Were going to make a nurse out of you!, She looked up and had this grin and said, No ones ever told me I was good at anything -- and youre telling me I can be a nurse someday!. Appalachian names are often taken as a southern baby name but there are subtle differences. "What Mountain Dew has going for it is that it's high in caffeine and high in sugar," Harris explained. Heroes can be villains and villains can provide valuable insight into how to reimagine what we think we know about our own history. "What Mountain Dew has going for it is that it's high in caffeine and high in sugar," Harris says, adding, "Students tell us it tastes best, and it's a habit.". While Mountain Dews target audience today might be neon tank top wearing bros and skateboarding teenagers, my Appalachian demographicnamesake and allwere the original consumers. With new Mountain Dew flavors seeming. We can identify the [bacterial] footprints from oral infections in heart tissues. In December, when my boss urged me to read it hes from Appalachia just like you I did not read it. Add a global pandemic into the equation and that can make things even scarier. Just, turn off your brain before you read this post, folks. MS. Anne and Harry M. Caudill Collection, 1854-1996, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries, Lexington, Kentucky. Chapter 1: Meet the Man Who Focused the World on Eastern Kentuckys Woes.Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington)16 Dec. 2012. Like those many before him including many news stories last year Vance has just written yet another look at these poor people story. One. 210 pound Dozer fell on me and then the 750 pound 4-wheeler fell on Dozer, but Dozer kicked it up with his leg and then the two boys that bailed pushed it back over. Often referred to as the "Appalachians", the Appalachian Mountains are a series of mountain ranges that stretches from the eastern to the northeastern part of the continent of North America.Forming the eastern complement of the Rocky Mountains, the Appalachian Mountains extend for about 2,400km from the Central Alabama region in the United States to the Canadian . In fact I did photograph a young man giving his baby Mountain Dew at Pats house. Join me as I explore Marion. But, as NPR points out, the same drink that celebrates the mountain region of Appalachia is also destroying it. Great Britain. I havent read it yet; if I do (and thats a big if when there are so many other better books to read) it will be only so that I can answer academic pinheads who persist in decrying negative stereotypes for every group except white Southerners. Thats definitely a no. To get a sense of what that looks like, check out this picture. Brushing Teeth 'Too Painful' The Appalachians run from Labrador south to Alabama, about 2,100 miles, in all. He is the author of, among other books, "A Queer Geography" and "Apples.". I would see a lot of kids who had a mouth full of rotting teeth, Dr. Edwin Smith, a traveling dentist who drove his mobile dental truck for 12 years throughout Kentucky, toldCNN last September. Beer, grilled chicken and cigarettes were offered in unlimited supply. Bad oral hygiene could be significantly remedied through the American health care system; that is, if the United States adopted a holistic approach to health care. As a result, Hannah made a 12-minute audio documentary about the experience for the Appalachian Media Institute, called "Foster Care in a Pandemic World." New Fathers and Quarantine Babies. The problem, they realized, begins in the mouths of their patients. So even though hospital visits for dental problems cost an enormous amount to the health care system as a wholean estimated $2.7 billion over a three-year period according to one majorstudy people rarely receive the treatment they need. Mountain Dew bottles by Shutterstock/Darios. Irish and Scottish immigrants who moved to the Appalachian region to mine coal called their mixers for moonshine, off-market bourbon and whiskey, "Mountain Dew." Barney and Ally Hartman started bottling their Mountain Dew in the 1930s and marketing it as whiskey's best friend, meaning it's had a pretty manly ad strategy from its inception. Various states, from Florida to Tennessee, have proposed bills that would restrict the use of SNAP to buy soda, sugary treats or other unhealthful foods. He invited everyone to his home to celebrate the end of a long workweek, every week. THE APPALACHIAN Mountains of eastern North America comprise a north to south-tending range that extends for 1,600 mi (2,500 km) from the Gaspe Peninsula in Atlantic Maritime CANADA to northern ALABAMA in the UNITED STATES.Uplifted by the collision of continents ancestral to North America and Africa 270 million years ago, the Appalachian Mountains are the oldest mountain range in North America. MADISONVILLE, Ky. . In 1962 Caudill published an essay in the Atlantic titled,The Rape of Appalachia. Sarah Baird, a writer who grew up in Eastern Kentucky, recentlywrote about the importance of the drink to her sense of identity, saying, Its not just a beverage its a portable sense of home.. That's because the ABC special took great pains to show the effects of poverty on children in the Appalachian region a territory that stretches from around southern New York state to Alabama and coined a term, "Mountain Dew Mouth," which would be repeated in stories about Appalachian health care for years to come. ------------------------------------------, the link between transportation and healthcare. I knew that Pat had his own set of values that were different from prevailing societal norms. A little over a year ago, I became obsessed with the concept of shame. Toothaches are the most common problem, causing lack of sleep and difficulty eating. Being violent is not a symptom of Appalachianness. 