One morning in early spring I bolted out of bed with joy in my soul. I was in the neighborhood of 8 years old and school was out for the summer. And it was barefoot time and laying up in the hayfield looking up at the Carolina blue sky under…
Something has been on my mind awhile now and with two foster children, I haven’t had the time or took the slack time I’ve had to write it down. I have always been drawn to our ancestors. Mountain men who came into this country with an ax and a long…
I would take a straight pin and bend the head around into a circle. Then with a pair of pliers, I would bend the sharp end into a U. That was my fish hook. I would go into the woods that came within 15 feet of the house and hunt…
We owe much to those who came a long way back yonder. To the American soldier for sure-fearless in their fight for freedom-my, my we take a lot for granted these days. Thousands upon thousands of men and women gave their all for America-for you and me….But my thoughts were…
There’s a fire softly burning, suppers on the stove, but it’s the light in your eyes that makes me war m. I think John Denver knew about life. Ain’t it good to be back home again? I think he was a poet too. He sung country like it was supposed…
In the late ’40s and early ’50s under the shadow of Mt. Pisgah, boys made slingshots or bean shooters, which is what we called them. I would spend hours in the woods behind the house looking for that perfect one. Everyone knew dogwood made the very best, so while laurel…
I’ve said so many times that our people came from everywhere. They came to America to start anew. They came to build, farm, and be blacksmiths. They came to be gunsmiths. They came to be carpenters, masons, doctors, preachers, and teachers; but mostly they came to work and build a…
Life’s evening sun is sinking low A few more days and I must go To meet the deed that I have done Where there will be no setting sun. I watched my mama cook so many times. I never learned anything, but I always knew something good was about to…
The cemetery was up on a hill there in Shelton Laurel. Most burial grounds were in places not really suitable for gardens or crops. On a hillside or at the crest of a hill, and usually, they were fenced in with barbed wire cause they were part of a pasture.…
Her mother, Hannah, died at 32 years old. She had eight children, and one child died. Her father, Lonnie, after a spell, decided to remarry. They were from Shelton Laurel, NC. Mountain folk, farmers, moonshine, tobacco, ginseng, and anything else that helped support the families. The upshot of it was…
