I was born in the late 1960’s and at that time, probably only one-in-a-hundred American households owned a microwave oven. The number was far fewer in the mountains where I grew up to be sure, as microwave ovens were a high-priced novelty. Even though we didn’t have a lot of…
Coming fresh off of the Great Depression and as World War II forced rationing of a broad array of consumer products, it was estimated that over 3 million women and children were wearing clothes hand made from feed or flour sacks. Today we call it recycling or more to the…
Not every family has an Uncle Edsel and that’s probably a good thing. My great-uncle Edsel Church was my Grandpa Bynum’s brother. They were eerily similar in their good looks and in the way they talked. Although they grew up in Boone, Uncle Edsel lived in Caldwell County for as…
David Crockett, frontiersman, Tennessee legislator and U.S. congressman, folk hero, and icon of popular culture, was an intriguing composite of history and myth. He was a unique and compelling mixture of the historical figure and legendary hero. First of all, he was never…ever…Davy. The name Davy just sounded better in…
Mark Twain once wrote, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” I have always wanted to be a pen hooker. What a glorious and exciting life! When I was growing up, I knew a few pen…
As with many word histories, the exact root of the word “buck” for one unit of currency is difficult to say. However, the leading theory is backed up by a fair bit of documentation, specifically, it is thought that a dollar is called a “buck” thanks to our four-legged friends…
Pigs have personalities and a broad range of emotions. They can be playful, spiteful, grouchy, vengeful, frisky, loving, and hateful. I know because I have grown to appreciate many pigs personally and I can still recall several of my best pig friends. There are many different pig breeds: Yorkshires, Hampshires,…
A Farmer, sawmiller, carpenter and sheriff’s deputy…Willie Trivette’s enduring legacy is that he was one of many self-taught photographers in the hills and hollers of Appalachia. His story, along with other “picturemen” illuminate the truest portraits of the Blue Ridge faces and places of his time. And we owe a…
I first learned of Horace Kephart when I interned as an undergraduate student at the Western Carolina University Mountain Heritage Center in 1989. Besides being considered one of the most important forces leading to the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Kephart wrote a fascinating book in 1913 called,…
As the story goes, the subject of today’s podcast was 35 years old before he ever used a camera. He left his Appalachian home during the Depression for the promise of a steady paycheck and landed in Detroit, Michigan, where, as he liked to say, “Henry Ford was paying us…