2. Old woman smoking a pipe, Appalachia, USA, c1917. The ties that bind know no distance. "Mountain Dew" is a centuries-old mountain slang term for moonshine, which Tennessee-bred creators Barney and Ally Hartman found fitting because their bubbly elixir was initially crafted as a mixer for whiskey in the early 1930s. Under current guidelines, any kind of soda of any size can be purchased with a SNAP card even Mountain Dew, which has 170 calories in a single 12-ounce can. hide caption. Nearlyhalf of the people in Kentucky, and 25 percent of the national population, depend exclusively on well water, posing a threat tonatural resources as well as peoples teeth. Over a series of months, a perfect storm of books, lectures and wee-small-hours conversations revealed to melike peeling back the layers of an onion (weepy eyes and all)that the feeling I had called so many other things (embarrassment, pigheadedness, discomfort, willfulness) was shame at its core. Appalachian English is a term linguists use to describe the speech patterns of people in Appalachia. Brenda makes a delicious desert -- Mountain Dew Apple Dumplings.-- very easy to make and very good .thank you very much for watching! Lunsford is an attorney, however, he is very fond of folk songs. And Part 2 explored the link between transportation and healthcare. MADISONVILLE, Ky. Nurse LeAnn Todd-Langston and nurse-midwife Sarah Almon had long known their rural west Kentucky county faced a crisis, but it was getting worse. As the wealth gap continues to increase, teeth represent the dividing line between the classes. Native Americans first began to gather in the Appalachian Mountains some 16,000 years ago. Mountain Dew is the 4th top-selling carbonated soft drink on the planet; right behind Classic Coke, Pepsi, and Diet Coke - in that order. For me, that argument continues to manifest itself on both a personal and interpersonal level. Identity crisis: without coal, who will we be? Its poor and thats probably being kind, Ebersole said in an interview last month in Lexington, but I cant say it's that much worse than a lot of the nation. Required fields are marked *. is dedicated to the analysis of news photos and media images. New book takes on, and takes down, Appalachian Trump Country narratives and elegies, Hillbilly Elegy: Another generalization of Appalachia. "We encourage women to be caregivers themselves, to pass it along to family and friends and think, Im doing some good that helps people., These women share their particular strategies, how they're dealing with particular problems, says Sharon Riding. This article was expanded into a full-length book,Night Comes to Cumberlands. Part 1 covered diabetes in Appalachia. Follow us on Instagram (@readingthepictures) and Twitter (@readingthepix), and subscribe to our newsletter. The Appalachians are the oldest mountain range in North America. January 15, 2021. He came to believe that Appalachias gene pool had been watered down by inbreeding among what he called dullards who lived on welfare in remote mountain hollers (1). This level of judgement has only heightened from year to year as Ive settled into a career as a food writer. More than a third of Americans do not have dental coverage, according to aWashington Post article. The vast majority of doctors lack the knowledge and tools to treat dental ailments. is completely exhausting. This name has a Celtic origin and the meaning of the name is 'he who comes from the mountain'. At this point, I should probably make this clear: Im no Mountain Dew apologist. It's Pepsi's #2 cash cow, second only to their flagship beverage, Pepsi, even beating out Diet Pepsi for total sales. While Harris says that there aren't a lot of comprehensive surveys of dental health in Appalachia, signs of a rampant problem are unmistakable: Some 26 percent of preschoolers in the region have tooth decay, and 15 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds have had a tooth extracted because of decay or erosion. Vance ignores valid reasons why Appalachians are leery of outsiders telling them who they are because historically, that has always been done through a very skewed lens. Copyright 2023 Salon.com, LLC. BIBLIOGRAPHY. For 10 years, Otto researched and conducted interviews about oral health in America, traveling across the country attending beauty pageants and clinics, talking to dentists and patients alike. Regardless of cultural influences Mountain Dew-mouth or not the dental health epidemic in America is rooted in the historical and political legacy of an unequal system. That this violence and abuse was somehow innate to what they were, caused by the culture from which they had come. The Real Winners of World Press Photo 2014: The