Both my parents were born in the Appalachian foothills of Ky. My Mother was the youngest of thirteen children after the last baby born passed away at two yrs. of age so lots of Aunts and Uncles that grew up there on the homeplace farm but had to leave during the Depression to go were the best paying jobs where but always coming back and bringing gifts with them. No matter were the family members had to move to find opportunities they always made sure to consistently stay in touch to check on how everybody was making it and they all did well for themselves.
My Dad lived in Appalachia until he left to go to find work at nineteen yrs. of age during the Depression yrs. running from 1929 through the early forties then WWII and rationing of the people’s supplies after that.
His father was killed in the coal mines along with his Uncle when he was nine yrs. old, his Mother never remarried (never was there a time I saw her husband’s grave at anytime of the year that it had not been freshly decorated by her) but remained on that large farm, worked it so she could pay it off took her many yrs. but pay it off she did and with the oldest son gone off to war, daughter leaving to stay at a boarding school working her way through to pay for it the other daughters married (six children in all) and left out of state except for one who stayed in the area she was still managing that farm when she passed in her sleep several months shy of 99 yrs. old. Her children always kept in contact with her and visited often, put their money together and remodeled/modernized the old house for her so no more outhouse after that lol.
My family moved a lot as it was growing fast, I attended many different schools (always the new kid on the block) Mom birthed 10 children, lost 4 of them so lots of old mountain funerals one was done at home, well…visitation was and lots of mountain Kin came to sit with the dead and family day and night then it was 60 miles to the mountains for the funeral in the old church and burial in the family cemetery where other family members have been laid to rest ever since with our people who live there coming and going the last mile to the graveside with the dead.
My Grandmother’s place was the one constant for me growing up, I was there a lot with my family and roamed that old farm a lot. Played checkers with Grandma known as the checker champ of the hills. Her daughter brought the checker champion of MO. to play with her, she took five checkers against him using all of them and beat him at the game! Of course she was humble about it.
I gathered eggs for breakfast, water from the spring, rode mules, gathered from the garden, helped in the kitchen on that wood cook stove, slopped hogs, swung on the grapevines, caught tadpoles in the pond, walked the dirt roads to get to the general store with Grandma, explored in the caves (would not do that today) rode a homemade wood sleigh pulled by a mule in the winter and of course listened to those great story tellers who had the gift for gab built in and played and sang the old Hill songs with the many who came to do so and I recall making sure to bring my grand son to meet his great grandmother. So many memories of the culture of my people.
Wherever my family lived they brought Appalachia and its ways with them as it was in them. I have heard SE Kentuckian’s say…it’s in the blood. I believe that is so. I have done quite a bit of traveling in the US and abroad but nowhere do I feel the same as I do when I step foot on my Grandmother’s old place. Both old home place farms on Mom and Dad’s side of the family have been kept in the family among extended family members…that too is the Appalachian way. I feel if one is within an Appalachian family then that brings a sense of place too, no matter where they live but yes the beautiful mountains whisper the roots and history of our ancestors and too… holds the graves of many of them.
—Rose 2024
Hope you enjoyed Rose’s memories!
Last night’s video: Come with Us to the Historic Ramsey House in Knoxville TN!
Tipper
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Rose, thank you for sharing your lovely story. Both my parents families have lived in KY since the 1700’s and I always feel like I’ve come home when I’m in the SE KY mountains, so as Rose wrote, it’s definitely in the blood. My grandfather worked in the coal mines and I’m proud to be a coal miner’s granddaughter.
I am from Iowa but always loved the mountains. Moved to NC after my husband passed in 2019 and felt I had come home because on any given weekend my daughter and I would go to some small town in the mountains. Now I live with a daughter and her husband just across the NC border into SC and I still get the joy of the mountains! I love reading memoirs of those blessed enough to have generations of family who lived in these beautiful mountains. I wish I had grown up here, although I loved my beautiful state of Iowa. May God shower blessings on you and your family, Tipper, and all your many fans!
