Christmas in Appalachia

Charles Kuralt narrated this documentary film from 1964, as President Johnson's War on Poverty was starting to launch. Some of this is very familiar to me, although my parents escaped through the power of education. They didn't flee Appalachia altogether, just the tiny hill towns that relied on the coal industry. Things are a little better up in the hills now, but not so much because of jobs and revitalization as because of birth control. Young people still flee if they can.