Once.

[Country Gent]

When my family moved back to Western North Carolina when I was a boy, we only had two neighbors, and they were family.I had thousands of acres of pristine old growth forests and it seemed endless days and summers to explore.I could enter the wilderness on Friday and if I stuck to game trails and stayed away from road sounds,I would never see a fresh used road or another human until I hit another State, and even then it took several hours to navigate into a far away town.Many is the time I would call from a pay phone to my Dad and he would get me.My only provisions were a tarp,a few canned items,a 22.cal pistol ,good boots ,clothes on my back and sharp knife.I took my son and my nephews to some of my old haunts, but early in the mornings I was the only one fishing for breakfast.I just am very thankful to have been able to enjoy this before it all changed.Very much lately I have been longing to just dissapear into the fog, and find a waterfall not many have ever seen, or sleep under the stars knowing my campfire was the only one for miles and miles.My wife sais Go!, and she has always supported our camping and fishing but the wilderness I knew as a young man are gone -here anyway.What would be cool is to journey to somewhere where this is all possible again, but alas...I need to research,to me nothing will ever compare to fish biting and looking both ways down and up the stream and seeing ...no one.I know many of you feel it too.C.G.

[chickenista]

I feel you Gent. My family has been in WNC (Swain) since the mid 1700's and my blood runs cool spring water. If you dip a gourd these days, you take your life and your intestinal health in your hands. I ache for the mountains of my youth. The dirt road on the family land has been paved by the state. It smelled so sweet in the rain. And it was worn so soft it slid from my fingers like silk. And it sparkled and glowed in the sun, a billion flecks of micah dust. I can't show that to my son, it is under asphalt. I can't see it for myself again either. Breaks my heart. I am leaving the mountains. I can longer afford it here. I am being driven out by developers that are charging over half a million an acre. Not all the acres cost that much, but there are a few sites with that view everyone wants. Gonna be a view of the house on the next ridge. I live in Madison County now and it is outrageous. They are building a "community" of 950 houses on one of the mountains. That is bigger than any town in the county. They will dump thousands of gallons of "treated" sewage into a creek that just doesn't hold that much. They are even building their own jetport. You can still find hollers that are locked in time, but once that generation is gone, it's over. Even the dialect is fading. If you go west in the state, past Robbinsville, you can find the wilderness still, but you'll hear the planes. Do it before they discover that haven too. I really miss it all too, Gent. It brings me a deep sorrow.

[Country Gent]

Well said Chickenista,The ginseng used to be waist high and speckled trout 10 per hole.Why would any race of individuals think this was something needing change or development?Man that was heaven on earth and nothing less.The dew used to stay until dinner and start falling again at supper.Would sit on the porch and hear Bob -Whites calling , then call them in ..just clean fun and lots of it.Stair stepped pot holes so steep you could hook and land a fiSh in three different holes .Really enjoyed hearing from you .My family the same way, but Dad joined the Navy , he made sure to bring us back after he retired. Married a native gal, and all my kids born less than a few miles from here over in Sylva. We live on the edge of Nantahala N.F. outside of Franklin. Had a flash back today, just glad to hear not the only one.C.G.

[chickenista]

Wow, I haven't heard a bob white in almost 30 years. Occasionally a whipoorwhil. I can still fall asleep with the hoots in my ear though. And the peepers. Occasionally I can get a whiff of my childhood, a sweet scent that rips through my mind in a flash, but then it's gone in diesel wind. Like the smell of boxwoods in the sun. Not those new fangled boxwoods, but the old ones with the orb webs that hold the dew. I just wanna go home. Time travel anyone. Still like going to Deep Creek, even with all the tourists, man is it crowded now. It was a secret when I was knee high. Dip your feet and they turn bright red, then blue. And if you jump in, the back of your neck locks up and you can't take a breath and your skin burns. That's swimming. I bet we're cousins too. Not many families out Swain/Sylva/Franklin way that aren't twisting in on themselves.
And as far as development...People are just greedy. They see it and they want it without realizing that by just being there they alter the reality they seek. I'm not greedy, I'm selfish.

