My Southern Appalachian Heritage

[kentuck]

I remember exploring the mountains -- looking for whatever the world would offer -- knees on the damp ground, drinking from the mountain streams. Chewing on the tender tips of the young sassafras branches... Searching the shady mountainside for bloodroot, ginseng, branchmint, mountain tea, yellowroot, and other herbs... I recall the haunting sounds of the hoot owls breaking the silence of the nights.


After supper, the family would sit on the front porch and reminisce about the days events. I retain the memory of the lightshow before the symphony. As the evening shadows lengthened and the air cooled, the lightning bugs would rise slowly from the earth one at a time until there seemed to be as many fireflies as stars in the sky. Then the crickets, frogs, and other creatures would begin their meditative symphony.

And I remember going fishing with Mammaw. First, we would get the seasoned cane poles from above the porch rafters and check for hooks and sinkers and a good line. Then we would look for the ideal place to dig up some worms. Usually, it was off the side of the house where Mammaw would throw out her dish water. A little bit of dirt in a Clabber Girl baking powder can, and soon we had enough bait to fish all day.


With our cane poles and a can of worms, we would trek across the pastures and meadows until we found a good fishing hole. I recall how Mammaw would take a dip of her Bruton snuff and spit on her hook just before she would throw some big lunker of a nightcrawler to his doom. She would set her line on the bottom with hopes of catching the biggest catfish on Greasy Creek. Usually, she was successful. She was the best fisherman I ever saw.


Sitting in silence and meditating on the water, sometimes it would seem that the land was moving and the creek was standing still. On those days when the sun was hot and the fishing was slow, we would walk up the creek to an old country store. There is no smell more memorable than the apples, peaches, bananas, and other fruits and vegetables in a country store. Before we would head back down to the creek, we would get a cold bottle of Pepsi~Cola. Surely there was nothing more refreshing on God's green earth.


After a full day's fishing, we would pull our stringer of fish out of water, roll up the line on our cane poles, and head home for supper. Sometimes, the stringer would be so heavy to a little cotton-headed fellow like myself, that the tails of some of the fish would be dragging the ground. Neighbors along the way would compliment us on our catch. Once home, the fish would be cleaned and fried golden brown in the old cast iron skillet. Along with fried potatoes and corn bread, we had our supper, of which we were very grateful.

[asjr]

1. Delightful! I visualized the whole episode.

[marions ghost]

2. K&R

Nice tribute to those Southern times and places. I remember.

[zazen]

3. if only you had had Nintendo, a smartphone, and wifi, you'd have been spared such heinous memories

Having grown up on wooded sound front acreage near Airlie in Wilmington NC, I can relate. It was years before I realized how rare that was, even before childhood went digital. Thanks for the evocative description!

[marions ghost]

5. Coastal southern heritage here also

Playing on pine needles and sandy dirt under live oaks near the water. Eating watermelon on the beach (and blue popsicles). Oysters, clams and shrimp. Running around barefooted. Mulberries. Azaleas. Honeysuckle. That big magnolia with smooth bark we could climb to the top of and rest like a bee swooning with the scent of all the flowers in June. Putting witch hazel on the mosquito bites. Cold wash cloths to cool down. Elders who had time to actually play with us kids and talk to us sometimes.

[zazen]

10. aroma of gardenias and Spanish moss in 100 degree heat, terrifying "water bugs," the endemic racism

My elders indeed had time, but no inclination, except for my amazing grandfather, who took me swimming at Wrightsville every day in the summer.

Now, we'd go to the old Wrightsville Beach Yacht Club, the same one where my parents entered shagging contests in the 50s, and I'll never forget the blend of sulfur-ish "beach" treated water and tongue-and-groove knot pine in the 19th century shower rooms (our house was built in 1880). But the reality that I now acknowledge is that that yacht club managed to grandfather its membership to keep all non-WASPS (not just Blacks) out until the mid 80s at least. I never saw Black kids at the beach until the 1980s. I don't know where they got to go.

And we had a Black workman who'd come by to work on a few things, whose direct ancestors were the family slaves. The slaves' children and grandchildren had become maids and workmen for whom the nice ladies of the same families packed up bags of "hand-me-downs" for which the servants were supposed to be enthusiastically grateful.

That workman, who was my Mom's playmate in the 1940s when his Mom was a maid at the house bought up a lot of property around there cheap and has done very well for himself since in the 70s, which I was glad to hear. My lazy Faulkner-ish WASP relatives squandered centuries of inheritance (and land) because they had little work ethic, having had everything done for them by Blacks, poor whites, or Lumbees.

