Christmas In The Head Of The Holler

 

 

Christmas In The Head Of The Holler

We live here in the head of the holler.

Whole family’s down to one last dollar.

December is here. So is the cold.

We are lost without any gold.

 

You other folks wait on Old Saint Nick

But here in the holler we think it’s a trick.

He hasn’t been here in about ten years

Never brought us anything to dry our tears.

 

We keep eating leftover pinto beans

Wearing more holes in the holes in our jeans.

We just need flour, milk, and lard.

Life in the holler’s never been this hard.

 

The children are crying with little hard squalls

Sleeping four to a bed curled up in balls

We eat anything that crosses the yard

Life in the holler’s never been this hard.

 

Some people call this house a shack

No windows in front, no door in the back.

Children run out, chickens run in,

If we catch them they never run again.

 

We remember the year we all got gifts

New pants for Pappy and Granny got new shifts.

Daddy got a pocket knife. Mommy got a skillet.

Brother got a goat and we had to kill it. 

 

We remember that year we had plenty to eat

Shirts on our backs and shoes on our feet.

That year we had more than we needed.

The house got paint, the garden got seeded.

 

Since then it’s been all downhill

Nothing to eat, no hog to kill,

Nothing to spend on the food stamp card.

Life in the holler’s never been this hard.

 

You other folks wait on Old Saint Nick.

Here in the holler we know it’s a trick.

We just need flour, milk, and lard.

Life in the holler’s never been this hard.

Copyright by Roger D. Hicks, December 21, 2020

 

 

"Don't Cry For Us J. D. Vance" An Online Poetry Reading And Discussion Of Life in Appalachia

 The link immediately below will take you to the poetry reading in the title.  It is well worth your time and effort.  

 https://uacvoice.org/dont-cry-for-us-j-d-vance-a-reading-by-ohio-appalachian-authors/

On December 3, 2020, at 7pm, former Cincinnati Poet Laureate Pauletta Hansel headlined and moderated a group poetry reading on Facebook which was cosponsored by the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition, Downbound Books, and West Virginia University Press.  The event featured readings by Hansel, Gregory Kornbluh of Downbound Books (co-host), Pauletta Hansel of the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition (co-host and author), and Omope Carter Daboiku, Kari Gunter Seymour, Richard Hague, Michael Henson, Michael Maloney, Dale Marie Prenatt, Bonnie Proudfoot and Sherry Cook Stanforth (authors).  Each of the authors read at least one of their works and a few read more of their writing.  The title of the event, "Don't Cry For Us J. D. Vance", should be self explanatory for anyone with a solid awareness of current issues related to Appalachia and the Appalachian Studies movement.  I have added my own opinion of Vance and his scurrilous work at these two links.  In addition to taking the time to watch the recorded version of the Cincinatti reading by the authors above, I would suggest to everyone that you also read the books "Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds To Hillbilly Elegy", "The United States of Appalachia" by Jeff Biggers, and "Appalachian Values" by Loyal Jones which I consider to be the most important book for any person to read who hopes to come to understand Appalachia and Appalachian Culture.  In fact, "Appalachian Values" is the first book I ever recommend to anyone who knows little about Appalachia and expresses a desire to understand our homeland and our culture.  

My wife Candice and I watched the reading we are discussing here in its live version and enjoyed it greatly.  Dale Marie Prenatt read her powerful poem about Buffalo Creek in Logan County West Virginia which is her childhood home and the destruction of the communities there by a coal company generated flood was actually experienced by her mother, Gail Amburgy, her maternal grandparents, and most of her maternal extended family.  It is one of my personal favorites from the reading and, in some ways it is personal to me also, since I worked on Buffalo Creek a great deal as a traveling salesman a few years after the disaster and met many of the survivors during that time.  My other personal favorite from the reading was the work of Omope Carter Daboiku, an African American poet originally from the Ironton, Ohio, area.  She is a refreshing and powerful voice of those African American natives of Appalachia who sometimes refer to themselves as Afrilachians although I do not know that Ms. Daboiku takes that position since we have never met or conversed by any means electronic or otherwise.  But based on hearing her read a couple of her highly artistic and expressive poems, I can assure you that I will learn more about her and her work.  

Please consider following the link above to the recorded version of the reading and partake of the entire presentation.  You will find it well worth the time.  

The 78 Most Dangerous Days In America...

