Panthertown Valley

Panthertown Valley, referred to as the Yosemite of the East, lies on the eastern continental divide in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains. With more than 25 miles of designated trails in this 6,300 acre backcountry area visitors can enjoy deep gorges and broad valleys, mountain bogs and granitic rock domes, tranquil creeks and plunging waterfalls while hiking, biking or horseback riding. - source

 

 

Enjoy my video.  On the day, we hiked two loop trails, totaling 7 miles.  We saw four waterfalls and had beautiful views of the valley from Little Green Mountain and Salt Rock Gap.  Once again, my main source of information came from Romantic Asheville.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo 7 is the property of Mark Schmidt.  2,4,5,6,8-11 are property of Brian.

Return to Bearwallow Mountain

 

All images are the property of Mark Schmidt.  Be sure to check out the panorama!

Covington Planter Company Celebrates 100 years

Henry County Siftings

By T. Larry Smith

Vol. 14, No. 26

 

Covington Planter Company Celebrates 100 years

 

The Covington Planter Company, Inc. of Albany, Georgia is celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the Covington Planter in 2011.  The W. F. Covington Planter Manufacturing Company was started by William Franklin Covington in Headland, Alabama in 1911; the company was briefly moved to Montgomery, Alabama in 1917; and back to Headland in 1922; next the company moved to Dothan, Alabama in 1925; and then moved to Georgia in 1981 where the Covington Planter brand is still being designed and manufactured in Albany, Georgia in 2011 for today’s modern farmers. The company incorporated in 1913 in Headland, Alabama. The stockholders included W.F. Covington as President; J.J. Espy, a Headland banker; and Dothan bankers George H. Malone and E.R. Malone.  The company has been incorporated several times through the years with various Covington family stockholders and others. The attached image depicts several company employees standing around the first model of the Covington Cottonseed Planter produced in Headland’s W. F. Covington Planter Manufacturing facility in 1911.    

William (Will) Franklin (Frank) Covington, Sr., (1876-1951) was born in Dale County, Alabama at Bertha on Nov. 22, 1876.  His Parents were Perry Franklin Covington (1854-1903) and Louisa Catharine Hunt Covington (1854-1937).  Will was the eldest of seven siblings : Calvin Claude and Alfred Abner Covington (twins), Lyman Lewis Covington, Parry Cleveland Covington (Mabel Cotton), Robert Reynolds Covington, Vera Bertha Covington (Thomas S. Redding), and Ethel Covington (Prof. William S. Sconyers – a  Principal of Headland’s former Henry County High School).  Will Covington was educated in a private boarding school in Ozark, Alabama.  He became a master farmer, a scientific agriculturalist, an inventor, and a civic, political and religious leader who spent his life improving agricultural methods for southern farmers.  William F. Covington married Eleanor Connerly, daughter of C.P. and Joanna Fluker Connerly of Shorterville and Louisville, Alabama.  Will and Eleanor became parents of Menefee Covington (child death in 1900), William F. Covington, Jr., and Rosalyn Covington (C. Graham Carson). 

Will’s father, Perry F. Covington, purchased two tracts of pineland totaling 195 acres east of Headland in 1897.  Next, he purchased 3.5 acres running from Cleveland Street thru to Depot Street (now South Main St.) in Headland from Pocahontas (Pokie) Long Granberry and husband R.C. Granberry.  Pokie was a niece of S.E. Alabama’s U.S. Congressman W.C. Oates from Abbeville, and she was kindred of Dr. W.S. Oates who had sold the lot to the Granberrys in 1887.   P.F. Covington persuaded his eldest son, Will, to move from Dale County to Headland in 1899 to clear his pineland for cultivation.   Will organized the “Old Fraternal Union of American Lodge” in Headland in 1899 and sold insurance for the lodge.   During this time, Will Covington served as the first rural mail carrier at Headland; he carried mail for route #4 for five years delivering the mail by bicycle and later by motorcycle.  He was also employed by the International Harvester Company selling windmills and farm machinery.  Will became editor of the Headland Post newspaper for a number of years.  In 1909, Will tried to persuade the U.S Department of Agriculture to establish an agricultural experiment farm at Headland. The department failed to establish the farm; however, the agriculture dept. did agree to supervise all manner of farm experiments and demonstrations on his farm.  By 1911, his farm was a veritable experiment farm with his many agricultural experiments and ideas.  Will F. Covington registered the 6^th and the 19^th automobiles to be registered in Henry County from 1909 to 1911. He first resided on Headland’s West Church Street; that home later became the S.R. Vann, Sr. home and it still stands.  Will next moved to Cleveland Street on the plot where his father lived until his death in 1904.  This beautiful W.F. Covington home was almost destroyed in the 1912 deadly tornado.  Mr. Gary L. Smith and wife Pat remodeled this home in 1993.  This W.F. Covington home also still stands. 

