I don’t really know what compelled my ancestors to seek out a place as far back up the holler as they could get to scrape out an existence. Were they running from something or someone? Were they just plumb tuckered out at dealing with people? Were they living out a calling of some kind to solitude? I have no idea. I only know that hollers (hollows for the elite) define the experience of a lot of mountain people, shape their character and deepen their relationship with the land.

The isolation inherent in such places has been the tool that has enabled generations to hold on to the old ways they brought with them. It is in such circumstances that families have been able to pass down from generation to generation the songs and stories and cures and recipes and traditions that have made the Appalachian region so rich. But isolation is disappearing. For good or ill, the mountains no longer separate us. We have built roads around mountains, over mountains, through mountains and underneath mountains. Some of these roads are made up of digital communications. Mountain people have learned to get on the internet and use social media. Whole facebook groups have developed where the word “Appalachia” has drawn people together to talk about our unique traditions, language and music.

I’ve noticed that younger people are missing from these forums. They aren’t interested in the older ways. And probably rightly so. They’ve been exposed to the outside world with all its glamor and danger and corruption. I wonder how long Appalachian Studies departments at regional colleges and universities will last. The region is quickly coalescing into just another place in the larger landscape of American life. I wonder how long that will take.

Any collection of people in the world will go through changes as the culture, political realities, economic pressures and ethos of that culture shifts. So it is expected that the isolation which shaped much of Appalachia will give way one day to new realities. Signs are showing up already.

Common circumstances within the region have deteriorated as coal and tobacco have been replaced with other more diverse industrial and agricultural practices. As access to mainstream music has taken the attention of the young, older forms of music, with echoes from the British Isles, will continue their slow decline in popularity. It’s hard to imagine, but even “flat-footing” or buck dancing will disappear among us one day, giving way to other forms of entertainment.

The new common denominator in the region is the rise in use of opioids and with it a rise in death by overdose. It’s taken decades to get a better understanding of what’s going on with that and how it is affecting the population. University funded studies are now beginning to experiment with solutions to this plague in the region. It seems no holler is safe from this reality. With it comes a rise in the need for access to basic services, like overcoming food scarcity finding access to medical and recovery services, and the like.

It will be interesting to see how Appalachia changes in the next 20-30 years. It will be different for sure.