We all have pictures, we immigrants

"I had lived all my life an American away from America. Then I returned, a sort of immigrant among immigrants, except that I came to my native land. But it was as new to me as though I came from Sweden or from Italy or Greece. I knew almost as little what to expect before I landed.

"But we all have pictures, we immigrants, of what the America is to which we come. They must be pleasant pictures, or we would not have come. People do not easily leave all they know unless they hope for something much better. Now I had my picture of America, too. It was made up of visual images of my mother's much loved country home, of which she told me many stories, of a land of great plenty and ease, from which came money for the poor Chinese, because all Americans were rich and Christian.

"It would not have occurred to me that there were illiterate Americans, or unwashed or poor Americans, or criminals. As I grew older and understood better inevitable human nature this picture was modified and reason did indeed compel me to understand that heaven existed nowhere.

"But still something of this early picture persisted. Believed, for instance, that in leaving China I was leaving forever the sight of hungry people whom I was powerless to feed. I thought I was leaving behind the sight of wasting floods and dried and sun-baked, treeless lands, swept by dusty winds. I thought I was coming to a country which had organized itself into economic plenty and moral clarity. I had heard all my life that America was rich, and I did not think of these riches as being selfishly gained or used.

"Money was poured generously out of America into China for famine relief, for Christian propaganda, for many and endless causes. Americans, then, though they were rich were generous, interested in a world culture, international-minded. I longed to meet my countrymen, whose idealism seemed almost fantastic to the materialistic philosophy of China."

On Discovering America
Pearl S. Buck
June 1937
Nobel-prize winning author
born Hillsboro, WV


source: http://tinyurl.com/2bevth


Originally blogged at Appalachian History

appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+culture history+of+appalachia appalachian+mountains+history

Saturday visit to Virginia Tech

On Saturday, 4/21, I made a visit to Virginia Tech. There was plenty going on at the Drill Field. Check out my visit at:

http://alsrantings.blogspot.com/2007/04/i-went-to-virginia-tech-on-42107-and.html

A.L. Mitchell Competition for Short Fiction

Hillbilly Savants

A.L. Mitchell Competition for Short Fiction

Hillbilly Savants strives to encourage new Appalachian artists/writers to produce and share ideas within the internet blog community. This year we at HS hope to encourage even more participation with the 1st Hillbilly Savants A.L. Mitchell Composition for Short Fiction. Please submit an unpublished story of no more than 3,000 words. Applicants must reside within the Appalachian Mountains for at least three consecutive years prior to the deadline. Send an SASE along with a bio and the selected entry to hillbillysavants@gmail.com by August 20, 2007. Notification of the 2007 recipient of the A.L. Mitchell Composition for Short Fiction takes place on November 5th on the HS website. The winning work will be featured on Hillbilly Savants.

Mr. Arthur L. “Al” Mitchell, 1927- 2007,

A graduate of Richlands High School, Al Mitchell graduated with a BA degree from Emory & Henry in 1946. While a student at E&H, his activities and honors were numerous; he was President of the student body, Editor of the campus newspaper, a member of the Calliopian Literary Society, and a member of Beta Lambda Zeta Fraternity.

In 1950, he received his Master’s degree from Columbia University, and went on to teach in public schools in Charlottesville, Bristol, and Marion. In 1958 he joined the Emory & Henry College staff, and served there until his retirement in 1992. During his tenure he held positions of Director of Admissions, Director of Publicity, Sports Information Director, Financial Aid Officer, English Professor, and Registrar. He was a mentor and sponsor for the brothers of Beta Lambda Zeta Fraternity.

A faithful community servant, Al was a volunteer for United Way and a Trustee for the Washington County Public Library from 1966-1978; he served as their treasurer from 1974-1978. He was active in the Washington County Democratic Party in the 1970s, also serving as their treasurer. In the 1950s, he was president of the Smyth County Young Democrats. He was a former member of the Marion Lions Club and the Marion Rotary Club. He was an active member of Emory United Methodist Church, where he served as a Sunday School teacher for more than 30 years.