By 1910, Will had become dissatisfied with mule drawn cotton planters in use at that time.  He conceived an idea of planting cottonseed in hills various distances apart, so he began trying to develop such a planter.  He was named V.P. of the Henry County Fair Association in 1911; he was also V.P. of the Southeast Alabama Farmers Institute Society.  By 1911, Will had perfected his invention of a new type of cottonseed planter, and was selling to local farmers on a trial basis.  On April 15, 1911, W.F. Covington, Sr., was commissioned by the Alabama State Board of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to act as the very first Henry County Agricultural Farm Agent, as so requested by officials at API (now Auburn University).  His farm agent office was located in Headland.  The following year in 1912, the Alabama Extension Service was created, and Will Covington stepped aside, for Frank Murphy of Henry County to become the second man to be county agent; however, Frank Murphy was the first Henry County farm agent employed by the Alabama Farm Extension Service.  

In 1912, Mr. Covington organized a company in Headland to manufacture the mule drawn Covington Planter.  By 1913, he received a U.S Patent for his planter and incorporated the Covington Manufacturing Company in Headland.   W.F. Covington, Sr., owned the first radio in Headland.  He would place speakers in his front yard for local citizens to gather and listen to a radio for the first time for many.  He operated the Covington Cotton Gin with four gin heads.  His first cotton gin stood in the vicinity of where the present Headland Farmer’s Co-Op now stands on hwy 134-W.  His next cotton gin stood in the vicinity of Headland’s old water tank.  During will’s days as a farmer, cotton was diseased with blight.  After years of research, he developed a variety of cotton which was not subject to wilt. He marketed this cottonseed as “Covington’s-Toole Wilt Resistant Cotton.”  He sold thousands of tons over the south for planting purposes.   

In January of 1913, Mr. Covington purchased the wood frame building that was built in 1904 by Rev. S.J. Knowles as a guano factory.  This became the home for Covington Planters in Headland.  The building still stands along the railroad just west of the Headland Train Depot site.  This building was later purchased by Headland’s Mr. Emory Solomon in the 1950’s, and he had the building’s exterior covered with tin and was used as his office.  Will served as Headland City Councilman in 1916.  During the year of 1917, Mr. Covington removed his manufacturing plant to Montgomery, Alabama; however, after WWI ended and the economic downturn occurred reversing his planter business, Will decided to move his planter business back to Headland in 1922, where he began to prosper again.  In 1925, at the suggestion of Dothan banker, George H. Malone, Will decided to move Covington Planter Company from Headland to Dothan, Alabama.  In 1928, Headland was chosen as the site for the first new Wiregrass Experiment Sub-Station & Farm.  Part of that station farm later consumed lands from Mr. Covington’s personal experiment farm.  From 1931 to 1935, Mr. Covington served as Recording Secretary for Alabama Governor B.M. Miller in Montgomery.  In 1932, Will designed a new type of fertilizer distributor known as the “Double-Knocker” double-stream distributor.  He sold these all over the south.  He experimented with this combination planter–fertilizer distributor for the Ford-Ferguson Tractor Company for sales to distributors; in 1949 he began selling nationally.  He also designed for other national tractor companies.   He invented a foot powered paddle boat with water wheels on each side of the boat, testing the boat in the McClenney Mill Pond north of Headland.  In 1946, Covington Planters of Dothan moved to a new 20 acre site and into a 40,000 sq. ft. building designed by Will Covington, Sr., on the Dothan-Headland road on the then outskirts of Dothan; which included land for testing equipment. Will was selling 15,000 to 20,000 units a year.  This building still remains, having been used for various other purposes including an Antique Mall outlet.  

