Darlene, her husband, and four children (at the time of filming) live in a run-down, three-room house on an uphill gravel road in south-central Pennsylvania. She carries water from a spring, "fires" her stove with wood and coal, "baths" her children in a basin, uses an unpainted outhouse across her heavily sloping yard. She is 28 and, in her term, "flat-assed poor." She is also verbal, high-strung, superactive, nondirected, and bored. The film is selected from numerous "visits" by the producers to Darlene's home. It is a talky, subtle, observational film about a way of living--living poor, day by day, in Appalachia in the last third of the 20th century. Produced by P.J. O'Connell for Penn State Television / WPSX-TV. Rural America Documentary project. restricted use in some PA counties. C1971
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