He won numerous awards from Emory & Henry College including the Earnest E. and Elizabeth C. Maiden Award in 1990 and The DeFriece Award in 1996, and he was the first person to ever receive the E&H Alumni Association Distinctive Service to Emory & Henry Award, 1993. In 2005, the Alumni Association honored him by naming one of their awards for him, the A.L. Mitchell Young Alumnus of the Year Award.

Known for his avid enthusiasm for E&H athletics, he was inducted into the E&H Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. In 1994, the college celebrated “Al Mitchell Day” during basketball season and gave Al his own referee’s jersey and whistle. In 1987, the football program at E&H named him their “Twelfth Man” for devotion to the team.

He was a prolific writer, with a published book of poetry and several entries in magazines, journals, and The Upper Room devotional.

Family Estate

This is the house that my grandfather grew up in. Born Loyes Edgar Smith, 1906, in Greene County, Tennessee he was the youngest of twelve children. Fourteen people lived in this house, which is smaller than the room I’m sitting in right now. It is no longer standing and only of few of my family members can remember where it was located.

I think its pretty cool.

The Grandfather of Bluegrass

That would be Wade Mainer, not Bill Monroe. A popular recording and radio personality, Mainer influenced generations of great musicians, including Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley and Doc Watson. With his singing and banjo style, Wade and his band created a distinct sound that bridged the gap between old-time mountain music and bluegrass. Among his innovations was a distinctive two-finger banjo picking style crossing the traditional clawhammer with the modern three-finger picking style used by performers such as Earl Scruggs.

Born April 21, 1907, Mainer grew up on a tiny mountain farm near Weaverville, North Carolina. Old mountain songs were part and parcel of his upbringing and he was greatly influenced by the fiddling of Roscoe Banks, his brother-in-law.

“I was raised in the mountains back then and didn’t go out too much…but what there were of musicians, I would pay attention to them,” says Mainer. “I was interested in the sound of the banjo and when they’d lay there banjos down at the square dance…I’d go over and pick it up and play.”

As a young man, he moved to Concord to work in a cotton mill. Later he joined his brother J.E.'s Mainer Mountaineers, and began performing on radio in 1934. North Carolina was a hotbed of early country musicians during the Depression, and Wade Mainer stood out above the rest. The decade was a great time for brother acts, mostly duets, and mostly featuring close harmony singing with guitars or guitar and mandolin. These duos tended to supplant the larger string bands from the 1920s – traveling was easier, and there were less ways that gig money had to be split up during those hard depression days.

Along with his popular recordings Wade and his brother J.E. reached a wide audience with live radio programs sponsored by a patent medicine laxative called “Crazy Water Crystals.” Wade performed at Radio Stations WBT in Charlotte; WPTF in Raleigh; WNOX in Knoxville; and WPAQ in Mount Airy, among others. The sponsor kept him working but was notoriously stingy with pay causing Wade to part ways with both the sponsor and the Mainer Mountaineers in 1936.

“I didn’t think they was paying me enough at $5 per week…I left them and got me a job at the yarn mill at $12 to $15 per week…and that was gold back then!”
Mainer and fellow bandmate Zeke Morris decided to work as a duet. They split up when Morris' younger brother Wiley joined to form the Morris Brothers. Mainer's new band was named the Sons of the Mountaineers; its first members included guitarists Jay Hugh Hall and Clyde Moody and fiddler Steve Ledford. They performed on the radio and also recorded many songs for Bluebird. In 1939, they had a good-sized hit with "Sparkling Blue Eyes."

Wade married singer/guitarist Julia Brown in 1937. Known as "Hillbilly Lilly," Julia performed from 1935-37 at WSJS RADIO in Winston–Salem, NC. A pioneering female vocalist, Julia would later join her husband for performances on the road.

Sources:
http://www.talentondisplay.com/kicprofiles04.html
http://www.unctv.org/folkways/wade_mainer/index.html
http://www.silcom.com/~peterf/ideas/bigbang_2005.htm


Originally blogged at Appalachian History



appalachian+history appalachian+culture history+of+appalachia appalachia

We are all Virginia Tech today

From Richmond Virginia

Colleges & Universities of Appalachia: Mourning with Virginia Tech

I have collected below those responses of different colleges and universities in the Appalachian region which are accessible via permanent links - I do this to illustrate two things - first, the heartfelt emotional response of the folk at these institutions and second, the prac