Appalachian People How they Heated their Homes back in the day

[@buck546]

I remember it very well. We used an outhouse, Momma Cooked on a wood stove, Dad heated the old houses with coal. I used to tell my friends that in the winter there was a six foot ring around the coal stove that was 95 degrees but when you stepped out of that ring it was the same temperature that it was outside. We were poor but we knew we were safe there with Mom and Dad and we were so at peace and happy. Mom and Dad are gone now and those days are just a memory but I often think of them and miss those days very much. God bless you Mom and and Dad and thank you for all the sacrifices you made for me.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome memories my friend.

[@haroldwilkes6608]

Amen. I and many others live a life of relative ease today only because of the hard dangerous conditions those before us lived in, kept their hopes up and survived. But too many have forgotten and whine if their latte is too cool. This video should be shown in every school in the country, great documentary.

[@brudweger]

That's one of the nicest tributes to parents I've heard.

[@buck546]

@@brudweger Thank you sir, their sacrifices were many.

[@pattyrogers9871]

Yes in dee dee. I remember them days. Use to jump out of bed in winter, and shake the ice off our quilt's. Burrrr. I remember well. Thank you for sharing. God bless y'all.

[@jcfc8197]

I’m very proud of my Appalachian roots, and up bringing. We were poor for sure but we made it work. I joined the Navy and now that I’m about to retire, the first thing I’m going to do is move back to the mountains of my childhood. I’ll stay with my folks, as they are getting older and help them out in anyway I can while I build a little cabin for myself. I remember how much I wanted to get out of the holler growing up and the older I get, I just want to get back to the holler. I’ve lived both sides of life, the slow and the fast. Slower and simpler is the best.

[@donnielaws7020]

That's great my friend. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@emmabenedek646]

2022 UTUBE APALACHIAN PEOPLE. UK. Am aware that many people think everyone in US lives in luxury, the hoax perpetuated by film companies. In the period 1900- 1950 there were millions of americans living in poverty . We just read about how poluted the rivers and lakes were. I also read about a steelworks were tghe workers had a hard job to get a wahroom installed at work because their skin was filthy at the end each day, meanwhile an actress during that time had 1000 000 dollars worth of clothes. We also noticed that in late 19th Cent how barbaric the employers were, they went to church Sunday and starved the workers all week. They based their activities on Darwin. It was also stated that they said if God did not want them to cause deaths he would intervene. The employers used firms like Pinkerton and Burns to force workers into submission by beating and shooting. These firms often employed thugs out of jail. The law and Judiciary were, just like in UK today on the side of the privilidged. These firms employed by UK govt have attacked us and threatened to kll The Police destroy evidence. No wonder the native american was wiped out to the tune of around 6 million. We blame the ordinary man or woman in the street. they take no action even to save self. Wecannot put evidence on here as it will be deleted. All our w sites are destroyed. God help this planet.

[@yungdolphin9130]

You sound like a well-rounded intelligent man I'm glad you served our country and I'm glad you're going back to hang out with your parents and settle down

[@David-uu1oj]

@@emmabenedek646 ....thank you for sharing Emma. God is Good though and the Bible is our strength, His ways are right, hard working was what we did. Im 63 now, I do feel spoiled in this day though, we have few wants. The power went off three days ago and i prepared by closing off a small part of the house, it was comfy, but again, gas logs is nothing but a luxury item. My older brother and i grew up out in NJ, he manually split wood and i carted in a wheelbarrow. That was hard work but those fires felt real good! This old world has lost it's way but a few of us still reach out to help. I hope you have that neighbor Emma, and may you be blessed. David

[@joerowland7350]

@@emmabenedek646 h.l ludy is from the U.K. read his book

[@garyyeigh6098]

I’m 73 years old, my wife and I built or house here in Florida with our own hands, I’m sitting by the stone fireplace listening to your story and enjoying it a lot. This is great for old men and dogs.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@Clark1967]

Hey Gary, I'm in Ontario Canada, and it's 🥶 🧊 freezing right now, ummm... do ya wanna trade places for a few months??😉

[@cletusspucklerstablejeaniu1059]

Couldn't even find a rock to drive nails with eh?

[@donnielaws7020]

@@cletusspucklerstablejeaniu1059 😀

[@eviesmail5447]

You are in Your prime!!!

[@Beepinsqueekin]

I grew up in middle Iowa, born in 1957. Our 2 bedroom house had no indoor bathroom, we used an outhouse. We had a single sink in the kitchen which froze up during the winter. We had a cookstove in the kitchen which heated the house, too. No furnace. We bathed in a round galvanized tub after momma heated the water on the stove. Wringer washer out on the back porch, all laundry dried on lines inside and out! Im so grateful to have modern appliances.

[@donnielaws7020]

WOW Thanks for sharing your memories with us my friend. God bless you.

[@johnharris8191]

It was so cold in the house I grew up in, we did not go outside to the privy. We would crap down a shotgun barrel and shoot it through a crack in the wall. LOL

[@myrah9854]

I was middle Iowa, born in 1953. I can relate to all of this!!!

[@ricksilvis5369]

I remember my Aunt telling me learned to read by the news papers on the walls. My great grand mother loved for family to visit. When ever you went by, she would always want to fix us something to eat. It was an insult to turn it down. She had a number 20 cast iron skillet she would fix fried potatoes and diced onions. Crackling corn bread, white beans and ham hocks. She showed her appreciation by cooking us something. We always did some type of work for her. Either split wood, bring in some buckets of water from the hand pump well. Fix broken wood shingles. Till her garden and add cow manure to the soil. She always worn her long hair up under a bonnet. Long dress and a apron. Before we left she wanted to read from the bible. We all sat around and listened to her read a little bit. We all got our hugs and kisses, she would stand out on the front porch and wave good by as we drove off. Looking back now, those days are appreciated now more than ever. I am glad I was old enough to remember her.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@njoyingtube1]

@Dee Santer a is gessin yo Rellatives wer plum tuckerd an happie as hog's in sheeeit wen yo flu the coop and declared yo wud neva darkan thar door again . Have another nice day on your own now .

[@JScottCee]

@Dee Santer NICE to see no one ever taught YOU manners. Go away, child.

[@buffordevans6942]

❤

[@SheepDogNumber6]

Made me hungry.

[@huupper]

I'm from Finland and our winters are pretty cold too. This was a fascinating piece of American history to hear. I'm a city boy and I wanted to spend a weekend at our cabin up north in November with no electricity or running water. Even though it wasn't the middle of winter, the amount of wood needed to simply keep the main living area heated was perplexing and makes you appreciate the amount of work the older generations worldwide needed to simply survive. We owe them that.

[@donnielaws7020]

Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@darbyheavey406]

That’s an understatement.

[@cruiser6260]

Open fireplace uses a lot more wood than closed wood heater. The wood stove, much less again

[@jd218]

Go to Seneca state forest in Pocahontas county West Virginia and rent one of there 8 cabins

[@elkeschmitt623]

When we lived in England ( my husband was US AF ) our first house we bought had a coal fire place for central heating. No fire-no heat. And I remember when we came back from Germany one winter ( we were gone a month ) the house was so darn tooting cold.

[@ericteal7118]

I came along in 71 , but was raised by my grandparents . They hadn’t forgotten how they grew up and had decided they were continue the old ways , so I got a full taste of it growing up . I’m now 51 , and I am so thankful for those times in my childhood up until I was grown. I look back now and compare the old ways to today’s ways of living , and I would much rather carry on with the old ways . Get it yourself or do without and neighbors help neighbors . Things are so much simpler and life seems to mean so much more . God bless everyone and try to remember the old ways friends . You never know when you may need to go back to them ..

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome my friend. Thanks for sharing your memories. God bless you.

[@3422dave]

48 my friend and spent a many of springs and summers cutting a lot of cords with a axe and sledge hammer and wedges and when you got away from the wood heater you better have on long johns and socks

[@dittohead7044]

People are leaving decency and morals behind. I love Cades Code

[@wallytidwell1439]

The way things are going now my friend, I believe many people will be going back to the old ways.

[@mikehendricks7938]

It was always a chim-lee to me too Donnie,not a chimney.

[@thejerseyj5479]

There is nothing like coming home to a house with the wood stove full of burning wood. I work outdoors and before I leave I get the wood stove stoked up and my wife keeps it burning all day. I cut, split our firewood from standing dead trees that are plentiful and already seasoned. Processing your own and using it to heat the home is hard work, and pure joy. When I come home in the winter and walk into a house that smells like bread baking and wood burning is something indescribable and heavenly. Thank you for this wonderful video so well done. Anyone can have a taste of this life and should do so. With the price of fuel and food it's worth it to invest in ways to make life as much like these people as you can.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome my friend. Thanks for sharing this Your very welcome. God bless you.

[@oldschool8292]

I do live this way although unfortunately without a wonderful community.

[@lindakmorse9238]

My grandparents ( Dad & Nanny) were very special - they had the most beautiful relationship. Dad spent his life making sure Nanny's life was as good as it could possibly be. First house on the mountain with a TV, big old freezer, big electric stove, and indoor plumbing. BUT Nanny also had a large kitchen with her big old cookstove too and the galvanized tub for bathing in the warmth. Nanny died when I was in fifth grade. I saw Dad drive into the schoolyard - on the worse day of his life he was thinking about us kids. I never met a better man in my life. He struggled every day for the rest of us. I have struggled every day to make my Dad and Nanny proud of me. Sorry, I know this is a sad story but whenever I think about the cold - I remember the warmth of that kitchen and a real home.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome story. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@joanadair6280]

Sounds like you were blessed. I am happy for you. I never had grandparents myself but we have been blessed to be grandparents. Aren't these stories great!!

[@bettyzsembik3477]

Remember getting up and the coal furnace was out and you could see your breath in the bedroom. we where modern as we had natural gasin the kitchen and my mother would already be up and have the kitchen warmed up so I could get dressed for school. Had to walk but it was only about a quarter mile.to first grade at the 3rd ward school. 4th grade was at 2nd ward school up 7th grade which at the high school building a good mile or more from home It was a good mile or more us kids covered it 4 thimes a day.. No school lunch; pack your own. Great memories.

[@Leif1963]

Linda you are a good writer and a sad story is often a story with a point. You should write more- now I've made my point. :>)

[@brians7743]

Got a little dusty in here for a minute. Thank you for your story.

[@Mahasattva27]

Unlike most of the commenters here, I grew up in an apartment in Brooklyn, NY, the one thing I had in common with many of the commenters was the love and warmth of good parents who made a happy home for us. Really appreciated your video and the comments here as well. Keep up the good work.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. You very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@gotohellenwaite6371]

I’m sure you could enlighten us mountain folk with city stories. The fun thing about memories good and bad is they build the us we are today. I remember as a girl back in the early 70’s sitting in the outhouse looking at the Sears and Roebuck catalog ( we called it the wish book, the thing was as big as a big city phone book) we would look at the clothes and toys and think about the rich glamorous kids in the big cities that had those things. As an adult I realize those big city kids some had life worse than us. We had a mountain to pick berries, grow vegetables and apples, pears and peaches. It wasn’t nothing for me to go pluck off a few squirrels or a deer for food. The mountain was work , but she provided for us. You all didn’t have that.

[@donnielaws7020]

@@gotohellenwaite6371 Awesome! Thanks for sharing.

[@jesusisking117]

Im still in Brooklyn NY in the same house I grew up in. We were kind of poor but played outside a lot. I raised my daughter here and she became a sailor and moved to Maine. She has a beautiful wood stove and cuts her own wood. I look forward to selling my family home and buying a cabin up in the mountains of Maine

[@donnielaws7020]

@@jesusisking117 Awesome! Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@1973chevycar]

Man oh man, did this bring back some OLD memories. I can remember living WAY back up in a holler in W.Virginia with my mamma and there was 9 of us in a one room shack. We used coal from the side of the mountain that was just a few feet away from the back of the house to heat and cook with. We were dirt poor, but we managed to live OK. Xmas eve, mom went outside and cut down a (charlie brown looking pine tree, made up some flour balls for ornaments and that was our tree. Come morning time, she took off the ornaments and started a fire with the tree and used the flour balls to make breakfast with. Dam, I haven't thought of that in years. Loved your video, brings back a lot of good memories.

