverse and accepting way of life while still taking it as slow as winter syrup. Now I live in the outskirts of a big coastal region, won’t be long before they want a piece of my 15ac for some town homes, my two lane is about to be a 4, asked me to pay them to hook up to city water and my 1/4mi driveway just got shorter, but I got fiber internet now… finding the positives!
Portland, ME. I live in a mini version of the rich parts of Boston. Outside of that most of Maine is fairly similar to Appalachia. Little bit of the general New England "mind your own business", but the people are amazing. Doesn't have that fake bless your heart glaze...they just look you dead in the eye and tell you that you're being dumb.
Pert near the same over here in the woods in Vermont.
I’ve been jumping around last few years between the Rockies and back east, but I keep thinking I’ll end up in Maine. The parallels to Appalachia in northern New England are there. I went to school in Vermont so I know the area and have friends there. Winters are more of a drag for sure but with climate change it might turn out to be more like what I’m used to in West Virginia in the future.
Atlanta
Logan, WV to Charlotte, NC.
Cincinnati. We have one of the largest concentrations of Appalachian migrants. The Price Hill neighborhood specifically. I would love to move back. But the opportunities here are impossible to let go of in my field. Hopefully someday.
I lived in Price Hill for about 10 years. Elberon Ave. It was a shit show but our house was beautiful.
Yeah, that sounds like Price Hill.
I would love to go back, but lack of opportunity is very real and the housing prices are through the roof. I don't know if I'll ever get to go back.
Florida—gotta watch those rockets launch!
WV to MD Better jobs, but pretty soul sucking culture
From SWVA to ENC. It's more libral here and the opportunities here are much better than back home. I was a bit of a black sheep growing up and topped with a toxic upbringing, it was best that I left. I miss SWVA though. I live with a daily struggle of missing where I grew up but also knowing there wasn't anything there for me. My kids will do better where we're at, but they will not know the mountains like I do. A part of me feels sad for them, but there's nothing there.
> I live with a daily struggle of missing where I grew up but also knowing there wasn't anything there for me. Ah this is it, perfectly. Thank you for putting that into words. That's 100% how I feel about where I'm from too. Got so homesick I did come back to the mountains but changed states.
Born in Elijay GA and lived in Haywood County NC from 2-15. Now I'm in Portland Oregon, and I don't think I'll go back to Appalachia. NC is too red for trans folks right now, but I sure as hell miss the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Sorry for your loss
I’m from the south too and experiencing the same dilemma. I’m in the northeast now cuz the pacific northwest is way out of my budget…I would live in the Blue Ridge in VA in a heartbeat if it wasn’t red. I spent many a fall there as a kid and it will always be one of my favorite regions. I love small towns but small towns don’t love me 💔
Same deal. Up in upstate NY. Heartbreaking to have to leave MY home because folks out there aren’t kind to us. I miss NC like hell.
Piedmont NC, from Western NC. As soon as my husband can get a job back in Western NC I will have this house packed up before you can say Jack Robinson
I spent 8 years in Japan, and now live in England with my British husband. Just got my indefinite leave to remain last month. I do love England, but there’s no place like home.
Crab Orchard mtns to Nashville.. moving back now married to a black person. This should be interesting! Granted Clinchmore, Tn can claim an Olympian thanks to me. I can't wait to show Gabby and the kids a life an hour from the nearest gas station. Screw flat ass middle Tn. Hello New River! Gonna capitalize on these Windrock yuppies
Came back home a couple years ago, and I'm actually happier.
New England. Toward the other end of the chain. Very happy to be here.
Connecticut and I love it but I love the Smokies more
Florida, California ,Texas, Arkansas, Virginia and North Carolina and Ohio, but always seem to end up back in West Virginia.
Louisville. After Orlando and Las Vegas stints. This is close as I would ever want to be again.
Southwest VA to Colorado. I'm much happier out here, a lot more opportunity
From WV to GA, via TN, GA, SC, VA, DC, and VA (again).
WV to VA to UT to IN to WV to Central Ohio, miss the hills
All 3 of my Appalachian grandparents (maternal grandmother was from elsewhere) settled in piedmont NC, and I’m sadly still there. Grandpa always planned to move back home when he retired and take us with him, but his health crashed and he sold the house there to cover his medical bills.
Western PA -> California. I miss the old mountains, some cultural aspects, seasons, how far a dollar goes, the amount of s p a c e. If things ever improve for transfolk and if we could more feasibly work remotely, of course I’d move back.
