I'm P.J.

O'Connell for Penn State Public Broadcasting.

Near the beginning of the Pennsylvania Parade Series, we presented a documentary look at an Appalachian family titled, Visiting With Darlene.

We've maintained our contacts with Darlene and her family over the past 25 years.

And in this final episode of The Pennsylvania Parade, we'd like to bring you up to date on a generation of rural family history with the Darlene Chronicles.

[baby crying] I usually burn wood in the daytime and coal at night.

[vacuum machine whirring] Every time my husband comes down here, there's a thing in the bottom.

[chuckle] It better not be in there today because I'll scream for bloody murder.

It ain't out yet, but it's on the verge out.

[inaudible] pretty-- Hi.

Hey.

DARLENE: That bed's calling you.

Now beat it.

Come on.

Come on.

[inaudible] Get up.

I've had enough of you.

I'm calling Grandpa.

Do you want me to call your grandpa?

Get up.

[tracy crying] I don't want to see you out here again.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): In the fall and winter of 1970, this woman and her family became the focus of a documentary film on life in Appalachia titled Visiting With Darlene.

The film turned out to be a mild success.

It won a national broadcasting award.

A theatrical showing in New York City was reviewed by The New York Times.

And it was used by hundreds of colleges, secondary schools, and community and professional groups.

Although she was not aware of it, Darlene had become a small-scale celebrity.

Now, after 25 years, a look back at the world Darlene has inhabited over the middle years of a richly varied life.

The Darlene Chronicles is a public affairs production of Penn State television.

[baby crying] Well, I'm 28 and I've got four kids, and I'm also married.

[chuckle] And I lived in Pittsburgh.

I was born in [inaudible] hospital, but I was raised in Pittsburgh.

TRACY: [speaking gibberish] [baby crying extensively] You're going to fall.

Oh, good God.

She did fall three times on that big rock right there.

And right now I got a crybaby.

[chuckle] Go give her a bottle.

TRACY: OK. Don't choke her.

[indistinct chatter] P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): We had met her by chance while filming a documentary on poverty in rural Pennsylvania.

The rundown conditions in which she lived contrasted with her openness in talking about the details of her life.

And so over the next several months, we returned periodically with our cameras, listening, watching, visiting with Darlene.

No, our roof leaks, and I want to move out.

And he won't see that I get a house to move to.

And I can't find one myself because I got four kids and people don't want kids in their houses.

You know what I mean?

And I won't get rid of the kids.

[chuckle] Because that's my life-- the kids.

Without them, I wouldn't want to live since I got them.

Before, I didn't like kids.

Now I love them.

Quit eating that washrag.

Oh, Jesus, I can't wait till next year.

She'll go to school.

[chuckle] I don't know, I told you he was [inaudible] P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Darlene and her family lived in three rooms in a converted hunting cabin.

Her son Blair, was two years old, and her oldest daughter, Terry, was six.

Her husband's name is John, although he's more often called Bud.

And her second daughter, Tracy, was three at the time.

Bonnie two months was the youngest.

Darlene's days were spent mostly at home alone with her three youngest children, while her husband was at work driving a truck and her oldest daughter was in school.

DARLENE: [inaudible] all of these kids better he likes it, all three of them.

Ow.

DARLENE: [chuckle] TRACY: Morning.

DARLENE: I believe you got your sister's socks on, Tracy.

TRACY: I do.

DARLENE: Good for you.

Helps keep your feet warm.

TRACY: [tracy squeals].

Done it.

Where's [inaudible]?

LISA MARSHALL: Where do most of your kids clothes come from?

Salvation Army.

LISA MARSHALL: Can you get fairly good stuff from there?

[inaudible] Oh, fairly.

Some things, you think they can wear.

You get in there, you got to either remodel or give it to a bigger kid or a smaller kid or-- somehow or other, her clothes so far come from the Salvation Army.

She didn't get one thing new since she's been born and I wanted to get her a couple of dresses.

They haven't had-- [smacking] no, behave.

They haven't had any.

The last time I was in there, little dresses for babies-- and they're expensive.

Almost $5 a piece.

Oh My God.

I thought big girl big-- big dresses for first graders-- Get out of here.

Well, sit down then.

I got my food stamps.

TRACY: No baby.

No baby.

No baby.

I went into the bank and picked them up Monday.

Made two trips then.