William (Will) Franklin Covington died on March 8, 1951 in a New Orleans hospital after an illness of three weeks at age 76 and was buried in the Headland Baptist Cemetery.  He was an active member of the Headland Baptist Church.  Will was still managing his company at the time of his death.  The company was re-incorporated in 1951 by his son, W.F. Covington, Jr., as President; Mrs. W.F. Covington, Sr., as V.P.; and Will’s son-in-law, C. Graham Carson, Jr., as Sec.-Treasurer.  The company remained in the Covington family until 1980 when W.F. Covington, Jr., (1903-1980) of Dothan, Alabama died.  The company was then sold in 1981 and removed to Georgia where the company is still operating as Covington Planter Company in Albany.   The Covington Planter Company is now owned by prominent Atlanta, Georgia investor, C. Mark Pirrung, who also owns several companies including the old Cole Planter Company, est. in 1885, which he purchased in 2003 and moved to Albany, Georgia. W. F. Covington, Sr., had a vision 100 years ago at age 35 in Headland, Alabama - and his dream continues to aid farmers across the U.S. and the world.

• More Anon!

To Be Free

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Not too long ago, in an e-mail exchange with someone from my home region who is a self-made millionaire, we talked a bit about freedom and what it means and how you can get it.  In our short exchange, he pointed out (rightly) that I have had some early advantages that have enabled me to "go out into the world."  And I would just add, that it - my particular passion - was something I seized, but not necessarily with confidence or vigor, certainly not at first.  Yet thinking about doing something isn't the same as acting on it.  And I feel happy that I acted.

Below is the bit he and I shared.  Although we're easily a generation apart, we have significant common interests and, more importantly, the respect for one another that comes from recognizing and acknowledging what we have in common.

Him:  One is never truly free until he has financial freedom. I became my own boss.  However, nothing lasts forever, and we all leave this world with nothing in our pockets. It is more important what a man does than how much he has.

Me:  I think you're right about money helping people really being free.  Financial freedom is surely one big way to be free.  Still, there are those whose minds aren't free.  And, there are lots of people with money but they lack so much in other areas.  Happiness is very elusive for many people.  In the end, I think personal satisfaction comes from being true to yourself.  That in itself is a challenge.  There's so much pressure from family, community, nation, religion, etc. to be molded into something you're not rather than be encouraged to do your own thing and be your own person.   

Geography of Religion

 

How has the geography of religion evolved over the centuries, and where has it sparked wars? Our map gives us a brief history of the world's most well-known religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism. Selected periods of inter-religious bloodshed are also highlighted. Want to see 5,000 years of religion in 90 seconds? Ready, Set, Go! - source

 

Growing up in the Bible Belt, I was taught not to include Catholics as true Christians.  We even really doubted that some Methodists and moderate Protestants were.  But Catholics most certainly were not!  They worshipped idols and had to communicate to God through an intermediary, Mary, Jesus' mom.  There was also "talk" of the Pope being the anti-Christ.  These messages might not have come directly from pulpits, but they did indeed from Christian talk radio, underground comic books, Sunday School classes, church literature, books, etc..  And it spread like wildfire, and so many believed, without question.  I remember an uncle telling me, when I shared that my dad kept questioning why I didn't attend church, "Just tell him you're a Catholic.  Then he'd shut up."  So there was always this Us vs. Them, we're-the-true-believers mentality.  And I had started doubting this idea in my latter years of college, even though I was very much still in an evangelical atmosphere, and very involved in spreading "The Word."  And then in 2000, when I was living in Bangkok, it was only then, for the very first time, that I had actually talked with a Catholic - specifically about his faith.  And I did discover that they had a different number of books in their Holy Bible.  This discovery, and my conversation with this individual, who himself had become shed a lot of the dogma in which he was raised, moved me further down the line, causing me to question more and more.

 

Nowadays it's common for evangelicals to counter notions that they belong to one of the world's faiths or religion by saying, "It's not a religion, it's a relationship."  Or, "It's God reaching down to man, not man reaching up to God."  These were expressions I would actually use in my days when I very much believed that it was important to share my faith, and that it was essential for everyone to acknowledge Jesus and accept him, and only him, as their means of salvation.  My guess is that all dogmatic faiths use special language and carefully-crafted semantics to strengthen their position while simultaneously weakening the opposition's viewpoint. 

