The 1974 Winter Edition of the Foxfire Magazine contains a compilation of newspaper articles written by Harvey Miller. At the time of the magazine’s publication Miller’s weekly column had been around for sixty years and was till being published in the Tri-County News located in Spruce Pine, North Carolina.
1950
Vester Miller has displayed at his home an unusual looking cabbage that grew in his garden this year. There were nine sound cabbage heads of very good size that grew on one stalk. These heads grew around straight to shape itself like the one-headed kind, however very much larger.
Dewey Hughes of the Pate Creek section, one day last week was gathering herbs for the market in an old waste field near his home where he happened to find a den of copperhead snakes. He saw a snake go under a flat rock. He turned the rock over and killed eight of the poison snakes, three large ones and five young ones.
8/31/50
1953
Mrs. Hannah Johnson, who lives here on Pate Creek, reports she has had quite a success this season in growing vegetables in her garden. She says she had a cucumber vine to grow from her garden on to the top of her house, where there are two cucumbers to such length she has not yet decided whether to harvest the cucumber from off the house top for food, or let them stay there until they turn yellow and then keep the seed to plant.
If it were not for the heavy night dews here in our mountain country, the corn and tobacco crops would probably already have been a total loss, with the lack of a normal rainfall this summer. With the dew that is here on the growing crops every morning, so far they have not yet showed much sign of not getting enough moisture.
Holt Herrell, our merchant, is sick and has been for sometime.
Rev. and Mrs. J.H. Arrowood visited their daughter Mrs. Dessie Miller, last week in Memorial Hospital at Johnson City. Mrs. Miller has been a patient there since she was hurt by a cow at her home near Unicoi, Tenn.
8/13/53
1956
Garfa Griffith, who lives at Tipton Hill, but owns two large tracts of land here on Rich Mountain, where he has a large flock of sheep on the mountain range, took from his pasture Saturday 40 head of spring lambs and hauled them to Toecane to send them in the lamb pool shipment that went North.
8/23/56
I always enjoy peeking back into the history of Pigeon Roost. Every time I read one of Miller’s pieces I always wish I could have been there to see the sights. The cabbage and cucumbers sound amazing and I can just imagine how pretty the sheep were on the mountain.
Jump over to the Foxfire website and visit. The site is great fun to poke around and they are still publishing the magazine and those wonderful Foxfire Books too.
Last night’s video: A Chocolate Gravy Breakfast in Appalachia.
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I so fondly recall the column in our Waterford Post that brought everyone up to date on who went where and often, what they had to eat. The story of the visits often ended with the phrase, ” a good time was had by all”.
Another great blog post, Tipper!! Thank you!
I’ve reached a great age and never had chocolate gravy. I can only imagine how good it was on those biscuits. With chocolate gravy, who needs jelly or jam? I might have to get some cocoa and make some.
Copperheads do seem to come like grapes. Some years back my in-laws kept a beach cottage and had yucca – some call century plants – beside the walk to the front door where they let the old leaves remain on the stalk and sag to the ground. One of those plants got quite tall, about 4-5′.
One late Fall day I spotted a copperhead warming on that sidewalk and sent the wife off to get a shovel while I watched it. It slithered into that big ole yucca plant. I poked around in there and out came 3 copperheads. After dispatching them, I poked around some more and another one came out. By the time I was done I had killed 19 copperheads, large and small, living a foot from the front door walk. Needless to say, we kept the old leavers trimmed thereafter.
Killed the biggest copperhead I’ve seen in my 80+ years in the garage/boat storage building. I went to get something at the back of the boat and heard a PLOP behind me – between me and the door. I managed to get a rake on it and drag the copperhead out. We measured it at almost 3 feet and fat. Held on the end of that rake, it was pretty heavy but we had no scales to weigh it on. We took pictures of it dead and hung it in a tree. Rained pretty good later, as I recall.
Speaking of rain, here in central Texas where I live, the average rainfall is 33-35″. After 7 months, we’ve had over 8″ officially, but not 9. Crops and gardens made little or nothing this year. Cattle auctions are paying next to nothing because everyone is selling their stock that would normally graze to feed. Ranchers are getting dimes on the dollar but beef prices are higher than ever.
I made chocolate gravy last night. It was really really good but a little lumpy. I think the lumps were because I didn’t stir the ingredients together at the beginning or because I used milk instead of water. I had some milk that ran out of date on the 28th that I needed to use up. I will definitely be making it again, hopefully things will go smoother next time.