I forgot the first time.

[chuckle] LISA MARSHALL: That's really nice [inaudible].

And I was at the store.

Everything on the bottom shelf there is what I got.

How about that?

[inaudible] [object clanking] TRACY: It's cold [inaudible] [inaudible] It's hot?

[shouting] No, it's real cold.

Go to bed.

TRACY: [inaudible] --doing in my bed?

[shouting] You put it in there, Dumb -dumb.

[wood stove clanking] [inaudible] [shouting] Hurry it up and get the hell in there.

Oh My God.

There, I made it.

But it's wet [inaudible] [chuckle].

So [darlene sighs deeply] I'll make it.

[chuckle] Oh.

And that little girl here weighed 8 pounds and 5 ounces the last time I had a doctor.

LISA MARSHALL: And how old is she?

DARLENE: Two months.

She didn't eat nothing.

She didn't like what they were feeding her.

Of course, I don't blame them.

[chuckle] [baby crying] Here, [inaudible] They tried to get her to drink the water.

That was just like trying to lead a puppy dog to something that he didn't like.

[baby crying] She never ate anything for meals.

She did just spit it up what they fed her.

LISA MARSHALL: She eating any better now?

She has good bit better now.

She drinks one of these little bottles.

When I brought her home, she drank about two ounces out of it.

Now she's doing pretty good, except for that milk.

I don't like it.

I don't even like the smell of it.

TRACY: [inaudible] [baby crying] DARLENE: She don't mind Get out of that.

Doll baby.

[inaudible] doll baby?

Doll baby.

Doll baby.

Doll baby.

[playful noise] [doll clanking] DARLENE: Tracy.

[tracy hitting the doll] Stay out of it.

DARLENE: Oh My God.

[inaudible] to my babysitter.

[inaudible] you missed it.

[chuckle] Watch your head [inaudible] [inaudible] DARLENE: I got a bathtub [inaudible].

Unfortunately, I'm too tired to clean it up.

Just wait a minute.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): As our filming continued, a question occurred.

Why was Darlene so open in allowing two strangers to record some of the most personal details of her life?

How come you're so interested in what we do?

P.J.

O'CONNELL: We've frankly had a hard time getting people to talk to us about problems.

You were willing to talk, so that's why we came out.

[chuckle] Well, I suppose.

If you was in my shoes, you'd be willing to talk to most anybody.

P.J.

O'CONNELL: Well, I don't know.

Apparently, some people don't.

Well, maybe some people-- I don't know.

Maybe they don't care or maybe they care for nobody but themselves.

You know what I mean?

P.J.

O'CONNELL: Yeah.

Of course, I was brought up in a childhood that we loved each other when we had time to be together.

But when one of us was sick, well, it broke up the gang.

But we always cared what happened to one another.

If one of the neighbor kids would get sick, we'd all go together and get her something to get it well or get well card or something.

Well, you know how it is.

[chuckle] My neighborhood was nothing but boys.

That was a gang of boys.

How about that?

P.J.

O'CONNELL: I thought that was what every young lady wanted.

Not me.

I hate men.

All men want just what they get.

[inaudible] They want to make kids and they don't want to daddy them.

Of course, her daddy is alive and he's willing to take care of her if I force him.

But I'm not going to force him because it's his responsibility.

[chuckle] Laugh you little-- I'm tickling her belly and she's laughing.

[chuckle] I have to go to the bathroom.

DARLENE: Get the shoes on and go.

And your coat.

Where is it?

Get it.

Hurry up.

[inaudible] goodbye.

DARLENE: Goodbye.

Hey.

You start it up, you plug it in, you start it up, and I'm going to knock you in your ass.

[inaudible] DARLENE: [inaudible] P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): On the weekends and in the evenings, Darlene's husband, Bud, was home from work, and her oldest daughter, Terry, was home from school.

DARLENE: I'm going to put butter on Blair's, I believe.

Maybe he'll eat it.

What?

Eat, Tracy.

Here, Terry.

TRACY: Baba.

[inaudible] not going to tell you.

TRACY: Baba, Baba.

DARLENE: [inaudible] dish [inaudible] empty.

[inaudible] You're not going nowhere.

You're going to sit in the high chair while it does get empty.

Lisa ate it.

P.J.

O'CONNELL: I'm still eating it.

This is my second.

P.J.