[@donnielaws7020]

That's awesome! Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@hotstuff6934]

Oh wow I loved reading your memory it was quite warming like that tree on Christmas morning what a lovely down too earth memory you have ❤️

[@donnielaws7020]

@Eli OberoN Thanks for sharing this my friend.

[@ksoper1351]

That's a beautiful and touching story.

[@donnielaws7020]

@@ksoper1351 Thank you.

[@mr.s171]

Mr. Laws, your voice has that recognizable tone and tempo of those thousands of voices that were once commonplace throughout the rural areas of America. After watching the video again I'm sure that many like me can hear the voices of those relatives long gone from us, but filled with a peaceful satisfaction of having been a part of it. Thanks for sharing.

[@donnielaws7020]

Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing that my friend. God bless.

[@davidtucker7219]

Pretty much what I was thinking...Mr. Laws, you sound exactly like my Grandpa Reynolds who grew up in the Great Depression in Tennessee...The gathering of coal from the railroad tracks was something that he and his brothers did to help out at home...He had a old pot bellied stove that he used to heat the front room of his house with...Quite a few nights when I was a little boy during the winter months I'd sit and listen to him tell me about things much like you have done here. Talkin around a wood stove...I only wish he was still with us...He taught me so much about life and how to use what I have at hand.

[@danielbailey8889]

Same out in sparta ky

[@rlbhartmann6902]

Mr. S I posted above before I read yours, and have the same reaction to Donnie's voice.

[@andreaszule1558]

Said so well!

[@johnhughes6074]

Donnie, I know back in those days it was extremely labor intense, but life seemed to be so much simpler than we have it now. Life was about supplying food and shelter for your family. The average man worked hard long hours to provide for his folks and the women worked hard to keep the home going daily. Today we are more worried about making more and more money, seeing how large we can make our bank accounts. Our homes have to be as large and fancy as we can make them, no matter the cost or how many decades it will take us to pay off that loan. Then we work 8 to 16 hours a day sometimes 6 days a week just to meet the monthly bills. Well, upon looking at the overall picture, maybe just maybe, they had a better idea of life than we do now.

[@donnielaws7020]

I agree. They had it hard, but most was free. Your labor was the only cost. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@joeyank2451]

They Did

[@kevinknight470]

Amen brother, materialism is ruining the world with debt slavery.

[@vickyrussell1672]

I agree with you all on that

[@derekowenjr3599]

It’s written that the Israelites would lose their identity and be given a new name Christ Sons or Christians. They’ll came a day when we as a people no longer call our God Bahl which is Lord. Not Jesus either. We’ll call him Yahweh and remove the Canninites from our land awaiting the glory of him to rule with us Matt 24

[@southerntexashomestead5028]

My grandparents on both sides of the family lived in the mountains of southwest Virginia. They had wood cook stoves and pot belly stoves in their farm houses. I remember spending summers and winter holidays with them. They had a dairy farm and I learned to milk cows by hand. The best food came from that wood cook stove. Biscuits and gravy, pancakes, bacon & eggs and fresh whole milk. My parents were city folks. I loved spending time on the farm helping my grandparents. I always hated having to go back to the city. I now live off grid on my own little farm and love my life. Thankful to my grandparents who taught me important skills and life lessons. God bless you all.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@pouglwaw5932]

Thanks for your memories and especially for adding the old essential to life and survival- faith. Our nation has mostly forgotten that and is paying the price. God Bless You, too

[@donnielaws7020]

@@pouglwaw5932 Your very welcome.

[@meeofcourse4152]

Bless your grandparents for raising you with love. Would love to be off the grid

[@stayfit57]

I wouldn't know the first thing to do. I would be up a creek without a paddle. A city life has no clue. But I would love to live off the grid grow some of my own food. But I don't wanna live totally like this. Uts rough living. Lol I'm a weeny when it comes to cold

[@ColonelBagshott675]

I'm from the beautiful Peak District of Derbyshire in the UK but somehow in my heart I have a yearning for the wonderful people of the Appalachian mountains and hollers. I hope one day to be there and share a story or two over a coffee and pancake with some of you beautiful folk. God bless you all.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome my friend. Thanks so much for sharing this. God bless you.

[@slm3913]

2 of my great aunts livin in North Carolina died when they were little girls during the winter because it was so cold. There were 12 kids. My granddaddy was one of the younger ones. They sold homemade moonshine. They grew a huge garden and no one could shut the still down cause one of my uncles was the Sherriff. The government came along and bought the land and the Hiawassee Dam sits on their property. It was Bear Paw. The family traveled not far to Murphy where most of the family is buried. Granddaddy's house was a part of the underground rail. Great granny had a quilt that she made and hung it on the clothes line. Those escaping slavery from Georgia, if they could get to my great grandparents house, they would be given fresh clothing, a place to get a bath and some good hot food after traveling in danger. My great grandparents taught them how to cook some of the things from the garden. The people would stay a while and then when they had enough food and clothing with them, grandaddy would take them to the border of Virginia, Ohio, and West Virginia. Lots of stories were told us when I was a little girl.

[@donnielaws7020]

So sorry about you aunts. Thanks for sharing your story my friend.

[@bettyvanderhooven-schmaasc4235]

Thanks for sharing all that. I jus live hearing about the old times.

[@edbogus]

What a wonderful story you’ve shared! Thanks and so sorry about your Aunts❤️

[@healthywithhappyspurling]

I live just a few miles from Bear Paw, and our family has been in the area since the 1850s... Can I ask who your folks last names are?

[@2WOLFS]

Donnie I lived like that for the first 5 years of my life. In my great grandparents home. Just a old fireplace and wood cooking stove, oil lamps for lights. Yes, the fireplace and chimmy was make from Feild rocks. We would set around it every night. Then daddy built us a home and we had electricity, but no running water or indoor bathroom, and we still heated with wood. So every year we would cut and split wood. Splitting the kindling was my daily job. I was 16 years old before daddy could build on a indoor bathroom and have running water. It was about the time we had the telephone with 4 people on the party line to use the phone. And every time I returned home after 18 years old, the heat would run you out of the house. But, the smell of the smell of burning wood was a wonderful thing. But, yes Donnie my friend I still believe food still tastes batter cooked over wood fires. My dad tore down 2 different houses to get the lumber to build our home. It still stands today but my daddy has passed on. It's a home full of great loving memories. We all, grandparents, parents, aunts,uncle's we were so close. I believe we have lost so much from those days. Simply because it's so easy for the younger generation now. If only they could have had those beautiful days we did. Yes, it was harder living, used a mule to turn the ground, there's a old saying for you. Everyone worked in the house. From cutting wood, carrying water,milking the cow and making the butter. The crops was the family duty, and your folks around you would "swap work" in just about anything. My daddy didn't have any sons and men would ask him how he has so many crops and not have sons. I was so proud to hear him tell them. He didn't matter his girls could go the a field and get the work done and he didn't have to worry. They knew what to do the 1st time and it was done just like he taught us. Daddy was our hero, and he never let us down. He good in always telling us we did a fine job and without us, just 2 of us. He would have never been able to get it all done. I have to say he set the work ethic in us by kind words and guidance. The one thing we know we never wanted to disappoint him, there was nerve any fear of being punched it was just we didn't want to disappoint daddy. Donnie I so enjoy your vedios they bring back great memories for me. And You know we didn't knew we were poor growing up. We had everything we needed. Warm home, food and medicine we we needed it. But most of all we had love and that we the greatest riches anyone could have.

[@donnielaws7020]

WOW great story and memories my friend. Thanks for sharing my friend. Take care.

[@2WOLFS]

@@donnielaws7020 thank you Donnie wonderful vedio

[@anthonybatulis6516]

Thank you for sharing your story. You know this in that we really have everything today but truthfully we have nothing.

[@mediumjumbo7484]

Great share ! ;) My mom lived with her granparents when she was little. She said her granpaw would throw a lump of coal on the fire to heat her room at night. ;)

[@shirleyharrison2580]

Thank you for sharing your story, I enjoyed it, made me remember my family & growing up years. I was born & raised in rural Kentucky, on a big farm, in the 50's & 60's. I moved away shortly after getting married, but I still love to go back in the area we were raised, the old house is gone now but I love riding around, sometimes get out & walk around. But ain't gonna lie, I DO like the indoor toilet, running water & furnace/AC...lol But I've never forgot heating with wood & carrying water, I still sometimes get asked what part of Kentucky I'm from, never lost my accent. We also walked to school, over 3 miles, same one room school our dad & his siblings went to.

[@LiteralLaw]

This is a wonderful video. My Grandfather and my Dad walked the railroad tracks to pick up coal that had fallen off the coal cars. They cut wood for farmers and their pay was some of the wood. I admire my grandparents for how hard it was, and they still raised seven children to be kind, honest and hardworking people. Thanks so much for sharing this.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@haroldwilkes6608]

I lived near the N&W rails, firemen would regularly shovel scoops of coal out the doors in poor neighborhoods. The RR did not frown it, just didn't talk about it.

[@LiteralLaw]

@@haroldwilkes6608 ❤️

[@williamhanley2566]

I can find coal on the abandoned RR next to my 1890 house in south Ga. It hasn't run since 1970.

[@jimjenkins003]

I'm in my 70's now and lived through most of the life described in this video when I was very young. We had a pot belly stove in our 20x20 four room house. I also went to a one room school for the first eight years of grade school. My grand parents lived across from us and they also used coal and wood to heat their home. I remember going into a few abandoned houses and seeing the news papers on the wall and ceilings barely over my head. I now have live in a very large home with every modern convenience you can buy with five cars and trucks sitting in three garages but I would trade this life and go back to that time in my life in a heartbeat.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome my friend. Thanks for sharing your memories. God bless you.

[@kathyrobertson4493]

Life was harder in some ways yet it was so easy to live. Your relatives all lived within a 5 mile long radius, visiting once a week, rocking on the porches watching the sun go down and listening to the crickets while watching the kids catch “ lightning bugs”. Yeah, I remember growing up in a simpler and all in all a better time. People could handle everything themselves, didn’t need Things, just Love and God. Happiness was the goal, that and health. No one was homeless, if you had no home someone took you in, you worked for a roof over head and a meal on the table. Some folks today would call it child abuse, but back then even kids had chores, they had to feed, milk, draw water, chop wood, rake hay, keep the fire going, yes it was a simple, hard but educational way of living. I was taught to take care of myself at a young age and facing what comes next as just a challenge, not a fear. Thank You for taking me back to my great-grand parents and my grandparents and my parents days. Not from WV but from the South, it was all the same back then.God bless everyone that lived and learned and miss it.😇😇🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻❣️❣️

[@tucky2297]

Our farmhouse didn't have heat in bedrooms upstairs. We had a pot to pee in if we had to. We had a potbelly stove in middle of a big kitchen and extra room. If we stood close we stay warm while grandmother used kinlin broken down to cook on. We had lots of chicken and homemade biscuits and gravy. She canned all the stuff we grew in Sumner. We never went hungry. Thanks to Chickens we had the warmest feather bed mattresses and lots of hand made quits that were used by sellers to hold feed in sacks that we bought for livestock. They served as patchwork quilting to keep us warm as well! Life was good. We had no idea about electric to keep us warm and use to cook our meals. WE LIVED OFF THE FAT OF THE LAND! We were happy to wake up and start our day 😊 .I thank God for allowing us to survive. The times are changing and it's time to go back to our roots because Jesus is coming back to earth to take His children to heaven. Get right with God and pray without ceasing on order to get to heaven . He will save you today! He has never let me down even when times were not as easy as today's times.

[@SnarkyLady]

So. Whats stopping you?

