I have a great sense of thankfulness for being born in the Appalachian Mountains, born in an area known as the Smoky Mountains and Blue Ridges. Actually the Parkway’s name is the Blue Ridge Parkway and it stretches all the way across NC. The folks who make up our History…
I got up early to watch the sun paint the skies. There was a coolness in the air and dew was heavy. It reminded me that fall is just around the corner. The beautiful kaleidoscope of colors that paint the trees and then lay their many colored quilts upon the…
I long for the mountains wild and free and the gift to stand on a ridge and count a thousand trees. From the Southern tier of NY State to the Northern Mountains of Alabama and Georgia is known as Appalachia. We have been ridiculed and called hillbillies. We have been…
I could write a story on girls I have known. But in reality, I’ve only given all I have to two. Some I dreamed about. Like all those beauties in the 1st grade and beyond. But today I been thinking about porches I have known. I’m a porch fan. I…
When I climb into my old imaginary canoe I never know where my “remembering” are going to take me. Sometimes the old canoe takes me to places I don’t want to go, and you will never know about some of them. Sometimes it takes me places I don’t want to…
I will always cherish and remember those happy carefree days when I visited Grandpa’s farm in Madison county, near Marshall. Memories of running up the dirt road and up to the top of the hill well up in my very soul at times and sometimes I wonder where the time…
In the mountains at the turn of the century, things began to change. Not in a hurry but slowly and surely, just like the seasons-change is inevitable. Shelton Laurel, Spillcorn, Hickey’s fork, Laurel and big Laurel, and most of the Appalachians teemed with game and the creeks were full of…
One thing that has stuck in my small mind is to finish what you start. If I heard my Mom say, “you ain’t done yet·1 once I heard it a million times. Usually when I was self-cleaning. Whether on the back porch washing my hands and face for supper or…
Sometimes I have the best times just minding my business and following up on promises made. Maybe not a promise but saying I will be back to see you soon. It is a sort of promise. You do know, at least you who are mountain folk we hesitate to say…
I wont wear shoes again but to church and such till school starts back in August. Its summer time. Around 1951, 52, 53. What to do first?? Maybe I’ll go pin hook fishing from the old oak bridge, or maybe I’ll go get Connie Gene and play cowboys and indians,…