[Country Gent]

We are , one way or the other cousins.My uncle was Lester Waldroop he used to do a lot of Blue grass gigs, he even did the world fair back in time to Knoxville. I know that Darnell fellar, I went to school with his wife, and worked on a survey crew with him.Remember the old coke bottle machines you had to pull out the holes?And then turn the bottle back in?What about the Ruby City bird houses, and when a road trip was much more than making the white lines whiz by. How many times you ever wondered why all the old timers wore long sleeves all year, and those old felt hats?My gramps used to keep his pocket watch in an old copenhagen can with a hole for the chain - he logged and it kept it from getting crushed.Everything paved, everyone selling and leaving or moving to town I just want to make one more broom sage and news paper kite with my uncle and put a prayer on it....take me back to when the T.V. was black and white , we had one channel, and ladder wire attenas required half a day and two men and a boy to adjust for clear station.

[tn_junk]

Living in NW Florida we could roam around the swamps for days. Never see another soul. Go down to the beach and swim in the Gulf without tourist crowding us out. Buy shrimp right off the trawlers for a quarter a pound. BIG shrimp. Camp on the beach and grill them over the campfire. Catch Spanish Mackeral and Kings 'till our arms hurt.
No more.
It is sad that our children and grand children will never know this.

galump

[oldgaredneck]

ya'll are making this old soldier cry for the days of his youth.
I second the idea of a time machine....

[Jillis]

I enjoyed reading this thread so much, even though it made me cry.

[PineRidge]

<sigh> I'm tearing up too, and I have never seen it But I do remember the small town where I spent every childhood summer, it had one road and a holler. Where if I wasn't kin to them in some way then they were strangers. I still think about the pine tree in grandma's yard I would hide under, and the pie cherries I would try and eat even though they were so sour. I think of the outhouse she made the kids use, lol, and making apple turnovers and walking the railroad tracks to the swimmin' hole, and having so many cousins around that it was standing room only.

It is a shame we can't go back in time to see the good things that are now just memories.

[doohap]

Originally Posted by galump

Living in NW Florida ...

Ahhhhh ... y'er callin' to me!

[ceresone]

Go even further back, in the early 40;s, didnt yet have tv in the Ozarks. My biggest thing to do was climbing the tree in the middle of the woods, where my brother built his treehouse, he had a ladder he pulled up, so noone could get too it. he forgot his lil sis climbed like a squirrel. --or taking off on my horse before daylight--not being home till way after dark. doing homework by lamplight-my, the new aladdins put out a lot of light when Mom bought one.
Oh yes, we still have bob-whites, and the streams still run clear--but dont know as I'd want to drink from the springs--or streams. The brother-and Mom, have been gone for 30 years-as has the old times-still living on in memories.

[moopups]

I have very fond memories of horse riding, quail hunting, camping out in Ralph Worers cow pasture, at about age 14. We were left overnight, trust was complete, self containment was understood. We were trusted with various fire arms, our dogs, the horses, all were safe with us.

Meals were what ever we choose to bring, added to by what ever we found at the sight. Be it fish, or rabbit, or whatever. We didn't have to bathe those times, that would come later after returning to the home area. We visited nature for necessary actions, washing was suspended.

But its no longer Ralph Worers cow pasture, now days it is known as International Drive.

Here in Marion County, just below Ocala; back when I was 22 or so it was a full time job to tractor mow the cow pastures, disc the groves, fertilize the groves also. The county had maybe 11,000 people total. Now days its known as 'The Villages', a nest of decadence, thousands of 3 and 4 hundred thousand dollar houses; all to serve the elitist that have migrated here from their greed motivated past state of mind.

There people, whom all wear their uniforms of shorts and short sleeve shirts, golf continuously, did successfully alter the state laws and now drive their golf cart on public streets. They call themselves citizens, we locals call them parasites. They have one of the most high STD rates in the country, they have way too much money, there is not a chicken or garden within many miles. But there are many golf cart, nail salons, hair dresser, ect.

When is it all going to end? What this area needs is a long term depression, then maybe the area would return to normal.