Palestinians. You could assign this in high school if it didnt have cuss words. POSTWAR TO THE PRESENT. Sorry, but no. 1 in the nation in toothlessness. But, like so many, I feel helpless. Jin Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images This unique name is an uncommon name for boys but it a unique name. I abruptly found myself assessing everyone I met, trying to determine whether or not Caudill would consider them dullards. In late July 2013, I was invited to drink beer on a Friday night with a group of people in West Columbia, West Virginia. That's according to calculations by Singer, who is working with Harris. "We are using taxpayer dollars to buy soda for the SNAP program, and we are using taxpayer dollars to rip teeth out of people's heads who can't afford dental care and are on Medicaid," says Dana Singer, a research analyst at the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department in Parkersburg, W.Va., who wants to see stricter regulations on sales of all sugary beverages in the region. The lights, claim the legend, are the ghosts of grieving women still searching the mountainside for the bodies of fallen warriors. The Story Behind the Song Bascom Lamar Lunsford first wrote the song in 1928. But the numbers across the rural American South and lower Midwest are worse. Now why would you want your baby to be smoking? Rising, whose Centering Healthcare Institute has worked with major medical schools across the country, flew down to Madisonville to help Todd-Langston and Almon start the prenatal program there. Vances Hillbilly Elegy. The phrase is inherently noxious. Central Appalachia is No. I. Waxman Chaim,The Stigma of Poverty: A Critique of Poverty Theories and Policies. Poverty is much greater in Central Appalachia than the other regions of Appalachia and about twice that of the U.S. as a whole. According to area dentists, one of the main culprits contributing to toothlessness in Central Appalachia is Mountain Dew soda (a PepsiCo product). Vance has chosen the version of his life to tell, and he chooses to emphasize what fits his narrative. Another 15% of young adults between the ages of 18 and 24, have had a tooth extracted because of decay or erosion. "Mountain Dew" is a centuries-old mountain slang term for moonshine initially crafted as a mixer for whiskey in the early 1930s. Appalachia isnt a pity case, and Mountain Dew is only sideshow to the heart of the matter. 5. The bad reviews I saw from other Appalachians convinced me it would make me mad. We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. "I see erosion from the acids in the drinks, and decay from the sugars," says Steven Ghareeb, spokesman for the Academy of General Dentistry and a practicing dentist in South Charleston, W.Va. "They go hand in hand many times, and they're equally bad. Figuring out how to chip away at problems so deeply embedded in a region is astronomically much more complicated than a micro lens shot of a single caffeinated beverage. As Healthline tells us, the sugar in sodas reacts with the bacteria in our mouths to form a dangerous acid, breaking down the protective layers in your teeth and causing cavities. Kentucky is also the state with the most smokers, followed closely by West Virginia, according to aGallup study. ------------------------------------------, Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas, Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America. None of them, as far as I could tell, fell into laziness, violence or what my mother might call sorryness. The term "Appalachia," however, is more of a socio-economic term than it is one of geography. We saw that our women werent getting preventative [dental] screening. Vance writes of being lucky in his life and he certainly is when it comes to this book. I had been traveling too much, and when I was home, I was still distant. This is the third and final part of a series on rural health-care challenges. After Kennedys death and Johnsons announcement, millions of government dollars were doled out to initiatives that would solve these problems and turn America into the Great Society it was meant to be. Like many Americans without dental insurance, it was not until Matello heard a free dental clinic would be held in the town of Salisbury, just 20 minutes away from her home, that fixing the cracked tooth seemed like a possibility. This is why the folks of Appalachia reacted strongly to an honest look at some of its most impoverished people.. "Students tell us it tastes best, and it's a habit." are in the service sector, yet these jobs are hard to come by without a certain degree of oral health. He uses this word over and over, beating it into the readers consciousness. When we got back to Pats house, I was given a crushed up Loratab to snort for the pain. Even today when I discuss drinking it in public, people look at me incredulously as if waiting for a punchline. Like newspaper stories and TV news before and since the War on Poverty, Vance has looked at Appalachia and seen a narrative of a place that needs to be fixed, a place where things have gone wrong. Family and friends stopped by to share stories, complain about hardships and seek advice for problems. Obesity. In the mountains, you dont look away because you