[@jimjenkins003]

@@SnarkyLady Well I can't bring my parents and grandparents back and I sure can't go back to a one room school plus I find the current generations of people now don't come close to those generations when it comes to all around decency and honor.

[@brianblackburn-author7531]

My wife and I fell on hard times about 15 years ago - really hard times! We bought a home in the Detroit, Michigan auction for $1,200. Our entire block did the same or squatted, except for one great neighbor. #1: We knew to create a warm environment and did so before fall. Everyone helped everyone, and it didn't matter what color you were. We took an old barrel and started a fire in the backyard, burning the paint from it. We used black wall pipes and plugged the highest point into the fireplaces chimney. It didn't create enough heat by itself, and we didn't have enough money to get it cleaned that first winter, so we left it alone. I had three buckets of water on hand if the barrel became too hot; we didn't want it becoming red hot and beginning to smoke! It was frustrating making a fire, then having to put it out! After that first winter, we were able to buy an old wood burning stove with a tempered glass window - it was a much better situation! I split wood constantly and my wife did her best, trying to keep up with me. She was better, however, at helping me carry it in, finding starter and tinder as well. Our primary wood came from a storm removal company, which was more than happy to dump literally tons of wood in our backyard - including some of the other neighbors, too. That tempered window was designed to push heat about seven feet outward, radiating it significantly better. We paid $400 for it, after saving for quite some time. Weighing 400 pounds, we'd always say it was well worth a dollar for every pound! We spent a total of five years there. Once I was able to keep a job long enough, we were finally able to move. I had to rely on public transportation, which wasn't always on time, so that caused me to lose two jobs, despite explaining to my bosses what was going on. Once we had dependable transportation, everything began to change for us! We had a dog and a single-shot 12 gauge shotgun for the home. Our neighbor had puppies, and I'd purchased the gun for $80 at a pawn shop - after a couple thugs made attempts at robbing us. We let our dog sleep with us, creating more heat for us all. My wife and I are still together, both of us with good jobs and living in a suburban area now. We'll NEVER FORGET what those cuddly nights were like, sometimes making love a second or third time just to stay warm. (Yes, we had Blitz leave the bed, lol.) We didn't have running water, either. We made an outhouse in the backyard, and our one neighbor who did, let us each take showers and retrieve water. We used empty two liter bottles, etc. My wife would help watch their kids in return, and I did what I could as well. Being able to identify with the people you talked about, made us far more grateful for one another and everything else in life! Thank you for sharing this!

[@donnielaws7020]

WOW! God bless you my friend. Thanks for sharing.

[@douggramlich7832]

Awesome story! Good for you guys!

[@brianblackburn-author7531]

This is Brian Blackburn's wife Tabitha yes we learned more from being poor than we could ever learn from having money people don't get it a lot of company people that I know that live around me where we live now if they were dropped off in Detroit and had to live in abandoned house and then fix it up they probably put a gun to their head but we stuck it out and did have some romantic nights by the fire many actually and getting our puppy from across the street he was a rescue he's the love of my life now and my personal bodyguard Brian and Blitzer my personal bodyguards and I feel very safe so for those who think they can't make it if they were broke you can you just have to get really creative

[@doneown503]

Detroit must allow wood fire stoves , ok ! Some desert cities have "No Burn" weeks due to the pollution it causes.

[@hshalom9113]

Lot of people in my area heat & cook with fireplaces & wood stoves. I heat & cook with a fireplace. Have an outhouse here tho just got a flushing toliet last summer! Still don't have running water tho. Someday.

[@myfirstnamemylastname2994]

This was so interesting. When I was young my grandmother had a little Stone and log cabin up in the extreme northern part of Arkansas, the Ozark Mountains which are very much like the Smoky Mountains or Appalachia. As late as the sixties some poor people and those mountains had "out houses" (outdoor toilets). They drew their water from a well using a hand pump and heated it on a wood stove for cooking and bathing. They raised all of their own food except for a few staples they would get by going to town about once a month. Flour, coffee, sugar. and salt. They had pot belly stoves in the living room or kitchen that heated the whole house and they did put blankets over the doors to about half the house in the winter time. One-bedroom was kept semi warm for the grown-ups and the kids slept on what we're called pallets( layers of blankets on the floor that was slept on in between just like a sleeping bag today). My grandmother and grandfather had bought a little cabin like that with the idea that they would add running water and so on when it became a full-time retirement home instead of just a weekend getaway. But he died suddenly before that happened and so she decided to sell her home and move out to the cabin and live there alone . She was in her mid 50s but she was an Iowa farm girl who had done just about everything she would need to do to survive alone in the woods. She knew very well how to chop wood and garden and store food for the winter. We would stay with her summers and sometimes for months at a time in the winter. We learned how to chop and split wood, how to help birth a calf, how to tend and harvest a garden, and of many foods that could be harvested from the woods around us. Nuts, berries, persimmons, greens. We learned to fish, although just for fun. My grandmother knew how to hunt, but growing up any hunting was typically done by men. Prairie women certainly knew how to use a shotgun because they needed to do so while the men were away or to protect livestock. She kept one by the front door. We weren't allowed to touch it. The shotgun was her back-up plan because being that isolated if anything happened she really would need that protection. We never had any scary wild animals or human Invaders. But one spring night someone thundered up on the front porch and even banged on the screen. When she called out they didn't answer: "who is it, who are you, what do you want?". There was no answer so finally she cocked the shotgun and opened the front door-- and there was a little spring calf that had gotten lost from its mother and stumbled up on the porch. Thank goodness she didn't shoot through the door! She was so level-headed and calm that when she had an accident and cut the tip of her finger off she wrapped it in a kitchen towel and drove the 50 miles to the nearest doctor's office to get it stitched back. She did not whimper and she didn't cry.... But getting back to the farm itself: we had just cold running water to the kitchen and a bathroom toilet but the sink in the bathtub weren't connected yet. I'm not sure why . So we learned how to give ourselves a shower standing in and large metal enamel dishpan by pouring buckets of water over our heads with water we heated on the wood stove in the winter time . In the summer there was rainwater collected in large tin tubs and we bathed in the yard with bars of Ivory soap and we shampooed our hair with water and a pithcher with that same enamel Bowl on the front porch . We were in such a remote location that someone would have had to have binoculars and be standing on the nearby Mountain to catch us bathing. If they drove up the dirt road leading to the cabin Wendover several Hills so that we would literally hear and see them coming miles away whenever they would go over a mountain top. The red clay soil would get pretty dry and powdery in the summertime so that a big puffy dirt Cloud would announce their presence too. We had a propane stove for cookin,g so I didn't learn to cook on a wood stove but everything else was a lot like Appalachia in the pot belly stove era, rather than the fireplace era. We did have indoor toilet facilities, and the poor people on nearby Farms ( nearby being a relative term that means within 5 miles) stI'll had outhouses and thought that my grandmother's farm was fancy for that reason. They thought it was funny that we considered that little cabin and field as a real farm. We still bought most of our groceries in town, with just fruits and vegetables we raised and nuts and berries we gathered in season. We called it " Grandma's Farm" because she established a large garden space and a barn with a few cows and chickens after she decided to make it her full-time home. But it really was a mountain cabin that was made out of large field stones that you still see in the Ozarks. There was a wooden addition that was made from Lumber and siding but the entire house had a tin roof and the front porch was made out of logs and rough lumber. I remember every inch of that house, the Glorious sound of rain on the tin roof and whippoorwills at night in the spring and summer. Whippoorwills are very shy birds and they won't live within several miles of a city so it's rare to hear them now. Sometimes we would hear coyotes and hoot owls. It was incredibly quiet and the stars were incredibly bright that far from light pollution. We were familiar with night sounds that you don't hear now. We didn't have a rooster but in the morning we could hear them crowing miles away on other mountaintops. It would snow pretty deep at least a few times every year and when we walked out of the cabinet was nothing but pristine snow for miles and miles and we were the only tracks that would ever be made in that snow. Grandma made "snow ice cream", which was a bowlful of packed fresh snow with milk or cream sugar, vanilla and a little bit of egg yolk stirred together, as she had been taught growing up on her Iowa farm. It was heavenly. Of course that was before pollution was so heavy even out in the country that it's not safe to eat even the cleanest snow. Lead and other toxins have made it unsafe. Kool-Aid Port over that snow made the first slushie Slurpee drink long before 7-Eleven got the idea! That old cabin is nothing but a ruin now, on the edge of someone else's real farm, with just the stones still standing and some of the boards holding up the porch. There are trees growing up through the root cellar and where the rooms used to be. I don't go to look at it anymore because I like to remember it the way it was... thank you for this interesting presentation. Hope you'll do more.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome story. Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing this my friend.

[@donnielaws7020]

@@user-np7pq2gy1v I plan to my friend.

[@rosemerrynmcmillan1611]

Wow thanks for your childhood memories! Just amazingly beautiful!

[@deborahhaggett3653]

Look I’m

[@offa]

Ukrainian farmers used to eat for lunch, in the field: a shake including raw egg, wheat, (milk), honey. Protein, carbohydrates, milkfat. On holidays, Ukrainians eat softcooked barley sweetened with honey and poppyseeds. But then, HOLODOMOR happened, and many switched to eating dirt, bugs, bark, and human flesh. AMERICAN HOLODOMOR is now foreseeable. With predictions of constant 10 percent inflation, buying food for pantry will be best investment of money, driving people to empty store shelves even faster. Better to spend some $$$ now for stocking up on food to store, and buy guns and ammo to defend your food from BLM activists who will try to steal it or eat your flesh. Do you have any children, or only dogs? Based on your experience in Detroit, do you have a plan for surviving American Holodomor?

[@homesteadingpastor]

Thank you my brother, I REALLY enjoyed this video. It was hard living back then but I do believe the people were happy and families were closer together for sure. Born in 1967 I remember very well my parents and grandparents parents using those wood stoves & wood heaters. You make us feel like we were there with the old timers as you tell these stories. Thanks for sharing this.🙏🏻😇🙌🏻🙌🏻

[@donnielaws7020]

Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend. Take care.

[@Romas65]

I always talk about my grandparents and how they lived on the ranch deep in Mexico, I remember my grandmother's cast iron stove which was the heater for the house, I own that beautiful stove, made in the late 1800s, my children cuddle around it when they come over. I stock up on firewood during the year, although our winters are short, but you get a night or two that the stove Keeps us warm. God bless you and your family brother, I appreciate your video, not too many of us around, spreading what real life was.

[@donnielaws7020]

Thank you friend for sharing your memories with us. God bless you.

[@kentkearney6623]

Sweet. Gift it proper. Like a hug from Grandfolk.

[@rommelbillman2872]

I think the most heartwarming and important message this video sent is when he said “the neighbors all gathered and helped each other build their homes”. In this day in age folks don’t even know their neighbors. I currently live in the mud west, having severed in the military for 21 years I’ve lived from coast to coast. I’ve been blessed to have neighbors whom are like family a rare thing today. What a wonderful world this would be if we tossed the tv’s, cell phones, iPads, and all the other unnecessary things we managed to live without for a very long time

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. Thanks for sharing my friend. Thank you for your service!

[@joeh2690]

You are so right!

[@josephschmucker3625]

And yet if we wouldn’t have a iPhone we couldn’t watch it and dream about the good all days

[@lisahinton9682]

@Rommel Billman So true. No one knows each other anymore, nor do they want to, when invited to do so. I moved to my current apartment 10 years ago and there is a house directly across the street. I know not one thing more about that man today than I did from our first conversation 10 years ago. He answers questions with one word, scowling the whole time. And I've noticed this is people today - they'd rather stare at the TV or their cell than have a conversation about the weather with a neighbor. Sad.

[@serenakoleno9338]

Computer and cell phones are tools, just like saw and axe or gun. How you use them makes the difference.

[@MagnetarRising]

I've lived in the Appalachian Mountains my entire 38 year life and wouldnt change it for anything!! Where else on Earth can you travel states away and still feel at home??? I've never experienced that anywhere else!! I'm from a very small South Western Virginia town and all through the Appalachias I may not personally know the people but as soon as we speak to one another we all know we are family and come from the very same place and the very same people!! How unique is that!!!! God Bless all my Appalachian brothers and sisters, past and present! Be proud, what we have you will not find anywhere else on Planet Earth!!