Ate it.

BUD: Eat that.

Oh, yum.

DARLENE: You see anything wrong with that soup?

BUD: That's good, I think.

Messed up my beautiful hair or I need a haircut.

Hey.

Give me scissors, scissors.

Not now.

I need a professional.

I don't do amateur.

I cut it before, and he never said a word.

Never didn't look at it.

Who's coming?

You're back.

Damn you.

But I'm going to knock you off that chair.

Sure I don't want to have alcohol going.

Stupid comes.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Darlene's marriage was not entirely ordinary.

It contained elements of romance, disappointment, intrigue, and perhaps danger.

LISA MARSHALL: How old were you when you got married?

How old?

20.

LISA MARSHALL: And your husband was?

38.

He was 30.

LISA MARSHALL: He was 38 when you got married?

He said.

Of course, I never believe it.

I don't believe any man.

Was your mother living when you got married?

DARLENE: Uh-huh.

What did she think about the whole thing?

DARLENE: She wanted me to forgive a certain somebody.

I didn't forgive him.

We still see each other occasionally.

He likes my kids.

He likes all four of them.

But we can't live with him.

It's out of the question.

Because my so-called husband would be right there and he'd murder him.

[chuckle] He threatened to kill us both if he ever caught us together.

LISA MARSHALL: He said he would do that?

He caught us.

No, the certain someone was up here last night.

[chuckle] When he comes, my husband goes to bed.

How about that?

He's a dumb, dumb.

DARLENE: Watch the door.

Watch the door.

Listen, listen, listen.

Say, come in.

[inaudible] man.

PAUL: How are you?

LISA MARSHALL: Hi.

PAUL: You're cold there?

Look at measles.

Look here.

See a smile?

[chuckle] [inaudible] P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Paul, a friend of Darlene's was often present in her home.

Paul was part of an unusual relationship between Darlene, her husband, and her children.

Look at [inaudible] magic.

PAUL: Nope, bee.

A bee.

Tracy, can you say your ABCs?

Let's hear them.

Let's hear them.

TRACY: A, a, A-B-C-D-E-F-I.

PAUL: Loud enough.

I can't hear them.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): A father of seven children in his own marriage, Paul had a very close friendship with Darlene before her marriage to Bud.

And that friendship had continued in spite of a certain level of tension between the two men.

DARLENE: Bud's no good.

He's outside.

What did you want?

He got his butt up.

What did you want?

TRACY: Dad don't like it.

[inaudible] don't worry about what Dad likes.

[inaudible] Huh.

All right.

[inaudible] PAUL: Reach out and touch the ceiling.

Stand up.

Stand up.

[indistinct chatter] No Terry, did you brush your hair?

If you going with me.

PAUL: Did you scrub this boy after we had [inaudible]?

Oh, I bathed all four of them.

Didn't I Lisa?

PAUL: When you put Vick's on them and its [inaudible] Hey, wash your hair.

I beg your Pardon, Mr?

I bath all four, and I clean house, [inaudible].

PAUL: You're going to lose it.

TERRY: [inaudible] Ma, Mr.

Hair.

Ma, tell Mr.

Hair.

DARLENE: [darlene shouting] Are you going to [inaudible].

Get that brochure or I'll knock you through the refrigerator door.

[indistinct chatter] She won't listen, a damn.

If John Myers walks out, she listens as good as Pie.

She didn't want to eat her dinner.

So what?

DARLENE: So I set her on the high chair.

TERRY: And I did.

[inaudible] you didn't have on the floor, [inaudible].

Can you do a French twist?

[chuckle] Yeah, you're growling because Mama covered up your face.

Aren't you?

Mama [inaudible] P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): This was the only time Paul visited Darlene's home while we were filming.

[indistinct chatter] He had come to pick her up, along with her children, for a shopping trip to a nearby town.

Move over.

This goes in there.

[car engine rattling] I'm glad I met you people.

Well, we'll see [inaudible] [engine revving] [chuckle] My name is Darlene Myers.

I live in Holland Reservoir Road, Hollidaysburg.

I'm 50 years old.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): She is older, heavier, still without running water in a bathroom.

Still married.

Her children, there are five in all, are grown and mostly gone.

Some of them are not on speaking terms with their mother, and others make only occasional contact.

Darlene's earlier male companion, Paul-- that certain someone has moved out of her life with some regrets on her part.

