Appalachia?

When you hear the term Appalachia what comes to mind? I'm sure your answer will vary from the person sitting next to you and so on. From what we've concluded, each person's definition of Appalachia varies greatly upon where each person came from. For example, the four of us in our group are from big cities where we are mostly unaware of rural living conditions. Being from areas other
than Appalachian ones allows for a lot of stereotypical views on Appalachian societies. In conducting these interviews, we asked people from three very different areas to see the wide range of responses we would receive.

Our first interviewee, Gidget Marrison, is from Ashtabula, Ohio, a region that has recently been added to the Appalachian territories. When we asked her what living in Appalachia meant to her she responded by saying that it is a big part of her life because it was how she was raised and how her family still lives today. Furthermore, when asked if she considers herself Appalachian she said "only by birth because it's where I have always lived, but I consider myself as more of a city girl". Gidget continued to say that she feels there is enough interaction between Athens and the surrounding area, and that we, as students, are receiving the perfect amount of knowledge and communication from the outside communities.

At the end of our talk with Gidget she stated that she was not even aware she was raised in Appalachia territory until recently when her Grandmother was speaking of their living area. I think the conclusion to our interview with Gidget says a lot about what people think of the Appalachia areas, being that she has lived in it all her life and never noticed a difference or even heard the term. As a group we felt that this ultimately means there isn't enough communication or interaction with the outside communities, being that it's Appalachian or not.

Our second interviewee, Katie Quinn, is from Worthington, Ohio. When we asked her if she considered herself Appalachian she said "I really don't know anything about it, except that we live in that region". Her response to this question compared a great deal to Gidget in that all she knows is she lives in it, not exactly what it is. Following up the first question, we asked Katie what living in Appalachia meant to her and she responded by saying "I don't know, it doesn't really mean anything to me". Lastly, when asked if there should be more interaction between Ohio University and surrounding areas she said that it would be beneficial so more people would be aware of Appalachian areas. To an end of this interview, we concluded that Katie was not very knowledgeable of where she has been living, and we feel that this isn't uncommon among the rest of the students at OU.

Last, but not least, we interviewed Mike Greenberg, a student here at Ohio University. Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Greenberg is now living in a very different atmosphere than the one at home. When we asked Mike what living in Appalachia means to him he answered by saying "I haven't noticed it much because Ohio University is such a highly populated area in a small town area". Again, this response goes hand-in-hand with the other responses given by Gidget and Katie. Next, when asked if he considers himself Appalachian he responded by saying "absolutely not, Athens is not my hometown, I'm only here temporarily". To conclude the interview, Mike said he does not feel Ohio University needs to have more interaction with outside communities because "Athens is perfect the way it is".

Conducting these interviews was a learning experience for us all in more ways than one. We concluded that basically no students at Ohio University truly know what it is to be Appalachian or to even live in Appalachian territory. Also, we noticed that nobody cares enough to incorporate more of the outside world into Ohio University. Everyone seems to be quite content with how Athens is and always will be. The only people that seem to be interested in Appalachia are the people who come from and embrace the region they were raised in. To us all, personally, Appalachia is still a foreign way of living and none of us truly know what it would be like to live an Appalachian lifestyle unless we were previously used to it.