An installment in our Appalachian History & Culture series The body lay in the front room, washed and laid out, the clock stopped. Folks came and went through the day and into the night, chairs pulled close to the walls to make space. Someone moved quietly between rooms with a tray of funeral biscuits, pressing…
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series Before anyone saw the train, they heard it. A whistle drifted up the valley, followed by the steady effort of a steam engine pulling against the grade. In cold mountain air, sound carried farther than you might expect. The Creeper let people know it was coming long before it…
An installment in our Appalachian Foodways series Before freezers reached mountain kitchens, canning sausage was a practical response to a stubborn reality. Ground meat didn’t keep the way whole cuts did. Once a hog was broken down, sausage became the most vulnerable part of the work. Families knew from experience that if it wasn’t handled…
An installment in our Appalachian History & Culture series If you grew up around Appalachian households, you probably learned early that belief didn’t need an audience. It didn’t announce itself or ask for an explanation. What we now call Appalachian faith and folk practice showed up in how the home was arranged, in what sat…
An installment in our Appalachian History and Culture series. You’re sitting at the table with a box of old photos. Some are loose. Some are stuck together. A few have curled at the corners. You recognize faces, but not always names. You know they’re family, but you can’t always say how. You turn one over,…
An installment in our Appalachian History and Culture series. Scroll through enough social posts, and you’ll see the same Appalachian stereotypes repeated: Poor. Backward. Uneducated. Stuck. The wording shifts, but the judgment stays the same. It’s often delivered with confidence and very little curiosity. Yes, hardship was real. Poverty was real. Options were limited. Work was hard,…
An installment in our Appalachian History and Culture series. The phrase “catching a song” once had a literal meaning in the Southern Appalachians. A singer shared a tune, someone else listened closely, and the melody passed from one memory to another. Nothing was written down. The old songs stayed alive only as long as someone could remember…
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series Most places in the mountains reveal themselves slowly. A curve here, a drop in the ridge there. Burkes Garden Virginia works differently. You don’t stumble into it. You cross a boundary. You feel the climb, the narrowing road, the way the ridge draws close before it finally…
An installment in our Folklore & Legends series Windows as Vulnerable Thresholds When folks talk about old mountain cabins, they usually talk about the solid parts. Thick log walls. A stone chimney. A door you could shut and brace. Those are the features that suggest safety. What gets mentioned less often are the quieter details,…
An installment in our Appalachian History & Culture series If you grew up in the mountains, you’ve probably heard someone talk about “witching a well.” Before water lines reached the high ridges, families leaned on neighbors who claimed they could read the ground with a forked branch. Whether folks believed every detail or not, the…
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series. The Parkway Looks Natural, But It Isn’t Most travelers pull off at a Blue Ridge overlook, believing the scene has always looked that way. They take in the ridgeline, the sweep of open meadow, the clean line where the forest breaks, and they assume the mountains arranged…
An installment in our Blue Ridge Travel series. Travelers along the Blue Ridge Parkway pass old cabins without giving them much thought. The cabins stand close to the road with their porches weathered and their roofs settling a little. Most folks see them as scenery. Look long enough, though, and the details begin to talk….