An installment in our Appalachian History and Culture series. The frame nearly filled the room. Chairs crowded its wooden rails, and women leaned toward the stretched cloth wherever the light was best. At an Appalachian quilting bee, the household gave up much of a room so several women could work on the same quilt at once. One…
An installment in our Appalachian Foodways series Waiting for Cold Weather By late fall, the hog was ready, but the family still had to wait. Knives could be sharpened. Salt could be laid in. The smokehouse could be made ready. None of that mattered much until the weather cooperated. Before refrigeration, cold air provided the safest window…
An installment in our Appalachian History and Culture series. The Farmer Goes to the Woods Not every man who went into the Appalachian woods to cut timber was a logger by trade. Some were farmers who left their own land seasonally because the timber companies offered something a small farm did not always provide: cash. That money…
An installment in our Appalachian History and Culture series. A Forest That Wasn’t Yet Timber Long before logging companies arrived in the Appalachians, people were cutting trees. A farmstead required lumber for a house and barn, rails for fences, and a steady supply of firewood. Wood became handles and tools. Small water-powered sawmills turned nearby logs into…
An installment in our Folklore & Legends series A knock sounds when no one is at the door. A bird flies into the house, and someone remembers that it can be a sign of death. In a coal mine, unexplained tapping carries a warning. Across Appalachia, stories like these have been told for generations. Ghosts return, strange…
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series. Most roads exist to take us somewhere else. We drive them without giving them much thought, watching the miles disappear until we reach a trailhead, a scenic overlook, or a small town. The road is simply the space between where we are and where we want to be. The…
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series. The change usually begins before visitors realize it. They arrive in the Blue Ridge carrying more than luggage. They bring unfinished projects, crowded schedules, traffic jams, unread messages, and all the small pressures that accumulate during an ordinary week. The mountains may be outside the windshield, but their minds…
An installment in our Appalachian Foodways series The reunion had barely started before people began lifting casserole lids and peeking beneath sheets of aluminum foil. Children darted through rooms. Chairs scraped across the floor. Someone carried in a crockpot and set it on the counter. The meal was still an hour away, but the inventory had already…
An installment in our Folklore & Legends series The Fourth of July arrives early in Ivanhoe. By midafternoon, lawn chairs begin appearing around the Jubilee Park and Horse Show Grounds. Families claim their spots for the evening festivities. Children drift between food stands while volunteers make last-minute preparations. Before the day is over, much of the community…
An installment in our Appalachian History and Culture series. The doctor lived twelve miles away. Reaching him began with a hand crank mounted on the kitchen wall. The farmer stepped to the telephone, turned the crank, and waited. Somewhere inside the local exchange, a flap dropped. The operator looked up from the switchboard. “Number, please?” The caller…
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series. Mention Grayson Highlands anywhere in southwest Virginia and someone is likely to ask the question: “Did you see the ponies?” Not the views, the hiking trails, or even the nearby high peaks. The ponies. For many visitors, spotting one of the shaggy little horses grazing on a mountainside becomes…
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series. The trail begins in familiar territory. Trees line the path. Rhododendron crowds the edges. For a while, the landscape feels much like any other hike in the southern Appalachians. Then something changes. The woods fall away. The horizon opens. Wind moves across broad stretches of grass where ponies graze…