I am more grateful than I can say for the comments and insights into my last post on Appalachian Values! It provides strong evidence to me that there is something unique and special about these mountains and life lived here. Family was a truly strong theme in the responses I received here. Independence and self-reliance were others and these traits of Appalachian people were seen and learned through family and shared experiences of struggles to live and thrive here on these steep hillsides. It seems that sights, sounds, and smells of different seasons and places created strong feelings and memories for some of you. They do for me as well!...
Back at it with your thoughts and mine
Appalachian Values: Your thoughts
What is the definition of Appalachia? What does it signify to be from Appalachia? When I think about this—these mountains and the sense of place they give me I have found myself trying to define or explain it in a way that gives a verbal explanation I could then share. My family and I have been privileged to live and travel to many other places, and experience other people and cultures in our marriage and life in the military. But I am having a difficult time attempting to put into words just what is different and special about Appalachia and the people and daily life here. It is like trying...
The rhythm of the days
The days continue to pass, each one fading at sunset and another beginning at sunrise. I continue to have mornings in which I wake up and try to capture and hold in a photograph the beauty of the sunrise in the east and the fiery glow it casts as it shines on the ridge behind the house. The sunset is not visible from our east facing slope but as I drive home over the mountain before I cross near the top I have been known to stop the car, get out, and catch a moment in time as the sun settles behind the mountains beyond. Home is familiar now–but still...
Fleeting moments and what ifs
There are those times in our lives when you realize that you are in just the right spot, just the right time or with just the right person. Falling in love, holding your newborn baby, experiencing a perfect moment or place are just many events and times in our lives that are truly fleeting as they seem to come and go much too quickly. And I find myself thinking the following question at times, “what if”? What if I had not met him? What if I had not gone to college or started that one awesome job? What if I had not traveled to that country and experienced that setting?...
Fading Appalachian Antiques
I am returning to my blog after a much too delayed period brought on by a combination of work and holidays and I must say sitting here today is a great feeling. I have been thinking often of my work here and have planned in my head and during my hikes and moments on these mountains new things to write about, so readers—be prepared. This entry I hope will share with you what I have begun to call, Fading Appalachian Antiques. And I feel truly blessed to have been able to see, touch, and record them for you before they fade completely away. There is a hillside close by on...
Daily life changes
Daily life for most of us involves some seemingly mundane tasks. Housework, shopping for groceries, yard work and other similar chores are part of simply living from day to day. There is also a commute of some sort to work for most of us–mine is now one hour each way–but many of us have known even longer. It is just a part of adult life on this planet for most. None of that has changed for me since our move home to the mountains, but there are definitely chores and events in my life now that I could never imagined! So let me share some of them with all of...
Grandfather Oak
Grandfather Oak stood proudly near the top of the ridge. His trunk larger and grander than any around him. His thick branches spreading out 30 feet or more in every direction. He was one of the old ones. His roots deep in this soil now for longer than 200 years. And Fall had come to the mountain once more. His were the last of the leaves to begin to turn golden and brown. Grandfather Oak He whispered in his native tongue to the other trees on his mountain, “You have all done well this year. From the cold winter days of February and March I have watched each of you...
Touching more of the past
This return to the mountains has been a life changing event in so many ways! I have gained a new passion (or addiction) since coming here that doesn’t seem to have an ending or a cure. It has been a treasure hunt in some ways and an archeaoligical expedition in others and just as difficult at times. My explorations began early on in the process as I took possession of two trunks–one that belonged to my grandfather and one belonging to my grandmother. Old fashioned steamer trunks that had been a part of their lives for their adulthood. They had been put to sleep in the attic of their home...
Those Who Passed Before: Through Mountain General Stores
An Excerpt of this work will be published in the Clinch Mountain Review Those Who Passed Before: Through Mountain General Stores Acknowledgements I want to offer my sincere gratitude to Mildred Anderson, author Isabel Zuber, and my Grandfather Herman Eggers for their wonderful contributions providing me with first person narrative to bring life to this work. Those Who Passed Before: Through Mountain General Stores There is an ancient belief held by many Native American religions that “every event that occurs at a place will always live at that spot” (Murray). This belief provides us with greater understanding of the bond that exists between the Native Americans and places or sites...
Rural Doesn’t Begin To Describe It
So, we moved. Loaded a huge rental truck full of furniture, pulled one of our cars and drove the hours and miles that it took to answer the call from those mountains in Southwestern Virginia and Northwestern North Carolina. My husband and I have lived in so many different and varied places over the past 22 years that moving is not new or scary. And this hopefully last move we make is from Northern Virginia outside of DC to a new/old home in rural Appalachia. And as the title of this post states–rural does not even come close to describing the area we now call home. First, it is a...