Doll-A-Day 2019 #218: Hatfield and McCoy

  Today's dolls are sort of a sequel to yesterday's. These guys are hillbillies too.

They're about 7 inches tall.

These guys incorporate some of the biggest cliche's about 'hillbillies'. They have 'dirty' bare feet.

And rope belts,like Jethro on "The Beverly Hillbillies".

I think some of those cliche's came from the depression era. The depression hit the hills of Kentucky pretty hard. My mom and dad were born in the 1920's. They often talked about the things they had to do when they were kids because they were so poor.

My mom,age 10,in 1937. By the way, that says 'Mae',not 'Moe'. My mom was named Lelia, (after her mother), Mae (after her Aunt Mae.) She was often called Mae, although as an adult she was more often called Lelia. The family called her Lelia Mae. She was a tiny lady, and when my cousins,(Read about the dolls they gave me HERE.), were little they thought everyone was calling her 'little Mae'.

Dad also age 10,in 1934. He turned 11 in June that year. Right down to the red hair, I have always looked like my dad, and these days when I look in the mirror I see Dad's lower face. My brunette sister looks like my mom.

Shoes were worn only in the winter, because they had to be worn in the winter, so nobody could afford to wear shoes in the summer when they didn't need them. My mom told a story about how she and her brothers and sister cut pictures of shoes out of catalogs and tied them on their feet to play in.  I don't think any of my family ever wore rope belts, but who knows?

My grandpa driving the plow in the mid 1940's. That's my mom in the big hat, with some of her brothers, and her sister.

The difference from yesterday's dolls is that these guys aren't knee huggers. They're plastic.

Their legs aren't jointed. Their body and legs are one just solid piece.

The guy on the right has a string to be hung by too, like the doll yesterday.

But their arms can move. They seem to have some wire in them.

I call these guys Hatfield and McCoy. Those of you who are too young, or not from the United States may not be familiar with the story of the two feuding families from the 1880's, who lived either side of the Big Sandy River, in Kentucky and West Virginia. You can read the whole story of their feud HERE.

 

The families feuded for over 10 years, resulting in over a dozen deaths. The story became part of popular culture, and 'Fighting like the Hatfields and the McCoys'  became a phrase.

Both the Hatfields and the McCoys were 'moonshiners' at some point. Moonshine was illegal alcohol made from corn. One of these guys has the cliche' moonshine jug.

I think the number of X's had to do with the strength of the moonshine.

He looks a bit like the old mascot for Mountain Dew,(which was named after another name for moonshine).

  There were bootleggers in my family. There was a story about one of my relatives, a miner, who had  'died in the mines'. He was mentioned at one point when my dad and I were visiting my maternal grampa's brother. At the mention of the guy 'dying in the mines'  Great Uncle Reggie snorted, "Yeah, he died in the mines...when his still blew up." Apparently he was hiding his still from the law, in the mine where he worked. It exploded and killed him.
  These dolls also remind me of the hillbillies in the old Bugs Bunny cartoon "Hillbilly Hare". 

You can watch one of the best parts of that cartoon HERE.

The other guy has an ax!

He's either chopping wood, or very involved in the feuding!

  I never realized until doing this research, that the Hatfields and the McCoys came from the same area as my mom and dad's families.

My dad's family still lives in Louisa and the surrounding area. My maternal Grama and Grampa lived on top of a hill outside of town. When mom was a kid they lived just over the line into West Virginia for a while. The Hatfields and the McCoys were from the Tug Fork area.

 I told Ken I'm probably related to the Hatfields or the McCoys, and that accounts for the temper in the family!

  Those are the dolls of the day. See you tomorrow for another one.