 

Buddhism stands apart from "The Big Four" religions - Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism - in that there's no deity.  Therefore, an atheist could be Buddhist.  Buddha was a teacher, not a god.  It reminds me of an anecdote that I discovered when searching for justification for permitting a Christian to marry a Buddhist:  A Buddhist-Christian nun was asked how she could claim she was a Buddhist and a Christian.  She said, "That's easy.  Christianity is a religion.  Buddhism is a science (philosophy).". 

Melting Pots

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My family's story - like that of all Americans - is ultimately a story of migration (or emigration) to this "new world" - one already inhabited by indigenous people, who themselves migrated from Asia (Siberia) thousands of years ago.  Slowly, over time, we got rid of them, and marginalized the remaining ones.  Think of the fears and worries some whites today feel about "illegals" coming up from the South, and multiply that by whatever number you desire.  Can we truly empathize with the Native Americans?  And I'm sure they felt very afraid of the migration of Europeans, and what that could do to their civilization and way of life.  But let's think for a moment.  My ancestors who came to the US - surely mostly for economic reasons - sought out areas of the country where they could settle, begin work and raise families.  Some Espys, for example, migrated west and became success stories, while others ventured south and ended up in North Carolina and soon after Alabama, where they made their own mark.  Sometimes, when a white American complains about immigration, I simply say, "Well, first tell me your life story.  Where did you come from?  If you can do that, then let's take it to the next level.  Perhaps then we can talk about modern immigration, and illegal immigration, which I have big problems with.  I certainly am open."  Occasionally people will go down this path with me. Sometimes people get quickly defensive or just shut down. I surprisingly big number can't even tell me their history or, even worse, show no interest.

When I was in Uzbekistan I met people who were half-German/half-Russian.  I saw Korean ladies selling produce in the huge markets.  I was infatuated with a beautiful young Crimean Tatar girl, whose family generations back, had migrated to Central Asia.  There were also countless numbers of Jews living in Uzbekistan, especially in Bukhara.  And let's not forget the Russians who migrated to Central Asia over the centuries!  The more I've travelled I've come to realize that the whole world is really a melting pot.  I had always thought that was something unique to America.....but it's not.  I had been taught that - like this was a special attribute that only we Americans figured out, and that this formula is represented best here, in our young land. Really?!?!? Melting pots and "tossed salads" exist around the world. And yet ours is still very good!

Light Bread Pudding

I would toast it (the bread) in the oven (toaster, I think) and cut it into strips and then put it into a dish.  I added some butter and some flavoring in it, and let it brown.  It made a pudding.  And it was real good.  - my grandmother Dot on her microwave light bread pudding

This very easy recipe - with no measurements! - was one my grandmother shared during a taped interview for a class project I did my freshman year of high school.  On my visits to her home, I always enjoyed whipping up the instant vanilla or chocolate Jell-O Instant Pudding.  We would use the mixer that you turned by hand.  It did the job!  On occasion, my grandmother would make light bread pudding.  I always thought she added an egg too.  A few times, on my own over the years, I'd make a version of it myself.  It never was quite as good.  But if you look at this more detailed recipe, it's pretty much the same ingredients you'd find in a Krispy Kreme Donut or a scoop of ice cream.

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Living Long, Living Well

Naturally, I hope to live a long time.  But I want them to be quality years more than anything.  Of course, there are no promises.  Despite the uncertainty of it all, my plan, as always, is try to live the life today that could enable to reach that level of longevity.  It's not always easy.  My genes do their thing, but so much comes down to personal willpower and choice. 

