Hauntings are everywhere in the Appalachian Mountains. Whether one believes in such things or not, a person cannot deny the shivers in the darkness when an owl hoots a soothing sound of wisdom, or the early morning sounds of a house “settling” as it pops and cracks at one endContinue Reading

When my brother and I were little, we raced to sit in front of the TV to watch cartoons on our three channels. (Five, depending on how you rotated the outdoor antenna.) Whoever sat down first could watch whatever cartoons he or she wanted. This “plan” was doomed, however, whenContinue Reading

A person cannot live in Appalachia or the South without experiencing “hillbilly music,” replaced in 1949 as “country music.” The familiar sonority, accompanied by a melodic, twangy dialect, echoes and reverberates across hills and hollers, flat lands and swamps. It surrounds just about every facet of the region and canContinue Reading