I miss the old newspaper we had in our small town, also. It gave quaint news about people in the area that made you smile laugh, or spit out your coffee while reading. Always entertaining and a great way to keep up with your community – and give you something to talk about with others that wasn’t gossip, mean, or opinionated. I also strongly believe that blogs and comments are just as important today. They share other areas and customs, far away from where I live and understand. Always a treat to read all the comments that a good blog post initiates. BRAVO Tipper!!
The venerable Keowee Courier, published weekly in Walhalla, SC, ran a photo of my Grandpa Alexander and me in the late 1940s with a sheaf of rye that was seven feet tall. Miller would have run that too, no doubt.
Our one county newspaper when I was growing up read just like these excerpts. Don’t I wish we still had the social atmosphere of those simpler times! I’ll take the country where nothing ever happens any day over life in the concrete jungle.
In my woods work, I once found myself in the midst of a copperhead assembly. As best memory serves, there were about 30 of them. A good rule when one sees a poisonous snake is to stand still and look carefully around before moving. I did that when I saw the first one and just kept seeing others. In all my years in the woods, that only happened the once.
I would like to have seen that 9-headed cabbage. Can’t quite see how nine made one though. Guess everybody who has ever grown cabbage knows they will grow a little rosette of tiny heads below where the main head has been cut off but I have never seen any of those big enough to be useable.
We had some of those heavy dews here this year in our month of drought back in May-June. It got cool enough overnight to reach the dewpoint but not cool enough during the day to make rain clouds. Like the article says, I think those dews were a saving grace. Even the dews weren’t enough though for a good garden. Reminds me of how the Garden of Eden was watered before there was ever rain.
I enjoy stories about times of the past. The 1953 story about heavy dews and no rain could be said today about my area. The gardens have dried up, grass in the yards has turned brown and crunchy and I noticed the trees either dropping their leaves or the leaves are starting to wilt. Now on some mornings there is very little dew. It seems like there are thunderstorms all around me but none here. I was glad we didn’t get the one near me yesterday, strong winds and ping pong ball size hail. I would have like to have seen that cabbage.
I’d like to see those cucumbers growing atop the house myself!!!! I’d like a gander at the cabbage too. That picture of a sheep is really pretty. He looks content and cared for. Tipper, I still long for the Foxfire book set. I also long for things to be like they used to be. Oh well…
Things sure have changed in our world since then. It’s nice to reflect on days gone by, the good and the not so good. It’s also sad to think our children and grandchildren will never know how the simple ways in life were more satisfying than what the world is like now, even with all its technology. Folks took each day as it came, worked hard, played more, had a true community that looked after each other, and actually had true one on one friendships.
Love Mr. Millers pieces, Thanks!!
Would have loved to see that cabbage!!
Your video last night was gteat, can’t see where to make comments so… Chocolate gravey brings back memories of my grandmother. She came from MI and must have been as a child as the whole family came to Kissimmee FL. She made me pancakes with chocolate gravy every time I stanyed with them. The thin watery kind, my grandpa drank Postem so I got that too with lots of milk and dugsr. They made me feel like a princess
The copperhead part caused me to squirm…I don’t do snakes…like the song, spiders and snakes. The cabbage part was very interesting also. As far as the chocolate gravy, when my hubby gets back, I cannot wait to try that recipe on him. He is a biscuit/gravy person and will enjoy it. He is a picky eater and I think he will like it. He also does a tomato gravy…not bad for sure. Have a Blessed day and the gardening is coming to a close for these veggies, me too, but I think I will try some rutabagas…they are 2.97 a lb near me and as large as they are, I cannot justify 9.00 for one item. Be safe and well…God Bless you guys.
My visiting/summering city cousin/neighbor, next door says he could never live here all year round, because “nothing ever happens in the country!” His partner (who grew up on a dairy farm) & I take a long look at each other & make eyes at each other. Then we get to laughing. I told him, “you just have to know who to ask” or “know the players” and there is ALWAYS something going on in the country. I have been slowly acquiring those Foxfire Books – most valuable reading there ever was! I only 3 left to buy, now. I could read them over & over and never tired of the stories in them. I love the story of how young Harvey Miller was when he started his column. His was an interesting interview. We still have a little local newspaper in our town. But the editor/owner CAN’T WRITE! and he spends most of his time in his columns stirring up a bunch of trouble between townsfolk. If you send a letter to the editor, rest assured, by next week there will be 5 people duking it out in the pages of print.
I recently went to a funeral at the Baptist Church cemetery in Pigeon Roost. It was the 1st time I’d been there in 30+ years. The area has change so much over time, no gravel roads and resort homes instead of of what I remember.
I agree, Tip, it’s always interesting to take a step back in time. I, too, would like to have seen the cabbage. It was a different world them. I think it was quieter and calmer then, but that may just be a fantasy in my thinking.