The other day I was deleting some old e-mails and found one I had sent an aunt in 2007!   She was always one of my favorite e-mail correspondents, as well as a significant contributor to this blog's family genealogy content.  Anyway, I had seen a study on the very long lifespans (a super-centenarian study) that certain groups of people maintain, and how their diets, lifestyles, environments, genes and mindsets contribute to their quality aging.  Here's an excerpt from that e-mail:

 

This study was done a few years ago.  Three people groups were studied comprehensively to determine how/why they lived well late into life.  I know you probably have gotten thousands of tips and read hundreds of articles on diet and nutrition and how that plays into dealing with your cancer, treatment and recovery.  So your impulse might be to dismiss this as just another tip or gimmick.  However, this study on the Okinawans of Japan is worth looking over when/if you desire.  As Dr. Oz said on Larry King the other night, "We (Americans) pay twice as much for healthcare than the Europeans because we're twice as sick."  What I want to know is why we're twice as sick and how we can turn that around.  I do think we can.

Franz Kafka & Good Times

Several years ago, a cousin and I were talking (emailing really) philosophy and authors.  And he first put me onto the name, Franz Kafka.  My response (below) to an e-mail he sent references Kafka's extraordinarily rich heritage, which I believe gave him tremendous advantages.  I had already been discovering, through the course of my travels and observing expats and third-country kids, and then being married to someone so different, that there was a deep, intrinsic value to exposing yourself to new worlds, different value systems and outside-the-box situations.  And I really kind of envied people who had thorough exposure to different influences in their younger years.

I liked reading that link.  Kafka is interesting.  I didn't know much about him.  Putting it very, very mildly, he had a colorful and intriguing background.  The Jewish/Eastern European/German heritage - that's very rich.  That diverse background had to be stimulating.  Have you read any of his works?  Btw, you might have noticed the word "ghetto" used.  Jews, for many centuries in Europe, were segregated into ghettos.  I think that's where the name came from!  And, we thought it came from Good Times!
 

 

 

 

This was one of my regular afternoon shows growing up in the late seventies/early eighties.   JJ was funny!  I watched this, The Jeffersons and Three's Company.

"Let there be futons"

I probably slept on my first futon in Uzbekistan on the trip with my uncle in the early 90s.  Then, sometime in '97 or '98, either on the way to Uzbekistan or on the return, I stayed in New York City with my cousin and her husband in their tiny apartment.  Incidentally, it was my first visit ever to The Big Apple.  I remember my cousin calling and asking a friend across "town" if she could borrow a futon so that I could have a place to sleep - in the office, if I remember correctly.  We ended up riding in a yellow cab to pick it up.  Until then, I didn't know the actual word FUTON.  To me, it was a simply a rolled up mattress (for the floor).  Since then, the futon has played a bigger role in my life.  Slept on one in various parts of Asia, including Thailand.  But one experience was by far my favorite:  On a trip to Japan that Kade and I made in 2004, we visited our friend Kana.  And at her home, where we spent several nights, we experienced the "quality futon experience."   Something like this. 

 

In Asheville, not long ago, we bought a queen-size futon, just to bring out on special occasions or if guests visit.  We ordered it from a company in the US that specializes in handcrafting Japanese style futon sleeping mats.  I was very excited when it arrived at our door!

 

 

Walking Tall Memories

I remember watching this movie with Dad.  Not in 1973 - I was too young then - but in the early-mid  '80s.  Dad said it was very good, and was based on a true story.  There was actually a remake of it a few years ago.  Anyway, I recall Dad in his recliner, chair leg in upright position, newspaper in hand.  I was on the sofa.  Not sure who else was present.

 

An even older movie Dad very often said he liked was Ben Hur.  It was replayed pretty regularly on TV - at least every year.  One time he changed the station to it, and it was in the middle of a horse and carriage race scene.  Dad, with a bit of humor, said something like, "Oh, you'll like this."  And we might have been watching something else, and it had gone to a commercial.  I just recall very quickly saying, with a bit of humor myself, "Dad, pleeeze."  Of course, he turned back!

Espy and Smykla's "Fascinating Database"

Click here to see an essay by Jeffrey Toobin (CNN's top legal analyst) in The New Yorker.  Watt Espy's capital punishment research is cited.  One thing that caught my eye is the fact that Watt Espy and pop music legend Michael Jackson are named in the same piece.  How interesting!

Linville Falls, Late Summer

Biggest group I have taken out on a single hike - Lucky 13!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For hiking Kade and I have done at Linville Falls, click here.