Patricia, one of my closest friends grew up and lived on a large farm in Iowa before his family sold the farm and moved to Greenville, SC in the late 70’s. I laugh at him telling me about being in a restaurant not long after they moved down here and him ordering a hot dog all the way. He said he asked them what that was on his hot dog, he had never saw a hot dog with chili. I tell him we don’t serve “Yankee” hot dogs down here!
Thank you for sharing Rose’s precious memories with us ! And all those in the comments! So sweet .
I also loved last night’s video featuring your book signing in Tennessee .
I have a couple of questions regarding your cookbook , Tipper . #1Does it make a difference , to you , whether we purchase your cookbook from you directly or from Amazon?
# 2 Is your corn bread recipe in your cookbook?
Thank you so much for sharing all that you do and this sweet community with us all !
Lori-Glad you enjoyed it! Yes my cornbread recipe is in the book. I make more if you buy it from me, but purchase where it works best for you 🙂
Yay! Thank you so much !
Beautiful memories, Rose. Thank you for sharing.
My husband’s mother grew up in Wallins Creek, Kentucky. That’s in the southeast part of the state in Harlan County. Her grandfather ran the coal tipple for one of the mines. Her mother was a healer and midwife who rode quite a ways to help people. Jim’s mother’s story sounds very much like Rose’s mother’s. Mother worked on the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Of course, she had no idea what they were doing there. It was a job. Then she moved to Detroit for work where she met his father not long after he came home from WWII.
Thank you Rose for sharing such beautiful memories. My daddy was one of ten children, so I was blessed with so many aunts, uncles and cousins. I am the second youngest cousin in this family, so all aunts and uncles are long gone, and the cousins are beginning to pass. I have lost two this year, one just two weeks ago. She was eighty-four, eighteen years older than me so when I sent out cards to the family, I talked about all the wonderful memories I had with her and her family. I was young but I will never forget all the good times we had. Sundays were special because of church and family and of course those good ole Sunday dinners:)
What a beautiful account!
Rose done good! We should all write summaries like hers. I haven’t, but I have organized some mental notes along that line. A friend found an online publisher who helped him write his family history. They even provided prompts on what to write next, in case he needed them. I forget the name of that particular publisher. I imagine there are several out there.
Rose shared memories that so many of us from Appalachia share, but I see my great-grandchildren growing up without that sense of place or family and it weighs heavily on my heart. I have so many wonderful memories of family reunions and gatherings with aunts, uncles, cousins and traveling to and from Buncombe County from Caldwell County. How I miss and yearn for those dear hearts and gentle people.
What beautiful words to describe a beautiful life. I wish we all could be blessed with such fond memories (memories that last a lifetime) like Rose was. I am trying very hard to live vicariously through the people of Appalachia. I so enjoy hearing the love, closeness, sharing & caring of the Appalachian people. I know I am not “one of you”, but in my heart & soul I feel like I am, or at least feel like I could have been, given the chance.
Nicki, Appalachian folks will give you the chance. It might would take a while. But when a person’s heart is good they’ll tend to forget you were not ‘born and raised’. Even when they remembered, they would not remind you. That is the heart of Appalachia I know.
Thank you Rose for sharing your sweet memories. It was very interesting and you make us remember many things about our own childhood. I was born and have always lived in Appalachia in the WV hills…here I was born…and here I will stay.
Thank you Rose for sharing those beautiful memories with us.