remember when the heroin dealer was a second string quarterback. That approach never really worked. Picking on Diet Mountain Dew was a surefire way to get my attention and cut me to the quick. You can see the rest of the series here. I said I hadnt really noticed as he shook his head. unsalted butter, at room temp, sugar, eggs, at room temp and. The man, who proclaimed that Appalachia had been raped, now wanted to rape certain Appalachian people of their ability to procreate. It was released on Del Rey's first major-label studio album, Born to Die. Basic education, says Harris, is also needed: "We also just need to let people know that you can drink these drinks safely, but they can also do harm. 16 2013, Updated 11:19 p.m. When we got back to Pats house, I was given a crushed up Loratab to snort for the pain. In that same exodus, several of my mothers uncles moved to Ohio and Detroit for work. 2. Appalachian: [noun] a native or resident of the Appalachian mountain area. The Appalachian Mountains are nearly 2000 miles long. In West Virginia, 67% of adults over the age of 65 have lost six or more teeth to decay or disease. I dont really have any answers. No. "Oh, wow," my boyfriend remarked, a little awestruck. He had downed 4 more beers since we left Pats house, so thats 24 beers. The other meaning of the name is 'a wise man'. Today, coal has left Appalachia, as have a host of other industries that brought economic opportunity. This kid is a hillbilly, which makes it special. But Vance thinks that outrage is Appalachian people being unwilling to take an honest look at Appalachias problems. Even if you might not crack open a bottle in your lifetime, I encourage you to take a moment and imagine a highly carbonated, nose-tickling bubble and a tart-sweet, citrusy flavor thats similar to a church picnic punch on steroids. . On April 28, 2009, Del Rey tweeted "Mike Daly is Really fucking good. Before pursuing that lofty goal he was a lawyer, which is where he got the source material for Mountain Dew. By the end of the programs second year, the research results began to come in on the health of the newborns. Oral care practitioners are familiar with the term "Mountain Dew Mouth," as the particular brand has far more acid and sugar in comparison to other sodas. They confer the stigma of economic and even moral failure. Would people feel like they could tease if I didnt have a fleck of twang in my voice, if I didnt slide deeper into my mountain accent after a couple of drinks? 319K views 8 years ago With little to no job prospects the people living in Appalachia often do not have adequate health insurance. However, clinics are often too crowded to meet the demand. Its high sugar and caffeine content seem to be habit-forming, with many accounts of Appalachians constantly sipping and carrying bottles everywhere throughout the entire day. The latter, simply titled "Mountain Dew," was composed in 1920 by Bascom Lamar Lunsford, an attorney in Asheville, N.C. Vance also ascribes some of his familial dysfunction to the stress of his grandparents move from the hills of home to the industry of Ohio. TheADAhas reported that Obamacare's requirement to provide dental care for children under 19 will be rolled back, and the 5.4 million adults who gained coverage under the Medicaid expansion will lose all dental benefits. Then, I knew I shouldve seen it coming. 28K views, 631 likes, 154 loves, 240 comments, 642 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Mountain Roots: Here's the 36th Episode in my new Exploring Appalachia series! Originally coined in the (poverty porn-laden) 2009 Diane Sawyer special, Children of the Mountains, the phrase has been recycled over and over again throughout the national media in spurts over the past six years. If others of us dont see that or dont see only that, and are tired of it being the focus Vance has already preemptively inoculated himself from such criticism. https://newrepublic.com/article/138717/jd-vance-false-prophet-blue-america, https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/10/hillbilly-elegy-review-jd-vance-national-review-white-working-class-appalachia/, https://elizabethcatte.com/2016/11/19/common-people/. Dee Matello, a small business owner and mother of three in Laurel, Maryland, had not been to a dentist in nine years. Moonshine is available in a barrage of flavors at most local liquor stores, but it won't be brewed from a hidden still. All last fall I resisted reading J.D. The Appalachian folk song was written in 1928. Singer says one of the best opportunities to curb the problem is targeting programs like SNAP, which allows recipients to buy soda. I had on a short dress that rode high up my thighs when I mounted the machine. Chaos begets chaos. It's also referred to as "mountain talk." But there's variation within the dialect, just as there is among the nearly 26 million people who populate the diverse region, which covers 13 states. And Part 2 explored the link between transportation and healthcare. They want to tackle the problem with policies, including restricting soda purchases with food stamps (now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and currently under debate in Congress). We use cookies to help better serve your experience. Oops. Agastya. How