Hollyworld: July 2021

Thursday, July 29, 2021

How Do You Miss What You've Never Known?

I miss the mountains.

I have never lived in the Appalachian mountains but I come from there. I come from a family with deep Appalachian roots.

One of my ancestors, Martin Gambill, took a Paul Revere-esque ride through those mountains during the Revolutionary War and fought in The Battle of Kings Mountain. I come through his sibling's line. Generation after generation. The family moved from Virginia to West Virginia to North Carolina. But most stayed near those mountains.

I grew up on the shore of Lake Erie without ever knowing about that family connection to the mountains. And yet, back in the eighties we bought land in the country and eventually built a cottage on the side of a hill within spitting distance of a creek and a spring-fed pond. It felt like home. It's a thousand feet higher than our home in Erie...and only a few thousand feet less than the mountains. But it's hilly and filled with trees and wildlife.

So maybe I always knew I was missing something. Maybe, on some level, I always knew the mountains were part of my DNA. When I found the mountain part of my family I realized that I miss a place I never knew.

Other than a couple visits, I get my mountain fix the same way I've done so many things...through books. And thankfully more than that, through podcasts and blogs. If you want to come visit my mountains here are a few ideas...

Podcast: The Mountain Traditions Podcast
Blog: Blind Pig and the Acorn

Books:
FoxFire, edited by Eliot Wigginton
Land of High Horizons, Elizabeth Skaggs Bowman
The Southern Highlander & His Home, John C. Campbell

"For me, the cravings for mountains is an incurable disease, compatible to the cravings for whiskey by an alcoholic..." Mountain Fever, Tom Alexander

Victuals, Ronni Lundy. "Victuals. Say it the way my people have for centuries: vidls. Maybe you've seen it spelled 'vittles' in a cartoon balloon...Maybe you thought saying it that was was wrong. But look up the word in your dictionary. It turns out my people, the people of southern Appalachian Mountains, have been right about victuals all along."

Maybe We All Remember Well, Volumes I & II, Edited by Robert S. Brunk
The first volume had a lovely piece on Sunset Mountain Pottery.
The second volume talked about The Nonconnah Pottery.

Ah, pottery. Yes, that's another reason I think there's a chance some part of me always understood my roots.

My love of mountain pottery is vast! I met Burlon Craig his face jugs and it was loved at first...er, face! My pottery shelf is overflowing. These are the books I flip through over and over. I see ceramic artists like Craig and so many others. Kim Ellington. Charles Lisk. Face Jugs. Snake Jugs. Wig Stands. I love them all.

Interested? Check out:
Catawba Clay, Barry G. Huffman
Raised in Clay, Nancy Sweezy
The Potter's Eye, Mark Hewitt & Nancy Sweezy
Valley Ablaze, Jason Harpe & Brian Dedmond
North Carolina Pottery, edited by Barbara Stone Perry

I've built my own Pottery Studio in the woods. HollysWoods Studio. I'm a novice, but in my own way I'm hoping to add to this amazing Appalachian pottery tradition.

My family tree search led me to a great-grandmother I never knew who played the autoharp. Thanks to an aunt, I have a recording of her and the family singing. It's amazing. That's led me to checking out Old Time Music. My favorite to date is Songs from the Mountain.

How do you miss what you've never known? Maybe there are places that are so firmly engrained in our DNA that we remember them even if we've never been there. Where is home? Who is your family? These are questions I've asked over and over again in my fiction...in books like Briar Hill Road, Carry Her Heart and its followup, Hold Her Heart. And each book in my Hometown Hearts series really looks at both these questions.

I am a Pennsylvania girl. I love my home. I love the cottage and my studio there. I love my woods (HollysWoods) and the wildlife. And I think it soothes a longing for a place I've never lived. A place I sometimes miss.

Holly

PS Come visit Hollywoods Studio!