October 6, 2011

I will be doing a book review today on:

Mary on Horseback

Three Mountain Stories

By Rosemary Wells

Mary on Horseback Is a book about a lady (Her name was Mary Breckinridge) who goes to school to be a nurse and then goes into the Appalachian mountains of Kentucky and helps lots of people, because, back then (in about 1923), there weren't a lot of doctors. Most of the doctors were far away and wouldn't be able to get there in time to save people.  Or there would be doctors but most wouldn't be educated enough to know what they were doing.  Other times there would be a "Granny woman", as they called them, who would come and treat the sicknesses and injuries with "Blackened pennies and leeches".

There were 3 stories and each told about what Mary Breckinridge did for three Appalachian families.

Here are two short summaries of two of the stories:

Mountain Medicine

This is the story of a boy whose father had broken his leg while logging. Here is what John (The boy) 

told Mary when she asked him how his father got hurt:

After Breakfast Mary asks me, "How did your Pa get hurt, John?"

"Ridin' the tides" I say.

"Tides?" Says Mary. "Tell me what that means."

"Well," I say, "You know in the winter there's timber-cutting teams? They clear cut the big trees on top of the mountain. Then the River men ride the logs down the chutes."

"Chutes?" asks Mary.

"Yes ma'am. Chutes is where the water froths up mean and wild. Tides is when the water's real high and floody in the springtime. A river man rides a tree all the way from the top to the bottom of the mountain two days without stoppin'. My pa's a river man. He's good. The lumber company pays him extra. He didn't expect no accidents."

"No one ever does," Says Mary.

So after Mary comes, she helps John's Pa as best she can but then has to take him down to a train station that would take him to a hospital in Lexington. Two men put two broom sticks through the sleeves of two old coats to make a stretcher. John follows them, to the dismay of his mother and Aunt, until about noon when he gets hungry. Then he rides the rest of the way with Mary talking to her about things. He can't read or write. He can only show 2 and five with his fingers. 

When they get to the train station, John says goodbye to his father then goes with Mary to her house at Wendover. 

John thinks about his Pa day and night but doesn't ask about him for a long while.

Then, one day, one of the nurses at Wendover that stay with Mary said that the Doctor said that his Pa was doing fine and that he would keep his leg.

While John is at Wendover he learns to read and write and count. he learns that 12 inches equal a foot. 

Mary tells John of her plan to build a hospital out by Beech Fork, near where he lives.

In August, John's Pa is walking again. They go back to their house.

John then picks out a nice big pasture out in Beech fork and picks up large white stones and lines them up going inch by inch with his ruler. He goes all the way around in a square with smaller squares and doors. He had set out Mary's plan so that someday she might see it and build it.

 Though that wasn't very short, That was just one of the many things that Mary did.

Here is one more story:

How Many Stars in My Crown?

 One day two twins were born to a woman, who went down with childbed fever shortly after.

Pearl's (The girl who tells this story)  Pa gets the preacher for her, and the preacher said he would have to "breathe the breath of the Lord into her lungs" To keep her from dying. Though it did not keep her from leaving poor Pearl who, after her Mother's death, didn't speak. The Twins wouldn't eat or drink. They were doing poorly so Pearl's Pa takes them down to a Hospital more that a two day ride on horseback. They take along a mule for payment since they had no money. 

When they got there, Pearl stayed with the nurses, and this was where she met Miss Mary. She was wheeling around in a wheel chair because she had broken her back while falling off a horse.

Pearl became great friends with Miss Mary, though she still did not speak to anyone, even Mary.

she would make friends with some of the children patients by reading books to them and humming to them. She was particularly friends with a little girl who was burnt all over because of a fire.

Soon, though, the burnt girl died.

Mary came up with a solution to this problem by ordering overalls and handing them out to the girls. The whole problem in the first place was that girls were wearing dresses while tending the fire and the skirts would catch on fire and the girls would get burnt. The boys didn't have this problem because they wore overalls. So Mary took Pearl and they rode through Kentucky handing out overalls to girls and asking mothers "Does your daughter tend your fire?".

One day Mary was too tired to hand out the overalls to one house, so She asked Pearl to do it.

Pearl boldly walked up to the house and asked "Hello Ma'am. Does your daughter tend your fire?"

This was the first time since her mother died that Pearl had talked.

~ Jessie Lawson

 

May 24, 2011

Today we read one of the best books about the Appalachian mountains. It is called When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant. It's one of my favorites, and Tim's too.

Here is a review from Jessie and TJ:

Jessie first:
This book is about a girl who lives in the mountains. I have read many books about kids who lived in the mountains, but I  like this one because it gives details even though it is a short book. Basically, the girl is describing her normal days and nights in the mountains. From her Grandpa coming home from the mines at night, to her dinner of cornbread, and fried Okra. In the night when the "Johnny house" was the only bathroom. To going to the swimming hole where Snakes swam but they jumped in anyway. On their way back from the swimming hole they go to the store to get "white butter", and back home again. From pumping and heating the water for a bath, to drying by the black stove where Grandma cooked dinner. From waking up in the morning to go to church in the school house and getting baptized in the same swimming hole they swam in. From Grandma killing snakes with the hoe and getting a photograph of themselves with the dead snake on their shoulders, to sitting on the porch swing peeling beans and sharpening pencils with a pocket knife. At the end I like what she said: "I never wanted to go to the ocean, and I never wanted to go to the desert. I never wanted to go anywhere else in the world, for I was in the mountains. And that was always enough."

