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.
Here’s a few articles from the month of September.
1964
Mrs. America Griffith of the Brummetts Creek section who is 84 years old, reported that she picked and canned a bushel of peaches that she gathered off of one tree at her home and picked all the peaches standing on the ground excepting 12 that she had to knock off with her walking cane.
9/3/64
1963
Mrs. Senia Ray of Pigeon Roost went Saturday to Mt. Mitchell to stay for a week and get away from the odor of ragweeds, as she is a hay fever sufferer.
The bean crop in this area has yielded an enormous amount. But the crop is largely matured and already picked. The beans have been taken care of in many different ways – put up in deep freezers, canned pickled in tubs, and dried.
Every farmer’s bean crop has done so good this season that there practically has been no sale done among the country people as there usually is and I have not heard of but very few beans that have been purchased here and taken to outside markets. It’s been a year that each farmer is taking care of his own bean crop and storing it away for winter use. But I have heard of one farmer’s wife who said she was drying beans to sell – and dried beans here are still called “shuck beans.”
9/12/63
1962
Floyd Hughes of the Byrd Creek section of Pigeon Roost reported that he killed a large yellow copperhead snake last Friday morning, a week ago.
Hughes was taking fodder and tied up the copperhead snake in a bundle of fodder but didn’t know it until after he had carried the bundle of fodder across the field. When he went to set it in a shock, the snake crawled out of the fodder and when it went to run away, he killed it with a rock.
Mr. Peterson who Mr. Hughes visited reported to the writer that he had two winesap apples that growed in the year 1960. He said that they are sound as a dollar. He said that he kept a peck of those apples in his apple house until they eat them a few days ago.
9/27/62
I always enjoying visiting the annals of Pigeon Roost. I love the theme of putting up food for winter in the excerpts I shared today.
From America’s tenacity in getting every last peach from her tree to the gathering of fodder to feed animals in the winter there is a real sense of self sufficiency that I find myself trying to emulate.
Jump over to the Foxfire website and poke around. They are still publishing the magazine and those wonderful Foxfire Books too.
Last night’s video: Things That Make it September in the Hills.
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Interesting reports! They give us a glimpse into the fall back in the day.
We still have a small town newspaper that prints this kind of stuff. Writers from the different towns have a column that tells about the goins-on in their locale: births, deaths, visitors, accidents, illnesses, birthday listings, nature sightings, etc… There are letters to the editor that mostly stir up intense debate & hatred week after week. Some topics get batted around for weeks, with both sides weighing in. Lots of political stuff and also tales from the past sections. It would be a valuable paper, except the editor does not have the slightest grasp on the English language. It provides us fodder for the weekend. Sometimes we have to read the Editor’s column multiple times to understand what the heck is going on. It usually involves a phone call to my mom’s to see if she could grasp it, either. We call it ‘last week’s news’, or ‘The Camden Blab”. Even though it has its downfalls, I would wager that there aren’t too many of these local papers left any more, which is sad to me.
My favorite today was the story about Mrs. America Griffith. To think she was that old and still working that hard to save her peaches. Folks use to save all they could. I remember my Grandmama could turn out a meal when I know she didn’t have that much but she knew how to make something out of nothing. Always putting up, drying apples, anything she got, she made good use of it. I agree, where in the world has time gone? My nine year old granddaughter asked me a question Sunday. She said, “GiGi, are you old?” I said, “what do you think?” She said, ” well 64 sounds old to me.” Out of the mouths of babes. LOL . I do miss Mayberry America. It’s sad our young ones will never know what that was.
“when it went to run away” If copperheads in Pigeon Roost can run I’m staying away from there!
Pigeon Roost doesn’t reassemble what’s in the Foxfire publications today. lots of resort homes, hard to find a true native. l always loved putting corn in fodder shocks , throght it was pretty when the field was done, we would put the pumpkins in the shocks.
