I can’t look at a pair of Pointer Brand overalls without thinking of my Granddaddy. He wore a pair of those overalls—made in Bristol, Tennessee, by L.C. King Manufacturing Co.— just about every day that I knew him (exceptions being at my grandmother’s funeral as well as his own). My…
Sunday mornings consisted of getting up, eating the wonderful breakfast that my Nanny had made which 99% of the time included pork (sausage, streaked meat, backbones or bacon), eggs, gravy and homemade biscuits. (Side note: Streak-ed (two syllables) meat or fatback was our own version of bacon. It was salted…
Earlier this year, I got to check two items off of my bucket list in one night when I heard Fiddlin’ Carson Peters play at the Carter Family Fold. In case you’re not familiar with Carson Peters, he is a fiddle-playing prodigy from Piney Flats, Tennessee. That just happens to…
Death. To a small child growing up in a small tight-knit mountain community in Southwest Virginia death was mysterious, a little exciting, and a lot scary! I don’t remember anyone ever really explaining death to me when I was little. I don’t know if it would have even been possible…
Living in the melting pot that is Atlanta, I miss regularly hearing the “mountain talk” of home, which is Northeast Tennessee. I love it when I am talking to my children and some mountain slang or a good old-fashioned Southern saying comes out of my mouth. Sometimes they understand and…
This “I remember when…” came from a conversation with my daughter. She asked me what I was going to do today and I told her I had to go to town. This caused a flashback of the excitement of getting to visit “town” when I was growing up. Back in…
Growing up in Northeast Tennessee, the third full week in August brought excitement to the air. School was starting. It was the week of my birthday and my sister’s birthday. And the Appalachian Fair was upon us. Clara Mae, my mother, was the ultimate Appalachian Fair connoisseur. She bought the…
Community -Webster’s dictionary – 1 a: the people living in an area; also: the area itself. Comers Rock, Virginia is located in a beautiful small valley that lies in the shadow of the Iron Mountain Range in Southwest Virginia. When I was growing up it’s landscape consisted of rolling green…
This is the last post in my series of Faded Memories. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been together for thirteen weeks! I am thankful to Appalachian Memory Keepers for allowing me the opportunity to share some pointers on keeping your photographic history intact. I sincerely hope that you enjoyed…
A customer brought an old wrinkled image into the studio one afternoon. It was a snapshot from the late 1940s that had some fading and a few wrinkles. She said, “That’s my grandpa with my cousin. My cousin was such a brat, he always took up too much of my…