From TJ: This was a good book. One of my favorite parts was about the "Johnny House" (?). I don't know why it's called that! Another thing was that when they had dinner , they had fried Okra. After we read that part, Mom said, "I like fried okra, but Daddy DOES NOT!". I didn't understand that because Dad was raised in the mountains, and that's what they probably ate most of the time. Also, the children (one boy and one girl) would go down to the swimming hole and swim. It looked as if you couldn't because it was dark and muddy, but they swam it anyway.
   A lot of the Appalachian books we've read had a part about a store. This one did as well as the other books. It said in the book that they would stop by Mr. Crawford's for a mound of white butter. Mom said that the reason that it's called white butter because they didn't dye it yellow like we do today (butter comes from milk and milk is white).

May 13, 2011

Yesterday we finished reading a book of photography called Mountain Moments by Warren Brunner and Al Fritsch.

This was an especially good book because it included beautiful pictures of the Appalachian mountains, culture, and people, but also because it was done by famous Berea photographer Warren Brunner. Warren and his wife Pat have sown into the lives of many Berea College students including Tim. They also are frequent patrons at the Madison County Public Library in Berea. 

Here's Jessie's favorite photo from the book:

Here's TJ's favorite:

Here's David's:

I really like this one:

You can check out Brunner studios and order mountain photos at www.brunnerstudio.com.

March 17, 2011

TJ finished his essay about Abraham Lincoln today. He wrote this after reading most of "Lincoln in His Own Words" and all of "Abraham Lincoln" by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire. Here is his essay:

The Life of Abraham Lincoln
A Narration by TJ Lawson

Today, I’m going to tell you about a man named Abraham Lincoln, America’s 16th President.
   He was born in Kentucky in the year of 1809 on a Sunday morning in a cabin. This cabin had only one room. But, Abraham’s parents and his sister Sally made do. He grew very fast. He didn’t wear pants for a while. Children his age just wore a long shirt that was shorter than the length of a dress.                                       
   Abraham’s father was always tilling the fields on the farm they lived on. When he got tired of tilling the fields he would always say, “I reckon we’ll be moving”. Soon, Abraham’s father bought a farm in a place called Knob Creek. Even before Abraham could wear pants, he was able to help his father on the farm. Later on, Abraham’s father shot a buck. When he brought it home, Abraham’s mother took the skin and made it into a pair of pants. The way to hold the pants up was to make a strap that’s attached to the front of the pants, goes over the shoulder and then it attaches on the back of the pants.
   Now, he was old enough to go to school with his sister Sally. They learned reading, and writing. They went to a one-room school where all the children in the valley went. They didn’t read their lessons to themselves like we do today. They read them aloud at the same time. It was so loud that you could hear a long way from the schoolhouse. The funny thing is that, Abraham learned to read and write when he was 6 years old, and then after that, he didn’t go to school much anymore.
  He played with a boy that lived on a hill that was close to the valley he lived on. There was a brook that was between the valley and the hill where his friend lived. In order for people to get across the brook, they crossed a log that was above the brook. Then, it rained really hard. The brook was running very fast. And, it made the log slick. Abraham ran across the log and he slipped, and fell into the water. Luckily, Abraham’s friend was there. If it hadn’t been for him, he would’ve drowned.
   Then, Abe’s father said it was time to move. So, they traveled, and traveled, and traveled. They traveled more than 100 miles.    Then, they came to the new state of Indiana. They went into the woods and found a place called Little Pigeon Creek. There, they built their new home. They made a small shelter. They took the skins from bears, and dried leaves for Abe and Sally to sleep on. There was winter, but then, spring came.
   Soon, Abe’s mother died ☹. Luckily, their new mother brought things that Abe could use to study since the school was so far from where they lived ☺.
   Abe got older, and taller. We all know Abraham Lincoln as a very tall and thin man. Well, now he was starting to look like somebody that we would think Abraham Lincoln would. By this point, Abe knew a lot about politics, and things that lawyers and people that worked with the president would know. And, that’s what Abe wanted to be.
   One of the things Abe did was, he would go into to the woods, and as he was walking, he would make speeches as if he was talking to all the woodland creatures. Sometimes, he would even stand on top of tree stumps as if he was the president. Then he became President. Then, The Civil War started. Abe wanted to find someone who would end the war. Then, Abraham found the general that would end the Civil War. His name was General Grant. Not only did Abe become America’s 16th president, he freed slaves because, he disliked slavery. So, he freed the slaves.
   So, if you asked me if Abraham Lincoln was a good man, I would tell you, “He was a very good man.”

