Hershel Aleshire of Blair, West Virginia: "Back when I was a kid, we made our own fun. We fished and we played ball and rode horses. We run after girls. Some of it I ain't gonna tell ya. Turn the camera off, I still ain't gonna tell ya." v "My wife, she died maybe two years ago," Hershel Aleshire said. "We were married 62 years. She was a fine woman. If she'd've had a good man, she'd've been all right." | Ami Vitale/Panos Pictures Aleshire shares a laugh with his next-door neighbor Carlos Gore. "I'm too old to move now,'' Aleshire said. ''Why would I want to move?" | Ami Vitale/Panos Pictures

Hershel Aleshire
Blair, West Virginia

I'm not the oldest person in Blair. Alfred Jones is the oldest. He's about 86 or 87. I'm 83. I still drive the four-wheel all the time. Yesterday we rode some 40 miles through the mountains.

I was born up the road and lived there till I was about eight years old. Then my daddy bought this holler, and I've lived here ever since. Back when I was a kid, we made our own fun. We fished and we played ball and rode horses. We run after girls. Some of it I ain't gonna tell ya. Turn the camera off, I still ain't gonna tell ya. I's kind of mischief when I was young.

I raised my family right here. My daughter, she lives about 10 miles on down the road. She's got two kids and my son's got two. Great-grandkids, I got five of them. I worked in the mine on a preparation plant for 42 and a quarter years. My daddy got me the job, and I worked with him till he retired. I retired in 1992.

I hate to see 'em destroy the mountains, but I know people's got to work. And I don't know where one balances with the other. Because what they're doing, it'll never be no good anymore. Trees will never grow back. All it'll be is a briar patch. Like I say, I don't know. (Interviewed May 29, 2012)

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