Overheard:
“I’m glad I live in North Carolina now. Where I can leave my laptop, go to the bathroom, and come back to find it’s still here.”
Tipper
Overheard: snippets of conversation I overhear in Southern Appalachia
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I don’t know if I’d leave a laptop laying around for very long–there, or anywhere else! But I do have a lot of faith in the “next” generation! I have encountered several young people–from different areas of the country– in the past few weeks and I am very impressed! They, like the ones in our area, are much more aware, much more intelligent, much more willing to engage, and at least AS moral, as we were at that age. I think this country will be in good hands!
I have been fortunate that the only one who took anything from me was a bear that ate my bird seed, but a dear, dear friend was helping a young man down on his luck, and he pretended to be helping her while actually stealing precious jewelry that cannot be replaced. She is so good to others but this guy took advantage of her trust. So now, I’m a lot more leery of others right here in Clay County. Sad!
One other little incidental, which seeing Don’s name, brought to mine!
Fishing fer trout without a license!
Sorry, the “devil made me do it”
Thanks Tipper,
We finally got back to Appalachia in April. I grew up here, but spent 35 years in South Florida, where my work took me. My wife is a native South Floridian and she was very apprehensive about transitioning here. We have been here less than 6 months and she LOVES it, and is even looking forward to her first snowfall in the mountains!
Tipper,
When I built my shop in the late
80’s, there were GOOD neighbors all
around me. I even went for lunch
and didn’t even close my big door.
All these folks are dead now and
a bunch of Dope Heads are living on both sides and I keep everything locked up. I taught my kids that there’s dignity in work, and this new generation has no values about the true meaning of life…Ken
Tipper.
Exceptions…Watermelons, chickens, apple orchards, frog ponds, hub caps and old tars!
Enjoyed this one…
When in the summer we left the windows and screen doors open for the summer breeze…Whoops, we still leave our keys in the cars a lot of the times.
Thanks Tipper,
I’m so proud to be Appalachian!
Just this week I visited a local cemetery here in central Maryland near our farm. I saw several tombstones where folks had left mementos like seashells,rocks,and toys. Two stones had coins from around the world that had been placed on them and it looked like they had been there a long time. No one took them. It is comforting to know that loved ones can rest at peace in a time where vandals steal bronze cemetery markers in large cities to cash them in for their salvage value. I was raised with the doors always unlocked, the keys in the car so you would know where they are and no need for passwords except to get into your treehouse. I believe that anonymity facilitates crime, unlike the days when everyone knew you and your family and expected honorable actions.
I know what everyone is talking about! Heard a lady talking about these things the other day and how things have changed. She said something that stuck in my head. She said, “You know this is just another day now and people aren’t like they used to be in many areas.” I suppose one could write volumes about the cause but I believe society is dying in some areas because we don’t know each other the way we and our parents once did. I believe that people that don’t know each other or have any kin close by don’t worry about their reputations or how they are perceived because they don’t have to measure up or care about such. I hope I’m wrong!
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm…not where I am.
I can’t believe your girls have grown-up so, or how much they look like you. BEAUTIFUL are they and YOU!
Lots of love to you, my friend! I think of you often and wish you well. Consider yourself (((hugged))) by this “stout” woman! 🙂
Any suggestions on how we go about returning Honesty to a valued trait? So many of my students considered anyone who trusted others to be a “sucker”, someone to be derided. They were always on edge with each other because they couldn’t trust anyone!
There is not a lot of places left that you can do that anymore. When I was a child we didn’t even lock our doors at night. During the summer we didn’t even close the doors. There would be nothing but the screen door between us and the outside world. I couldn’t imagine being comfortable doing that now.
Oh, to be able to say that, with justification.
I’m afraid, as Grandpa used to say, “they’ll learn.”
Indeed Tipper! That is exactly how I feel when I ‘cross that line’ into Cherokee and Clay Counties! Folks are just the same as they were in the FIFTIES. In my case, I knew that everybody knew ‘Joe’s girls’ and looked out for them. And those fellows sitting on the Square made it their business to keep each other informed. When they heard something they thought the other fellow ought to know they did not hesitate to relay the news! That kind of surveillance keeps kids on the straight and narrow path!
Regards,
Eva Nell
Oh, yes, stealing is a way of life in some areas. It is amazing how much is stolen, never recovered, and it is the hard working who are the targets. Pray for those who take what is not theirs, for they shall be judged.
Tipper, that snippet conveys a world of information about how safe we feel here in Appalachia. I feel completely safe in my home as well as out and about in the mountains here.
I mistakenly gave a man $1 too much in payment for vegetables the other day and he returned it to me! A man gave me $5 too munch in change recently and I returned it to him. That’s what we do here. We were raised to be honest. It’s one of our inbred values.
We were doing our weekly grocery trip last night and met up with a guy I went to school with, he was just talking about living in near by Huntsville for a while and moved too Decatur and the area he moved too he thought was a nice neighborhood but turned out not so, and had too moved over to a nicer location in town, the area he was talking about was an area that my wife and I got our start, you could walk in the near by park most any time and fill safe, set on the front porch and enjoy the day,,not that way anymore…and the neighborhood is not that run down, but the people are different,,I differently wouldn’t leave my laptop setting around there,,that was almost 32yrs ago..