Rose’s account of her family memories was interesting. A lot of what she said could have been said of my own family. Both sides of my family were from KY. Most of my cousins and I were born in KY, I was born in Letcher County, KY. I only lived there four- and one-half years before Dad decided to move is to northeastern Ohio. His coal mining career had not gone well, and he was looking for a steady job. I remember some things about living in KY: “helping” Mom and Mamaw churn butter, going with someone to get the cow off the hill and putting her in the barn, I can still smell the hay in the barn. Watching Mom wash clothes by boiling them in a large tub on a fire outdoors and using a washboard to scrub them, and a few other memories. We visited relatives at least once a year and the long trip, 15 hrs. for me were about car sickness. I was miserable until Mom found out I wasn’t sick if I sat up front with her and Dad. My Mamaw, Mom’s mother, was always glad to see us and Mom said she lived with us in KY until they moved north. She used to rock me to sleep, Mom said. I noticed my mother and her siblings always called their mother “Mommy. Daddy called her “Ma.” Mamaw died when I was nineteen. I went with my parents to see her before she died of a stroke. A couple of my cousins and myself sat up with her in the hospital one night. It was my first experience with hospitals and later when I became an RN, I thought of things I could have done to help her rest more comfortable. Even then the medical profession wasn’t geared toward treating the elderly in hospitals. Since then, there have been many of my relatives who have passed away. All of my aunts and uncles are gone. Just a couple of weeks ago my cousin died, the last of her immediate family. Mom is 95 and she is the only person still living from her family. As I age, I think of these loved ones and all of the good times we had.
I enjoyed Rose’s sweet memories as she strolled down the lane of bygone days. I had either a vision or dream and my grandmother who raised me came to me. She told me things that came to pass. She showed me a circle of toddlers (about 13 or 19 in all) mostly with dark hair and revealed to me she was in heaven keeping watch over the babies I saw until such was their time to come to earth. She also told me we come from a large family circle in the sky and it a mother’s sworn utmost duty to pray and teach and get HER children back to heaven upon leaving this earth BACK into the big family circle. I asked who she would have me tell and in her smart eleck way she replied “whichever if them will listen!” And you know to this day not a SINGLE ONE ever listened or cared… y’all have a blessed day and believe what you want to or don’t- I ain’t got no dog in this race…. Have a good day and May THE KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS REIGN IN YOUR LIFE TODAY!!!
Rose makes me wonder just where her family home place is in Kentucky. Sounds like it might be close to where I grew up. Kinda depends though on whether one includes the Cumberland Plateau country with the Cumberland Mountains as being Appalachia. I enjoyed her account of her family’s life and am so glad their family has kept their property. Family roots add an extra dimension to life and if tied to place are even better. And I am constantly reminded here at BP&A that it wasn’t so very long ago that what we would now think of as a hard life was commonplace and unremarkable. That reminder is good to have.
God bless Granny Wilson
Thank you Rose for sharing your memories. My maternal Grandmother was from Clay County, Kentucky. Just yesterday, I found files on familysearch.org that listed appraisals of purchase of my Great Grandfather and Great Great Grandfather. The purchase made were of everyday items; i. e. 12 spools of thread, one yard of gingham, and shoes to name a few. These files touch my heart.
What a good summation of what it is like to be a part of Appalachian life! Reading Rose’s account really took me back to those times and ways and places of my own childhood memories. I feel so blessed! Thank you for writing about it!
Thank you, Rose! My people is also SE Kentucky. You described it perfectly! Our people have lived on the same land for 2 plus centuries. It is still the homeplace we all go back to visit though the original home is long gone! Thank you so much for sharing!
I now live much of my life on memories, living without my wife sometimes feels more like a burden than a joy. I can relate and did many of the things Rose writes about, especially the closeness of families. I especially remember when the bodies of our loved ones were brought home and the kin and neighbors would come by to visit and sit up with the dead. I have always kept fresh flowers on their graves and the graves of my parents, grandparents, daughter, wife and my father and mother in law clean. I feel like this is the least I can do to honor them. My son now helps me do this.
Her mention of the general store, a lady and her husband were owners of the country store in my community, the lady passed away Wednesday, I intend to visit with the family some time today. She would always give the neighbor children a candy bar on their birthday and at Halloween. I will always remember her telling someone that my credit to her was like having money in the bank, she was the first one to get paid out of my check every two weeks when I got paid. This was back before debit cards and direct deposit. I cashed my pay check at their store.
Thank you for sharing your memories with everyone. I’m 71 yrs. this year, and I remember going to Puckets Creek and Blackwater VA from Tennessee when my various great uncles passed, and my great grandmother passed. I was very young, but I clearly remember staying up with all the relatives there in their homes. I wouldn’t take anything for those memories.