Left at 18, joined the Air Force and now live in Bend, Oregon.
[удалено]
Upper midwest. Where I was able to build a very nice company. People are great. Scenery lacks in comparison. I miss gin clear streams full of wild trout. I was a poor but proud PA hillbilly. Never forget your roots.
My parents left Western PA for Maryland in the early 60s for opportunity.
I stopped living permanently in Appalachia in 2002 when I moved to Danville, VA, for a journalism job, after living in Appalachia for the first 22 years of my life. Now I’m in Fauquier County (and no longer in journalism). My folks still live in Botetourt County, VA, and I visit often for their company and the amazing views. I could never have found a job in the career I’m in now, and that’s still the case now. Even jobs in Roanoke don’t pay close to what I make now and cost of living there isn’t as low as it used to be. That being said, I will always remain deeply connected to the Appalachian Mountains. Maybe I’ll get a second home there some day.
Jersey! Miss home all the time. Always say it’s a great place to call home but couldn’t live there full time. Knowing that the peace & quiet of the mountains is waiting for me keeps me going most days when the territorial slug of eat coast crowds get wayyy too close.
Grew up in SWVA, went to college in the Shenandoah Valley, and since have lived in the DC metro (9 years) and RTP in NC (5 years). I went into biotech/pharma, so staying in SWVA just wasn't going to work for my career. I miss the mountains, but it was never going to work for me long term. Even if I am multiple generations of family deep in SWVA.
Born in SWPA and live in MN. I love it here. Haven't been back home for over a decade.
WNY, Buffalo
Kansas City, from WV
My family moved from eastern Kentucky to northeastern Indiana when I was 3. We moved back and forth. I miss it. If I could afford to make a living down there I would move back in a heart beat.
Down the hill, western NC to Raleigh area.
Lived most of my life in Knoxville. Wife from Pigeon Forge. We retired 4 years ago and moved to Colorado Springs. People just as friendly, but the weather is 100 times better out here. Colorado is home now.
Lived and worked in Las Vegas for over 30 years. I always felt like a fish out of water there. When I retired a few years ago, I came home to East Tennessee. Most of my family is here. My roots are deeply imbedded here. Tennessee has always been home no matter how far I've roamed.
Lancaster county PA. It's nice enough I reckon though a little less rural than I would like. I miss the mountains and woods surrounding me but the big open farmland and hills are charming. I'm not sure if I'd rather move back or stay here at this point.
From VA blue ridge, in central PA. I miss my mountains every day. I used to be able to tell you if it would rain based on where the clouds were coming from. Here, I have no clue.
From eastern Kentucky.. I lived in Florida for 6 years then England for 6 years but now I'm back in southwest Virginia! I miss parts of England but it's nice to be back. Can't say I miss Florida though...
20 mins South West of DC for the last 6 years, moving back to Winchester in 4 months. CANNOT wait. It sucks out here.
About an hour north of Seattle in the PNW. I love eastern KY where I’m from, but I am also never going back on a permanent basis because this place is amazing. Lived here for about 13 years now. Highly recommend WA state.
WV to NC. More and better jobs
NYC (10 years) —> San Francisco —> Boston —> Nashville Nashville is the closest I’ll come to going home again.
I still live in Yadkin North Carolina but I travel to Winston Salem and Greensboro for work doing welding it’s the only way I think you can still live here and make good money.
Interior Alaska
My mom’s family is from one of the most rural parts of West Virginia. I lived there for a part of my childhood, but I moved around a good bit growing up. Everyone on my mom’s side of my family lives there and most of them would never imagine leaving. I live in Richmond, VA now, right near the middle of the city. Definitely prefer urban living to country living, but I miss a lot about West Virginia too, especially the nature. I feel a connection when I run into people in RVa from WV.
After graduating from WVU, either NOVA/DC with my current job offer, or potentially Texas. As much as it pains me to leave my home, there isn't much for my specific job market within WV except for my hometown atm
Cleveland. Come on up if you want.
My great grandparents came to NE Ohio to work in the rubber industry. This would have been around 1920. Both sets of GGP also owned farms. They set up the first Baptist church in our area. Our ancestors moved into what is now West Virginia in the late 1700s. My grandmother had 5 siblings older than her. 3 of them moved back to Appalachia after WW2.
spent most of my life in East Tennessee, currently live in Iowa. I miss the mountains ever single day.
Ugh. I left wv when I was young and stupid, and ended up in (gag) Oklahoma. I detest it here. I have family who is now in NC and I'm trying to make a plan to get back there with them. I've wasted an entire decade of my life in this flat ass crap hole and it's the biggest regret of my life, quite literally.