She is sometimes subdued, sometimes active.

Still, the complex and fascinating woman whom the producers first met in 1970.

Our contacts with Darlene and her family continued intermittently.

But in the early 1980s, the old cabin was suddenly empty.

Neighbors directed us across the Valley to a new stage in Darlene's life.

A house that she had purchased for $20,000, money she had saved from her household budget over the first 20 years of her marriage.

Terry, Darlene's oldest daughter was planning to join the army at the time we visited.

We later found out that she had decided to stay home and get married instead.

Darlene Myers came in to see her brother.

And I was in and out on the trips on the job at the time.

And she didn't know I'd come in the hallway and she turned around to go out the hallway [inaudible] into me.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): During a visit in 1987, we found that Darlene's life had again moved on.

We were introduced to her new companion, Bob, the former owner of a small trucking company whom she had bumped into three years earlier.

One thing led to another, we ended up-- all of us work together, her family and me.

Smart move.

[chuckle] Now, this house has no toilet facilities in it.

It has no running water right now because the water line went out on it.

The whole back line of the house-- P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Bob, had two children, one by each of two former wives.

And he took an immediate interest in the conditions in which Darlene and her family lived.

I think they deserve something better.

And if I can be the one that helps them get it, all well and good.

They have a choice of three that she's looking at right now.

I don't know which ones they would approve.

That one?

That one?

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Bob had moved ahead on a plan to replace Darlene's 60-year-old house with a new one.

The funding for the house was to come from low-income loan and grant programs.

That's part of their file.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): But there were some problems that had not yet been resolved.

And that's welfare.

That's a stack of welfare papers right there.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Darlene and Bud's complex history with welfare and unemployment and her ownership of a house created significant eligibility questions with both public and non-profit agencies.

Darlene was, in effect, not poor enough.

Yeah.

Give you a different kind?

No, same thing.

DARLENE: Bud, [inaudible] P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Bud, Darlene's husband was still living with the family.

He had been laid off from a bus mechanics job two years earlier and was just beginning to collect Social Security payments.

[indistinct chatter] And two of Darlene's children, her youngest daughter, Bonnie, and her oldest son, Blair, were coming home from school while we were filming.

The last time we had seen them, Blair had spent most of his time in a crib, and Bonnie was in a bassinet.

Yeah, Good afternoon too.

DARLENE: Get up here.

All right, I'll be over-- [chuckling] this way.

[chuckling] There's times they get angry as hell at me.

But a lot of other times, they-- I think they care a little bit anyway.

[inaudible] Because I try to teach them the right way to do.

Sometimes it isn't quite so easy to do as it is said.

You walk like you're about beat.

Did you tell Flaky, I told him he was Flaky?

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Darlene's youngest son, Roy, also arrived home from school.

[indistinct chatter] It was our first and as it turned out, our only opportunity to meet the youngest member of Darlene's family.

[indistinct chatter] On another visit in 1988, Tracey, Darlene's second daughter was at home.

SPEAKER: Here, hold it.

P.J.

O'CONNELL: Hold it up in front of you, Tracy.

DARLENE: Yeah, hold it up.

SPEAKER: Oh, that's really cute.

DARLENE: Yeah, that's you [chuckle] That is not me.

DARLENE: That is you.

[inaudible] P.J.

O'CONNELL: That's the little rug rat they had.

BUD: Yeah.

[chuckle] DARLENE: P.J.

Knows how little you was.

P.J.

O'CONNELL: You're a sad little girl.

I never changed.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Tracey was 3 when we had first filmed.

After high school, she had enrolled in a State job training program.

TRACY: That does not look like me.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): And still living with Darlene at the time were her husband, Bud, and her companion, Bob.

Yeah, there comes Bonnie.

She's going to give me a candy bar, but she has to pay for it.

[squeals] Does she?

TRACY: Yep.

[inaudible] Yeah.

Give me a $1 and you can have one.

[indistinct chatter] TRACY: No, they're not [inaudible] You have candy bar?

BOB: No, not worth it.

[chuckle] DARLENE: What are you blushing for, Bonnie?

Did Johnny [inaudible]?

BONNIE: Yeah, I told Johnny.

I want to see him.

DARLENE: Is that boy coming?

I doubt it.

DARLENE: Is he going to call?

Uh-huh.

