Appalachian History

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Merry Christmas everyone! I want to take a minute and thank all my readers for stopping by and having a look around here at the site throughout this past year. Your comments and appreciation really make the task of writing so much easier. Also, I want to acknowledge all the talented and generous people who’ve [...]

OLD CHRISTMAS They’s heaps o’ folks here still believe On Christmas – that’s Old Christmas – Eve, The elders bloom upon the ground, And critters low and kneel around In every stall, though none I know Has seen them kneel, or heard them low, Unless, maybe, ‘t was Judith Daughn And she’s been dead these [...]

Clarence Nixon wrote of his father’s store in his book Possum Trot, “We stocked up with fruit in December, and I still think of Christmas when I smell oranges in the country.” The South was a land of deep sentimentality. Family ties were close, and the hard years following the war tended to knit them [...]

I think it was the ninth night, I was told that the wild animals came in from the forest, fields and desert. Some had traveled a long way. They came in late at night when everybody was asleep. They didn’t want to scare people. They came in quietly to see the Son of Heaven, baby [...]