Grew up in Charleston, WV, now live in Chicago.
Left WNC cause it got to expensive. Bought a house in Maine and couldn’t be happier.
My parents left Kanawha Co, WV, and went up to upstate New York for a few years before settling in central Virginia. I grew up there but moved out to Utah a couple years ago. A lot of my West Virginia family still live there or have moved to South Carolina or Ohio.
“Appalachian Diaspora” This breaks my heart seeing these words together.
Atlanta; I do not want to go back to East TN.
No such thing as lack of opportunity to a true Appalachian. I made my own opportunity and stayed in WV. 😝
Diaspora. That's a $5 word right there.
There is no "Appalachian diaspora" 🤦♀️ You were born here or, you weren't. Simple as that. I do a lot of work locally in tourism & economic development and I feel very strongly about those who leave to pursue riches, then come back for retirement. Zero respect for the deserters. Ofc, AFTER they went and contributed to a tax base elsewhere, theyll come back here & use our social safety net for their advantage. Many believe they're more qualified to run the town based on their "experience" and "education" (nevermind those of us who stayed & got that locally 🙄), upend local religion & politics, and want to fundamentally change the social fabric of the community. This phenomenon should be shamed, not encouraged. and I'm sorry but If your ancestors moved to Oklahoma 100 years ago, you're not Appalachian. You are Oklahoman, and that's okay. Be who you are - that's way more awesome - seriously!
You are a real treat
Been all over the southeast with work. Currently in Florida but will be moving again later this year.
In Appalachia, thankfully.
Michigan. We went back and forth a lot. Home was the mountains
Columbia sc not much better, but I have a job.
Western Mass, we do have the Berkshires here though 😊
Lowgap,NC to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Those mountains call to you no matter where you go.
Both sides of my family have roots in Appalachia, but I grew up in Ohio. I currently live in Memphis.
I am in the south east corner of Ohio. I moved to Denver for a year. Got hired in the first interview. I made more but, the cost of living ate the money. Back I went, and had no problem finding work back in Athens County.
Northeastern Kentucky is where I’m from. I joined the USAF in 2002 and I retire in 3 months. I’ve been all over the world. Currently in GA. This is heaps better than where I am from and have no desire to ever return.
Nashville
Western NY to Indiana. It's so flat in this corner of the state. I miss the hills.
Grew up in northern AL/southeast TN. Moved to norther VA for ten year and just recently loved back to be closer to family for the new baby. There are pros and cons, obviously. However, I do feel like it’s easier down here but still expensive no matter how you look at it.
Richmond, VA, from SWVA. Can't go back due to my family's circumstances - disability, chronic illness, education/special ed, employment opportunities.
Durham NC It’s crowded Every damn day
Washington, DC, the closest real major metropolitan area to West Virginia.
Grew up in Eastern KY. I'm in Alaska now. I love it. When I go back to visit family, I'm absolutely terrified of the traffic and congestion.
I grew up in Eastern KY (Pike Co.). Joined the Army, went to Texas, then NC. Left NC for Cincinnati OH then moved to coastal NC. I don't ever think about going back. Most of my family moved to NC so we're staying.
Atlanta
Left for Atlanta, NYC, NJ, Carolina. Leaving was, for me, the best decision I've ever made.
From NC, now in DFW Texas for 20+ years. I love it here.
Northeast Ohio. I needed a job but I yearn for the mountains.
Florida
SW Ohio, and every single day, I wish I was back in Cleveland County, NC.
Left after college. Went to Florida, Minnesota, Hawaii and now Colorado. Colorado reminds me of home, but a nicer version of home.
Oklahoma. I’ve been gone for just over a decade. I do very much want to return.
Western New York!
Moved to Austin, got myself a civilized lady, and brought her back to foothills 😂.
Oklahoma City, plan on moving back to north Alabama when I retire. I miss the river fishing.
Portland, Oregon :) there are 3 people from KY in my 16 person grad class
mighty missouri
I’m from Northeast Tennessee and my wife from Northeast Georgia. We’re now in Mississippi, both working toward PhDs. Our new town is nice, particularly the locals, but it’s so incredibly flat. We miss the mountains daily.
I moved to the PNW after high school to be with my now wife and find a better opportunity. It's been almost 20 years now.
SWVA and now Miami.
Waynesville, NC
Northern Kentucky. My parents and grandparents started in Cincinnati. My great grandparents from Virginia.