I'm grateful for the sensual heritage of my coastal upbringing. The smells and sensations transcended race, class, gender, and the drunken adults back at the house to which we never wanted to return after romping in the woods all day, as anything of the Earth should. I also know that many of my comforts depended on the historical deprivation of others, the "Darkies" as my grandmother called them in one of her romanticized "State" articles from the early 1930s. To my grandmother, born in 1899, the "soft songs of the Darkies" were part of the scenery. They weren't humans with whom to engage, but part of the world she inherited. Our heritage may be memories of the Earth, but not other human beings. I think that's what some who are into their confederate heritage don't grasp.

[appalachiablue]

4. K & R. Very pleasant recollections Kentuck. The woods we explored when young were

filled in the spring with lush trees and rocks with cool moss near a stream that we climbed. The many wildflowers we found fascinated me, mayapples, trilliums, jack-in-the-pulpits and even tiny lady slipper orchids occasionally. My father, brother and uncles were avid hunters and fishermen of trout and bass and I remember how much fun it was when we went along with them to rivers and ponds. Here's to good times in nature's beauty.

[gollygee]

6. Much of this doesn't sound specifically southern

My brother and I dug worms and took cane poles fishing here in Michigan too, and the fish was also fried in a cast iron skillet. We have woods and country stores with fruit too. And sassafras.

This sounds more like growing up before having any TV show you want at any time, and before the internet, more than growing up in any particular region.

[Mariana]

47. Some people really seem to believe

that if something good exists or happens in the south, then it's uniquely southern and doesn't ever occur anywhere else. There was a thread recently in which the OP said that without the south there would be no seafood or high technology.

[kentuck]

51. I never suggested that?

I only expressed my experiences. It's good if we have similar experiences.

[malaise]

7. I can almost taste that lovely fresh fish

[Faux pas]

8. Mother Nature

is the greatest gift we've ever been given. Refreshes and renews the mind and spirit. I live in the forest on the Oregon coast, nothing can compete with that in my mind. I lived your story with you kentuck, it's wonderful!

[mcar]

9. Lovely memories kentuck

Thanks.

[cwydro]

11. Beautifully written!

The south is a wonderful, magical place.

I love it here.

[senseandsensibility]

12. Thanks for taking the time to share this with us.

I found your piece meaningful on many levels.

[panader0]

13. Very nice kentuck

[cwydro]

14. Kick. nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

15. I thought this post would be about waving the confederate flag

[Munificence]

16. Great memories

as I was raised on the Ohio river around the Ky/WVa border.

To bad you are a redneck, stupid white trash hillbilly (and racist) here on DU.

Beautiful place....I miss it dearly.

Being from that area makes me def not feel at home here on DU...they despise us here... and I am even a Yankee. But oh, there is nothing like picking on us back woods hillbilly rednecks around here.

I know I am proud of where I came from. No guilt what-so-ever and could tell the same story as you, but most here will never "get it" as all we do is inbreed in their simple minded eyes. They will never understand the family structure we had, were you sat at the table as a family nearly every day, had a good meal and either got a pat on your back for a good job or a switch for doing something wrong. A place where your neighbors mom was allowed to whip your ass with a switch for doing something stupid....and we deserved it and became stronger for it.

I had around 15K acres of National forest in my backyard, I was turned loose at the age of 12 to hunt, fish, dig roots, etc....now all I am classified as is an "evil gun owner" around here.

Take these "city slicker" pieces of shit out for a day and I think they'd probably change their tune...but oh, they can't see the forest because of the trees. Bit of ignorance of our Appalachia heritage is lost on them.

Not much left in my area, the war on coal has seen our good paying "union brother" jobs lost, my father worked at the local steel mill that used to be 7K strong....now there is but 200 due to EPA regulations. Meth rules now and if you are not baking it or growing weed then you are on gov assistance and struggling. I had to leave the area after a stint in the military to seek a better life. I wish we could shut down Wall street,the bankers and DC like they shut us down....those folks sure are do gooders in their own mind.

We used to be union strong and prospering until our own shut us the fuck down and sold us out. I still retained my political leanings from the area and the strong union presence but some days I question if I am in the right mind with all the shit we hillbilly fuckers get around here and from the rest of the party.

Your post was a breath of fresh air and I appreciate it, so sorry for being a downer, but that is the way it is.

[cwydro]

20. Most of those anti-South posters

would not last a DAY in the woods.

[kentuck]

21. This was one of my earliest posts from 2001:

When I return home to the mountains, I travel down Interstate 75 through the bluegrass and horse country of Kentucky. At Corbin, I turn off to old 25E, the Wilderness Road, and head towards Cumberland Gap. Approximately 40 miles into the mountains, there is a two-lane highway about 5 miles from Pineville -- Highway 92. Driving past Magnet Hollow and East Jellico -- and another 3 miles down this winding road toward Greasy Creek -- lies a deserted and unmarked dirt road that was once called Pine Ridge Camp.



