Book Reviews+Storytelling
Featured
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Christmas Pokes
During my childhood in the 1960s, my family’s church, Garden Creek Baptist Church, held an annual Nativity play at Christmastime. The first play that I had a part in, when I was around six years old, required me to recite a Bible verse.
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The Adventures of Roy Boy and Birdie
If one is writing about a specific region, culture and history of the country, it is helpful if the author is “from here,” as the mountain slang expression goes.
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A Time of Appalachian Christmas Cantatas and Pageants
Nervous energy danced around the classroom located just off the sanctuary. For many of us, this was the first time we had been allowed inside the adult Sunday school classroom.
John C. Campbell Folk School
It began with a trip to the mountains over one hundred years ago. A place many considered a mission field, a fertile land for both agriculture and cultural experiences.
Oct 1, 2025
Chunking Punkins Warms the Familial Heart
The internet is filled with popular YouTube videos documenting festivals called “Punkin Chunkin,” which is a competition held around the country in places such as Clayton, New York, Vinita, Oklahoma, and Bluemont, Virginia.
Oct 1, 2025
The Kettle
My mother’s youngest brother, John Ray, was our family historian. For years, he worked as a meat cutter at local grocery stores, where he chatted with old timers who had known past generations of our family.
Oct 1, 2025
Rose of Sharon for Del Rio
The trees weren’t delivered exactly during the timeline I had scheduled. My goal was to make the trip to the flood ravaged land on Earth Day, but life had other plans. Here at home, my Beloved is in full blown “project mode."
Aug 1, 2025
David Cohen illustration
Thanksgiving at the Appalachian Trail
On the way home to Wisconsin from Valdosta, Georgia, one year after spending Thanksgiving with my Air Force son, I took a detour to Narrows, Virginia, to spend a few days with my aunt.
Aug 1, 2025
David Cohen illustration.
A Fondness for Box Turtles
In the 1960s, my Marion, North Carolina, neighborhood had yards with flower beds and vegetable gardens, with cow pastures and woods nearby. One day my father called me from play and said, “Come here and see what I found in the backyard.”
Jun 1, 2025
Giving Mother Nature a Helping Hand
I pen this note on a brisk spring day. As the old saying goes, March came in like a lion. Only this year, the lion has no intention of being tamed into a lamb anytime soon.
Jun 1, 2025
Our Walk in the Rain
That spring day, the clouds started invading a sunny sky. Led and I had a few minutes during our lunch break to walk back and forth on the sidewalk a few steps away from our high school building. That’s when we felt it.
Apr 1, 2025
