The recent guest post by Ed Myers reminded me of a statement I stumbled upon in a book one time. Over the years, the issue has stuck in my mind. I even asked Blind Pig readers about it a few years ago.
The gist of the statement: folks who are native to mountainous areas feel protected and sheltered by the high ridges and mountain tops, but often feel exposed or uneasy when they visit flat areas of the country such as the plains or prairies.
On the other hand, the book stated folks who are native to flat areas are comforted by the wide open spaces, they have more room to breath and feel safe because they can see what’s coming. However, they find mountainous regions confining and feel smothered by their closeness.
The book described it as a Plains vs. Mountains mentality. Since I’ve never been to the plains I can’t say for sure how I’d feel, but it does seem I’d feel like looking around for a place to hide. Hide from what? I haven’t a clue.
It consoles me to know I can run across the next ridge over into the next holler and be gone from sight. Sounds like I need to be debating what I feel the need to hide from instead of the mountain vs. prairie mentality.
Would love to hear your thoughts on the Prairie vs. Mountains debate-hope you’ll leave me a comment.
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Ed’s post also reminded me a joke I recently read in Appalachian Values written by Loyal Jones.
A man died and went to heaven. St. Peter showed him around. He saw the streets of gold, the harps, the choir and thought it was all wonderful. But then he heard a bunch of people over in the corner hollering and fussing. As he walked closer to see what all the commotion was about he saw they were all chained to the wall. He asked St. Peter “Who are these people and why are they chained up?” St. Peter said “They’re Appalachian Mountaineers. If we don’t chain them up they’d go home every weekend.”
Tipper
I went to Houston, Texas a few years ago and had never felt the unnerving feeling of that type of flatness before. It was the oddest feeling and made me long to get back to the mountains.
I’ve seen the plains and I’ll stick with my mountains. I grew up in Appalachia and still live there. I plan on dying here.
I have spent most of my adult life in Larnaca and cannot picture me living in the mountains. Curiously enough, they make me feel…unsafe! I’m also scared of snakes and there are quite a lot in our mountains. However, a friend of mine lives in asmall village called Vavla in mountainous Larnaca and says she’d never trade places. Love that photo!!!
I do understand what being asked about mountains versus plains mentality, not from personal experience (because I’ve lived all types of places and never experienced it), but from things I’ve heard from others.
When my first husband’s grandfather heard I was from PA (he was from FL), he said he was afraid to go to PA because he was afraid if he fell down, he’d never stop because of the hills. ???
Maybe you’ll understand that. I never did. LOL
But I do feel safer in the mountains, because when the rains come down and the floods come up like in that Bible song, high is the safest place to be. ;o)
God bless.
RB
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I can only describe the mountains as simply home to me. When visiting other areas and returning it is always a wonderful feeling when you get the mountains in sight and say to yourself there it is, home!
One of my favorite quotes:
This is my country,
The land that begat me,
These windy spaces
Are surely my own.
and those who toil here
In the sweat of their faces
Are flesh of my flesh
And bone of my bone.
Sir Alexander Gray
These old mountains just wrap their arms around us & protect us from so much! I always feel so sheltered from what goes on in the rest of the world. I can’t imagine ever leaving them. I’ve been to the high plains-I found the wide open space amazing & the skies huge. It was a bit overwhelming, to be honest. I would visit again, but couldn’t live there. I’d feel too exposed.
I grew up in flat, flat Florida and my first visit to the mountains back in the 50s did, indeed, make me feel a little hemmed in. But when we bought our mountainside farm in ’73, we found a place with open vistas — a piece of heaven.
Tipper, I’m so excited — I’ve been asked to teach a writing class at John C. Campbell in June of 2013! Maybe I’ll get to meet you for real!
Yes, I believe this is very real. I didn’t really think about until after I was married though.
I grew up in WV & love the mtns there. I met my husband in college & he took me to southern Arkansas to meet his family – the first time I saw miles of rice fields as far as I could see all I could think of was how it made me feel a little queasy & lost. he kept asking me whet I thought & all I could say was it’s flat. LOL
Years passed, we got married in WV. My mother-in-law traveled from the home to WV & saw the mtns for the 1st time. She told me she felt like the mtns would crush her, like they were going to fall down on her & she wouldn’t feel safe until she was in open country again.
I’ve learned to appreciate the flat land of southern AR & I’m very thankful to live in nw AR where we have the Ozark mtns (thought they’re nothing compared to the Appalachians). I’ve traveled across quite a bit of the prairies too & seen the Rockies. None of them compare to where I’m from & any friends I have who from the Appalachians all agree that AR is beautiful but not nearly as beautiful as WV.