BOB: He's not allowed to come.

I said so.

DARLENE: [chuckle] [inaudible] huh?

I didn't say so either.

BOB: [chuckle] You wait, I'm going to tell him you're picking on me already.

I walk in the door and first thing, I get my picture taken.

Then I get picked on.

BOB: [inaudible] say, who is taking your picture?

DARLENE: Oh, now we can-- [interposing voices] A friend.

[chuckle] DARLENE: Now we can see, Yeah.

[bonnie screams] You just hit my ear.

DARLENE: What did Joan say about your ears?

Ah, yeah what did he say about your ears?

Nothing.

He said they look nice.

[phone rings] TRACY: And that's the phone.

DARLENE: And that's John.

[chuckle] TRACY: That's John.

Hello.

Yeah, somewhere between here and there.

[chuckle] BOB: What do you want?

There's nobody for you.

[chuckle] OK. Bonnie's standing here dancing.

I am not standing still.

BOB: Yeah, she's dancing for the camera.

[chuckle] All right, here she is.

She's blushing.

Her face is red.

[chuckle] Here she is.

Yes.

Bob, he said he wants a picture.

He wants to get his picture taken with me.

Yeah.

BONNIE: [inaudible] The way he's talking, him and Becky's going to get back together.

And what the story is, they're going to try and make Bill jealous.

Only Bill is going to get mad and say, there you can have her.

I don't want her.

And then he's going to be stuck with Becky.

And Bonnie's dumb enough to go along with it.

He plays footsies under the table.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Darlene's interest in romance and intrigue had continued in the advice she gave to her daughters.

Well, you're supposed to stand back and not even see this whenever he's making a pass at her.

She goes along with a lot of things, and she-- oh, she's so stupid.

[inaudible] I know.

[inaudible] You break up with him.

And then you go back with him I'm going to brain you.

Hold on.

Slow down.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Bonnie dropped out of school a week before her graduation.

The only one of Darlene's children not to finish high school.

She left the area shortly after and has only occasional contact with her family.

[inaudible] My pills.

BONNIE: Come on.

[heavy footsteps] All right.

You mean that's all going to be in that newspaper?

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): In 1990, Darlene and her family were still living without the customary household amenities.

Bob's attempts to obtain new housing had not yet succeeded, but his activities with the local Habitat For Humanity Organization had prompted newspaper articles on Darlene's house and living conditions.

PHOTOGRAPHER: Can I have you two folks right here?

[inaudible] I'll just shoot a nice portrait of the two of you with your house in the background.

[chuckle] PHOTOGRAPHER: All right.

Please look straight ahead towards me here.

Here we go.

First one.

[camera shutter] Good.

[continued camera shutters] [cars whirring by] When they get the new house, [inaudible] come back here and make some nice pictures of you and your husband and the brand new home, huh?

[interposing voices] What I'm really hoping for is it does some good for a lot more people.

If we can get-- P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Due in part to the fact that Darlene owned her home, the Habitat For Humanity organization chose another house for an improvement project and Darlene's long wait for new housing continued.

[dogs barking] Three years later, in 1993, the old house was still in use as a foundation site had been leveled, but construction of a new home had not yet begun.

[inaudible] to get a scraping level up some more yet dig ditches around the back of it before it's ready for a foundation anyway.

I'm only hoping.

Living on dreams, I guess.

BOB: Better that than nothing.

Hey, who's coming?

Who's coming down?

Here come my big girl.

Here come my big girl.

Here honey.

Here, honey.

Come here.

This is my big girl.

Say, hi, P.J?

Say, hi.

Oh, Bob, I put this stuff-- P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Jessica, one of Darlene's four grandchildren.

Here comes the little one.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Along with her younger sister, Jessica, had been removed from the home of Darlene's second daughter, Tracy, by the County's Children and Youth Services office and placed temporarily with her grandmother.

Yeah, this is little Tracy.

[children's toy playing music] Hi, Grandpa.

[indistinct chatter] [toddler laughing] [inaudible] [inaudible], get up.

[toy music fades] P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): A few miles away, the rented home of Darlene's second daughter, Tracy.

Tracy was three years old when we had first filmed.

Now, she was 28, two children, unmarried.

Tracy, [inaudible] get home.

Whenever that would be.

Huh?

Whenever that would be.

