My Name Is My Name.

I don't know whether this is ethically correct or not (or, more importantly, will fuck my getting published in Backdrop this coming issue), but I've decided to give you all the introduction to my story on Athens County working poor residents set to appear in this quarter's issue of Backdrop. I hope you all enjoy it because this portion is only the tip of the iceberg. I will post the entire story for those who do not attend Ohio University after the publication of the issue. Stay tuned for more steeze-iness.


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Athens County Working Poor


Traveling to Athens, Ohio, by State Route 33 in winter is a lesson in melancholy.

The four-lane highway snakes its way through cold, grayish-brown Appalachian hills. The landscape that connects central Ohio to its southeastern cousin evokes wistfulness as each tectonic bump trips into the next—a never-ending sea of dead trees and limitless pasture.

It’s Fitzgerald’s rural Valley of Ashes minus Tom Wilson and the gang.

The “Trailer Park” sits in this pensive, empty valley right before the State Route 13 exit. Its location infringes the Hocking and is hidden from the passing traffic on the highway above.

A driveway juts off the road, sloping down into a collection of dilapidated mobile homes. Its presence is almost undetectable to the casual passerby on Route 33. Faded pastel exteriors of each home steadily blend into their listless surroundings.

Cindy’s home is near the back of the park. Across the street two kids sit spiritlessly on cinder blocks that lead into their home. A mutt barks boisterously next door.

“In this trailer park you can tell it’s a poor community. There’s nothing really here for somebody who doesn’t have a college education,” Cindy explained.

Cindy is a 20-year-old mother who lives with her boyfriend and one-year-old son. Her face is languid; freckles dot her skin and fade into her exterior. Her smiles come painfully unnatural and seem forced from her austere expressions.

“The hardest part about living on the wages that I earn now is that I cannot give my son everything that I never had. Everything that I thought I’d be able to give him.”

“When I buy him clothes I go to Wal-Mart. It’s the closest thing. I always thought I’d be able to get him name-brand stuff because I never had that growing up. I always thought that he’d have toys—anything that he wanted he could have,” Cindy said.

For Cindy, this inability characterizes her as a member of Athens County’s working poor population. The term “working poor” refers to many people who we might see on any given day. According to Ohio University sociology professor Steve Scanlan, “the working poor are those who do the work that is often times unrecognized.”