Hi Tipper,
I was raised in Central Arkansas(some hills and some flat land along the Arkansas River.) I then lived in the Ozarks for 20 years and did not want to leave. However, jobs took us to western Missouri, the eastern edge of the Great Plains. I could not imagine ever finding beauty in such flat land. However, the many different plants, the unobstructed views, the magnificent farms all quickly made me appreciate a different part of the world. I especially like the wonderful farms producing pounds and pounds of the food on which we depend. I never tire of seeing the sunset over the ripened wheat or watching the giant farm machinery preparing the land for planting or harvest. I admit I find the streams disappointing(usually are muddy) and miss the purity I found in the Ozarks. And I admit I miss the hills at times. I miss the hill people, but have found wonderful, caring people here too.
Home is where the heart is; it is difficult to have your heart broken in two…………places.
Another great post Tipper. These mountains are home. H-O-M-E. God’s beauty is in all the different regions and I love to visit, but for me, no other place is…home.
Loyal Jones
When I get to heaven I sure hope
I am with those MOUNTIANEERS that would good company.
I was born and reared up in the foothills in the Ohio Valley. My kin folk comes from the Mts. in Virginia. We used to visit there every year. I truly love the Mts and hills. I have had the pleasure to travel to Oklahoma and Texas, my son is in the Air Force, nice to visit but its not the hills. He is now in Arkansas, a little better. Someday I will get back to Virginia. Born in these hills and I will die here. Love the Hills. I feel that I can reach out and touch the face of God.
I hate mountains and hardly ever visit ours! By far, I prefer a beach to a mountain! And I do hate snow! But, having lived in Switzerland for 8 years, I think the Alps are amazing! And sometimes, snow can be fun! Just like wind surfing!
I was born and raised in flat lands and moved to hilly country when I married, but the mountains are definitely my home. Take me out of them and I honestly feel lost/insecure. I get somewhat anxious when we go north to visit family.
tipper i feel like you,, i adore the mountains and hills.. not that we live in such an area as yours.. but when we visit other states.. i am always happiest when we see the hills of home 🙂
such beauty around us.. and i think spring is here… with the rain and birds nesting.. (actually one happy mom bird is making a nest under our porch eaves)
hope all is well in your corner of the world… big ladybug hugs all around 🙂
lynn
You have a wonderful way of stretching the mind and allowing others to stretch theirs too. Every bit of land carries it’s own individual energy, you can drive through one state after another and each state carries it’s own energy, Everything is energy, Sometimes we connect and sometimes we don’t. we look forward to reading your site every day, and we certainly connect with your energy. God Bless.
Well, I love the mountains and it doesn’t get a lot flatter than the Cambridgeshire fens where I grew up. However I came across something similar when I was studying for my Geography degree. People had been moved from the crowded cities and into new towns where there were parks and green spaces. The planners had designed things so that people could walk through pleasant parks to get to their neighbourhood shops. What we found actually happened was that these urban folks ignored their own shops and preferred to walk along and across busy roads and through industrial areas to visit the shops which were intended for people in the next neighbourhood. They perceived walk across the open park to be a much greater distance than it really was.
I spent a large part of my life in the flattest environment one can imagine. I was a sailor. I love the sea, but also like to be up where I can see things. I now live on the side of a hill with a view extending from overlooking Honolulu to the West Loch of Pearl Harbor and the sea.
I love visiting the mountain states but I love coming back home to Kansas. We have hills here, lol. I grew up on a farm and our home was at the bottom of a long hill which was like a mountain to a small child. So I guess I can say I love my home state but I am not unhappy in the mountains when I visit. Have never been in the southern mountains so are they more confining than the Colorado mountains, or Wyoming. I loved the Tetons.
It’s got to be mountains (or at least hills) for me to feel at home. I spent most of my life (except for summers) in Florida. No hills there. My summers, though, were spent in either NC or TN. Only then did I truly feel that I was where I belonged. I’m trying to find an old photo to share that my kid brother took of me on top of Eagles’ Nest Mountain in Waynesville, NC. It’s my favorite picture of myself – not because I’m photogenic (I’m not!!!!), it’s because I see a look of peace on my face I never see anymore. Guess that’s why when we moved to Michigan, I had to be at least in one of the hillier parts and in the woods. It’s as close as I’ll find here.
I grew up in southern west tn. There was quite a bit of bottom land but many rolling hills & it was lush with greenery–almost too much so with some of the swamps.
It actually scares me to think of being on the barren plains, especially if they are desert like at all. Can’t imagine how the covered wagon folks could venture out with no goal to be seen. To me it’s like jumping off the edge of the world.
