You know all those country songs that talk about “Daddy’s Hands,” “Daddy’s Old Truck,” “Riding next to Daddy,” and “Daddy letting you drive”? Allow me to clear up a few misconceptions. Maybe certain daddies created sacred spaces in their trucks where kids could dream, but we didn’t have any trucks…
The house that I grew up in was at the end of the electrical grid, which meant that every time the power was out anywhere, it was out at our house. In those early days, having electrical power, or not, didn’t really change much. One of my fondest memories of…
William McFalls and his dear wife Ruth lived just a hop, skip and a jump from my old homeplace on Piedmont Road. Two of the nicest people in the world, they were the perfect Jack Sprat couple; Mr. McFalls was tall and lean, and Ruth was short and stout. The…
The most common types of watermelons in Burke County when I was growing up were Charleston Greys, Crimson Sweets, Jubilees, Black Diamonds, Cannonballs, Georgia Rattlesnakes, and Sugar Babies. Of these, Charleston Greys and Black Diamonds grow the largest with Charleston Greys maxing out at 30-35 lbs. Black Diamonds will grow…
Although we often hear about the Ohio Buckeyes, there are fewer recollections regarding the buckeyes of North Carolina. A buckeye is a nut that grows across the state, but painted buckeyes from the mountains are the most iconic, in my memories at least. I don’t know why we referred to…
When I was growing up, people often made their own entertainment, playing music, telling stories, and sometimes doing impersonations. My dad would sometime dress up in his overalls and weird aviator cap and pretend to be Snuffy Smith. He would adopt an exaggerated draw and fill his lower lip with…
Easter is a sacred holiday for Christians around the world, but for me as a child, Easter signified the beginning of swimming season. My parents made a rule that we were not allowed to go swimming in the creek until after Easter. Apparently, they were unaware of how balmy those…
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…
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…
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…
