“My grandpa said when he was a boy this area was so sparse in population that he’d go up on the high ridges and look for wood smoke. Then he’d go to the house and see if they had any girls for him to court.”
Tipper
p.s. The winner of Gladys Trentham Russell book “Call Me Hillbilly” is Cynthia who said: “I never remember having the flu as a child. I had it once as an adult. My husband had it first, then myself. I made it to the doctor in time to get a dose of Tamiflu, which really helped and I was better in few days. I thought I was going to die. I couldn’t get warm, so I slept in my sweatsuit. After that year, my husband and I always got the flu vaccine.”
Cynthia-email your mailing address to me at blindpigandtheacorn.com and I’ll get the book to you!
Overheard: snippets of conversation I overhear in Southern Appalachia
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Time I climbed out to the ridgetop and trudged to where I seen the smoke I was so tired and cold I didn’t even ask if there was a girl my age living there. I asked if I could sit in front of the fire for a while and if I could maybe get a hunk of cornbread or a biscuit or something.
Thank you , Tipper. I was so surprised I won the book. I’ve e-mailed you my full name and address.
Tipper,
Tomorrow is the day set-aside for those great Veterans who honored our Country by serving in the Armed Forces. My daddy never went to War, neither did I, but I had brothers that did. And a lot of my friends was sent to Viet Nam to fight the Goughts from North Viet Nam.
Monte Kit and his brother, Dusty, both were sent to Viet Nam as soon as they were out of school. I knew them since I was about five and Daddy took us to Wesser Creek squirrel hunting. He showed us how he got squirrels, peeping around the tree at him with one eye. He hunted with a single-shot .22 and seldom ever missed. We all were good shots.
This served Monte Kit well when he was in Viet Nam. He was a friend with only a few words and he was hesitant about talking about the War, but I questioned him every time I got the chance. He said he was on Night Patrol and it was either kill or be killed, so he chose the first. He said he remembered Harley (my dad), and the Squirrels on Wesser Creek peeping from behind a tree or log, and took care of the problem.
Monte Kit and Dusty never crossed paths, but both came home. Dusty died about 3 years ago in Lawrenceville, Ga. Monte lives in Peachtree, about 20 miles from me, and goes with his boss to quote cars for Family Auto in Murphy. He also mows for me at the shop every 10 or so days at my workplace. …Ken
The older I get, the more I appreciate those wide open spaces, and the more I resist the various hustles associated with cities.
My how times have changed! Imagine a feller going to a door and asking the same question today. Not much wood smoke to lead a feller to a house these days.
Ron Stephens, it sounds like you could be my neighbor as I have that same uneasy feeling about the same kind of ‘progress’. I just hope the rumors aren’t true or I could be leaving the place I have called home for thirty years.
Shirl, I am in the Clermont, GA zip code area.
Looking for woodsmoke to find a girl, now that is sparse. It was said about Daniel Boone that if he could see a neighbor’s smoke he took it as a sign of time to move. I’m not that much of a pioneer but I do not like suburban. I need rural. Thing is though that rural doesn’t stay that way. The story is that we have four lane coming toward us from two directions. Makes me uneasy.
Ron, we moved to the country 40 yrs ago, but the city has come to us. We have a four lane pretty close & our neighbor two houses away sold his corner lot for a lot of money for a Neighborhood Walmart to be built there. We were fortunate that neighbors were family & most of us have a few acres–we’re sort of like a little oasis on a private drive. I don’t like it but we’re too old & have too much “stuff” to move. My husband has a shop bigger than our house (he built it himself from a lot of salvage stuff) and he has so much stuff. I am unfortunately a collector of books & various other things.
Our area has grown in just the last 30yrs, I guess because of all the industry on the river, and around Huntsville jobs have been at a steady upward climb, all tho some of the plants that were once big are either gone or downsized, but new industry has moved in, we’ve built 6 substations on or near the river just to handle the load in our area, and you don’t know your neighbors anymore, folks everywhere, a new 4 lane has been built that runs from Alabama, Mississippi line to Decatur. Prosperity comes with a price.