I have one cousin and his family left on Pigeon Roost. So sad our elders are all gone. I doubt I’ll ever be back there again. Makes me so sad.
The last time my grandson came to visit, he was so excited to tell me about a set of books he had ordered and just received. He was surprised that I had already heard about The Foxfire Books and own volumes 1-4. The price he paid online was staggering, but he says the first one he read was worth what he paid for the entire set.
I first heard about Foxfire books and magazines here on The Blind Pig and The Acorn when I won a magazine subscription years ago. I’ve been reading them ever since.
Tipper I watched a great video last night on you tube called Alex Stewart: Cooper. He narrated it and you got to watch him make a butter churn. It was so great to see the man we’ve been hearing so much about. I’m sure you’ve seen it too. I never miss an Alex chapter.
In doing Genealogy research, I’ve come across a lot of valuable, poignant and vital information in anecdotes like these from small town newspapers. To me, it’s remarkable that personal details were fair game, even listing hospital patients , baptisms, jailed inmates and party attendees. ‘Aunt Martha came to visit Jenny Smith from Dubuque this week.’ ‘J.T. Miller is suing his neighbor over cattle bustin’ through his fence’. ‘TRAVELIN’ THROUGH: A number of field hands are in town on foot until Friday, looking for work.’ I can’t decide if all that was fodder for gossipy townsfolk or a good heads-up for local citizens – the texting of the day…! I subscribe to Foxfire and love it. Thanks, Tipper!
In the 1960s most people in the “High Country” of North Carolina didn’t have telephones or televisions and many didn’t have radios. The local weekly newspaper was the only way they had of knowing what was happening in the community. In the same vein the local paper struggled to find content. They would publish just about anything anyone wanted to submit.
My grandmother subscribed to the Smoky Mountain Times, the local Swain County paper. It came out on Thursday. She lived out in the Needmore section so by the time it got through the Post Office hassle it was the weekend and there was no mail delivered until Monday. She looked for it on Monday but was happy to see it by Tuesday. People in the obituaries
might have been dead for a week and buried for four days but at least she knew.
Grammaw saved ever last issue of that little newspaper. She read it then folded it back the way it came and put it away for future reference. For decades she saved every newspaper. More than once I saw her solve a disagreement by searching her archive. Talk about of a genealogist’s goldmine!
Sadly Grammaw died in 1996. At the time I didn’t even think about her newspaper collection and when I did nobody seemed to know of its whereabouts. Or care.
I love that story from Mrs. America Griffith. That’s a lot of work for an 84 year old woman who walks with a cane. She’s a trooper. I wonder if there was a follow up story about the peach cobbler she made from the canned peaches. I can imagine her taking a cobbler to a church supper or to bring to a family experiencing sickness or death. I would have like to have met her.
A peck of Stayman Winesap apples would last about 4 weeks around me. They are my favorite. I stopped at an apple house in Cartecay, GA yesterday asking about whether they had picked any yet. Knew I was early and the man said, “About 2 weeks.”
I think a yellow copperhead in corn? fodder would disappear. They are not so easy to see even in the brown leaves on the ground. In yellow corn blades much worse.
I cannot come to grips with 1962 having been 60 years ago. That was back in Mayberry America, a different place as well as a different time. As the old song says, “I would like to go back” to the social.atmosphere of that time at least. It is still here on BP&A and there is hope yet for the wide world.
I’m with you Ron, 60 years wouldn’t that long ago and for someone that mentioned 1972, that was the year I graduated high school. I remember as a teenager thinking someone 60 years old was ancient, now that i am there and then some, it seems like it was only yesterday that I was that teenager. I am not old, I only feel like it. I’m not old, just high mileage! I fully agree 60 years ago was Mayberry America.
I traveled all over NC in the early ’60s working as an insurance special agent setting fire insurance rates on commercial properties. I recall having TV in all the old motel and ‘tourist home’ rooms I stayed in as well as telephones including Haywood County and Watauga County.
