They say in Harlan County
There are no neutrals there
You’ll either be a union man
Or a thug for J.H. Blair
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?



Cruising Netflix I stumbled upon Harlan County, USA

I was born in Morgan county.. Grew up in Knox county.. My Grandfather and one of my Uncles worked for Eastover Coal up in Harlan.. they'd leave before the sun came up and not be back home until well after dark. Made that drive everyday.. They didn't live in the company houses, they didn't shop at the company store..but they were Union men through and through and from what I gathered very much a part of the 'Strikes'. As I watched the film I expected at anytime to see my Papaw or Uncle Jr (Papaw always called him Jr and he was my Uncle) I admit to being a little more than let down that I didn't see 'em.
I was way to little to know anything about what was going on but some of the names in the movie did ring out from memory.. Lawrence Jones, Collins, Yablonski, Sheriff Williams, Horn..

Great movie from where I sit.. don't know what others will think of it.. but if you have a strong pull Union/Anti-Union its probably worth watching...

Sorry PB, I enjoy reading your posts, but that is a tough question to ask a South African

Its a song a lady wrote in the 30's when Harlen got the name 'Bloody Harlen'

Wow... Just saw the trailer.

Funny you should mention that... one of my dear friends was just telling me that her boyfriend's great (or was it great-great) grandaddy was one of the mine owners responsible for Bloody Harlan. Not something he's proud of, sins of the fathers and all that...

It's a good movie PB. Being a KY boy myself, I always enjoy watching films about or filmed in my home state. Even if Hollywood does make us out to be a bunch of hicks!

Harlan is full of Hicks...

There was probably thousands of hours of editing involved but the sad truth is 35 years latter and not a whole lot has changed... There's a Walmart now, the pickups are a little newer, but the people are still the same. Oppressed, impoverished, and largely ignored and made fun of. I tell folk all the time there's nothing back home but dead folk and memorys... The vast majority of folk there are surviving not living..

I was like that... sulpher water via pump. The only decent meal was school lunch. All the clothes were hand me down. Heat was via stokamatic fed by 5 gallon buckets. My papaw bought us a used trailer house when I was 10 or 11..it was so nice, I thought...
There's really only four choices for folk there: drive a truck, grow dope, draw welfare, or move.. I've done all the above.. the last was the hardest and I'm glad I did..but a man ought not have to leave the land and the people he loves in order to do something more than just survive.

I thought Breathitt County had dibs on "Bloody _____ ."

Loved it there.

Nope... has been bloody harlen since the 30's...

Even the Magoffin, Morgan, Brethitt county drug wars can't change that.

The Breathitt County feuds were back in the 19th century.

add : http://www.breathittcounty.com/BreathittFeuds.html

Well I'd never heard it called that by anyone but you and breathitt countians...lol
and they always point to the 80's dopewar.

It was a local thing, maybe. I heard it back in the 1960s & figured it was kind of built-into the local conceptual scenery.

http://www.blackstarcoalcamp.com/firstpage.htm

http://www.carlestes.com/bloodyharlan.html

http://homepage.mac.com/barbarap2/home/laborcrises/Harlan.htm


Just Google it bro.

Here Piet



and a few more just because




And a song I taught my daughter at my Papaws grave.




It runs deep.