Yeah, I have fun answering that one too. Lived in Louisville half my life now but I most certainly am not from here. The flip side of that is most people at least have heard of Louisville but nobody's ever heard of my holler. Was born further east in Pikeville but my parents moved right after I was born so it's always been kind of fuzzy.
Christian missionaries, eh? Goddamn. That had to be a lot of things and most of them less than enjoyable. If you don't mind my asking, what flavor or Christian? Between the ones coming in to save us poor Appalachians and the ones heading out to save some other poor people, I ended up with what might be charitably described as a severe distaste for missionaries, can't imagine what it'd be like growing up on the other side of that.
On a totally unrelated note, you ever make it down/over to Ludlow?
Williba looks like the ends of the earth, man. I like little places like that. I went through the Daniel Boone NF not too far from Williba a couple autumns ago when I was living in a tent, and I remember really enjoying the area. Never stopped in Ludlow before, but I'm sure I've driven past it on I-25. Is there something interesting in Ludlow that I need to go investigate? :)
Technically non-denominational, but realistically something along the lines of extreme evangelical Baptist. Literal interpretation of the Bible, the earth is only 6,000 years old, everyone who doesn't believe in Jesus is going to burn in hell forever even if they've never heard of Jesus before, gays are evil, sex is bad, abortion is murder, all that sort of bullshit.
It could feel like that too from time to time but I loved it there. Life's just harder there, which has a lot to do with why I'm in Louisville still. Were you there while they were flying the Blackhawks looking for pot? That's usually closer to August but it's something of an annual tradition. Just a bit of history in Ludlow, there was a massacre there a little over a century ago during the Coal Wars that made things lively in Colorado for a bit.
I'm familiar with the type, there were plenty of those in eastern KY growing up. Somebody'd get put out that their church wasn't strict enough and start up a new one like that. After the divorce my mom dragged us to one for a while. One of my friends was the daughter of a Primitive Baptist preacher, she'd never cut her hair or worn a skirt shorter than her ankles before she moved off to college, fucked her up good for a long time. I'm guessing you got homeschooled? No clue where I was going with this now.
I don't remember seeing any blackhawks. That's hilarious that they flush all that money down the drain just to go on marijuana patrol. Fucking idiots. I don't recall knowing about the Ludlow massacre before… will have to do some reading. I like learning about history in general and especially about things local to Colorado.
My dad was a teacher at a boarding school for the children of missionaries who were out "saving" indigenous people in remote locations. So I attended the boarding school and actually had my dad as a teacher for several classes.
Every year, regular as clockwork. They may not do it anymore but back before places started legalizing it Kentucky was usually #2 or #3 in the country for growing pot and much of that came out of the Daniel Boone. It's also the State Police's annual smoke session, buddy of mine was in the Guard, was telling how once they find it they pile it up and burn it and the state troopers are very careful to stay downwind of it.
Ludlow's one of those bits of history they've been trying to forget just about since it happened. It was a major factor in stuff like child labor laws and the 8 hour workday but you couldn't tell it today. You ever listen to Utah Phillips? Old wobbly/anarchist music, but he talks/sings about Ludlow some.
Ah, gotcha, that had to be interesting. Had my dad as a principal (of the vocational school) which wasn't unpleasant but I don't know that I'd want to have to have him as a teacher.
I'm not familiar with Utah Phillips but it sounds like the type of music I can indulge from time to time. I'll look him up.
Gotta love cops and their double standards. A government-sponsored gang, that's all they are.