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome my friend. Thanks so much for sharing this. I'm the same. God bless you.

[@EmeraldForester777]

Truth! No other mountains with the history and expanse of the ole Appalachians.

[@oldschool8292]

@Magnetar Rising I would love to return where my ancestors are from. I'm a first generation Californian🙄 that is a fish out of water. I raised my family very much like ya'all do, even here. I've begun looking at the reality of moving back home. 💜

[@stephanielloyd5792]

Donnie, what I think of the most...is how they did all the things they did to survive...no time to complain or grouch around...they stayed busy...like you said ..all year long....hard work...and how neighbors helped each other...now you're lucky if you know your neighbor's name...shame what convenience and technology has separated the human race...God forgive us...we need to think of others and be helpful...it will help us forget our own problems and then God will be working on our needs.... Appalachian life...let us never forget our heritage! God bless you Donnie!!

[@curtis4109]

South western Virginian here too. Haven't lived there since 71, but grew up there in the 60s. I remember the wood and coal and no plumbing.

[@mlady6564]

When I'm having a bad night, I turn on a Donnie Laws video and listen to it as I fall asleep. Thank you, Donnie, for bringing peace to my life.

[@donnielaws7020]

Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@kensendlosky7438]

Me too. Very relaxing

[@AvaCherry189]

Excellent suggestion. I agree on his wonderful speech pattern. I’ve subscribed and I’m going to use these videos to ease myself into sleep. Thanks for the idea. Thanks Donnie.

[@summerfi]

Donnie, you are a terrific story teller and an honorable and kind human being. Thank you for what you do.

[@donnielaws7020]

That's so kind of you. Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend. Take care.

[@carolecollins853]

Agree absolutely

[@emmabenedek646]

2022 UTUBE APALACHIAN PEOPLE. UK. Am aware that many people think everyone in US lives in luxury, the hoax perpetuated by film companies. In the period 1900- 1950 there were millions of americans living in poverty . We just read about how poluted the rivers and lakes were. I also read about a steelworks were tghe workers had a hard job to get a wahroom installed at work because their skin was filthy at the end each day, meanwhile an actress during that time had 1000 000 dollars worth of clothes. We also noticed that in late 19th Cent how barbaric the employers were, they went to church Sunday and starved the workers all week. They based their activities on Darwin. It was also stated that they said if God did not want them to cause deaths he would intervene. The employers used firms like Pinkerton and Burns to force workers into submission by beating and shooting. These firms often employed thugs out of jail. The law and Judiciary were, just like in UK today on the side of the privilidged. These firms employed by UK govt have attacked us and threatened to kll The Police destroy evidence. No wonder the native american was wiped out to the tune of around 6 million. We blame the ordinary man or woman in the street. they take no action even to save self. Wecannot put evidence on here as it will be deleted. All our w sites are destroyed. God help this planet.

[@lisahinton9682]

@@emmabenedek646 Could you please stop copying and pasting this same comment all over the place? It's annoying and redundant. Thanks.

[@stellablue7435]

My hubby and I left the rat race and moved off grid to the woods of zone 6 built a cabin and lived primitive for 8yrs. Most valuable experience of our lives. Everyone should experience this kind of living; at least for a time.

[@donnielaws7020]

WOW Thanks for sharing this my friend.

[@keyfitter]

Thanks for the video, Donnie. Growing up in a four room shack, a wood stove and outhouse was all we had for my first 17 years. Cut and split my share of firewood growing up. Having to use the outhouse at 10 to 15 below zero wasn't a whole lot of fun though. We did have propane and finally got electricity but no running water. I even thought boot camp at Parris Island was luxury living. Lol. Overall, it wasn't that bad. We had something back in the 50's and 60's that's missing in todays world. Freedom.

[@donnielaws7020]

Your very welcome. I heard a lot of old timers tell me going the Military was like a vacation form what they had growing up. Thanks for sharing my friend. Take care.

[@dlspiritdancer9548]

@@donnielaws7020 yep my daddy was in the korean war & he joined the army @ 15 yo so he could get off the farm & said he thought he was living high n mighty having running water, elec, & esp an inside outhouse in the military. Lol. He wouldnt talk about the war or say much about living on farm except that it was real hard living & his fam was very poor. When they sold the farm, they all became millionaires. (that was a long time ago back in the early '50s). Too bad (for me) he left everything to his (younger than me) girlfriend. She wouldnt even give me his gifts i bought him for birthdays & Christmas'!

[@donnielaws7020]

@@dlspiritdancer9548 My uncles done the same thing my friend but that is a shame what happened to the farm my friend. Sorry to hear that. God Bless.

[@sheiladean9394]

My grandparents lived in a place called Sawyerwood, us kids called it sewerwood. We knew we was getting close to grandmas when that smell was in the air. I got my ass beat something aweful one Christmas when we were there visiting. Me and my cousin climbed the oak tree that went over top the out house when we saw grandma go in there. Bobby had a pocket full of cherry bombs and had snuck grandpas zippo lighter outside. Yup, we lit that sucker and bombs away. Good memories.

[@donnielaws7020]

@@sheiladean9394 😂 That will you a whooping every time. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@brownhermit1399]

I remember heating my 1833 4-room cabin outside of Chapel Hill, NC with old dead tree roots left behind 40 years after the loggers went through. Heated my winters for 5 years that way in 1970 - 74. Best memories of my entire life, so far. Love to smell woodsmoke! Thanks for this lovely video and the weet memories it stirred up, sir.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@melindaroop1346]

I love the smell of woodsmoke as well. It brings back a lot of memories of my grandparents house.

[@dustinpollard6237]

I just drove by a logging operation and they had a 20 foot pile of roots and stumps burning just to clean up. I thought "man, from 200 yards i can see enough wood to use in my stove!" But i guess they can also just till the ash into the dirt for fertilizer for the field in the spring, so it's not completely wasted.

[@greg7129]

Its a very good feeling to see that several thousand people enjoy this channel.This history does not need to be lost ! Good job Donnie !

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@johnlivesay5110]

I enjoyed it and actually was reminiscing during the whole bider because I was raised doing all of what was narrated because I have lived it and experience it first hand from the oil lamps and heating and cooking with wood to drawing water by the bucket from out of the old well at the corner of the yard, it's a wonder any of us children passed any of our grades because our first chore immediately after returning home from school was to change clothes and get in the basement to cut enough wood to heat and cook with until the next day after school. And it took so long to cut enough wood to last that long every evening that by the time we finished it was soometimes very late at night and thn the only thing we had time for was to bathe and get to bed because there was no time for home work because of the constant unending work required just to keep enough wood cut to cook and heat with which was a never ending job, because it was all done cut and split by hand. It was good experience all those years ago but I don't miss it now. And thank God for all the modern conveniences because now with all the additional heavy duty route work that I did for 25 years no wonder that I am disabled now and tired because I feel like I have worked myself to death and I'm a young old man and now I'm paying for all the overwork I have had to do when I was younger. But those butter milk biscuits and gravy and good ole country meals were great pay for those years of hard work. But I'd rather be working now than on disability.

[@t0manderson571]

Well said, Sir.

[@noname-by3qz]

@@johnlivesay5110 John... sorry hun. Try to take good care of yourself. I'm like that too. On disability a long time. I realize all y hard work hurt my back. At least I don't have to work hard anymore though

[@NanaD-ve9tt]

I can't believe how much I truly enjoyed this story. His voice is so soothing to listen to at night as I'm resting with a nice mug of hot tea with milk. Seems like hard work at times and alot good times doing simple daily tasks. Blessings to you and your family.

[@donnielaws7020]

Thanks my friend for sharing this. God bless you.

[@beverlyproudfoot583]

Friend, you can appreciate this. My Grannie would start out after the first thaw, with her coal scuttle every morning after a coal train ran. She would gather up large lumps of coal. Started her coal pile. All summer long rain or shine, after a coal train roared by coal fell of the cars. We loved to run in from sledding and warm ourselves by the open grate. Hillbillie here ❤

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@lou4134]

Bev .. I can see her now.. ha! just shovelin that coal cause She Knew What It Took to Keep.. love n Miss Our Grannies..

[@beverlyproudfoot583]

@@lou4134 When I look in the mirror, it's Flora Maes face looking back! She could do anything, I can't, but she wouldn't care. She loved all 26 of her kids and grands until her last smile.

[@lou4134]

@@beverlyproudfoot583 @Beverly Proudfoot... wow 26 kids plus grandkids.. bet she did love every single one and that's alot of love going around there with her stories of her growing up even without phoned elect n growing your own food as grocery stores were far n few between.. I love to hear the stories of our elders and for sure If We think it is hard these days well our grannies n all them Worked Circles around most these days . they were Tough n Full of Pride n Love n they really gave their all to make life comfortable for the rest.. I remember brushing my grannies long hair as today most cut it short and they washed everything by hand n hung to dry even in winter...Those are the good old days when most neighbors pulled together... just plain good friendly folks surviving...

[@michellestratford9753]

My family comes from England and my Grandad told exactly the same story of he and his brothers doing the same 😚. Their Mum would send them out to check the tracks all the time. It was the only way to stay warm in the winter. Funny how the same custom was practiced on opposite sides of the world 🥰. Poor Cockney heritage here 💖

[@ladyhawthorne1]

My great aunt Pauline always had this huge cast iron wood/coal cookstove. Mostly she used coal as she lived in Abingdon, VA which was coal country. When I was young in the 60s/70s her older kids bought her an electric stove. She only used it to make coffee, she would burn anything else. But the meals she cooked on the coal stove were oh so good! She had a coal shed out back of the house. Her house had been added onto over the years but it was a shotgun where the front door looked straight out the back door. She passed on about 20 years ago, I sure do miss her and the good times at her house. Everyone was always welcome there. Thanks for bringing back some good memories. And stay warm!

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome memories. Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@haroldwilkes6608]

Like your great aunt, my grandmother "knew" her cast iron stove, baked biscuits/cakes/pies in the oven, fried whatever on one burner, simmered soup on the back burner, boiled beans on another and always had coffee on another at the same time. There was even a water boiler with a spout on one end. Multi-tasking was different back then.

[@michaelrains2268]

Hi , my family comes from a place called Bonnie Blue, Virginia it's a hollar above St. Charles. Coal mining families, lived in company towns, paid in scrip. Didn't have much , did have plenty of love , hard work, and strong belief in Almighty GOD . Lee county and surrounding counties were all the same, big families older kids helped with the younger ones. All lived this way people of that age didn't know they were poor. I don't live in SW. Virginia now but all these community's in Lee, Wise, and all the other countys will always near n dear to my heart!

[@samanthashaw7100]

My ex's mother got mad at him for taking the old wood cook stove out and replaced her stove with an electric stove and got more mad because he put her a new sears washer and in and scrapped her wringer washer.

[@donnielaws7020]

@@michaelrains2268 Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@herlonedmondson4279]

I loved the video and shared it. It's a shame what we people of today take for granted. I appreciate you putting us, black/brown, people in as well. Truth be told, we are severely pampered today. The majority of us couldn't survive if for some reason we had to resort back to this lifestyle. 😥 Thanks for the video! 👍🏿

[@donnielaws7020]

Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@gathercreatelivewithleslie8340]

I was thinking the same this morning talking to my husband. Today people could have a fridge full of food and if it wasn't exactly what we wanted or didn't feel like cooking, they'd go get something different. We heat primarily with wood too, I love the wood stove heat. As Americans we certainly are "entitled" in how we think today.

[@kenyonbissett3512]

@@gathercreatelivewithleslie8340 houses that had a second floor got heat from a grate in the first floor ceiling. But during he day the grate was covered or closed.