I'd like to go visit P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Tracy and her companion, John were trying to arrange to have their children returned to them in time for Christmas.

P.J.

O'CONNELL: How does your Mom come to have the kids?

Huh?

P.J.

O'CONNELL: How does your Mom come to have the kids?

I took them out until welfare came.

She was the only person that I knew I could trust with them.

P.J.

O'CONNELL: Are they coming back?

Yeah.

Yeah, Joe, Welfare said, they're not here to take them.

They're here to really help us out and everything.

But they'll see that we get them back.

But it's mainly what I do all day, clean my house.

P.J.

O'CONNELL: See what they were going to do.

She had talked yesterday.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Tracy talked with us about a number of things besides her children's absence, including some information on her recent hospital stays.

P.J.

O'CONNELL: What were you in for, if it's any of my business?

Well, my first one, I had to get my foot operated on.

My second one, I had to get my wrist operated on.

The third one, I had my tubes tied.

[belching] Excuse me.

And I figured that's enough for me.

I had my tubes tied after I had the baby.

Because at that point, I didn't really want to have another one.

And now I want to have another one.

I can't afford to get them re-done.

So I'm just happy with two.

[clinking and clanking] BUD: [inaudible]?

DARLENE: On a tree.

[chuckle] BUD: That's better there.

DARLENE: Need one more ball in there, Bob.

I don't see that bare spot or whatever you call it.

BOB: Hey, Tracy.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Two days before Christmas and the granddaughters were still with their grandmother.

BOB: Where's your Christmas tree?

She's looking for it.

BOB: Where's your Christmas tree?

BUD: Tracy, do you like [inaudible]?

Oh, these little girls cost me some money, but I guess we got our pleasure out of them for it.

DARLENE: I don't like his coffee pot.

Don't keep the coffee pot.

BLAIR: It keeps it hot.

DARLENE: It does not.

You got it.

lopsided, son.

One of these.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Besides her two granddaughters, Darlene's oldest son, Blair, was back home living with his mother.

Yeah, hold one before.

DARLENE: Just like that.

So it don't slide all over the place.

And you're going to have the skillet on the floor.

Thank you.

Now, if we had some light on the subject.

We might be able to see some.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): When a light switch failed in Darlene's house, the repair that was used required clipping two live wires together.

I'm surprised I could see how to hook it up.

Why are you on the subject?

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): The wiring and the house were showing signs of serious deterioration.

[inaudible] did you ever hear where there's a will, there's a way?

[phone rings] Oh, telephone.

Let me get it, Blair.

Before it hangs up on me.

Hello.

All right.

For you.

Hello.

Uh-huh.

[child fussing] BLAIR: Did you hide them from me?

Blair, go tell Bob.

Tell Bob to come here?

Yeah, hurry up.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Bob's movements were restricted as he was recovering from a hip replacement operation.

Well, here.

And then he'll explain it to me.

I'm like Tracy.

Bob has to explain everything to us when somebody tries to tell us something.

So he'll explain it to me after you explain it to him, OK?

OK.

Here he is.

[inaudible] [inaudible] Jonestown for?

[chuckle] I had told her one time that somebody had evidently tried to get with this girl or had wanted them to do things that they shouldn't have been.

Well, she says, I don't know.

Nobody's been around him long enough.

Well, there's a couple characters that have been around and one was even babysit her a couple of times, and he's not allowed around there.

You know what I'm talking about.

Children's Service and I are going to have to fight the State of Pennsylvania over the abuse of these children.

SPEAKER: OK, are you ready to do it again?

State doesn't want to recognize it as abuse.

SPEAKER: Oh.

SPEAKER: When do we do it again?

SPEAKER: OK, we'll do it again.

And they know and I know that it's a fact.

[child growling playfully] Hey.

There has been abuse done.

BLAIR: All yours.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): The two granddaughters were later examined by Children and Youth Services doctor, but Bob's suspicions of child abuse have remained unconfirmed.

[machines whirring] Later in the day, the girls were taken down to see their mother and father.

Hi.

[indistinct chatter] You wake up feeling like [inaudible]?

DARLENE: She's been up early this morning, [inaudible].

Well, she don't need to sleep right now is daylight.

Are you trying to get her days and nights mixed up again?

She was awake all that time, wasn't she?

BOB: She's been the one wanting to take a nap.

What's this?

What's this?