 

The full title to this blog post is actuallyThe 78 Most Dangerous Days In American History Since Pearl Harbor and we are currently in the middle of those 78 days which means that I should have posted this piece on November 4, 2020, as soon it was apparent to all rational Americans that Joe Biden was the winner of the election held the day before.  I had actually been predicting the serious levels of danger to America which would arise after a Biden win as early as July or August in 2020 as soon as the majority of polls began to show that Joe Biden was amassing an insurmountable lead in public opinion.  To anyone with any level of psychological or psychiatric training, it has always been apparent that TRAITOR Trump was a very dangerous, criminal, and totally self-serving person.  So the question for those of us with such knowledge immediately became how will this man who is a malignant narcissist at best and an antisocial personality disordered individual at worst respond to the loss of the power which he had gained by virtue of his TREASON with Russia and Vladimir Putin.  It has always been readily apparent to all such trained people that TRAITOR Trump would respond as he always does to differences of opinion with his own mistaken beliefs that he would become increasingly more dangerous, more unhinged, and begin a steadily escalating series of attacks on anyone he believed had been responsible for his defeat and on America, American Democracy, and the entire free world as he draws nearer and nearer to the day on January 20, 2021, when he will be removed from the scene of his four year crime spree and be in imminent danger of federal prosecution for those crimes up to and including TREASON with Russia and Vladimir Putin.  

 

 

On a daily basis since November 3, 2020, we have seen TRAITOR Trump commit a series of steadily worsening acts against all the targets of his self-serving and virulent ire.  He has steadily refused to acknowledge his defeat, refused to concede the election (actually his second lost election),  daily used his favorite tool of stochastic terrorism to further incite the menagerie of Right Wing Radicals who blindly support him, attacked state officials in every state which Joe Biden won, and induced his lawyers to file a long string of unjustified and unsuccessful law suits against those states and those officials.  He has also issued a steady stream of highly questionable and likely unconstitutional executive orders to alter and damage the American government, encouraged the head of the General Services Administration who is known to be one of his loyal minions, to refuse to acknowledge Joe Biden as the president elect and to give him and his incoming administration access to the federal government, fired numerous federal officials who would not blindly support his fantasy that he had actually won an American election, and ceased to do anything except play golf at government expense and work to support his effort to cling to the power which he and Vladimir Putin stole four years ago.  

 

 

As I said above, as much as five or six months ago, I began to predict a series of dangerous actions I could foresee TRAITOR Trump taking after he was defeated in an American election for the second time.  That list of potential threats to America included 1) a long series of highly questionable and likely unconstitutional executive orders which we have been seeing carried out; 2) a series of pardons of his key conspirators which has begun with the pardon of Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn who is one of the direct connections between TRAITOR Trump and Vladimir Putin, the discussion of an attempt to even pardon his children and himself, and discussion of possible pardons for several more of his co-conspirators; 3) further stochastic terrorism and incitement of the Radical Right which he has been doing on a daily basis since November 3,2020; 4) further efforts to destroy the government and weaken various agencies whose missions are in conflict with his criminal interests and this has been occurring with the firing of several federal employees who have disagreed with TRAITOR Trump and this has resulted in the firing of the head of election security who refused to support his claims of election fraud; 5) further looting of the federal treasury which we cannot prove has been ongoing until Joe Biden is actually inaugurated and investigations of TRAITOR Trump's crimes can begin.  Nearly all of these crimes which I foresaw are happening on a daily basis since the election on November 3, 2020, and they will continue and actually escalate until the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20, 2021.  These are the 78 most dangerous days in American History since Pearl Harbor and, at this point, we have no idea how much further damage will be done between now and inauguration day. 

 

 

If all this disaster should end today, this country will still suffer from the TREASON of TRAITOR Trump for decades to come.  The damage to the federal judiciary, especially the US Supreme Court, will last for as much as a half century based on the age of the appointees TRAITOR Trump and his co-conspirators have been able to place in judicial positions.  Numerous federal agencies such as the State Department have been deeply damaged with an exodus of experienced employees and the unwarranted firings of others.  We cannot rule out the possibility that TRAITOR Trump can still manage to start an unjustified war somewhere in the world, most likely against Iran.  We cannot rule rule out further outright TREASON with Vladimir Putin and Russia including the passing on of voluminous state secrets, identities of American intelligence agents and non-citizen intelligence assets around the world which could result in the deaths and neutralization of numerous agents, double agents, and cooperationg foreign citizens.   We cannot bet that America will ever be safe again because for four years we have allowed a Russian Agent and American TRAITOR to claim to be the President of The United States. 