[@tracy7722]

I absolutely love your voice and stories. Taking a glimpse at years gone makes you think how hard but rewarding it was back then. Families struggled but they worked together. They knew what being a family was. Now everyone can be under the same roof but only speak a few words to each other due to social media. I never experienced this but we were poor growing up but we were happy too. Spending quality time together.

[@donnielaws7020]

Thank you friend. Thanks for sharing this. Your very welcome.

[@Jane-West]

Donnie, as I sit here tonight in the Tennessee cold, I realize how blessed I am. Thank God our families were tough, where would we be now? I remember running to the outhouse at my grandmother's house on these cold nights, back when Lebanon was country😁! Thanks for the memories and I have loved reading everyone's comments! Seems you stirred a lot of memories!

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@Christy.1]

Hard to imagine Lebanon was ever country the way it is now. I live over near Carthage, only been in TN since 2006. The changes I"ve seen just in that time, especially so the past 2 years even. Soon gonna be time to move :)

[@billypayne6197]

@@Christy.1 That's the way it is here - Stokes County - people leaving but selling to developers that are filling up the land - insane . I moved here 30 years ago to get away and here it is - wonder where I might find the next place that is close to people free as you can get .

[@lorenheard2561]

@@Christy.1 Daniel Boone and the need for "Elbow Room"!Room to breathe!

[@sandrasharp2934]

Sears catalogues sure were SLICK! Outhouse (a 2-seater!) My brother pumped and carried water into house. Ringer washing machine on the porch. Mom heated wash water, used cold for rinsing. Used same round washtub for Saturday baths in kitchen, one after the other using same water.. 5 of us, a baby every 15 months or so. Rinsing out dirty diapers in bucket of water on porch..Yuk!

[@kitfrew9983]

I'm from Scotland, and listening go your story,I could relate a little bit to my own upbringing, although not as harsh, we lived in a coal mining community in what was called miners rows for housing. The community spirit is gone now no one looks out for one another now,so so sad, you people had it a lot harsher but the feeling of safety and security and family was very similar . I enjoyed your story immensely. Thank you.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@davidcook2513]

ALOT of Scottish immigrants came to these very Appalachian mountains and lived the life described in this video. You can still hear the Celtic influence in the Appalachian Mountain Music that has passed down since we were English colonies.

[@kitfrew9983]

@@davidcook2513 I know I had read that somewhere about the Scottish immigrants in the Appalachian I just wasn't sure. Thank you for confirming it.

[@davidcook2513]

@@kitfrew9983 plenty of Scots, but the Appalachians are really known for their settlement by the "Scots-Irish" (Ulster Scots) who immigrated here. Their influence is unmistakeable. Incidentally, every year at at a local mountain town called Banner Elk, in the Grandfather Mountain region, they have an annual highland games complete with Tartan displays, strength games, Piper competitions and kilts galore.

[@kitfrew9983]

@@davidcook2513 thank-you for enlightening me, proud to be associated with these people

[@terryrose6208]

Lived this life myself. When you are born into it, it doesn't seem out of the ordinary. Appalachia wasn't the only region that lived this way. You could find it all across rural America. Not a bad life if you were tough and resourceful.

[@donnielaws7020]

Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@johnrobitzsch2092]

We lived this way in South Georgia when I was a child. I am almost 82 years old now.

[@donnielaws7020]

@@johnrobitzsch2092 Awesome! Thanks for sharing that my friend.

[@donastreetman5427]

I remember my Dad shoveling coal in seller to heat our house, I was 2

[@terryrose6208]

@@donastreetman5427 I was a coal miner for 22 1/2 years.

[@reality_is_the_key]

I wish that you could come here to NH and narrate my life! I just love listening to your stories. Thank you so much for telling these stories, keeping history alive, and giving us all a break from the modern day doom and gloom. It's almost like going home.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome my friend. Thanks so much for sharing this. Thank you. Your very welcome. God bless you.

[@halfmooncreek5969]

I'm only 42, so I'm too young to remember my grandparents heating with coal, but they did. I ended up with their old house now and they're both long gone. But cleaning up around there I found an old pile of block coal out back of the old place. He also had his father in laws old steel forge, I'm sure they used it to fire it too. But I helped countless days busting, cutting, and stacking wood for and with my grandad. Wouldn't trade those memories for nothing. I love Appalachian life! Thank you from here in South western North Carolina. Looking forward to more of your old time videos.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@mcashnv]

I used coal to heat an old apartment I lived in n the 1970's. It was cheap and dirty, but coal has a much higher energy density than wood. Which means it burns much hotter and far longer than wood. Much more efficient to heat with than wood. But dirty to handle and burn. You better have a good draft in your fireplace or you will have soot everywhere.

[@donnielaws7020]

@@mcashnv Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@browningbelgium2326]

Donnie, I miss my aunt Ruby's pound cakes she made from a wooden stove and my grandma would put me under about 3-4 homemade quilts when I spent the night over. I couldn't move they were so heavy but I stayed warm. Trips to the outhouse didn't last long in winter. But we were in high cotton because we had a flashlight.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. Thanks for sharing my friend. Take care.

[@justpaula7270]

Grandma always made a pallet on the floor when we came to visit. Everybody, aunts uncles cousins would come to visit and us grandkids would pile up on the floor on that pallet. My grandkis have no idea what a pallet even is. They think wood pallets that you make "old" stuff with. 😂

[@mrs210]

Or you could use a slop jar of it's too cold.

[@donnielaws7020]

@@mrs210 I have many a time my friend.

[@dwderp]

My dad's family comes from Jefferson County, West Virginia. They were all dirt poor working in quarries or as farmers, and looked a lot like the people in the photos in this video. I couldn't be more proud of them.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@cuteone1702]

Solid people👍

[@Roboslack]

West (by God) Virginia, born and raised...75 years old and still kickin' here beside a meandering and babbling brook in these mountains...

[@galenmullenax4039]

We are from Pocahontas County.

[@robinlynch5147]

Love WV I'll never leave!!! Harrison county girl here. I use to stay with my Aunt and she still cooked and heat on a old stove and we slept under so many quilts she made you couldn't hardly move and loved every minute of it ❤️

[@TrappedinSLC]

My grandmother grew up in western PA and her mother was widowed when she and her siblings were quite young so they had very little money, and my grandmother used to tell me stories of going down to the railroad tracks to gather coal that'd fallen off the train cars, so it was great to hear that mentioned here.

[@whitneyferoce4870]

I do that now I'm also from western pa and I'll walk the tracks by a creek that runs thru town and gather it up for fun figure one day it might come in handy...always better to have it and not need it

[@kimberjanota1269]

I remember listening to stories told by my grandparents about their lives growing up in the Ozarks and during the depression when they all went to California to pick grapes and lived in a box car. I'm so proud of my roots and know I come from hearty stock. Thanks you for this video. I'm going to show it to my grandchildren so they can see how things used to be so hard just to survive. They need a reminder of just how blessed they are.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@treemands]

"Grapes of Wrath" one of my all time favorite movies with Henry Fonda. See it if you haven't and can. Heart. I've watched it half a dozen times from start to finish. Puts me in my place when I get greedy. I live in a nice neighborhood but at 73 years old I still run my own tree service and heat our house for last 30 years with a wood burning add on furnace that even has a humidifier. Lots of work but free heat feels soooo good.

[@tulefogger5169]

you are of hearty stock ... i hope your family is active in their turnout to the voting polls here in California. all the city slickers have just near taken over + please tell your family to vote their hearts and stand for those whom are downtrodden. God has blessed your lineage, please live out the full blessing + thank you.

[@kimberjanota1269]

@@tulefogger5169 they all moved back to the Ozarks. Mostly around the area of West Plains, MO. Staunch Democrats. 😉

[@serenakoleno9338]

Greatly enjoyed and appreciated. My daddy grew up in Centre County, Pennsylvania. The oldest of 12, his pappy a coal miner 48 years! No indoor plumbing. Pappy still used the outhouse even though an indoor bathroom was installed after WW11. He kept chickens and gardened, even in old age, died a month short of 101! Never owned a car. They made do and never went hungry. All 12 children lived long lives, 4 still living. I firmly believe soft living is more detrimental to health than hard living. As is isolation, a common problem today. The family and community worked together, children and adults. Nowadays, you are lucky to know your neighbors. I remember visiting the corner store, and nearly everyone in it was related to me. Hated to come back to Metropolitan Detroit. Wish I grew up there. Thank you for sharing.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@tomjone7363]

We still use wood heat. When power goes out I use top of Woodstove to cook beans and fried tators.Our house is a big old farm house but we're happy.When we're dead and gone on to the Lord our grandkids will forever remember our home full of love and helping papaw cut firewood in the warm season. Our grandkids will have a wealth of memories. Thanks to my grandparents for my memories. Miss you both. Love you.

[@JohnDoe-pv2iu]

Serena, I do believe that you are right about soft living. One Grandpa lived to 102 and the other decided (prayed, not suicide) to die at 87 because he couldn't walk anymore. Funny thing about a car, my Pop's Father walked everywhere and hardly ever (three times I think) rode in one but actually briefly owned one! A man had an old tractor for sale and grandpa wanted it. He knew a man with an old car for sale, and heard the man with the tractor would trade it for the car. Granddaddy traded 100 birds (doves and pigeons mostly) for the old car. He walked to the other man's house and shook hands and told him to pick up the car from the other fellow's house. Horse trading/bartering was how a lot of folks did things back then. When I was a kid, we rode by the people's house down the street on a Friday afternoon. The supply company was delivering a load of shingles there. Daddy said 'You boys don't plan on running the woods tomorrow, it looks like we got work to do'. By 8:00 am most of the folks in the area were at the folks house. The men started working on the new roof and the women fixed food and drinks for everyone. The new roof was done before dark. Nobody had to ask for a hand, folks just did for one another. In the replies I got to thinking about the foods people ate. Did any of Ya'll ever have 'brains and eggs' ? It was fried pig brains and eggs, usually on or with a biscuit. I remember how good that was. I don't know if my sister ever knew what she was eating because we got talking one time and I mentioned brains and eggs and she acted the fool. It might have just been a game because the conversation happened with some of her uppity California friends around. Anyway, it's nice talking with Ya'll. Take Care, John

[@dustinpollard6237]

Im right beside Centre county and heat all winter with a Harman coal stove insert. Its the easiest way to remember just how fragile we are, its unbelievable right now but i love the winter. even people up here think nothing of driving in 5 degree weather without an emergency coat or way to survive if their car breaks down. They just don't believe it will ever happen or power won't ever go out. Winter is very humbling to me and i'm trying to get more isolated with less house lol trying to revert to the old days because my neighbors are all unfortunately gossips and i'm the outsider. I didn't get country enough!!

[@tomjone7363]

@@JohnDoe-pv2iu oh my Lord yes grandma use to eat them . I didn't like it . But I sure loved my grandpa's wine and coffee. He made his own wine , with our help. We stomped the grapes. He drank coffee in a bowl with a saucer. I'd slurp it with him. He sweetened his coffee with wine. Grandma cooked biscuit and gravy,with fried apples

[@Beaner73]

This is how we lived in the town of Appalachia Virginia, we were 1 of the poorest families in town. I remember being able to see through the walls of an old house we lived in in a coal camp called Callahan, we lived in a house up on Ridge Avenue, no running water and no electric heat, used coal and wood. I'll never forget those days growing up as a little boy living in the coal camps.

[@donnielaws7020]

WOW. Thanks for sharing my friend. Take care.

[@jenniferjohnson7279]

Bless you ad your faily. My husband and all his family grew up right by you in te coal camps and they are/were sone of the nost wonderful, honest people I've ever known.

[@SirTarquin]

I'm English and I am so glad someone pointed me to this channel. It is not only the history, it's they way you describe it in that wonderful accent and the fantastic old photos. Thank you.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome my friend. Thanks so much for sharing this. Your very welcome. God bless you.

