My Endearing Appalachia...Something from Home

It had to be said. It was important that I document my memoir. My love of my childhood home was worthy to be noted and the evidence was slipping away.

First, the demand for coal was decreasing. Then the destructive weather had caused flooding on two separate occasions. The floods and the economic decline gave reason to families for moving away.

Gathering Memories

Some years had passed and I needed to visit the place of my childhood and gather and re-live the memories. Two road trips took us there and I savored every moment, every memory as I stood on that mountainside once again. Standing where the steps to the porch once were, the thoughts began to write a snippet of my memories and one day, in the early morning quiet, I began to write:

A picture of a small girl sitting beside the porch steps, in the yard that was sparsely covered with the green of crab grass over a rocky surface embedded with slack from the coal that was carried in for the heating and cook stoves. It didn't matter that the wooden walk way led straight to the steps and risk and intrusion on her private dreams. It was easy to shut off everything around her while she drew her

Daddy, in tee shirt and uncle Ernest and little brother Teddy standing in what we would call our front yard after moving in.

pictures in the frame of her fantasies.

She drew aside, just to sit there, quietly engrossed with the wish book known as a Sears, Roebuck catalog. Thumbing thru the slick pages with photos of finely dressed brides in flowing lengths of white lace, and formal and colorful dresses for special occasions became a magical event. Even the casual attire of pedal pushers and sleeveless blouses had a sophistication that impressed her young mind.

These moments alone activated her fantasies, her dreams of what she would have when she grew up. Interestingly, they were set within the boundaries of her present conditions and the limited knowledge of a small child...

Momma and me, the author, on the wooden walkway

Her book, and her story, My Endearing Appalachia; Memoirs of Southern West Virginia Coalfield Life are presented here and available on this website.

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