There are no houses and no signs that would indicate that it was once a thriving mining camp. There are only trees and bushes and overgrowth where once several families lived and survived on the coal buried deep in the breasts of her mountains. There's a sense of sadness in pondering one's birthplace -- especially when there is nothing there to indicate a beginning. I fear that future generations will forget that little "camp" by the side of the road. Perhaps, they have already forgotten?


As I survey the mountains around Pine Ridge, I can still see the remnants of the dirt roads and mudslides from the mining of sixty years ago. I wonder to myself, "Was it worth it? What did we get for our mountains?" In all my travels, I have yet to see mountains as beautiful and endearing as the hills of home. It is sad to see the damage that has been done to these jewels.


However, as a son of a coal miner, I understand the necessity of those times. Many children would have gone hungry if those brave miners had not ventured down into those dark dungeons. With picks and shovels and carbide lamps, they marched each morning --as if by ritual-- into those dark holes in the mountainside. There was no machinery. There was no "strip-mining." If they were lucky, they could find a mule to help pull the coal cars out of the mine.

Sometimes, the miners would be paid with "real" money and sometimes they would be paid with "scrip." This "scrip" could be traded to the mine operator for groceries and other goods -- usually for flour, cornmeal, pinto beans, salt, and lard. Otherwise, it was worthless. This was before the mines were unionized or mechanized.


Nowadays, there are not as many miners in our hills. One machine can do the work of hundreds of men. They can cut away the entire mountaintop in a matter of days. But what do we gain? What price must we pay to see our only treasures stripped and carried away? What price can be put on our streams and rivers as they are polluted by the mud and residue that always end up at the lowest elevations of the valleys?


As I stand at Pine Ridge and look around at the dogwoods, redbuds, oaks, hickorys, maples, and poplars, I see a hundred shades of green. Each of these "greens" will turn another glorious color this fall. The only green missing is the color of money. Who amongst us can put a price on such a blessing?

[Munificence]

36. Kentucj

the area I was raised in (S.Ohio, KY, Wva) was "pig iron" land. The old furnaces still dot the country side, some were restored for historical purposes and some are over grown with native trees, invasive multi-floral rose and honeysuckle, they sometimes go unnoticed to the untrained eye.

I was fortunate enough to see pictures of the days gone by and how they supposedly raped the land, not a tree in sight (cut them all down for making charcoal for the ovens). But yet as a young man I could wander through 100 year old oak stands that stretched for miles, stumbling upon the occasional "fence row" 200 year old oak. To me as a young man I thought it nearly virgin forest, but I was young and knew no better.

I think this ol' earth that we are inhabiting does have a way of healing itself, however it is probably a good thing we don't last as long in our individual lives as those 100 year old oaks.

Was the land raped, yes, has it recovered, ah, you decide that for yourself. What i think the problem is Kentuck and what I do not appreciate is the fact that the do-gooders will rape the land, put up high rises, sky scrapers, concrete, pollute, ruin rivers and waterways around our major cities but yet they will try and save the distant places where trees still grow.

If you have never heard of Jesse Stuart then I'd like to suggest you read some of his short stories. My grandfather was a friend of his and my grandfather used to tell me that a few of Jesse's stories were actually his. Jesse was raised out of Greenup Ky towards Grayson Ky in what is now the Danial Boone forest area. I think you'd enjoy some of his stuff.

I'm a Tn person myself now, have me a homestead with 13 acres and a beautiful stream coming out of a cavern that I will drink from if I'm really thirsty. No, I'm not up in the hills around Hancock county Tn but instead just south of Nashville. I feel at home here "back in the woods", no noise, stars at night, peace and quiet, closest neighbor is about a mile away, Nashville is maybe 30 and Murfreesboro is about 15. I feel at home here as all of us S.Ohio/Wva/ Ky folks wondered out of those hills in east Tn, they even have a name for us these days: "Melungeons", which is basically a mutt. We come from a mix of Scott-Irish, Native American and African-American. Those hills were a sanctuary "back in the day" to escape all types of evilness, still rings true to this day.

Now i am not a religious man by any means, but if there is a god he has bestowed all the beauty in the world upon me and it's really easy to see from my front porch, all one has to do is recognize it.

[kentuck]

39. Munificence...

I think I have read just about everything by Jesse Stuart. Started at a young age.

