I finally managed to conduct my first interview for my new Youtube channel “Celebrating Appalachia.”
Chatter volunteered to be a guinea pig for the project. I quickly figured out there’s a lot to learn about interviewing someone! I didn’t even write down any questions (huge mistake) before we started.
Even though I flounder around I think Chatter had some very interesting things to say.
I hope you enjoyed the interview! And if you haven’t subscribed to my channel yet I hope you will.
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I watched the interview with Corie, and then I watched a PBS DVD I borrowed from the library, called Ken Burns: Here and There. It’s about his documentary filmmaking and about where he lives in Walpole, New Hampshire, a little town where he has lived for 40 years. He decided to live there to do his work and NOT move to L.A. or New York. And I thought: This is what Tipper Pressley is doing in and about Brasstown and Appalachia! It’s the same story, just in a different part of the country. It’s about small towns and how important they are and what is lost between a small town and a move to a big city.
When you asked for one word to describe Appalachia my immediate thought was “Home”. My wife crochets and many of the places to get yarn at a reasonable price have stopped stocking it or have a limited selection. Where does Corie and her Granny get their yarn?
Jackie-they’ve had a hard time finding yarn this summer. I told Granny everyone must have took up crocheting 🙂
Well done, and what an interesting, as well as articulate , subject to interview. I really enjoyed the first of many.
Having grown up in a city in Ohio, I certainly don’t qualify as Appalachian. However, spent time in Fayetteville NC (husband stationed at Fort Bragg), I came to love the south. And to this day, it has a special place in my heart and I love to return there. Just loved Chatter’s replies to your questions, especially the last ‘old-timey’ description of her life. Look forward every day to read of your love for Appalachia! God bless you and the whole Blind Pig and family.
This interview made my day. You all might live in Appalachia, but I felt like I was re-living my childhood. Mama didn’t can produce, but her sister did and she’d give us string beans and butter beans. We always grew tomatoes and sometimes green onions, and Mama had a small strawberry patch. I’ve snapped many a string bean, shelled many a butter bean, and shucked many an ear of corn. Nothing beats fresh food, and it’s healthier for you. Mama taught me to crochet, and our neighbor taught me to knit. I taught my youngest daughter to knit, but I don’t knit or crochet any more. I prefer to sew and do machine embroidery. Mama did beautiful hand embroidery, and she taught me how to do it, too. I have several tablecloths, as well tea towels, dresser scarves, and pillow cases she embroidered. I grew up a couple of miles from my mom’s parents and we saw them weekly. Church was a big part of my life and still is. I went to college because it was the only way to become a teacher, and I have never looked down on any one who didn’t go to college. College isn’t for everyone. People who have a trade or skill have abilities that can never be taken from them. Before I retired, I told my students if they needed college for what they wanted for their careers, fine. If they didn’t know what they wanted to do, learn a trade or try out community college. My parents did not go to college, but there wasn’t anything Mama couldn’t bake or Daddy couldn’t make or fix. My brother never went to college, but he could fix anything. My husband didn’t finish college, but he has an engineering mind and probably knows just as much as any one with a degree. He is a whiz with math.
The old-timey ways are still good.
Great interview. Corie and Katie have grown into such lovely young women. They enjoy and appreciate all the wonder of Appalachia that they were raised with. It usually takes young people longer to appreciate their roots.
Really well done! But then, I would have expected no less. Keep up the good work and may the Lord continue to bless the Bling Pig Family richly always.
Appalachia in a word? Home. It has the sights my eyes love to see, the talk my ears want to hear, the people who I know and who know me, the folkways I want to remember and celebrate, the bones of my ancestors and the spirit of faith. As I recall you posting, it is nice to go to the coast but a relief when coming home to see the mountains in the distance.
I hope Corie is a representative of hundreds of thousands of young Appalachia women and men. She is so right that a whole life is made of heart and head and hands together and wrong to say either can stand alone. I recall how my Dad and Uncle could compute the value of a load of logs in their head using a process of their own. It wasn’t the “school” way but it worked. Compared to them, in that particular regard at least, I felt handicapped. And indeed I was because I was boxed in by how it “must” be done.
So now we know. Chatter really can chatter, though it would be a mistake to miss the depth.
That was an absolutrly wonderful interview!! I went back and listened to some of it again. What thoughtful and interesting questions you asked and what a well spoken young lady Chatter is. I am wondering if your interviews will appear on this blog or will I have to go to another site to see them.