Espy helps piece things together

Joe Arridy

Sometimes I will Google Search Watt Espy's name to see if there's any interesting "new" content out on the web that I might want to post on my blog.  This discovery I made about the execution of an innocent, mentally disabled man, Joe Arridy, caught my eye.  If you check out the Friends of Joe Arridy website, and then scroll down to the section on reflections on people who fought for him, you will see just how Watt Espy helped "get the ball rolling" in enabling friends and family to ultimately find some of kind of justice for Joe Arridy.   Arridy's wrongful execution could have easily been forgotten, but folks like my uncle had other ideas.

When you finish perusing the Friends of Joe Arridy website, you might like to read this article, 'Sorry, Joe.'  Watt Espy's role is mentioned.  And one more: Joe Arridy Piece by Bob Perske.

Needling Jack

From the biography of Jack Nicholson I've been reading, Jack: The Great Seducer - The Life and Many Loves of Jack Nicholson by Edward Douglas, I discovered that he and Beatty were neighbors up on Mulholland Drive in Santa Monica.  They were also very close friends, and they competed on many levels.  And women they dated, knew about this need to outdo one another.  In one case, one of Nicholson's lovers left him for Beatty.  And it might have happened the other way around too.   So, this moment at the Oscars, to them, and to others "in the know," had some real sizzle behind it.

Fav Foods

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A cousin and I exchanged our lists of favorite and least favorite foods.  We were mainly thinking back to childhood, and the foods we'd mostly have at home or people's houses or holiday gatherings.  I got this started by first mentioning that Salisbury steak was always one of my favorite entrees.  Funny thing is, I had never had it homemade.  It was the TV Dinner version!!  But I just liked the texture of it, the seasoning, and all that gravy.  Meatloaf has that same texture, and I love it!  Interestingly enough, in Bangkok years ago, a friend (Kyoko) took me to a Japanese restaurant she recommended.  And on the menu, I saw a photo of hamburg with gravy.  It reminded me of Salisbury steak!  I ordered it, and boy was it delicious!  Kyoko then made fun of me a bit by saying that all kids in Japan really love it!  I guess it's a comfort food. 

Favorites growing up:  meatloaf, Salisbury steak, fresh crab meat, rutabagas, squash, cream corn, grilled onions, liver, baked chicken, cabbage, mashed potatoes, fried fish, English peas, broccoli, oyster stew, ribeye steaks

 

Things I hated: yeast rolls, celery, spaghetti, mustard, root beer, olives, rye bread, pumpernickel bread, mint ice cream, pimento cheese, potato salad, Maraschino cherries, hot sauce, deviled eggs

 

Foods I've grown to love:  spaghetti, beets, real cherries, fresh coconut, deviled eggs, potato salad

and to add three other categories........based on likes today.

 

Favorite ethnic foods:  Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Italian, French, Sri Lankan

Foods in general (besides ones I loved when young):  buttermilk fried chicken, raw oysters, homemade fries, baked sea bass, Kade's Thai and Thai-American fusion dishes, buttermilk wedge salad, mussels, spaghetti with meatballs, beet salad

Desserts:  bread pudding, Kade's chocolate cake, ice cream,  chocolate walnut brownies, Kade's strawberry champagne cake 

My Dark Night of the Soul

I found this excerpt (below) in an e-mail I sent to a cousin several years ago.  I was sharing some insight into the incredible transformation I experienced when I was living in Thailand (2000-2003).  

I'll be honest......I had a good education and all, but there were many things I didn't even ponder till I started traveling.  And even that didn't come without much inner struggle, anxiety and a healthy dose of time.  When you start questioning some major pillars, you really are stripping away your identity.  I found comfort in realizing the world is more "uncertain" than "certain" and I can't imagine going back.

The process had actually started many years earlier, but a definitive step needed to be taken.  I had to break with my fundamentalist past and I had to face life in very new way.  The dogma I had to discard was not only religious fundamentalism, it was also a blind allegiance to country.  And then there were big aspects of myself I had to confront and wrestle with.  The same with family.  This move from certainty to uncertainty was my Dark Night of the Soul.  Incidentally, I got this expression from a religious/inspirational book I was reading back in the early 2000s, in my studio apartment in Bangkok.  Wish I could remember the name of the book. 