Tipper, I’ve spent some time on the plains and more than my share of time in the deserts. I always enjoyed the places and the people, but I never felt completely comfortable. I don’t think we are hiding from anything it’s just that our shelter is missing–like sitting in the living room with the roof off or a wall gone, or trying to sleep without the cover pulled up. I know exactly what Don is saying when he talks about the “lonesome”, but not lonely, feeling and like you, I like being able to climb the ridge and drop into the next holler. Maybe it’s just because they were there when I looked up the first time, but I sure hope they are there when I look up for the last time, too.
meant to say “i LOVE rainy days” 😉
that’s a cute joke….interesting about the mountains vs plains…i’m from san diego, although i live in va now and the area where i grew up, we were surrounded by mountains as well and i remember when we left ca in 2001, moving to missouri, just being amazed by the wide open spaces of oklahoma and the sky was so HUGE! now here in va i am surrounded by beautiful mountains again. i rainy days when the fog settles on the mountain tops….but then i also like the openness of the plains 🙂
When we moved from Missouri to Nebraska it was hard- I felt like I couldn’t breath- there were no trees (we are in the western end) and there was no water in the creek beds or anywhere! I was uneasy for several years and I always wondered why trees and water would make me more easy- was it some deep atavistic need for shelter, food, water? A sense of security and survival? Like your comfort in knowing that you can run to the next ridge to hide, where does that instinct for survival come from? I’d have to try to run along side a rolling tumbleweed to find shelter here- everything is so exposed it makes you uncomfortable- And yet friends who are NE natives tell us that when they visit more lush states they are choked and cannot breath or rest surrounded by so many trees-
thats kinda like what the woods are for me, living in the city now and miss the woods, every chance i get when i go down home i find that tree that gave me so many squirells as a youngin that i take a sit and lean upon it like a baby in its mothers arms never fearing anything, i got my best sleep under that tree and it even put food on the table. Danny
I love this post Tipper.
When I return to my beloved Carolina Mountains there is a feeling that I can not describe that wells up in me. It is sort of a joy and a feeling of fierce possessiveness. I feel like crying and yet a happiness and yearning that is indescribable. I was talking about this feeling to a Welsh friend one time, and she told me that the Welsh have a word for this feeling. It is Hiraeth.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes of this feeling;
“It is difficult to define Hiraeth, but to me it means the consciousness of man being out of his home area and that which is dear to him. That is why it can be felt even among a host of peoples amidst nature’s beauty.”
. . like a Christian yearning for Heaven. . .
What poetry in the responses for today! Persons really got inspired to write of mouuntains, plains–wherever. The land calls each of us to the place we each love the most! Whether the lay of it is rounded, curved and tall like the mountains of Appalachia (my home which I will always miss!), stark, snow-capped and exceptionally tall like the Rockies, or all the rolling plains and flatlands–the varied landscapes of this magnificent country of ours–there, there in a place close and dear is the home territory, beloved by someone. We all have our own reasons for liking our homeplace best. It’s closely akin to “being born there,” and seeing and living daily in a place that becomes familiar, beloved, where one finds a special niche to be sheltered, enfolded, loved. I agree with Bradley who posted a portion of Byron Herbert Reece’s poem:
“These hills contain me
As a field, a stone;
Yet I contain them
When I fare beyond their borders
And am alone.”
What a powerful statement, how incisive and revelatory of influence of place-on-person!
There is an inseparable bond linkind person to place, even whent the person is separated from the beloved place!
I love all kinds of environments, but most recently lived in Maine surrounded by woods. I loved it, but was excited to move to PA farmland so I could see the whole night sky, the stars, and the moon. I do love the mountains, but haven’t really lived where they are everywhere around me. I hope to visit your neck of the woods one of these days!
I grew up mostly in the Tennessee River Valley near Knoxville, so our ground was a little hilly, but the Smokies to the East and the Cumberland Plateau to the west always closed us in. I lived either there or on the Cumberland Plateau until I was 25. Spent the last 33 years in South Florida where the highest natural elevation is probably 25 feet above sea level. I don’t think I have ever been conscious of any distress caused by not being around a mountain until I go BACK to the mountains and feel the peace it gives. That is when I notice the contrast.
I can’t say that the mountains make me feel confined,in fact I love them, but then my family came from NC many generations back. I am a fifth generation Floridian and also love the openess of this area, both offer pockets of peace. One thing I must have is water though be it a river, creek or ocean.
I gres up in the mountains and I miss them dearly.
Where I live in South Carolina is not prairie but it is much flatter than what I’m used to. I love how I can see so much more of the sky.
