Thursday, Sept. 30, 1965 University Daily Kansan
Page 9
KU Coed-One Who Cared In Appalachian Poverty Pocket
"When we first got there the kids clung together and stared at us. They were almost—I hate to use the term, but it's true—almost animallike."
By Walter Nunn
That was the first impression in a summer of work in the poverty pockets of the Kentucky Appalachians for Janet Morgan, Pryor, Okla., junior.
What can one person do in one summer? Janet spent most of her time working with children in vacation Bible schools. However, these Bible schools were different from the typical ones of the Midwest.
Janet, a commercial art major, worked with the Southern Baptist Church in trying to give the mountaineers an inkling of the outside world and enough hope to better themselves.
"It'S A COMPLETELY different way of life. Out in the country there's often no indoor toilets, running water or living room furniture, and families sleep on pallets on the floor," she said.
Janet said, "The children were starved for help. Many of them didn't know how to mold clay, use crayons or even get along with others. You try to teach them the most basic things."
ALTHOUGH JANET was shocked at the appearance of the children when she first saw them, she quickly became attached to them. Ask her about them and she'll show her pictures of beaming children standing outside the bare, one-room wooden buildings used for classes.
Smiling at her memories of the children, she recalled, "They were intensely interested in me. They watched me all the time. One little girl—she was a true mountaineer—stared at me one day and finally blurred loudly in her Kentucky
twang. 'Does you dye your hair?'" Janet reassured the child that she had naturally brown hair.
Janet also worked in the Good Will Center at Prestonsburg, Ky., where she helped with adult education classes and the distribution of food and clothing. Adults came to the center to learn elementary principles of hygiene and how to read and write.
"FIRST YOU GO to the general store and put up some posters around the area. Then you talk to the storekeeper and get diagrams and directions about where everybody lives. Then you drive a Jeep as far as it'll go. There are no roads in many places."
"The people were scattered all across the mountainsides," Janet said, "and telephones and television were nonexistent in many sections. Spreading the word about the services of the Southern Baptists was a slow process.
Knocking on plank doors from Bald Alley Corner to Granny Fitch Hollow, Janet would explain what was available to the mountain people.
"They aren't cold, like some people in the cities," she said, "they're likely to ask you to come in."
Some of the people found Janet a little hard to believe. A common reaction, she said, was, "You're from Oklahoma and you come clear out here?" Janet explained that she wanted to be of service to others and enjoyed her work so much that she wants to do social work again next summer.
Janet said she got varied responses from the people she approached. "Some wanted to help themselves. Others didn't because of their pride.
(Continued on page 12)
He Won't Betray Us
ROTTERDAM, Holland — (UPI)— A minister whose apple orchard is frequently raided by boys posted the sign: "God sees all" to serve as a deterrent. Following the latest raid, he found a footnote added to the sign. "But he won't betray us," it said.
Picnic Scheduled
The International Club picnic will be held this Sunday at Shawnee Lake in Topeka. Transportation will be provided in front of the Kansas Union at 2 p.m. Tickets may be purchased for $1 at the information desk in the Union.
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