Photo courtesy of Western Carolina University Southern Appalachian Digital Collections
Aden A. Carver, Smokemont, N.C.
“Uncle” Carver at age 91 years is crossing Bradley Fork on a log. According to a note on the photograph, Carver said, “It is point blank aggravating, I can’t walk a log like I used to.” The 1937 photograph was made by Hiram Coleman Wilburn (1880-1967), unofficial historian of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Wilburn spent time identifying historic structures, collecting artifacts, and researching local history. He is credited with curating the earliest collections that would form the nucleus of the park’s museum.
Talk about determination! I’d be wary of walking across that foot log today and I’m a whole lot younger than Uncle Carver and a whole lot spryer too.
Amazing photo, but I also love the quote. Pap used the phrase point blank. Here’s the definition from the Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English.
point blank
A variant forms pime blank, pine blank, pint blank, plime blank, plum (b) blank. [DARE pime blank chiefly sAppalachians, esp eastern Kentucky, pine blank chiefly S Midl, esp sAppalachians; pint blank chiefly South Midland; plime blank chiefly sAppalachians, esp eastern Kentucky]
B adjective phrase Exact, precise.
1937 Hall Coll. Cades Cove TN Pint blank proof [of illicit liquor making] was necessary for an arrest (Dave Sparks) 1963 Edwards Gravel 134 And among them wuz a little sorrel mare with white feet and a white spot on her forred, and follerin her wuz a colt that wuz the pimeblank image of its maw.
[DARE South Midland]
C adverb phrase Exactly, directly, positively.
1913 Kephart Our Sthn High 286 “P’int-blank” is a superlative or an epithet: “We jist p’int-blank got it to do.” 1961 Williams Content Mt Speech 15 Atter a while the little oddlin’ begun to look plime blank like its grampappy. 1974 Fink Bits Mt Speech 19 I told ’em no—pint blank. 1961 Medford History Haywood Co 34 I can hit a squirrel pine blank in the head on the highest limb with this here gun, yes-siree! 1978 Montgomery White Pine Coll. II-3 Things get twisted around, if you’re not point-blank open and explain. 1993 Sosebee Wordlist He looked pime blank like Billy. 1998 Brewer Don’t Scrouge “Plime blank” in our neck of the woods was “pint-blank.” it means “exactly” or “right on target” (in other words, “point blank”). “That boy’s pint blank like his daddy” or “that rock hit him pint blank on the nose,” for example . . . . When we started with “plime blank” month or two ago, I had no notion there were so may variation of it scattered from one holler to the next in Southern Appalachia. We’ve had “plime blank,” “plum blank,” “plumb blank,” and “pint blank.”
[OED point blank C2a now rare or obsolete; Web3 archaic; DARE South Midland, esp sAppalachians]
Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English
The photo was taken the year Pap was born. Just like Uncle Carver he was also a determined man. When he set his mind to do something he done it—even if it took crawling like Carver. Granny is much the same way. She is the most stubborn determined person I’ve ever met and that’s saying something since I live with The Deer Hunter 🙂
I’m happy I inherited Pap and Granny’s determination and if my judgement is correct the fierce determination that has been a hallmark of Appalachians is alive and well in my children too.
Last night’s video: Come Along With Us On A Short Hike – We Found Treasure & Enjoyed A Popsicle 😀
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That stout determination is what allowed our forefathers to live and thrive on mountains filled with trees. Trees were cut to provide the cabins they lived and make the ground underneath the trees yield food for their families. I still see determination in the people of Appalachia.
Great article, Tipper!
Wow! What a great picture of this Mr Carver crossing that log! His family will have great stories to tell about his determination throughout his life.
Loved the picture! Yep, I’d say he was determined. Hope he didn’t have a wife anywhere nearby, LOL. I couldn’t even begin to walk a log like that. We would say here at home, he’s one headstrong man!! Lots of ladies like that also. Tipper, we use point blank here at home a lot. Also, loved the video last night. So nice to get out and take some time to enjoy your beautiful land there. The running water almost put me to sleep. Loved the excitement when the Deer Hunter found the plow point! I thought it was such sweet family time. I’m also enjoying reading your cookbook. It’s wonderful! Going to do the cheesy fries tonight since they have become a hit here at home. Prayers for Miss Cindy and all of you.
The name Aden Carver looked familiar. It took a little time and a little looking to figure it out but here it is. Aden Andrew Carver’s sister Louisa Emeline Carver Maples is Dora Evelyn Woodruff’s grandmother. Dora Woodruff, in case it hasn’t already dawned on you yet, is Dorie, Woman of the mountains.
Stubborness can be a good thing. Runs in my family and my husband’s family.
Dearest Tipper and family, I am so sorry to hear about Miss Cindy. I am keeping ALL of you in my prayers daily. My husband has liver cancer also, but he is doing good. Please keep us in your prayers also. GOD is the only answer.
i
Libby-I’m so sorry. I will pray for your husband!