I am familiar with your part of the country. I was married in Murfreesboro, TN, the first time, on July 4th, 1976. There was a plaque somewhere in the middle of the town square that it was also the location where some famous Confederate general (John Hunt Morgan) had also gotten married there. It didn't work out for me and I don't think it worked out for the General either?

It is beautiful country around the Stones River. There is a lot of Civil War history in your area.

[Quackers]

62. I'm not too far from you either.

I won't say exactly where. I will say unfortunately, someone vandalized Serpent Mound which is near me. It happened over the holiday weekend. My family was there just a few days before it happened. I'm glad we were able to get some nice pictures before the vandalism.

[Glassunion]

17. K&R

[Munificence]

18. I'd like to add a story that is really funny.

My uncle was a "worldly man". He was a WW2 vet and had a local African-American gentleman that he fought with, they were best friends.

After they had been back home for awhile they decided to get together and go fishing at a local pay lake in Ohio. It was a big deal, a reunion, a day of cat fishing, beer drinking, talking about French women and basically a bit of chest pounding. Upon arriving at the pay lake in Ohio my uncle was permitted to fish however they would not permit his friend to fish as they did not permit African-Americans to fish in the pay lake. My uncle was furious, so he left without saying much.

Later that eve he called up his friend and told him "get your shit we are going fishing" (God I wish I could remember his name). Around 11:00 at night they snuck into the lake, caught a couple fish for eating and my uncle told his friend it was time to go after just and hour or so. Upon getting back to the car, my uncle pulled out two sticks of dynamite from the trunk (that he'd stowed away) and a post hole digger. He proceeded to go to the dam, dug two holes and he blew the entire dam down...haha.

His words were "If they are not going to let and African-American war hero fish in Ohio then by god no one will ever fish here."....blew it the hell up and flooded the valley.

I learned a lot from my uncle, sure he was a "rounder" and he sure was a ladies man, but he was a damn good person.

[CTyankee]

19. After YEARS of hauling around a cast iron skillet for fried chicken of course, I gave up.

I was tired of having to season the damn thing when I first got it and I didn't like the idea of just wiping it out after using (instead of being able to throw it into a dishwasher).

[kentuck]

22. They are difficult to maintain...

but the slow heat they provide is wonderful for cooking.

[CTyankee]

23. I don't cook that way any more. I use as many Italian, French and Spanish recipes as I

can in my daily cooking. I find that moderate heat using good olive oil gets wonderful results and we like our Mediterranean diet much better now. Plus, the dang things weigh a ton and you can get better, modern equipment now. Altho, I dunno...are the cast iron skillets modernized or just the same?

[kentuck]

24. Naw. They are as ancient as I...

But we cook a lot with olive oil nowadays also. More vegetables and fish, especially salmon, and less red meat...

[CTyankee]

25. oh, boy...growing up in TX nobody cooked with olive oil...I don't think you could even

buy the stuff. I was exposed to northern culture when lots of New Yorkers moved to Dallas in the late 50s as that city developed into a financial center of the Southwest. I learned a LOT from my Jewish friends in school.

I think I remember getting olive oil in a Dallas supermarket in the 1980s when I visited my parents. I thought to myself "finally!"

[CTyankee]

26. oh, yes, and you had to put your chicken in a paper bag with flour in it and shake it

up before frying. Now it is all coming back to me.

Lots of TX people emigrated there from TN and I have always noticed a similarity in the accents of the two...unlike GA or other deep South states...

[kentuck]

28. I remember when Crisco was a step up from lard...

[CTyankee]

33. lard got a bad rap...you can't even find it any more...

[tishaLA]

38. In LA you can

it's usually with/near the "Hispanic Foods" section. You can't make carnitas, after all, without lard. It's also the best kind of fat to use when cooking pupusas IMO.

[KoKo]

45. It was good stuff when it was Farm Raised Chicken.......

None of these Chickens Today will taste the same as those "Chickens in a Bag" from our FAKE FARM RAISED, CLONED, TASTE COMPROMISED FACTORY RAISED CHICKENS that are available TODAY.

And, that includes the Farm Raised that I try to buy.

But...whatever. You aren't going to get any CHICKEN that Tastes the Same in America today...as what we GREW UP WITH!

It's all sent to CHINA the "Good Chicken" since they've had Bird Flu and the Rest and they bought out NC's "Smithfield" which meant the Quality Got WORSE. Actually we need to depend on the Chinese to inforce "Food Quality Safety" to what we are sending them so that it bites us "Back in Our Butt" that the "Fish and other Products they Send Us" ...that are Substandard meet the "TPP REGULATIONS!"

HA!

BTW: This isn't personal ...I love your ART POSTS...they are Incredibly Informative. We just have differed on other subjects.