I don’t feel as if I need to hide. But the one thing that really gets to me is the fact that the roads go on forever. I am used to the road ending at some point and usually at the river. You can drive to the top of the mountain and join another road that goes to the bottom of the other side, but all roads lead to the river. Here you can make a left or right turn and just keep driving. If you keep following you may end up in another state. The main thing I’ve learned is you must know the names of the roads you are traveling or you may get lost.
It’s like hunting on flat land, it’s easy to get lost. Not so easy to get lost in the mountains. Most of the time you already know where the other side of the mountain leads.
About a month ago a man in hunting clothing showed up here on the farm, he was lost. He has hunted here for years and still got lost. That’s because it’s flat land.
My cousin married a girl from Texas and took her home to Eastern Kentucky to meet his family. Back in the 60s, we didn’t have the ‘cut-through’ roads we now call the ‘four lane’ making the area appear even more isolated. I was told her phobia got increasingly worse by the hour as she became deathly sick. He had to drive for hours during the night and finally got her back to the city where they lived. I wonder if that’s like sea-sickness where one feels better the minute the feet hits the ground. I love my mountains I left 40 years ago. They haven’t changed but the people living there sure have.
I feel safe in either place, but when we travel to the mountains of where I was born, I feel a sense of calm and peace unlike anywhere else.
Tipper,
The sky is higher on the plains and it seems that it is a much longer way to heaven. Now then, on the mountain top it seems you can touch the edge of the clouds and stairway to heaven…
Great post Tipper…loved the joke!
I don’t know anyone who loves fetching himself to a far back lonesome (never lonely, but wonderfully lonesome) place in the mountains, whether straddling a ridge or tucked deep in the holler, more than I do. These are my mountains, my home. They belong to me and I belong to them.
All that said, there are some mighty fine places in this world – or heck, forget the world – in this country. The high plains and mountain/desert area of the American west let you know just how small you really are. Drive it all day and you’ll think it’s big. That is, until you get out away from town a ways on a moonless night somewhere between Nevada and Montana, and the sky lights will give a completely new perspective on immensity.
Now if I moved there, I’d be homesick within a month, missing the morning fog, sweet water, trees, and people who can tell you that a car has four tars on it. But I’ve got a feeling that had I been raised there, I’d have the same feeling about that area that I do about my home.
I have never lived “On the Prairie” either, but in crossing the flat lands I see nothing but “sameness”. In the mountains each view is unique and therfore special. Each holler or ridge has it’s own personality. I travel to the “Hightider Area” of eastern NC to hunt with relatives and have found that there are no points of reference one can use should you become lost, in the mountains each ridge has it’s own personality and if you will pay attention you can find your way by using these points of reference. I’ve always said that “you can’t lose me in the mountains but this isn’t so in the lowlands.” I think this is one thing that gives us a feeling of security as “Mountain Folks”.
It’s only hilly here, though they’re pretty big hills. When I visit my son and his family in Indiana, all those miles and miles of flat land do make me feel somehow vulnerable and exposed – and the scenery is boring! I vastly prefer my beautiful rolling hills, but still feel a bit suffocated after a camping trip in the nearby Alleghenies. Blood will tell!
Life feels so wonderful in the mountains. It is calm, and I feel like I am surrounded with care and love!
Mountain terrain is so much more diverse and interesting than flat land. It draws you in and you just have to find out what is over the next mountain or whats hiding behind an old log or rock. Each scene is different and beautiful. A person can entertain themselves for an eternity just wandering through the mountains.
I love the hills and Appalachia and have written several poems about my love for our area. The hills embrace me in their gentle hugs and mighty caresses. They make me feel safe.
Though I was not born here in the mountains of Appalachia (I was born in the red clay hills of Mississippi), my family’s roots are from both the Carolina’s and North Georgia. While still a child, my daddy decided we needed to go south (so we could make more money) and we ended up in southern Florida. Now this is as about a flat as flat can be and only from 8 to 30 feet above sea level.
When I was newly married with one child of our own we took a camping trip to the mountains of Western Carolina and North Georgia. I can honestly say that once I saw those mountains, I knew in my heart at the age of about 26 that someday I’d live here. Each subsequent trip brought great anticipation of the first sight of the mountains. There is a song with words something like…Don’t let smokey mountain smoke get in your eyes for if you do…..I can’t imagine living anywhere else. Thanks to my ancestors who chose to begin their life in a young country in this area. Now to the question…sorry for running on….I think its a state of ones mind and not so much where you are. I think I’ve felt both comfort and uneasiness in both flat lands and the mountains. No matter I do love these mountains!!
