Old Ones Dream

The Parable of the Wrong Mountain

I have been here on Granny’s Rock for over 20 years with Blue Ridges around me for about 250 degrees. This array is anchored on the Southwest horizon by a peak known to me as Sassafras Mountain, and extends North and East to include Whiteface, Chimney Top, the Devil’s Courthouse,... Read more →

The Orangeburg Massacre - February 8, 1968

This piece, originally posted by me on Medium, is a summation of “The Orangeburg Massacre” by Jack Bass and Jack Nelson (Mercer University Press, reprint 2002), both white southern journalists and Nieman Fellows at Harvard, who covered the Orangeburg Student Riots for The Los Angeles Times and The Charlotte Observer.... Read more →

John Tatum - River Pilot

My great grandfather John Tatum walked home from Virginia and arrived in late May 1865 suffering from chronic diarrhea. He had been issued a mule at the surrender and he could have ridden it home and perhaps used it to help him plant a crop—but early in the journey he... Read more →

Rollcall

Reunion room full of Oldones room not so full as before Each sweeter than before. _____________________ Memorial Day 2019, and 60th class reunion Read more →

The Best I Ever Had: Tales from the Kitchen

Tales from the Kitchen Shot Fried Chicken Farm supply travelling salesmen often timed their arrival on The Place at about dinnertime (the mid-day meal). Shot was the reason. She was the household overseer and administrative courier for the farm operation. She famously prepared the mid-day meal and Shot Fried Chicken... Read more →

From Cork to Connemara

From Cork to Connemara It is 4:30 o’clock in the morning and becoming light. Birds are singing their morning song. When I went to my bed it was 10:30 o’clock and they were singing their bedtime song. It reminded of my childhood when I was sent to bed at full... Read more →

The Best I Ever Had - Maine to The Maritimes

While on our recent 30-day tour of Maine and The Maritime provinces of Canada, we had several experiences that modified the list of the superlative entrées that makes up our moveable feast known as “The Best I Ever Had.” In Corner Brook on the southwest coast of Newfoundland, on a... Read more →

The Best I Ever Had: Breakfast Sausage (Revised 2017)

The sausage that we made from our own Berkshire pigs when I was growing up, and during my young adulthood, was the best that I ever had. I thought once that we had found its equal, but it was temporary. It is difficult to sustain that kind of quality on... Read more →

My Briar Patch, 29038

Cope, South Carolina A Tiny Town You've Never Heard Of Where we learned early of BBQ, Pig Shipping, Train Watching and Methodism -- not necessarily in that order. Click Here to Visit Reblogged from www.onlyinyourstate.com Read more →

Our Two Rivers

Queen Esther “Rae” Franklin 1932 - 2016 Photo courtesy of her family Our Two Rivers Queen Esther became a member of our new small family 50 years ago in the late 1960s – Tanne and the children and I called her Rae. Rae quickly became our friend. It was a... Read more →