Them Thar Hills

a reply to: TheRedneck

He'll be one of the first to hit the dust.

Graveyards are full of tough men that had to sleep, eat, pi$$, or take a crap at some point…..

The problem when you have stuff, you have to keep it someplace, and everyone want’s a piece of it. And there are people more than willing to die for it like your willing to die to keep it.

a reply to: neutronflux

Que sera sera.

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck

They try that land confiscation around here, it'll get bloody, as you say.

Some lands around here have been in the same families for going on five generations, or longer...

...and most of those folks have family and friends with in hollerin' range, and will come runnin'.

Not sure that's a fight the govt. really wants...they certainly don't need it.

a reply to: HilterDayon

I like the use of a mocking laughter track and the accusation of ignorant unschooled peasantry towards the Clampetts. Until here comes “Big Oil” to transform their lives into modern bliss

Well spotted. The people of Appalachia were early targets of the defamers of the entertainment "industry". After World War II, the USA turned its back on Appalachia and never looked back. One notes, however, the movers and shakers were happy to throw the Appalachian boys into the blood baths of the World Wars.

All over the little town of Bedford, Virginia, nestled next to the Blue Ridge Mountains, similar telegrams were delivered that summer — nine of them on one day — with the same opening line expressing the secretary of war's "deep regret" that a loved one was killed or missing.

Cheers

a reply to: seagull

There's something there that apparently city folk and young-'uns just don't get: the land, our land, is our most prized possession. The last time someone tried to take our land (through crazy land taxes) it led to the bloodiest war America has ever known, and left scars that have still not completely healed 160 years later.

The land is life itself. My home is not just a piece of land; it is my sustenance, my safety, and a legacy for all those family members who came before me. Try to take my land? You might as well kidnap my deceased Mom and Dad, his father, his father, his father, and make an attempt to shoot me and everyone still living in my family at the same time. And that's not just me; it's most families around here.

Many years ago, TVA came in to do three things: bring power to the area, tame a river that was sell-known for wiping out family farms on a regular basis, and create a wildlife sanctuary out of that river. They succeeded, on all three counts. But when the government first started telling families they had to move, there was a lot more bloodshed than most realize. People were willing to die, and many did, both the farmers and the government people, for a piece of land that regularly tried to kill them.

Most people in other places don't understand this. But that does not mean it doesn't exist.

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck

Look up Caryville, TN on a map. Right on I-75 about an hour north of Knoxville.

See that lake, Cove Lake? That is where Caryville, TN was. My great-grandmother’s general store is down there somewhere with what is left of canned goods on what is left of shelves.

The TVA handed some cash that didn’t even cover the canned goods and said take it or swim. Grandpa was a boy then. He would have been 101 now. But all that was before WW2.

a reply to: Ahabstar

That happened to a lot of people.

It worked out for the best overall. If not for TVA, I would have grown up in a house without electricity, doing homework by coal-oil lantern. If not for TVA, we would actually have less wildlife, and nowhere near the fishing we have today. But, had I been alive back then, I would have been one of those who were willing to fight to the death to save the land that was going to kill me. I'm not afraid to admit it. It's part and parcel of the culture.

One thing that I have noticed: a lot of people will move here and be shocked that one cannot buy riverfront property. It's actually illegal to own. The reason is that TVA bought up land based on their anticipated flood plain under eminent domain. One can own property up to that flood plain line, and they can use any floodplain property beyond that as they wish... TVA doesn't care (just no permanent structures). But if TVA should need to raise the lakes, well, too bad your fancy boathouse is now being used by Davy Jones. Our property; your loss.

It's done that way to prevent lawsuits. TVA constantly monitors the lake levels and adjusts their dams accordingly. If they had to worry about all the boat houses, they couldn't maintain the balance of electrical power, lake health, and water reserves the way they do. I think the last time they had to raise the lakes very much was back when there was all the flooding a few years ago. The Ohio river was already above flood stage, so they had to hold the Tennessee back to keep the Ohio from getting worse.

Of course, during that drought that happened a few years ago, we never ran out of water either. The lakes got low, but they never went dry like some around Atlanta. TVA does a pretty good job.

TheRedneck