If Andy Griffith had anything to do with writing the show, I’d say that the era depicted was the ’40s and early ’50s, despite the fact that ’60s model cars were used. My older brother, Charles, was at UNC and roomed across the hall from Andy Griffith in Battle dorm.. Andy’s roommate was my brother’s best friend from high school, Riley Johnson. They all were singers and sang together for fun and in performance. This was about 1949-51. Andy gave my brother a copy of ‘What It Was Was Football’ with ‘Romeo and Juliet’ on the B side. Some years ago, someone on TV interviewed Andy. I recall it has having been done by A&E, but I could be wrong. I remember that Andy mentioned Riley by name in the interview as a college friend of his.
If I had been the one who saw the copperhead come out of a sheaf of stalks I’d carried across the field, some laundry work would have been needed in short order. I don’t so much mind a snake I can see, but when I’m surprised by one they are all deadly because they will make me run into trees at high speed whilst keeping an eye on the snake.
I too have to confess I adore the Pigeon Roost series. Can’t you just see an 84 year old lady gathering and canning peaches? She had to have been a tough and strong lady for that! Winesap Apples 2 years old and still excellent to eat out of personal stash? I’d say that’s great! Many folks don’t know but all the apples you buy in stores have been stored in massive cooled warehouses for about 2 years. Once in Washington state I saw the most beautiful big pears I’d ever had the pleasure to see and smell and they were all lined perfectly in a box with a cushion for each pear and I was told quickly “No, no those are spoken for well in advance by the US NAVY who will all be getting these aboard ships.” Murrman told me long ago apples released to the public are stored on average several years as well as other produce. Also strawberries are put to sleep by nitric oxide gas so as not to rot as they’re transported. The more you learn, the more you’ll be craving living back at Pigeon Roost in 1972…. lol
Peaches are run through a hydrocooler to prepare them for shipment to distant markets. It de-fuzzes them and delays ripening. They are still very tasty but not quite as good as peaches off the tree.
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I have read some of the Foxfire books. Something about the old ways and days fascinate me. I have been told by some of friends that I was born a hundred years too late. My father in law would tell me the only ones that talk about the old days being good didn’t live during that time, that he would take these days anytime over the old days. I think he meant a lot of the conveniences of today. I still use some my granddaddy’s farm equipment he used with mules.
A few weeks ago, I mention my friend Ben and the thousands of sweet potatoes he plants each year. He has started taking them up and said that anybody that wanted to help pick up taters would be welcome. He only planted 25 thousand this year.
Randy, your mention of using old farm equipment reminded me of the time we boys excavated a good-sized swimming hole with an old-time “mule scoop” dragged by an Allis-Chalmers tractor. We swam in that spring-fed pond a number of summers.
If you are referring to what I think you are. It was a dirt scoop pan with a wooden handle on each side and either pulled by a mule or later on with a tractor -ours was 1946 B F Avery model A. I still have the tractor and the scoop pan. The old or mule equipment I was speaking of is a Cole 2 seed hopper (side by side) not a fertilizer hopper cotton planter, one and 2 horse turn plows, middle buster, both wood and iron beam subsoilers and some other similar plows. If the man holding the handles on the scoop pan was not careful he would kill himself if it hung and begin to tip forward- turn the handles loose and let it go! Been there and done that!
I am wrong about model of tractor, it was a BF model which was one size bigger than the A.
Wouldn’t it be nice if these were the kind of headlines we read today – MUCH less stressful.
I have not read the Foxfire magazine, but do have the Foxfire books, with exception of the first 3 volumes. I have looked and searched for them, but it seems the collectors are holding on with iron hands. And yet another informative video Tipper and holding out for Friday for the next chapter. Thanks for all you do for your heritage and putting the info out for others to enjoy and learn from. God Bless
What might be the dates of those early issues you seek?
I really enjoy the wonderful Foxfire books and magazines. Most of the folks interviewed for those publications don’t consider themselves to be remarkable, but I sure do.