God bless your husband with Healing and Health in Jesus name
Incredible photograph. Incredible man. Many thanks for this post.
I think one of the characteristics of the older generations of the country type of people was their determination to carry on through thick or thin-no matter what they were faced with. I think most people still have a degree of determination, just that some have more than others. Now concerning the foot log, even in my younger days when running around with my granddaddy, I would only cross a foot log we would use by sitting down and straddling it. He would walk across it with both arms full of things.
Once again you have brought me up short. I could hear any variation of “plime blank” (they way I recall hearing it in SE KY growing up) and take it right in without a hitch. But if asked cold, I would have to (as I did this morning) ‘study on it’ to decide just which way I knew. I am intrigued by that whole thing of knowing without knowing that we know. An awkward way to say what I mean but accurate.
As for being stubborn, it can be the steel in someone’s backbone that gets them through the hardest times when push comes to shove. I can be stubborn in a good cause when I’m convinced it is and I don’t want to ever not be. Reminds me of the expression “had his/her mind/heart set on…”
prayers for Ms Cindy, God bless you Tipper God bless your family, thank you for the story! ✝️❤️
point blank, say it all the time and just love the look on someone who hears it for the first time. I have also been called stubborn a few times
Plime blank is definitely an Eastern KY saying. Crossing that log in a vertical position would be my choice. Looking down at the flowing water would make my head swim, giving me more reason to fall.
In my opinion, ‘FIERCE DETERMINATION’ will be the main ingredient in what will bring this planet – and it’s beautiful people – together again. Viva la Stubborn!
That picture of a 91 year old crossing a creek on a log is one of the most peculiar yet spectacular sights these eyes ever beheld!!! Pap Carver was indeed something else, wasn’t he? If that doesn’t take the cake, nothing ever will! I’m like you, Tipper. I’m 55 and I’m trying to cut down in the area of hazardous, body busting escapades. I will be shaking my head in amazement and wonder all day long. When I say point blank it means it’s sure fire and no doubt about me seeing or witnessing what I did… it’s absolute 100 percent truth. Prayers going up for Miss Cindy every day- golden threads stretching back and forth to heaven spun with love of Christ.
Talk about determination. I am proud to come from determined, hard working people. My ancestor came through the Cumberland Gap from Virginia and settled in what is now, Laurel County, Ky. Hopefully, he rode a horse or mule through the Gap but he might have walked. When he found the land he wanted, he had to build a house, clear the fields etc. The work to create a homestead is mind blowing.
Don’t mistake “stubborn” with independence, True mountain folks are proud and want to do things without relying on others. Something that is rapidly disappearing from our once isolated communities with the influx of outsiders moving in.
Haven’t heard the term point blank or it’s many variations. I wonder if this term is where “to the point” is from.
Love that he crawled across the log – proud spirit filled with determination.
Matt being a stubborn determined person? Surely that can’t be true. He’s always so calm and reserved. 🙂
What an amazing photo of what was surely a tough and determined old gentlemen. Those are admirable and necessary qualities in any person. I’m reminded of the old saying, root, hog, or die.
Our family has it: Determination. Stubbornness. Resilience. Bloody-mindedness. It’s what settled the Appalachian wilderness. It’s what got us through the WWI, Depression, and WWII. We’d say “yer can’t give up until you die.”
We see it as a good trait in its proper place.
Tipper, Aden Carver was my great -great Grandfather! I’ve heard so many wonderful stories about him. I know where my papaw got his work ethics!
I am sooooo excited…I received my cookbook Saturday and have not gotten very far in reading it. There is just so much good stuff in it, I am taking my time. My hubby and I await the Friday’s reading and this is just another one of our treasures. I do save your video’s every day to go back and either reread or watch again as they are so informative. Yeah on your wonderful find on your hike and I am sure it will have a special place on your front porch. God Bless
I am quite familiar with the term point blank. It continually amazes me as I get deeper into your blog and videos how much Appalachian language and even customs I soaked up unconsciously as a child from my mother and her people. She had zero interest in who her people were and where they came from, but even as a small child I asked her where are we FROM. I wanted to know, it was almost a yearning just to KNOW. I guess the word you described in the plow point video, hiraeth, describes it to a T. Which leads me to another rabbit hole, ; )…..I wonder if that is a Gaelic word, Scots or Irish? Not only does it have the sound of it but also the ethereal nature of the meaning that the two cultures can have about them. I have traced back my Appalachian ancestors back into Ireland and Scotland. Do you know if your people came from either? So much of Appalachia was settled by them initially. B6 the way she told me I was Scotch Irish , Black Dutch (which is a whole ‘nother story, and from my dad’s family, German.
I accidentally put this under Miss Glenda comment but I meant it to stand on its own.
TeresaSue-I think my Wilson line came from Scotland 🙂
TeresaSue-Love those connections! I don’t know much about my ancestry, but I’ve been told my Wilson line came from Scotland. The word hiraeth is Welsh 🙂