THE END

March 15, 2011

Robert Tincher playing the bodhran.

Last Friday we went to see Robert Tincher perform at the library. He is a Kentucky native musician who specializes in Celtic and Folk music. In honor of St. Patrick's Day, he did a program called "Roots and Branches", exploring the Irish roots of Appalachian music.

The kids kind-of zoned out, but I had a great time! Mr. Tincher explained in detail how the Scots-Irish came to the Appalachian mountains, beginning his story in the 1500's and interspersing his dialogue with songs, some of them which he performed first in their original Celtic version and then again in their Appalachian version, illustrating how some songs changed but amazingly remained very much the same, something that is unique about Appalachian music and language, something I love.

Some enlightening things from the concert:
1. The song the kids sing called "Shady Grove" is derived from the original song called "Maddie Groves" - which was an adulterous murder ballad (no surprise). Have heard both songs but never made the connection. Makes total sense now.

2. Irish folk song called "Skuball" which is a true story about a race horse, became the famous folksong "Stewball".

3. Froggie Went A-Courtin' was originally written as a wedding song for Mary Queen of Scots in the 1500s (she was Miss Mousie). It's hardly changed at all and still sung in the mountains (and by my kids).

4. Most importantly, we confirmed some things we always thought about our Appalachian Scots-Irish heritage: They were independent people who wanted their freedom, after having served for several years in America as indentured workers, they fled to the mountains. Their heritage and character even in Ireland was as noticeably wild, independent and proud people - also deeply religious and determined to worship God in their own way. All these traits have continued nearly unchanged in the mountains where they finally settled and hid out, perfectly content to live their lives their own way and not be bothered.

5. Interestingly, Tincher even mentioned their great love of sports (probably connected to the Scottish clans and games), which in my own warped way I think explains the great love of basketball by the people of Kentucky. Ha!

February 11, 2011

Today we read a great book called:

My Great-Aunt Arizona by Gloria Houston. Jessie and TJ are going to tell you about it:

From  TJ

My Great Aunt Arizona is sort of like a book about the life of a girl named Arizona. 

Arizona is exactly like Jessie. She loves to read, sing, "Square dance to the fiddler on Saturday Night", and she likes to grow flowers.She loved going to school with her brother Jim. Soon, she had read every book in the school she went to. So, she traveled to another school in a place called Wing. But, soon her mother died. So, she wasn't able to go to the school in wing because there was nobody to care for Papa and Jim. So, she stayed in Henson Creek where they lived. But then, Papa got a new wife. So, she would be able to go to a school where she could learn to be a teacher. Her Aunt Suzie offered her to stay with her and help with the chores. The work Arizona did was hard but, at night she was able to study and do the things she liked to do. She soon returned to her home. She was a teacher at last. She taught at the same school she went to as a kid. She started teaching at ANOTHER school when she married a man that built the school she was teaching at. She taught a class of 4th graders that called her "Miz Shoes". She soon had a daughter and brought her to school when she was teaching. For 57 years, she taught the 4th Graders. She also taught her brother Jim's only son. One of the things she said a lot in this book was this: "Her students would ask her "Have you been to the faraway places you always talk about?" "Only in my mind." she answered. "But some day, you will go.""

From Jessie

My Great Aunt Arizona is a book about the life of a girl  named Arizona. Arizona is just like me. She loves to read, plant flowers, sing, and "square dance to the fiddler every Saturday night". Arizona attended a one-room school with her brother Jim. At recess they played games like "William Matrimmatoe". Pretty soon she had read every book in the one-room school. So she traveled on her papa's mule to a different school in a town called Wing. One day, Arizona's mother died, so she could not go to the school in wing because there was no one to take care of her papa and Jim. So she stayed home and took care of her papa and Jim. But, she still loved to read and dream. She dreamed of the far away places she would visit one day.

One day, papa brought home another wife. Arizona could go to school now and learn to be a teacher. Her aunt Susie invited her to help at their house. Aunt Susie made Arizona work very hard, but every night she had time to study and dream of the far away places she would visit one day. Soon, she went back home and she was a teacher at last! Arizona taught in the one-room school house where she and Jim had once sat. she made new chalk boards. She had flowers growing in every window. She taught the children their letters and numbers. She told them about the far away places they would one day visit. "Have you been there?" the children would ask. "Only in my mind" She replied. "But someday you will go". Soon after that, Arizona married the carpenter who built the new Riverside School down where Henson Creek joins the river. So she became "Mrs. Hughs" and when she taught the fourth grade students they called her "Miz Shoes". And when her daughter was born she brought her to the school while she taught. Every year, Miz Shoes had a Christmas tree growing in a pot. The kids would decorate the tree with paper decorations every year and then they would plant it out in the school yard. Soon, there were so many trees that they were like guards guarding the school yard. Arizona's students had kids who were taught by her, and they had kids who were taught by her. 

Arizona died on her ninety-third birthday. She never got to go to those far away places she always dreamed about. But she travels with those she taught, and those she touched.