[Tater'sPa]

Originally Posted by chickenista

I feel you Gent. My family has been in WNC (Swain) since the mid 1700's and my blood runs cool spring water. If you dip a gourd these days, you take your life and your intestinal health in your hands. I ache for the mountains of my youth. The dirt road on the family land has been paved by the state. It smelled so sweet in the rain. And it was worn so soft it slid from my fingers like silk. And it sparkled and glowed in the sun, a billion flecks of micah dust. I can't show that to my son, it is under asphalt. I can't see it for myself again either. Breaks my heart. I am leaving the mountains. I can longer afford it here. I am being driven out by developers that are charging over half a million an acre. Not all the acres cost that much, but there are a few sites with that view everyone wants. Gonna be a view of the house on the next ridge. I live in Madison County now and it is outrageous. They are building a "community" of 950 houses on one of the mountains. That is bigger than any town in the county. They will dump thousands of gallons of "treated" sewage into a creek that just doesn't hold that much. They are even building their own jetport. You can still find hollers that are locked in time, but once that generation is gone, it's over. Even the dialect is fading. If you go west in the state, past Robbinsville, you can find the wilderness still, but you'll hear the planes. Do it before they discover that haven too. I really miss it all too, Gent. It brings me a deep sorrow.

So very true..... My Wife and I had our honeymoon in the Nantahala Forest, we stayed around Andrews.
We visit Franklin & Cullowhee a couple times a year for craft shows and I've camped, fished & hiked those mountains in my younger days...
There's no prettier place on earth in my eyes...sad to see it being chopped, chunked and formed........

[Beeman]

I baled out of WNC 15 years ago as it got unbearable to me at that time. I often wondered why they created the Great Smokey mountains National Park. I know now it was so people will be able to see a small remnant of what was there at one time. Unfortunately that too is slowly being destroyed by pollution and pressure from people looking to drive through nature.

[Marilyn]

Country Gent and chickenista:
Thank you very much for letting me eavesdrop on your tender conversation.

[jassytoo]

Country Gent,Thats so sad! Isn't that the area where the Foxfire books were written? Even the surnames you mentioned seem familiar.

[Junkmanme]

Remember the homemade "hook-rugs" that used to be sold along the highway?

Bruce (whose Father's family were all from Polk County area N.C.)

[chickenista]

I remember those. I wanna learn to make them someday.
I lived for awhile in Saluda as a child. My dad was the Presbyterian minister there. I loved Saluda, back before it became popular. And I was in many a Coon Dog Day parade. Viva Polk County.

[Junkmanme]

Hi again, Chickenista!

My Grandmother and Great-Aunts made "tons of 'em" (hook rugs)! I think probably my Aunt, Faye, knows how to make them. She lives in Boiling Springs, SC. If you would like to ask her about making them, send me a PRIVATE MESSAGE, and I'll look up her phone number for ya. She's a Great Person......more like an older sister to me than an Aunt.

To my knowledge, all sides of my Father's family were in Western North Carolina since BEFORE the American Revolution.

Surnames: Arledge, Holbert, Williams, Constant, Gosnell, Jones, etc. also related to McMurrays, Smiths, McSwain, Page, Waldrop, and a LOT of others. Probably related to half of Polk County in one way or another. Also many relation in Rutherford, Cleveland, Henderson Counties and the "border counties of SC.

There is a Constant, William buried on National Park land with a small monument near where "Country Gent" lives (in the Nantahala National Forest). I suspect that it is the grave of my Great-Great-Great Grandfather, but have no proof of this.

A New Mexico fella with a "Tarheel" heritage,
Bruce

[Country Gent]

I guess what started my longing for the" best days"was a family picnic the other day up at Standing Indian Campground, very much history for me up there.My Grandfather, great uncles are all on a large picture plaque the Gov. has displayed honoring all those who logged and worked the rail lines for Ritter Lumber Co. during the depression, before the Chestnut blite.I spent many years roaming these (Once) vast forests with my Gramps and he was in his 70th years, but my lord did he teach me so much.In his later years he forgot my name often, but I would just answer to whatever he decided I was that day, Tim ,John,Jake, whatever .All my people have been featured in Foxfire, Jake Waldroop,Lester,Lester Jr.,Neil, Mickey, Grade,all for there specialties.Groundhog skinning,rail splittng,bear hunting,My great grandma killed 13 bears and was a midwife,herb doctor.Rich - rich history here but I miss how it used to feel.All the good ones are sadly leaving this earth, and it is like my elders used to say... they were all scholars and gentle people and very few of us left Well I cant remember when as touched by words here from some very sweet folks, just want to say I am proud to be a part of this, it seems we all want to time travel and this has for sure taken me back.C.G.(Special thanks to Chickenista for the Boxwood smell part, man that took me to my knees.