[CTyankee]

53. I'm not really exercised about the chicken thing...

and thank you for your kind words about my art threads...there will be more, next one will be in a couple of weeks...hope to see you then and hear your ideas...

[awoke_in_2003]

52. Once seasoned, they are easy to maintain...

Wipe it out when done, that's it. If you do need to scrub, only use water and a little kosher salt. Dry it, wipe a little oil on it, and put it away. I have 3 cast iron pans and a Dutch oven. Do, however, keep tomato based sauces away from them.

[CTyankee]

54. I am aware of their cleaning. It's just that I have some very good cookware I like to

use that isn't that heavy and suits me better. I am more in the Mediterranean mode of cooking and try to simplify whenever possible. For one thing, I think it is healthier. Also, I have traveled enough in Europe to have developed that mode for myself. I will not, however, master the French omelet the way I've had it in France. Something to do with their wrists...

[awoke_in_2003]

57. If I tried to flip an omelette

I'd be cleaning for days.

[CTyankee]

58. I got this omelette pan hoping it was just a matter of size...

imagine my surprise when that damn pan failed to "deliver...."

[awoke_in_2003]

59. I love omelettes

and, no matter what, I alway manage to destroy them. Thank god for IHOP.

[CTyankee]

61. You are sposed to use only 3 eggs, then lift the sides gently and finally folding it over.

Between the two of us, tho, we need 4 eggs. Sometimes it works OK but at least it's
easier to clean that with scrambled eggs...all the more reason to learn to make better omelettes.

[kentuck]

29. +10

[GentryDixon]

37. This song has always made me think of my Dad.

His Dad was born in Claiborne Couny, Tennessee, but migrated west around 1910 and settled in Wyoming where he and his brothers owned a coal mine. My Dad was born in 1917 and here I am in Utah. Thanks for the memory. 💟

[kentuck]

41. I was born only 20 miles from Claiborne County.

[GentryDixon]

43. Howdy.

My people were also from Grainger & Union counties. We could be long lost cousins.

[Uncle Joe]

30. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for sharing, kentuck.

[kentuck]

31. Uncle Joe!

[Uncle Joe]

32. kentuck!

[rogerashton]

35. In northwest Louisiana --

not far from the corner made by Texas and Arkansas, the land just north of ours was owned by "old Mr. Jacobs." It was understood that he was crazy -- didn't try to farm that land or make any profitable use of it, just let it go wild. But I spent some wonderful hours wandering in "Jacobs' Woods."

That land is a truck-stop gasoline station now, but there are some other woods of Old Mr. Jacobs' that you can still wander ....

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Walter-B-Jacobs-Memorial-Nature-Park/133141696707908

[KoKo]

40. For You.........

Not the best version...and I could have contributed my "Memories" Growing Up...but it would cause attacks. Thanks for the post of the time past....when we were Free Kids. 's


Anyway: MEMORIES...........SWEET MEMORIES.........

?list=RDDd5X2sqXE3c

[kentuck]

42. I can even remember KoKo01...

[KoKo]

46. I hope that it is "Fondly" ..Kentuck!

We've not always agreed but we share a heritage......You might not even know about.

's and

[kentuck]

50. Absolutely!

[KoKo]

48. EXTRA: "That's What Friends are For!

Dionne Warwick, Elton John, Gladys Knight ,Stevie Wonder - Thats What Friends Are For

[sufrommich]

44. What a beautiful story,reminds me of this song:

[seveneyes]

49. Let me be the first to say Amen after dark

[Warren Stupidity]

55. Your southern mountain heritage included

Decades of post reconstruction racism, segregation, lynchings and mob violence. For example see https://books.google.com/books?id=hea586e-L0QC&lpg=PA302&ots=DdvSU5PZND&dq=lynchings%20southern%20appalachia&pg=PA302#v=onepage&q=lynchings%20southern%20appalachia&f=false

[kentuck]

56. Thanks for your link.

I am proud to say that was not part of my life or my upbringing. Interesting that their political loyalties were almost always with the North and are still today.

[Blue_In_AK]

60. Your childhood memories are much like my early childhood memories.

We lived on a farm in Southwest Ohio, between Dayton and Cincinnati, not technically Appalachia, but close enough.

I haven't been back there for probably 50 years, but when I was young it was very rural, very beautiful, and even though we didn't have modern amenities (not even indoor plumbing), we were happy. I suspect it's nothing like that now.

I don't remember politics being discussed, but my dad was a staunch FDR Democrat and we were Quakers, so that's my southern (Ohio) heritage.

[DirkGently]

63. Beautiful piece.

Thanks for posting this. It was a pleasure to read.