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.

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.

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.

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.

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 ..

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!!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.