[child chuckling] [inaudible] we're coming home.

[inaudible] up once and down and up again.

[video playback] It ain't out yet, but it's already [inaudible] out.

Hey, BOB: That's Mommy when she was a little baby like you.

That's calling you.

Not me.

Yeah, that was Mommy when she was a little baby like you.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Almost 25 years had passed since the original filming.

When we arranged for Darlene and her husband to see themselves and their family as they had appeared a generation earlier.

He never ate anything for me.

She did spit up.

DARLENE: But they fed her.

Their Mommy holding the bottle.

BOB: Their Mommy trying to hold the bottle for the baby.

DARLENE: Now Mommy trying to take the bottle.

She's better now.

She drinks one of these little bottles.

But when I brought her home, she drank about two ounces out of it.

Now she's doing pretty good except for that milk I don't like.

BOB: [inaudible] I don't even like the smell of it.

[indistinct chatter] [baby crying] DARLENE: I don't remember laying the kids on their belly.

I was always afraid of them suffocating.

[baby crying] BOB: [inaudible] me go slap?

Your Mommy got smacked.

DARLENE: There she is.

[chuckle] Doll baby.

Doll baby.

BOB: There's Mommy rolling around on the floor.

Doll baby.

Doll baby.

[tracy frustrated] DARLENE: That's a doll, baby, I think.

[chuckle] BOB: Taking her frustration out on the doll baby.

Yeah, my doll baby.

[tracy smacking her doll] [inaudible] my babysitter.

Fine you missed it.

That's right.

You go sleep.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): We've shown 25 years with one Appalachian family in a way that hardly does justice to the richness and complexity of their lives.

Perhaps we can at least fill in some of the gaps in the Darlene's Chronicles.

DARLENE: Well, I met Paul first and he was already married, but he promised to get a divorce.

We were going to take his two little girls and leave.

But then I got scared and didn't.

Then a couple of months-- well, after I graduated-- I graduated in '63, June 4.

Then I met Bud, June 4.

And then I married him in November of '63 And been with him ever since-- 30 years.

BUD: We had our ups and downs, but who don't?

But we stayed together.

That's the main thing.

We kept the kids and until they were old enough to leave home.

I feel that my dad did the best he could the whole time.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Darlene's oldest daughter, Teresa or Terry, lives a few miles away with her son and husband.

My mother and to this day, don't speak very much.

I try.

I try to forgive her.

I try to ask him.

I've been kicked in the teeth.

I don't know how many times by her.

[inaudible] P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): The tensions between Teresa and her mother have resulted in part from Darlene's relationship with her earlier companion, Paul.

DARLENE: He was kind of nice.

He liked to make kids, but he didn't like to take care of them.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Which brings up a question of paternity.

Who are the fathers of Darlene's five children?

DARLENE: Well, Teresa and Tracy's John's.

And Blair, Roy, and Bonnie's, Paul's.

They look like him too.

[chuckle] SPEAKER: Does that bother you?

No, not really.

Well, really, we were all too young to really understand what was going on.

But when you're used to just having dad around, it really confuses because we didn't know which one to really call a dad.

I think that if you had a husband at home, which means you didn't need to run around on him, and Paul, he wasn't the only one.

It was numerous different guys up there.

Actually, most of us kids belong to Paul.

SPEAKER: [inaudible] you or-- you don't do.

[inaudible] I don't know.

Oh, yes, I do.

SPEAKER: So you're Paul's?

I've got his blood type.

SPEAKER: Oh, OK. That's something mom won't really tell me the truth about.

She told me, I'm dad's.

But she won't really tell me who I belong to because there for a while, she kept telling me she didn't know whose daughter I really was.

So I don't know.

She came in to see her brother one day, and every time she turned around, she was running into me.

I run into Bob three times, almost knocked him down.

And I don't know how it happened, but the next thing I knew, were all together talking to Nat and carrying on.

And [inaudible] she started telling me about some of their problems.

And I say, OK, I'll do what I can to help you.

I'll help you the best I can.

And when I come out and I seen the condition of their house, I said, you need a new house.

So I will see what I can do about getting a new house for you.

Needless to say, I'm still trying to get a new house for them.

Every place Tracy lived, at least they had a bathroom and they had water in the house.

She did do that.

That part good for herself that I never had.

We never had a lot of money.

Nope.