Barbour County

Barbour County, Alabama

Growing up in the early '80s, my brother and I would often go with my step-dad (Charles) and mom to Barbour County, where we'd work on the farm, fish and even hunt squirrels. We'd take our dogs Snowball and Pepper, and they would enjoy the outdoors. My grandmother would even go with us sometimes. She especially like to sit on the bank of the fish pond, right where the bass and bream were most active. I put up this George Jones video, because there would be times when I'd get up in the tractor cab with step-dad, and country tunes would be playing. George Jones, Conway Twitty, Merle Haggard, Kenny, Dolly and more.

Here are some notes I made a while back when I sat down one day and reflected on those times in Barbour County.  I will add more details later.

Barbour County

We'd ride up there on Charles’ orange Ford Bronco.  Often we'd stop at country story and get some chocolate milk and some onion rings.  Those were usually my favorites.  Sometimes I'd get Cracker Jacks.

We'd fish with cane poles mostly, and for bait we'd use wigglers or crickets.  My grandmother Dot, when she'd go with us, always liked finding a great spot, and she could sit and fish for hours.  My step-dad helped me get my first reel-and-rod, and I had some success with it.  I even got my own tackle box and learned to tie my own lures and put on weights.  Although I thought I was more professional with a rod-and-reel, I much preferred pole fishing. 

After fishing we’d help Charles clean the fish.  I scaled fish, and eventually learned to cut their heads off.  I didn't really like cutting off the heads since the fish were still alive at the time.  Charles would always do the gutting and fileting.

Often Miles and I would help do farm work.  We put up electric fences to keep in pigs.  We put up the stobs, ran the wire and everything.   We be down in the dirt, in our blue jeans, and we'd be using our hands and some tools.  On occasion I would jump up on the tractor with Charles  when he was out plowing in the fields or pulling the peanut picker or hay baler.   I liked the big tractor especially because it had an air conditioned compartment.  Charles would be playing country music - Merle Haggard, Conway Twitty, Kenny Rogers, George Jones and all the stars of that day.

The hardest job Miles and I had was picking up bales of hay that had to weigh 30-40 pounds and stacking them up on the trailer that Charles was pulling with one of his tractors.  We wore gloves but that wire and or string still made some marks on our hands.  And it was tough work, I thought.

Besides a good catch of fish, we’d bring home some produce picked straight from the farms.  Butterbeans, peas and corn were favorites.  Charles would pull up beside one of his corn fields.  Miles and I would follow him deep into the rows, stalks higher than my head, and he’d stack up ears of corn, shucks intact, onto our arms and we’d marched back out to the Bronco where Mom was waiting.  I remember running into the corn stalks and “branches”, and the husks and leaves would scratch my face and get into my eyes.  It was also very hot out on the farm.

We would take our dogs Snowball and Pepper with us.  Once Snowball jumped out of the Bronco to go after another dog.  Stunned Snowball a bit, but he survived. 

Lunch always was big.  I can’t recall the meat dishes, but we always had some of Teeka’s (Charles' step-mom) cream-styled corn, which had ¼ inch of melted butter on top.   We'd eat so much, and then take an afternoon nap before heading back out for some work or to fish.

Some weekends we would go for a day.  Sometimes we’d go for a night, and we’d stay in the “house on the hill” or in the main house with Charles’ dad, Colin.   I do remember we’d take long afternoon naps before going back out for the rest of the day’s work.  Sometimes the TV would be on.  I remember hearing preachers’ voices and football games.

When we went squirrel hunting, we’d use our 4-10 shotgun and shoot up into nests if we weren’t able to find a squirrel sitting still on a tree branch.  We’d take the squirrels back to Headland, where we’d dress them.  We'd eat them with grits and gravy.  Sometimes Charles would stuff the squirrel tails with salt so that we could preserve them and hold onto them - maybe like souvenirs.

Another thing we did was castrate pigs.  I remember holding a squealing pig, upside down, between my legs, while Charles would castrate them.  I would have to swing the squealing pig to get it into position!

I'm Fine, Thanks

Kade and I watched I'm Fine, Thanks last night.  I could identify with some certain aspects of the film's message, especially the desire to chart my own course in the face of pressures to follow a laid-out path. 

A couple of the featured stories in the documentary had Asheville connections.

“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it's not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That's why it's your path.” ― Joseph Campbell