Paw always owned a truck. In fact, a truck was the only vehicle I ever knew Paw to own. He didn’t own a truck because it was the popular thing to do as it is for many people today. Paw owned a truck because it was a necessity for life…
I wish I was more like my mother. She was a proud, hardworkingAppalachian woman. She learned the value of hard work as a child, hoeing out the corn fields along side her brothers. She learned the value of knowledge, even though she had to quit school, by learning to read…
Hi, Folks! Meet my late paternal grandparents, Ted & Lula Tweed. Grandpa & Grandma met in 1919, when the timber & lumber industry was in full swing in the Shelton Laurel Community of northern Madison County, North Carolina. Ted was a “Bit & Harness Man” for the mule teams and…
Our lives are shaped by many people, places, and events. For many mountain folk, family and church were and still are the two most important influences in their lives. This is certainly true for me. For me, White Oak Mountain Union Baptist Church was home, a place where some of…
Hi, Folks! Have y’all ever noticed how much of our ancestors works are so deceptively subtle yet so glaringly obvious when you stop and think about it? The proverbial ‘can’t see the forest for the trees?’ It’s everything from the way boards are placed on the side of a barn…
Most kids are right in the middle of enjoying their summer vacation from school. But if you live in the mountains of Appalachia, summer vacation is just about to end. Because of the long, hard winters and the probability of many snow days off from school, kids all over these…
Hi, Folks! Meet Edna, fully known to God as Edna Dean Holt Shetley. Most folks just call her Miss Edna or Miss Shetley. Her late husband John called her ‘Ed-Nee’ in the Appalachian tradition of pronouncing a short A as a long E. Me? I call her ‘Mamaw’ but for…
Our old home place sets vacant and neglected now. No one has lived there in many years, not since sister and brother, Delie (pronounced Dee-lee and short for Delia) and Roby, finally moved from the old home. By then, both their mother, Lurie (short for Lurana), and their sister, Maybelle,…
Hi, Folks! As most of you know, Appalachia has a rich & vibrant musical heritage; particularly where Folk, Gospel, Bluegrass & Ballad music are concerned. In 1916, noted folks song revivalist Cecil Sharp came to Madison County, North Carolina in order to notate and record old English Ballads which were…
Hi, Folks! As most of you know, Appalachia has a rich & vibrant musical heritage; particularly where Folk, Gospel, Bluegrass & Ballad music are concerned. In 1916, noted folks song revivalist Cecil Sharp came to Madison County, North Carolina in order to notate and record old English Ballads which were…