could I feel ashamed in my own house? Geography does play an important role, though. At the top of Pats back, near his neck was a tattoo that read honkey. I was pretty convinced I was spending my evening with Caudills dullards. Eighty-two percent of them had periodontal bleeding points and half had already developed recessive pockets in their gums. A culture in crisis.. Unless policy and behavior change, were not going to improve the health and its links to systemic health.. It is not dense, it does not use large words or complicated concepts. Sitting at my kitchen counter with DMD in hand while my then-boyfriend concocted an intricate lunch, without lifting his eyes a gauntlet was thrown: "You have to stop drinking Diet Mountain Dew. Use of thesesubstances is rampant in Appalachia; a single Kentucky county filled prescriptions for over 2 million doses of painkillers last year, which is about 150 doses for every man, woman and child. Mountain Dew Cupcakes W/Frosting. Did he really just tell me what to drink? 'Children of the Mountains': Full Show An introduction to Diane Sawyer's in depth look at the people of Appalachia. A study published in theNation Bureau of Economic Research found that a missing tooth can result in a loss of $720 of earnings (and178 million peopleare missing at least one tooth). The two smarter passengers bailed during the flip but I was still hanging on to Dozer with the camera wrapped around my neck as I fell to the ground. But she and Almon had their own conditions: They wanted to locate the oral health study in a new sort of prenatal program at Yale created by nurse-midwife Sharon Rising called CenteringPregnancy. Nationally, the rate of infant mortality was 211.1 per 100,000, but it was higher in five of six southern Appalachian states (all except Tennessee). On top of that, without municipal water systems, people rely on well water, which is unfluoridated or they drink more Mountain Dew to quench their thirst. 1. My consumption of Diet Mountain Dew ensures that Im served a double shot of shamecomplete with Backwoods Barbie stereotypeon a fairly regular basis. When I moved away from home, it became very clear that I should be ashamed of drinking Diet Mountain Dew (my parents and I still lovingly abbreviate it as "DMD" in text messages). All rights reserved. We're no strangers to Mountain Dew in the south, or are we? I remember this story myself. My camera was strapped around my neck, resting against my back. Instability begets instability. At first, I hee-hawed and rolled my eyes. Its a sad story, although its also clear from his writing that there was love despite the dysfunction. For Appalachians, a sense of place and of home seem particularly important, yet from the 1940s to 1960s, an estimated seven million immigrated north into urban areas in search of work, only to be met with widespread prejudice against any Appalachian-speaking mountain speech. With time, a toothache can become another entity entirely. Packed with poems and prose, book reviews, science, and exciting exploits from around the globe, Appalachia delivers inspired stories of adventure, redemption, and the outdoors. A Mountain Dew Code Red, that is. 9K Likes, 328 Comments. Yet throughout the United States, from remote areas of Alaska and across the contiguous 48, poor people struggle to get access to regular dental care, relying on charity clinics and hospital emergency rooms. They call each other on behavior like drinking too much soda and then all of a sudden with another group or two, everybodys stopped because something has happened within the group that says, 'This just isnt good.', For UKs Jeffrey Ebersole, programs like this one are policy no-brainers both in terms of cost and disease prevention. Story after story presents tightened regulations and banning the purchase of soda with food stamps as the lone solution to problems caused by excessive Mountain Dew consumption. But over in Appalachia, the region that stretches roughly from southern New York state to Alabama, the fight against soda is targeting an altogether different concern: rotted teeth. For Americans who do not have health insurance and need dental treatment immediately, the emergency room remains the only option. (This story has been corrected since it was originally published.) However, even in the states that do offer dental benefits, poor patients have difficulty getting appointments. People exist, of course, who are violent, dysfunctional, addicted, and on welfare. Vance grew up in an Appalachian ex-pat family in Ohio with rough-talking relatives who thought nothing of trashing a store until they got what they wanted, and who regularly communicated by screaming at each other. They dont scream at each other, they dont fight loved ones or strangers as a way of life. Other forces are at play. Here are three more in-depth reviews of Hillbilly Elegy. According to a 2012 study by Yale's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, the federal government is spending $1.7 billion to $2.1 billion on soda purchases through SNAP. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Dentists have also found that the effects of soda on teeth are strikingly similar to the effects of methamphetamine or crack on teeth, as I reported in May.