Kenneth-they will appear on this blog, but can also be accessed on Youtube 🙂
Tipper,
You aren’t given enough Credit on life in Appalachia, for all You do for The Blind Pig and the Acorn. I like Corie’s answer about “old timey” ways when you asked her the question.
If my Mama and Daddy were Alive, and all 5 of my brothers, they’d say “the Old Timey ways were the Best.” I was impressed by what Corie had to say and I love those Big, Bushey eyebrows, both Chitter and Chatter inherited that from Pap. …Ken
Several years back I wrote two or three pieces, I think, for BlindPig on the wood stove that Pearl Crisp Cable’s mother, Sarah Pilkington Crisp, brought out with her when they had to leave Pilkey Creek with the flooding of Fontana Lake. Pearl said that it took several years before the family could convince her mother to have an indoor bathroom, but she never would go along with replacing her wood stove with electric. Pearl related that her mother said: “If I wanted me an electric stove, I’d get it myself. I don’t need no electric stove.”
With that, Pearl laughed and said “You talk about old-timey – now she was old-timey!”
While she said it with a laugh, it was also with clear sense of pride.
So well done, Corie – I don’t know that you could have picked a better word.
Absolutely loved your interview with Chatter. Y’all are precious folks. You have a rich heritage that you continue to pass on to us & I am so thankful that you do. I have several afgans that my grandmother crocheted & even a quilt her mother made over a hundred years ago. I am always happy when someone tries to guess where I am from when they hear me talk. It lets me realize I still have more of Appalachia in me to pass on to others! I just must see some mountains soon as I can, but am enjoying our 6 chickens in the backyard who surely will start laying eggs .
Chatter is living the best of both worlds while being educated in both. Great questions and answers that pretty much sum up the meaning of Appalachia.
I enjoyed your video interview. One of the first things I noticed was the background of books. That says a lot to me. Many people I grew up knowing who did not have many formal educational opportunities read lots of books. An interview with a Mellinnial is appropriate because she is a bridge connecting the old and the new lifestyles. She has “book learnin’ “ and lifetime experience; she has been exposed to people away from Appalachia through college, the Folk School and her travels. I look forward to more interviews. Thanks.
Déjà vu! Anything worth doing is worth doing again!
I came here looking for some green beans.
Ed- 🙂
Terrific! Makes your outlander listeners wish they had grown up in Appalachia!
That was a wonderful, informative interview, Tipper. I’m just so proud of you and Corrie. I don’t ever want to forget the “old Timey” ways of preserving food, cooking or planting by the signs. I always said my parents were survivors, no college degree, but if you were lost in the wilderness, you would have wanted them as your guide. They knew what you could eat from the forest and how to hunt and make it out. Thanks for your interview.
That blew me away. I thought you’d be interested to know that I was knitting as I watched. I tried to match Corrie in speed and didn’t come close.
The Interview was well done, Chatter and Tipper! Chatter has the whole Appalachian thing pretty well figured out. Education can come in many forms. Chatter is highly articulate and very wise to be so young. I must say after spending a lot of time in NC, ( great granny Mattie Starr came off the CHEROKEE reservation, ) roaming NC, being stationed at dangerous Ft.Bragg 3 years, ( I got followed and stalked many times while stationed there, ) wanderings through NC beaches, mountains, and cities to visit and live, you ladies definitely have what I call the NC dialect. It’s distinct and totally unique to NC- all over NC! Here’s to the lovely NC hillbilly! You ladies show the best of what it is to call these Smokie Blue Mountains home! You’re grand representatives! NC is my favorite state to roam!!!
Oh, I SO enjoyed this today! Thank you for doing this, Tipper and Corie! It was wonderful to hear your perspective, and I can’t put into words how refreshing it is to see a young person so grounded and sensible and unashamedly connected to their roots. My favorite part is that you mentioned God and Christianity and that it has always been a big part of your upbringing – it surely shows. Sending love to all of you today!
How very excellent Corey (Chatter) and Tipper…..Corey clearly set forth what it means to be Appalachian in modern life….Demonstrating new ways while preserving old ways (Snap Beans included, haha)…..Thank you both for bringing this expat yankee up to date on what it means to be Appalachian….My wife Mary and I are happy and proud to be here in the North Georgia Mountains celebrating our retirement years!
Great job! Love your site.
How could anyone not appreciate the Appalachian lifestyle after listening to this? Quick thinking on the “old timey” and so accurate. Look forward to more of these interviews.
Very good job Tipper and Chatter! Your love and respect for Appalachia shine loud and clear from both of you. I think these interviews are going to be a lot of fun as well as informative.