[@BirdYoumans]

Good video. Enjoyed it. I was born in 45. Though as a kid we started with coal, before I was old enough to know the difference my Dad installed gas heat. But we'd visit my grandparents and they still heated with wood until they passed sometime in the 70's. I remember you'd back up to the fire and be nice and roasted on one side and still cold on the other side lol! But I can just imagine though I came just as we were starting to get some "conveniences" how hard it must have been in the "old days" to stay warm and fed. Full time job for sure. My Mom and Dad would tell us stories about times in the great depression, and it wasn't pretty. My wife and I retired to a cabin in the Appalachians and have electric heat, but when the electricity occasionally goes out, no heat. So, we're putting in, you guessed it, a wood heater! This week as a matter of fact. Splitting wood is not so bad and even kind of fun, when you don't have to lol! Thanks for the memories! I'm looking forward to that first pot of beans we cook on the top of the heater since it has a flat cooking surface on top.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend. Take care and God Bless.

[@dannygalloway5872]

T Richard ,Boone

[@julieburton5329]

‘

[@arnoldomorin2331]

Wow, really enjoyed your story. 👍❤️. Thank you for sharing it and hope you enjoyed that first meal. My mom says my grandma used to cook beans and potatoes on a regular basis for dinner. ❤️

[@rebekkahsnyder4848]

I can cook a fantastic meal on a flat top woodstove. I can even bake biscuits and cornbread on top of one. Just tent some aluminum foil on top of the pan and go to town. Best thing in the world is a good woodstove! If you lose power, you still have heat and a hot meal.

[@dwaynehayes5616]

I grew up in Morristown in the 70's in an old house with a bunch of fireplaces, we split wood and went up to the mountain and bought seam coal during the depressions in that time. I watch all of your videos. I am in east Tenn. a couple times a year every year. I have fond memories of the Cumberland gap and have been taking my kids and grandkids there as well as a lot of back woods places my family showed me. Trying to pass it on....

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@angelamartin2811]

I was raised along the Ohio river and I have so many fond memories of my grandparents. My grandpa was a grill cook in the navy and oh my he sure could cook he was a quiet man so when he talked us grandkids would listen. He would gather us kids around and do the thumb trick and we was in awe thinking he lost his thumb. Most days he would sit on a log in the backyard and fish all day and we ate a lot of catfish. I remember my grandma was one of 17 kids and she had the longest kitchen table I can remember the fireplace and all the wood stacked by it and they had a outhouse that I was always scared I’d fall in. It’s strange how you look back and you don’t know it but these memories are the best in my life mainly because back than families got together. I can remember watching hee haw the smell of clothes on the clothes line. And the smell of bacon and coffee in the mornings. I was a kid in the 70s and I’d watch little house on the prairie and the Waltons thinking I’m going to have a family like that one day. It seems like when the grandparents pass the glue of the family is gone. Now I feel so sad for the kids of this generation that will never know what it feels like to play outside it seems like overtime the world has just grown into a dark place. I miss the old days when time seemed slower people were kinder. I believe it’s so important to live off the grid and raise your children the best things in life are free and that’s nature and being a good person. I love history ❤️✌️

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@debraperkins4448]

What Beautiful Memories this has Brought back to Me Also Angela! My Grandma' (my Dad's Mom) lived in a Shack in Louisiana, Cracks in the Walls you could see the Outside, a Pump for the Kitchen sink, bathed us in a #10 (*I think) wash tub, Has I'll Lamps for Light, I have about 15 of those Beauties.....Had an Outhouse I was scared of the Black Widows Biting my Butt!! And using old Catalog pages, from the Montgomery Wards or Sears/"wishbooks" for toilet paper!! Sad to Say It...but these Kids Nowadays, ain't gunna' Make it too good, when the Grid goes down!! Vaya con Dios

[@gonzo3954]

I was fascinated by my Pop. I'd sit by his knee and watch him peel an apple with his pocket knife and do it in one continuous peel. I was in awe of him. He worked the railroads. Miss Pop and Nan.

[@donnielaws7020]

@@gonzo3954 Thanks for sharing that my friend.

[@patrickfordyce2958]

I was raised by my Aunt Olive but every one called her gram for she was more like my Gram for she was very good to me and my brother and sister we had an outhouse and she had a coal stove wood and a huge garden and cattle and pigs and horses . And cloths line for drying cloths and home made bread and pies and cakes !! Those were the good ol days …!!!!!!

[@gregstahley]

Man does this video bring back a flood of memories. I live in eastern Kentucky and after my grandfather died I went to live with my grandmother because I and the rest of the family didn't want her living by herself. You are EXACTLY right, the food cooked on those wood stoves just seemed to taste so MUCH better. My grandmother and her two sisters (My great aunts) all had wood cook stoves and it was a miracle I didn't weigh 400 pounds growing up, because all three of them were AWESOME cooks. There was nothing quite like having a breakfast with fresh bacon or sausage or tenderloin from a hog that you had just butchered and fresh eggs from your own chickens and cathead biscuits made from scratch and homemade gravy and fried taters from your own garden, GOOD GRIEF that was good eating. I remember my grandmother (Born in 1909) telling about when she was growing up that during the winter that some mornings her and her siblings would wake up with snow on their blankets where it would blow through the cracks in the walls, or looking down at the floor and seeing the chickens running underneath the house through the cracks in the floor. I remember that my grandmother and great aunts would take heavy blankets and hang in the doorway of rooms they rarely used during the winter, and the pot belly stoves, and then the stokermatic stoves that used coal. I remember my grandmother said the one thing you did NOT touch of her dad's (My great grandfather born in 1873) was his ax, if you did you were in BIG trouble. He realized that ax was essential for their very survival, and he kept it under his bed. I remember splitting LOADS and LOADS and LOADS of firewood using a sledgehammer and wedges and a splitting maul and ax, man that was brutish labor. It was a happy day when my mom and dad moved back here to eastern Kentucky and dad bought a wood splitter that hooked up to the tractor. I remember going to the outside outhouse/cribbie or whatever you want to call it during the winter when it was below zero and your time there was just long enough to do what you had to do because those seats got VERY COLD. I remember carrying water, and then drawing water from the drilled well. I now see myself as VERY FORTUNATE and BLESSED to have experienced those things like they did a hundred years ago and longer, not only those things but many others, such as making home made lye soap, churning home made butter, milking cows and so many other things. I know there are many folks out there that would probably pay big money just to experience those things, and I did them just to survive, but I am SO GLAD I got to do them.

[@donnielaws7020]

WOW Thanks for sharing your memories with us my friend. God bless you. Your very welcome.

[@DawnOldham]

This was a gem of a video to find here on You Tube. Between your soothing voice and the pictures that perfectly illustrated each point, I was enchanted! The huge number of views this video has received shows how much people love to hear about things “back then.” The house my mother grew up in was a “shotgun house” in Alabama and the outhouses and wood stoves were a part of their lives there. I don’t even think my children could understand “they lived hard” or, “got out and worked or did without”. Thank you for reminding us of what our ancestors endured.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. You very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@reisingerj]

I can still hear my grandma saying, "fix it up, wear it out, make it do or do without". Shoes wear out, put new soles and heals on them- the tops were still good. My dad would get old worn out tires and cut new soles and heals out of the tired and get out his shoe lathe and fix em up. My grandparents lived up in the mountains in PA. The biggest room in the house was the kitchen with the stove in the middle of the room. It cooked, it baked, it made hot water. You washed your face and hands before each meal and you might be lucky enough to get to stand in an old metal tub and bath your whole body once every 10 days or so. It was so good to have two or more siblings and fight for the middle position in bed at night.

[@highwaytoquail754]

I come from an area colder with more wind, and nowadays we of course have modern hest options, but back in my grandparents time, rocks would be heated near the stove during the day and we're placed in the bottom of beds(inside the blankets) to keep them heated for a few hours through the night. Rocks wouldn't be heated to the skin burning point but just enough to hold some comfortable heat for a few hours. Mornings must have been rough. I know some mornings today with my wood/oil furnace are quite chilly until I get the fire going good.

[@jacqueslefave4296]

A lot of times a fire would be started with wood, and coal was added, and stoked mostly with coal for the night. My dad grew up in Wisconsin during the Depression, and he was sent to collect coal alongside the railroad tracks, the coal cars were topped high with coal, and it would spill some around a curve in the tracks. Sometimes, you could find an exposed seam of coal that was open on a hillside, and you could get it out with a pick. Potatoes were cooked in it, and my grandmother would give him two potatoes to take to school, one in each pocket to keep his hands warm. I truly think that those hard times toughened them up and prepared them for victory in WWII. 💪

[@dalehood1846]

@@jacqueslefave4296 My mother who was born in 1911, told me her mother would bake potatoes for her sisters and her to carry in their pockets to school to keep their hands warm. And then eat them after they got to school. Great. Stay safe and GOD BLESS.

[@savethofel8952]

The older I get, the more grateful I am for the country mentality my parents ingrained in me. Thank you for sharing your reminiscences with us, Mr. Laws.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome! Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing that my friend.

[@pawilliams9786]

We heated with coal when I was young. I had a job delivering coal to people on welfare back in 1966. I was susposed to give each a ton a month and deliver it to the edge of the property. Some old people couldn't carry it to their houses so I would deliver it by their porches. I can tell about that now and not get in trouble. I would give them good coal, too. Not the mine run that I was supposed to give them. It was half slate and half coal, not much heat in it. I would give them stoker coal and load it as heavy as my old truck would carry. Probably a ton and a half or more. They were poor in those days, but they would always offer me something. Today, people are not generous, they just seem to want everything for themselves and not care about others.

[@donnielaws7020]

That was shame cheating people, but it still goes on today. Your are a good person. Thanks for sharing my friend. Take care.

[@pawilliams9786]

@@donnielaws7020 I don't want to fool you. I am not all that nice. I was paid to deliver coal and commities to the people on welfare. My grandmother was an assistant to a county commisioner. I was born in 1950, and at 16, I had more money than anyone i I knew. All I had to do was furnish my gas, about $.25 a gallon and a pickup. $10.00 a trip was a lot of money. It was better than working in the woods for my uncle. I made $8.00 a week working for him when I was about 13.

[@suz632]

Thank you Mr. Donnie....I watch these over and over. They might be showing some pretty hard times. But today is hard times in a different way. Before long we might be needing to revisit our past to reset our nation. So these videos are comforting. We've lost so much knowledge. Our ancestors transcended us by far in practical knowledge....the only kind of knowledge that matters. Thats why they had appreciation for the goodness in life, God and His gifts bestowed......and one another. Because they knew how quickly circumstances might become dire. God Bless everyone. Keep spreading history Mr. Donnie....you're the best at it. 💙🇺🇲❤️🙏👏

[@donnielaws7020]

Thank you friend. Your very welcome.

[@rhondarussell688]

I loved this walk down memory lane. If I had my choice and the money to buy a piece of land I'd definitely live a pioneer life. I grew up in Tyler County West Virginia graduated in 1988 and still had no running water unless we ran to the spring to fetch it. Had a wood stove and an outhouse. Washed our clothes in a mag tag wringer washer and hung our clothes on a line. Had to use rain water caught in rain barrels. Still till this day I use a dish pan by habit. Lived off the land. The only fast food we had was running on four legs. Miss those days. Miss the wood heat.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@pouglwaw5932]

I grew up in Alaska and we lived off the land [never bought meat] and cooked with wood or on a Coleman camp stove. I got tired of the constant repairs those early sno-mobiles needed, so I got some dogs from Eskimo friends . I knew one thing- If a dog team takes you out into the wilderness, it will also bring you back. How'd you manage to catch your "fast food?"

[@donnielaws7020]

@@pouglwaw5932WOW! Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@dustinpollard6237]

Check out American Hollow video

[@stevespencer6064]

All my relatives from tyler co, grew up with outhouses, wood stoves in the kitchen to cook on, a pump outside for water. Middlebourne was " going to town". Loved spending time with grandma and grampa and all my aunts and uncles...

