It was nice to get away from the city and up into the North Woods for Christmas. This is my wife's family's old homestead in Venango County. The field in the distance has been strip mined twice, and the family is trying to get a lease with the damned frackers, too. The land's been jabbed, and poked, and ripped apart, poisoned, laid bare, and pushed back together so many times, but they're still not ready to let it rest.
Rural Venango County is definitely Appalachia, and my father-in-law has the guns and yard debris to prove it. My wife's people are deeply rooted to this locality, as unappealing as it is to the outsider. I call these level-to-rolling stretches of scrubby ground "The Sadlands." Things get prettier to the north and east.
In Pittsburgh, our snow all melted off several days ago, but there's still plenty up north. When my kids go swimming in grandpa's above-ground pool, I mockingly call it "Appalachia Beach."
People make do with what they've got in the strip-mined lands alongside I-80. The grandchildren's swing set doubles as a rack for butchering deer. And hell, just leave the carcass out there for the coyotes to clean up... It'll be gone before the kids go back out to play on the swing in May.
Dude, I think that was Rudolph!
Found this blog looking for photos of Appalachia in winter. There are some great photos and comments here. Love it.
ReplyDelete