Wish that we did have.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Darlene's husband, Bud, is 68 years old.

Her companion, Bob, is also 68 and Darlene is 50.

I always had them [inaudible] P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): There is a good chance she may have to live the latter portion of her life alone.

I think if something happened to him, she'd be able to make it out on her own.

But yet, like she said, she was never out on her own so she wouldn't know what it's like.

Her excuse of everything is, I can't.

I can't help it.

She just don't want to do anything about anything.

We said several times about-- we told her years ago to throw Paul out.

I can't It's her house.

Why can't she?

You know, what I mean?

[chuckle] And so we've told her things about this guy, and she says, well, I can't help it.

It's not my fault.

Now, she can't do nothing about it.

I was never on my own.

I always had somebody to depend on.

But I had Bud, and I had Paul to depend on.

Now I got Bud and I got Bob to depend on.

I can't depend on myself.

It's just one of them things.

I never had the experience.

I might not like it, but at least it would be a chance to prove something, whether I could make it or not.

[dog barking] P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Mid-February 1994, and Tracy's house was once again filled with familiar sounds.

[kids] Secure, secure, security X, Central Pennsylvania, 186.

We're [inaudible], standby.

[child fussing] [alarm music] I got a belly.

I got a belly.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): After almost four months, Tracy's daughters had returned home, leaving their grandmother without any children to care for.

DARLENE: I told Tracy I wasn't going back.

I kissed the girls goodbye.

I said, I won't see you.

I won't never see you again.

I didn't want to let Tracy go.

I wanted little Tracy.

She reminds me of Tracy when she was little.

She's my little doll, baby.

[chuckle] I'll give her a hug and told her goodbye.

Oh, Bob wants [inaudible] water too.

Yeah, I got that.

Gas-- yeah, gas and water.

Yeah, I'm all right [inaudible] [chuckle].

I haven't gone to bed yet.

I got home about what time?

May 30.

[chuckle] Yeah, I was going to go to the laundromat earlier this morning when I got off of work and I spent that time with the girls instead of going to the laundromat because they would only sit in the van.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): After many years at home, Darlene had recently become employed, caring for an elderly woman with Alzheimer's disease.

Tracy will be calling after a bit probably.

She said she'd call me later.

She hadn't called me for a week, and then she calls me yesterday.

I won't call her.

Nope.

I won't call nobody.

[indistinct chatter] Did you find it?

BUD: Huh?

[darlene mocking bud] Huh.

Did you find it?

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): It is a suitcase filled with Darlene's family photographs.

Here's another picture of the kids when they were-- Terry was 8, Bonnie was 2, Roy was 1, Blair was 3, and Tracy was 6.

DARLENE: They don't talk to me.

I don't know too much about her besides she's married.

She got a little boy and supposed to be pregnant again.

That's all I know about her.

Oh, Tracy's trying to make a life for herself.

If that guy she's living with would just get a job and help a little, she could make it better.

She'd get a better place than what she's got.

Blair, well, he's his own guy.

He's-- I don't know how to say it.

He don't want to get a job.

He says he does, but he doesn't.

So what else is there to say about it?

I don't know anything about Bonnie.

She lives in Texas, and I haven't heard from her.

She used to write to me, but she don't write to me no more.

She don't call me no more.

SPEAKER: How about Roy?

DARLENE: He's in Vermont.

He only called me twice to raise heck.

He never went to-- he was never on time.

He was always drunk.

I think he spent some time in jail, but nobody will tell me.

They don't think I love them, but I do.

That was my life.

My kids was my life.

Now they're gone and I don't have a life.

P.J.

O'CONNELL (VOICEOVER): Inevitably the world changed.

Up in Pawpaw Hollow, the gravel road is now paved and the old three-room cabin sits empty and decaying.

The tangled lives of Darlene and her family have moved on.

There are grandchildren.

Plans for a new house, old pictures, memories.

The future is, as always, uncertain, except for the certainty of continuing change.

It has been 25 years.

Perhaps in another 25, someone will return and continue The Darlene Chronicles.

She has been our most enduring subject.

The 25-year documentary record of Darlene and her family is a television rarity and as good a way as any to complete the Pennsylvania parade.

We appreciate your attention to our efforts to provide a documentary portrait of rural America.

For Penn State Public Broadcasting, I'm P.J.

O'Connell.

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