[@dalekundtz760]

Thank you Mr Laws for educating the youngsters of today for what it was like for our kinfolk. We laugh when we joke going through the old towns that by 6 or 7 at night that there aren't any folk out on the streets. "They rolled up the streets come sun down.". That is the way it was as the parents were up before sunrise, worked hard all day and come sundown, they were ready to lay their heads down so they could get up the next morning. Thank you Sir.

[@donnielaws7020]

Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing that my friend.

[@mr.s171]

I remember so many of the same things he speaks about. Cold outhouses, no running water, playing on coal piles when I was a kid and getting switched for it (I had been told not to play on the coal pile). I remember trying to read the newspaper pasted to the walls so's to reduce the drafts. Spitting on the cherry red stoves just to watch it disappear almost instantly. Sleeping under 3 and 4 quilts because the bedrooms weren't heated. Just a few of the hundreds of memories. Believe it or not, such simple a life style, though somewhat difficult was some of the most cherished memories.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@livylu6287]

I’m 38. I grew up in West Virginia in my childhood for about six years. From the age of 6 to 12. I remember going to visit my mom’s friend in the hills and a lot of the cabins out there still had out houses. I remember using them quite a bit as a kid. This video is so soothing to me. Reminds me of the simplicity of life when I was a kid, but I was lucky enough to experience it because of living there. A lot of people my age don’t. We lived in West Virginia because my dad was in the military and would commute to Washington DC. When he retired, we moved to Florida. It was a huge wake up call. I went from using the Dewey decimal system to computers just like that. Granted, that was the time that computers started being used more for libraries, but we were a few years behind in the small town I lived in and amongst the last to upgrade, lol. Our town was so small everything was within a mile radius of the courthouse as far as cityfolk living and businesses went. Everybody else lived out in the hills.❤

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome my friend. Thanks for sharing your memories with us. God bless you.

[@katiefyock9607]

I'd love to live out there.

[@UserName_no1]

Some outhouses were equipped with a "stink stack" in an attempt to vent the methane. W VA winters can be brutally cold. If the wind caught the stack just right it'd shoot down it and come back up through the seat. Didn't need coffee as an eye opener on those mornings. Or if you had to use the facilities in the middle of the night you'd likely not be getting back to sleep after the shock.😏😉

[@UserName_no1]

@@katiefyock9607 No you wouldn't. Sure, it's beautiful in the spring and summer. But fall comes early in the mountains and the cold leaves late in the spring. In some parts once the first snow falls and covers the ground you don't see green grass again for another 6-8 months. And winters can be brutal. Even while enjoying the best of amenities. Like Yukon or Siberia brutal. One night in W VA while plowing snow I stepped out of the cab. We had a whiteout a few days prior that brought a couple of feet of snow. They were calling for clear skies but gale force winds. With the wind factored in the temp reached -60°F. It cut right through my snorkel parka. That's the kind of cold that can bring about frostbite to exposed skin within a matter of minutes and destroy tissue once it sets in. If I want to preserve myself I'll explore formaldehyde or cryogenics first. Nah, it might be a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there again. If I'm living in more moderate climates I'll never complain about the cold again.

[@kevinknight470]

Thanx again Mr. Laws. Those photographs took me back to my childhood in West Virginia. My Dad was a coal miner and He would burn what was called GOB by the miners. We got it for free from one mine, but you had to go to the tipple to get it and the unload it yourself. We had a coal furnace with an air blower, kept that house warm and very comfortable. I can still remember how warm that house was. Great memories.

[@donnielaws7020]

Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend. Take care.

[@coffeebarlady2322]

Thank you for sharing Donnie, brings back a lot of precious memories. My grandma heated and cooked with coal. I went out many of days with the coal bucket to gather coal for her. I look back now and wonder how was she able to keep to heat in that coal oven at just the right temperature to cook cornbread, bake cakes? Back then, everyone worked hard, didn’t have a lot but they were so much richer than we are nowadays. Back when a handshake was better than any legal document. During hardships, neighbors helped neighbors and expected nothing in return. Loving and trusting in the Lord and not ashamed to say so. God bless you Donnie. ❤️🙏❤️

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome memories. Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@emmabenedek646]

2022 UTUBE APALACHIAN PEOPLE. UK. Am aware that many people think everyone in US lives in luxury, the hoax perpetuated by film companies. In the period 1900- 1950 there were millions of americans living in poverty . We just read about how poluted the rivers and lakes were. I also read about a steelworks were tghe workers had a hard job to get a wahroom installed at work because their skin was filthy at the end each day, meanwhile an actress during that time had 1000 000 dollars worth of clothes. We also noticed that in late 19th Cent how barbaric the employers were, they went to church Sunday and starved the workers all week. They based their activities on Darwin. It was also stated that they said if God did not want them to cause deaths he would intervene. The employers used firms like Pinkerton and Burns to force workers into submission by beating and shooting. These firms often employed thugs out of jail. The law and Judiciary were, just like in UK today on the side of the privilidged. These firms employed by UK govt have attacked us and threatened to kll The Police destroy evidence. No wonder the native american was wiped out to the tune of around 6 million. We blame the ordinary man or woman in the street. they take no action even to save self. Wecannot put evidence on here as it will be deleted. All our w sites are destroyed. God help this planet.

[@shirleymukes4883]

So many of these stories I relate to because it was the life lived for me and my family. I’m grateful for those times because it makes one appreciate today and modern conveniences we enjoy now. If we ever go backwards, some will adapt better than others. Thank God I still remember how to live simply.

[@billdesmet3929]

You are a "rare breed" but I agree with you! A handshake is a contract... This generation is spoiled shitless... Maybe Ted Kasinski (unabomber) had a clue, technology will ruin our lives! Our youth can't live a second without it? Hmmm

[@lisahinton9682]

@@donnielaws7020 Copy and paste is your favorite, eh? 🤣😁😄

[@nadermazari3334]

Thank you for this wonderful video. I am a naturalized American and arrived here as a young man of 19 from halfway across the world from a typical third world country. It is astounding to see how very similar stuff (even in some areas today) was all around the world in rural/far-flung places. There are villages in the old country close to the Himalayas where folks like in almost the same way as in this video.I suppose the land does indeed shape the people.

[@donnielaws7020]

Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@poopsiekins2732]

very very intereting. thanks for sharing that!

[@oscarthomas9130]

Gettin' warm after being outside all day was so nice and all you wanted to do was eat some hot beans and cornbread and some hot coffee before I crawled up in that bed and got warm. Go to sleep and get up and do it all again. These folks today just don't know how it was. Butcherin' meat in the fall. Workin' fields spring summer and fall. Walkin' 5 miles to a country store. Thank you Donnie for the memories. I sure do miss it sometimes but I know death will be a restful place in my journey.

[@higheraimhomestead5293]

Beautiful old home places. Makes me think of my grandparents. Papaw would throw a piece of coal in the stove and make that thing glow. The bedrooms would be so cold, but Mamaw covered us in so many quilts we couldn't move. Thanks for bringing so many great memories to mind. Hard work was just the way it was and the girls worked as hard as any menfolk in our family. Blessings for keeping the past alive!! Sure do enjoy your channel!

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome story. Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@samanthashaw7100]

My ex's said they didn't have walls per say but had paper nailed up where the walls should have been. Ten kids his mom had and him and his younger brother had to sleep in one bed and some of his sister's 3 or 4 had to sleep in another bed. Didn't matter if your bed partners peed the bed or not. Then his mother father and some of the younger kids babies and toddlers really slept in a playpen or the crib in another room

[@armedinbama]

I'm very appreciative of you for keeping these old memories alive for future generations. A lot of people alive today wouldn't make it if they had to live like that, myself included! 😁👍

[@donnielaws7020]

They would if they had to my friend. The older I get the harder it's get. Thanks for sharing. Take care.

[@tomsenft7434]

@@donnielaws7020 I agree with the commenter: your videos may be important archeology.

[@davida1hiwaaynet]

Thank you. So much respect for our elders. Love hearing you tell their stories.

[@donnielaws7020]

Thank you friend. Your very welcome.

[@duvessa2003]

This is charmingly done. So authentic! Great to have it presented by somebody who actually remembers those hard times. Thanks much 🌸

[@donnielaws7020]

Thank you friend. Your very welcome.

[@William4143]

Thanks for the history lesson. Over this past year 2021 I built a 12 x 10 cabin in my back yard. Bought a little wood burning stove too. I wanted to be self sufficient after the February 2020 freeze here in Texas. I have 3 energy sources wood,propane,& solar/wind energy. Also working on rainwater collection system. When the power grid goes down I’m good. Also grew up on a ranch in New Mexico. My grandma could swing a double bit axe as good as anyone. Thanks sir.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome! Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@rickreese5794]

Will, smart movin to Texas I left da Land of Entrapment, So happy now, Keep up the GR8 work, enjoy…

[@donnielaws7020]

@Opal Allen Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@hillbillydan4721]

O Lord, Mr Donnie you have definitely took me back home with this one ! I remember having to go get coal for Grandma so she could stoke up that ole stove...and the soup beans, cornbread, and fried taters, Lord they was some good eating right there !! My Grandparents used to live in a house up a holler, and like you said you could read the newspaper on the walls to keep out the drafts !! My Grandparents lived a hard life but they was the most contented people I've ever had the opportunity to get to know !! I do look forward to seeing them once again some day !!! Thak you Sir for posting this, you have stirred a lifetime of emotions in this one, yea to be honest I did get a little misty eyed !!

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend. Take care.

[@georgesilverhawkstrailcame2297]

As always, I so appreciate you telling the history and keeping the culture of old Appalachia Alive. If there's no one to tell the stories, the history and legacy of the people is lost. What you're doing my friend, is wonderful. I just want to let you know that I truly appreciate it. I grrew up using wood stoves, and had one in my previous home. My wife and a have decided to have one installed next Spring to save money on our heating bill. Like you, I have access to a lot of dead-falls in woods and forest where I do my wildlife research. I can go out and cut wood once or twice a week and get enough wood to get by for the winter. These new airtight wood stoves burn so much more efficiently the the old Potbelly or Franklin stoves I grew up using. And the radiant heat these stove put out is so much more comfortable then most modern heating systems. Blessings Donnie, George

[@donnielaws7020]

Wow thank you friend. Thanks for sharing. Take care.

[@DivineByDesignWithDani]

Thank SO much for showing images of people of color in Appalachia. It adds a nice balance to the channel. I dont see any of the other Appalachian channels even trying to depict people of color . Much appreciated ❤.

[@donnielaws7020]

Your so very welcome my friend. They are part of these mountains to .God bless you. Thanks so much for sharing.

[@icecreamladydriver1606]

Thanks. You brought tears to my eyes and gratitude to my heart. This was how my grandparents lived back in the day. I still remember that old wood cook stove and a bucket full of water with a dipper for drinking sitting on the cabinet. I was fairly young back then but some things stick to you.

[@donnielaws7020]

Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@icecreamladydriver1606]

@@donnielaws7020 Thank you.

[@pauldg837]

As a writer I have to commend so many people who have shared their experiences of enduring hardships. Each story was fascinating, and it was easy to slip in to their memories of how life was for them. It's been a rich experience to have read so many interesting accounts. Thank you one and all.

[@donnielaws7020]

Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@robertbaumguardner8299]

I made a wood stove out of a 125 gallon propane bottle I cut it in half put a air induction system I used it for 15 years heating our home I still have it and if propane gets to high I'll use it again my family loved that wood stove

[@donnielaws7020]

@@robertbaumguardner8299 Awesome!

[@pauldg837]

@@robertbaumguardner8299 That's what I call home engineering at it's best! Great job.

[@CelebratingAppalachia]

Love those old cabins! Makes me wish I could have been at a cabin raising 😀We've come so far from those cross cut saws and open fireplaces for cooking and heating not to mention insulating with newspaper. I love your stove Donnie it looks like a good one. We were on the same wavelength for our videos this evening 😀 I guess you can tell it's good weather for warming in Appalachia right now 😀

[@donnielaws7020]

Amen Tipper, We both matched that subject my friend. Thank you so much sharing your stories.