Tipper,
I grew up on the Gulf Coast of Texas, flat, but pretty with the beautiful live oak trees, and the many flowers that thrive in the heat and humidity there. But when I first went to the mountains in Colorado, I felt alive, I felt at home, I’ve lived in or stayed for brief times in many states in this vast country of ours, the plains of Oklahoma, to the breathtaking Rockies, the awesome woods of the East coast (Maine, New Hampshire) to California, I found this area, felt not only at home but like I truly belong here. Blood Mountain, Trey Mountain, Mount Yonah, all my high friends that greet me and take me in their hearts as I explore and bask in their wonders. Yes the plains have their personalities, beautiful sands, rolling pastures, acres of crops that help to feed us, but the mountains wrap you in a security that you know you can survive as long as you respect and treat them kindly.
Tipper, I love the mountains. They make me feel cradled and protected even in the bleakest part of winter.
During my working career I frequently traveled east to our state capital. It is flat there! On my trip home I always experienced such relief when I first glimpsed the mountains. It was a true home coming feeling even though I’d only been gone a couple of days.
It used to be that the mountains were associated with cooler temperatures especially the cool nights and the flat lands were hot. Now that we are having warmer weather in the mountains that’s not the case.
In my first eight years we lived in Texas, just outside Houston. My mother hated it. It was hot, (as hell she said) flat, and there was no family there. She was never happy till we got back to the mountains.
Don’t get me started on these wonderful mountains.. Nothing more powerful sounding than a thunderstorm on top of a mountain, and I always just feel apart from the busy commercial world. It is like being closer to heaven, and more totally aware of nature around us. I remember my girlfriend and I climbing to a place called Indian Rock, lying on our stomachs and staring down at the world at our feet. I feel very vulnerable in flat country!
At the risk of dating myself, I was in Fla. during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was inundated with phone calls and letters wanting me to get myself back to the safe mountains of WV.
Tipper I envy the fact you have so much space to hide and get away from it all seem like the prairie folks should be envious too—and I do like the little ditty about chaining you folks down that in itself should say it all to the rest of us about the blessings you have of your special Applachian connections!
Tipper, I have lived on the prairies of Nebraska and Oklahoma, the mountians of the Ozarks and amid the mountains and beaches of New England. I love them all! I will however admit, transitioning from one to another does take a mental ‘shift’.
As long as I am in the ‘country’ and can see the sky and nature around me I am ok. I get very paranoid and agoraphobic when I am totally surrounded by civilization and people.
I love to be in the mountains and especially to have a view of the ocean below. I have traveled to All of the States and Provinces and my desire is being in the mountains. The low valleys (prairies) are not especially where I would like to be in any type of storm. I enclosed a song by Newfoundland writer Harry Martin for you to hear. He sums it up well for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ads50VudXCA
Just copy and paste the above URL and enjoy.
Angie
I lived at Myrtle Beach for almost two years and never did get used to the flat. Sense of perspective skewed, couldn’t judge how far away things were. I tell people one of my legs is psychologically longer than the other. This is apparently a very deeply rooted sense of
place.
That is weird, I feel that way about what we call low ground, we’re only I think some where around 5 to 700 ft elevation, there are higher points not to far from here,but when you spend any time in the valley, I often wonder why anyone would like to live on such low ground, feels better up higher, I don’t like the thoughts of my bed floating off in the middle of the night while I’m in it, if you know what I mean.
These mountains are our fathers, standing tall, blocking all manner of evils that threaten. They stand up to howling winds, blowing snow and blazing sun. Their tops attract lightening bolts meant to shatter our fragile bodies.
These mountains are our mothers, in who’s arms we find safety and behind who’s apron we run to hide.
These mountains give us prospective. They show us how small we really are.
These mountains are merely laugh lines on the face of GOD.
The poet Byron Herbert Reece from Union County Georgia explained the love of the mountains best any person ever did I believe. He wrote this in a poem early in his life.
These hills contain me as a
field, a stone,
Yet I contain them also:
when I fare beyond their
Borders and am all alone
I need but think of them to
see them there,
Each hill, hollow, each
familiar place as clearly
imaged as a loved one’s face.
I wish I could have had those words.
Tipper,
I have never been to the prairie but, I’ve known some beautiful people from there. This love of the mountains (especially for me) is difficult to explain. It is similiar to a belief in a higher being in that if you don’t believe there is no way I can explain it to you. It is a unique feeling. True I don’t live in the high country; I am so close yet so far.
Mr. Myers story says this best. Just go back and read it.
It’s easy see how one would feel protected by mountains. Big, immovable and timeless.
I lived in Iowa for several months. Very open and flat, but there is a certain degree of anonymity one gets when disappearing into a corn field.
Gerald