The Family Treasure Copyright 3-4-19 I am fortunate in that my family has preserved a good deal of our family history down through the years, the artifacts and stories that reveal at least to some extent the people that came together to give me my life. It…
WALT’S CAMPFIRE SAYING GOODBYE Copyright 2-6-19 Walt Hampton A long life is both a blessing and a curse. As the years pass we have to endure the unendurable, the loss of someone close to us. I do my very best to try to concentrate on the…
WALT’S CAMPFIRE CONTINUITY Copyright 2-18-19 Walt Hampton Over the course of my lifetime I have had an abiding interest in archaeology; in fact, when I was in college I struggled with the idea of making my vocation something in the paleontology/archaeology field, so much so that…
WALT’S CAMPFIRE THE BLINK OF AN EYE COPYRIGHT 1-23-19 I do not profess to know what my people thought or felt, living in these mountains two hundred years ago, but I have to believe that like me, they had to have some sense of the…
WALT’S CAMPFIRE COLUMN 13 THE WAY FORWARD Copyright 2018 Walt Hampton 3-2018 I would like to profoundly thank Kelly St. Germain and the AMK non-profit organization, for allowing me the opportunity over the last few weeks to express my feelings about our wonderful Appalachian home; and…
For my last two columns in this series I thought we would take a look at our home from my perspective and perhaps give you a few things to think about. I preface this discussion with the fact that I love Appalachia and over the years I have given my…
I cannot remember ever being afraid of the river (here I mean the New River, in Grayson County, Virginia). In fact, fear of the river never entered my mind. Dad’s family had pioneered the river in the area of Pleasant Grove and Baywood and we spent many summer weekends in…
Every year, usually during Spring turkey season, I set aside a day to climb Buck Mountain. I can easily drive up to the top but I make every effort to at least once during each spring to do it ‘on my hind legs’, and away from the road. It’s getting…
The first real tool I ever had personal control over, so much so that my parents dedicated one to me and me alone, was the garden hoe. Looking down what seemed like an endless row of green beans, happy sprouts that reached for the spring sun, I can even today…
Every year, year after year, for thousands of years, our Appalachian mountains have been witness to one of nature’s most fantastic sights: the bird migration. Not only is this so incredible that it borders on fantasy, but it also is incredible in that it happens not once, but twice every…