[@WolfBand626]

Follow Celbrating Appalachia you guys, they have awesome content, her daughters are super cool too, and sing awesome.

[@sherryjarrettjjscdmmmjjjrv8696]

Oo

[@joncothranphotography9375]

I was going to suggest Donnie to you, but then I saw this comment.

[@cherylatkinson7479]

My thoughts exactly. Love both of your videos.

[@SteveRoss-p7k]

I’m proud of you Donnie Laws. Nobody really watched your great videos when they first came out except old men like me from Walland. You stuck with it and now millions of people are enjoying your stories about Appalachia. Good job

[@donnielaws7020]

Thank you so much my friend. God bless you 🙏

[@ericbarich6985]

This is the kind of thing I want to learn. I live in a modernized world and never had to worry about these kind of things. The good thing about the old ways is that they worked. Everything today is designed to fail. Thank you for putting this up.

[@donnielaws7020]

Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@donnabeaudin9114]

I appreciate you keeping this history alive, it’s so important for younger folks to see this. Thank you!

[@donnielaws7020]

Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@ladyj.klmnop]

Wow, memories of my youth comes springing back at the sight of these pics. I was born in New Jersey, but my folks took off to the rural hills of NY (Tioga County) in mid 60's and can I say culture shock. Went from the bustling city of buses, subways and taxis to NOTHING. Our little rural town had few of the luxuries of the city, but we managed for a while as we lived as if back in the late 1800's. A dirt road along a crick which we used to retrieve our water, an out house and a 3 room hunting cabin with 9 children and our parents, heated by a woodstove. Life was hard, but I wouldn't change those memories or experience for anything. My friends can hardly believe my stories of rural living, but if anything can be said... I miss the simplicity of those days. Hard living, hard working, but closeness of family made it worth the toil. Thanks for sharing your beautiful story.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. You very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@crackerjax4330]

I'm disable with one leg and a blown out back and right arm that's torn and not in place and I still split wood by hand. Helps me think and keeps me in shape. Great video.

[@donnielaws7020]

WOW Thanks for sharing this my friend. God bless you. Thank you. Your very welcome.

[@johnroberts5070]

You are the best story teller on you tube. Thank you! I'm 64 and this brought back my childhood memories of my grandparents house in West Virginia.

[@donnielaws7020]

Wow, thank you! Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend. Take care.

[@donaldwells2102]

Thanks Donnie for reminding us of how it use to be, was a lot of hard work back then, but our people had True Grit. It sure makes me proud of them,and the lives they lived 🙂.

[@donnielaws7020]

Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@merlinemcallister3756]

How I enjoy your stories.They take me back to growing up in North Miss during the late 40's,50's,.We too had use of every item you discuss,show and explain. neighbors loved and cared and assisted each other back then in every way.The few of us never tire of talking about those "Good Old Days"to our grandchildren and to others who listens.Thank you very much.

[@donnielaws7020]

Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend. Take care.

[@MoisturefortheSoul]

I’m on KZbin a lot…. Subscribed to DOZENS of different kinds of channels. This is TRULY, GENUINELY One of the most important channels I have ever came across. I’m not even from the U.S….. I will never stop watching your content. These people Literally helped build our country!! These are some of the first people to settle the United States. Part of the fabric of our nation. I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to know about this culture. Thank you.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome my friend. God bless you. Thanks so much for sharing this. Seems like no one now days cares about our history. Thank you. Your very welcome.

[@alietheartist734]

My Dad was born in 1964, and he’s told stories about his family using an old stove for heat. They had an outhouse as well when he was really little. And of course most of both my parents’ grandparents lived like that for most of their lives. I think it’s important for people to know that this wasn’t some distant past a hundred years ago or more. This was still the way people lived when there were things like color television. A handful of people still live more or less the same way even in 2022.

[@donnielaws7020]

Well said! Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@jackscruggs1536]

I can show you some now.

[@tomcat5986]

64!? Thats funny. Seems like yesterday compared to what o'l Donnie was referring to.

[@richardhanes7370]

I was born in 1980, so I missed most of it. But I recently bought an old farm and I'm not going to update anything, only fix what's broken. I'm looking forward to an old way of living

[@BadBrad46]

THANK YOU Mr. Donnie....so much of that I experienced growing up in TN. My daddy & I cut and split enough wood to build everything around here ...twice! My daddy literally died with a chainsaw in his 78 year old hands, killed by a falling tree. Life was rough then, and still is.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. Your so very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@jerrygreen499]

I'm 75 and still make my own wood. I'ts fun but scary sometimes too. We still heat with wood.

[@2JobsStillPoorUSA]

I am sorry for your loss. I grew up in the logging areas of Oregon and knew many men who lost their lives to falling trees.

[@lorenheard2561]

I am sorry for your loss of your Dad. Sounds like if it weren't for that tree,he would have managed to live quite longer!

[@PCowan]

I remember both by grandmothers having either wood or coal stoves. When one grandmother moved from the "country" (Alvarado, VA) to the "city" (Bristol, TN) she brought her old kitchen wood stove with her. Someone later bought her a small electric range, which she moved into the corner to stack her pots and pans on, but she continued all her cooking on her old wood stove. And, as you mentioned, the food she cooked on that wood stove tasted much better than anything I've tasted on an electric stove. I'm so grateful for the memories I have of the old way of life with no heat in the bedrooms and so many quilts at night there was no way to turn over in bed, no running water or electric lights. Your videos are great and I appreciate your kindling my memories.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. Your very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@brianbooher7318]

I live in bristol

[@tarnocdoino3857]

I loved in the photos of the wood stoves, you could make out the news papers lining the walls in the open. Love it.

[@donnielaws7020]

Thank you friend. Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing this.

[@tarnocdoino3857]

My grand parents home is about to sell, and in one of the bedrooms downstairs, the old beams had been lacquered and some of the papers were sealed on. One spot was reporting on movements in the civil war.

[@donnielaws7020]

@@tarnocdoino3857 WOW

[@bluebutterflywellness2273]

I L😍VED THIS!! Such a beautiful chronicling of history from a firsthand perspective. Also as a POC, I really appreciate you highlighting the diversity that existed there even in those days. As a bonus, your voice is so warm and conforting I felt like a child listening to stories while sitting on Granpa's lap. Thank you!

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. You very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@robertclark9800]

My family owned the land where Daniel Boon National Forest is now located. I love listening to my mother’s stories about her childhood there. She often tells me about the coal mine they had in their backyard. She tells me how loved and protected she felt there. We have modern convenience, but also have modern isolation.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome my friend. Thanks for sharing this.

[@davidfoster9073]

Well done! We called our grandparents Mama and Papaw. One grandmother used the big lump coal from a coal bin in a shed. The other had a coal shoot where the crushed coal was dumped under the house in the cellar. When dad died we were kids and partially heated the house with wood in a central fire place. We burned the small wood during the day or when we were up. At night we put the bigger logs in and banked the fire. The next morning all it took was a little kindling and blowing on the hot coals. It's was the same fire burning almost all winter.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@cordeliabuffy6419]

I still heat my house with a woodstove. Nothing like going out and splitting up a bunch of wood and kindling. I lived in another old house that had a wood/coal stove to heat and cook on. Coal would leave so much oily soot on everything. And I still insulate with paper, mainly cardboard, especially over unused backdoor. Got to do everything you can to keep warm in winter here. Might not be the easiest way to live, but I think its healthier in a way. You get plenty of fresh air, sometimes sunshine, and exercise in fall and winter (and spring and summer,lol!).

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@briansumner2700]

Interesting video Thanks. I was born in 1951 in a modern city so I have had all the modern conveniences. However, my familie's country cottage was an old log cabin built around the time of WW1. When I was a kid it had no power just a cookstove like you showed and a stone fireplace. We went and got ice for the fridge from locals until they went out of it. It had a biffie and we used it for many many years. Read and played cards at night by light from coal oil lamps. I split lots of wood for that stove even as a kid. It had a well for our water even though it was on the lakeshore. We utterly adored going there. As a child I cried my self to sleep in the back seat as Dad drove us back to the city. I have many wonderful memories of being there. It was like going back in time 150 years.

[@donnielaws7020]

Nice story. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@CarolinaOmaSteph]

Thank you for taking me down memory lane. I remember helping with the wood chores even tho I was 5 yrs old. I continued to help until I was a teenager. I remember the day Grandma told me she got one of those fancy heat furnace, electric range, electricity and indoor plumbing with her new house. I sure miss my grandparents. They taught me alot growing up. Have a Blessed Day Sir!!

[@donnielaws7020]

Your very welcome my friend. Thanks for sharing this. God bless you.

[@louparry7721]

These great people are in a class of their own. They deserve a lot of respect for the way they raised their families and passed down to them how to survive. I'm so glad that you keep their way of life alive through your story telling. This is valuable history recorded in your videos. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. Your friend, Louise

[@donnielaws7020]

Amen my friend. Thanks for sharing. Your very welcome.

[@paulmoss7940]

I remember when those strawberry cobblers would come out of Granny's wood stove it would have a real dark streak right down the middle. Pure wonderful. .I live in a modern house but I have a stove exactly like yours , NE 3500,but don't have it tied in to ducts. still heat mostly with wood. 100% so far this year I have a woodlot where I cut storm damage hardwood . All my winter supply is cut the year or two before and covered to season. I'll do it as long as God gives me the health. Really enjoy your stories. It won't be long til no one will remember the old ways. They can watch you though. Stay warm and safe Brother.

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. I been doing it here for 15 years now and it's getting harder as I get older by myself as years go by. It is time consuming for sure. Thanks for sharing my friend. Take care.

[@paulmoss7940]

@@donnielaws7020 Well, I made it . Closing the chimney off today. 100 % heated with wood this winter. Cutting for 2024 now, coming winter supply already stacked and covered. Trying to get it done before the bugs and snakes get out good. Stay safe brother.

[@truthwarrior4412]

Bravo Donnie! I watch a show called Barn wood Builders where they buy old 1800’s barns and cabins. They reclaim the wood and build beautiful new homes with it. These are good ole West Virginia men and hard workers. The work put into hewing the virgin timber to build the original barns and cabins was amazing!

[@donnielaws7020]

That's wonderful my friend. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@mematoseven3214]

Thank you for the history lesson. I'm old enough to know about wood and coal heat and the outhouse. Been married a little cover 50 years.We have a gas furnace. But we've had a wood heater for 42 years. We own a tire and auto service (40 years) that we also heat with a wood heater. I'm sure we've saved tens of thousands of dollars not using gas and electric to heat with. And you nothing can get you warm like a wood fire. 😊

[@donnielaws7020]

Awesome. You very welcome. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[@dougedwards8022]

Well goin have make some fried taters now got my mouth a watern

[@donnielaws7020]

@@dougedwards8022 That's sounds so good my friend.

[@mR-dc4oq]

In some cities in California you’re not ‘allowed’ to have a wood fire.

[@janicechilders4885]

My husband and I just came across this video. Thank you so much for showing this. It took us back. Makes us appreciate how good we have it today. I hope you and your wife are doing well!❤🙏

[@donnielaws7020]

Glad you enjoyed it my friend. God bless you 🙏 your very welcome 🙏

[@nathancoles6651]

Hi Donnie, You have a great voice for this history lesson. My home in Englewood Colorado was built in 1915 and originally had a coal furnace with coal room in the basement. I couldn't imagine the work involved with just trying to make it to spring time. You are correct that the people in this history were tough to live with so little. Now days during covid19 you can get dinner delivered by Uber. Today, life is good but we are all spoiled come paired to the folks back then. Best regards from Colorado!

[@donnielaws7020]

Thank you so much my friend. Thanks for sharing.

[@Chuffin_ell]

Don’t plan on getting too comfortable. This too shall pass…

[@BassandoForte]

Why..?? Isn't California semi-tropical / arid..?? Try living on the 53 degrees north... Our balls grow to the size of melons to cope with the cold and it's also the reason we're manly enough to fight without needing guns... 😝🤣

[@LisaCSCO]

I live in Colorado now but grew up in WV