"Hillbilly" Is A Cultural And Ethnic Epithet

 I suppose that with a title like the one above the first thing I should do is give you a definition for the word "epithet".  The website dictionary.com gives this definition of "epithet" which I believe is the most appropriate for our purposes here: "a word, phrase, or expression used invectively as a term of abuse or contempt, to express hostility, etc." And, as bad as I hate to have to, I suspect I should also give a definition for the word "invective".  The website dictionary.com gives this definition of "invective": vehement or violent denunciation, censure, or reproach;  a railing accusation; vituperation; an insulting or abusive word or expression."  While it might still be fairly common for natives of Central and Southern Appalachia as well as the Ozark Region to sometimes use the term "hillbilly" about themselves, it is also generally understood that the use of the word of the word to refer to such residents will usually result in its being interpreted as being insulting, abusive, a reproach, a censure, or an accusation. Other cultural, ethnic, or racial epithets are also sometimes used by members of the groups they denigrate and defame but, just like "hillbilly", those words are rarely accepted by members of those groups when use by outsiders and they should never be accepted or even used by members of those groups.  In my mind, the word "hillbilly" is no different from, just as defamatory, and just as damaging as any of those other words: the "k" word, the "q" word, the "n"word, the "f" word, or the "c" word.  These words all fall within a class of language which should never be used any more than the more common, but less defamatory, curse words should be used.  Being a member of the particular group in question does not make it any more acceptable for you to use those words than it does for a stranger.  

I have recently located a nineteen year old doctoral dissertation from Lousiana State University by Dr. Laura Grace Patillo entitled Appalachia on Stage: the *Southern Mountaineer in American Drama which due to its length (379 pages) I have not completed.  But the dissertation is intriguing for its content and intention to address the "scripting of America's hillbilly other" as well as for its dedication to "a strong Appalachian woman of faith, patience, and wisdom".  I firmly believe that if more native Appalachians such as Dr. Patillo, myself, and the mentors who taught us to seek positive self image instead of accepting cultural epithets and assumptions about us all natives of Central and Southern Appalachia would have benefited both directly and indirectly.  Without having ever known Dr. Patillo or her work, it is obvious to me that she was raised and mentored by the kind of Appalachian people who sought to emulate our strong, ambitious, and self-sufficient forbears and to pass those qualities on to every person they met in some direct or indirect fashion.  

I have also been able to locate a second refreshingly positively entitled doctoral dissertation by Dr. Casey R. White at South Dakota State University which states its intentions in the title:  "REDNECKS AND HILLBILLIES: A THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF PRIDE AND HIGH SELF-ESTEEM EXHIBITED BY SOUTHERN CHARACTERS".   Its stated intent to examine the "construction of pride and self-esteem exhibited by southern characters" is exactly what I hoped to engender with this blog post.  I hope to be able to read both these dissertations fully and to report on them succinctly in later blog posts.  

I have also frequently directed others interested in the public image of native Appalachians to watch the AppalShop movie "Strangers And Kin: A History Of The Hillbilly Image".  It is an excellent and timeless examination of the creation and proliferation of the negative image of Appalachian people as "hillbillies".  In a sidelight to this discussion, I am also reminded of a former supervisor I worked under as a mental health therapist in a juvenile treatment facility.  This person was a native of Mount Sterling, Kentucky, and I will never forget the conversation in which he informed that he did not believe that there was such a thing as an Appalachian Culture.  When we consider the Appalachian Culture in the light of the commonly recognized elements of culture, it is strikingly clear that few cultures anywhere more clearly meet those elements.  Religion, Art, Politics, Language, Economy, Customs, Society, and Geography are listed among those key factors in culture on the website Quizlet.  As we examine each of those listed elements we learn that religion in Appalachia is strikingly unique with Old Regular Baptists, Freewill Baptists, Holiness, Primitive Baptists, and Serpent Handlers all being key segments of religion in Appalachia.  Appalachia is also the home of a truly unique group of folk artists including Edgar and Donny Tolson, Minnie Adkins, and Tim Lewis.  The language of Appalachia is also incredibly unique and traces its roots directly to the British Isles of the 15th and 16th centuries.  

If you are a native Appalachian, be proud of your heritage.  Do not allow anyone to denigrate, defame, or demoralize you because you are Appalachian.  Speak out both verbally and in writing in defense of the Appalachian Culture and history.  

 

J. D. Vance, "Hillbilly Elegy", And The Defamation Of Appalachian Character

 Let me say unequivocally that the fact that I chose to read this book and write about it on this blog should never be considered a recommendation that anyone read the book, watch the movie, or waste your time, money, and mind on such efforts. 

Several years ago when I wrote the blog post at this link, I sincerely hoped that it would never again be necessary to write another word about J. D. Vance, his horrible and horribly ignorant book "Hillbilly Elegy", or his defamation of the character of every native of Central and Southern Appalachia who ever lived.  But now, after  the release on November 11, 2020, of Ron Howard's movie version of the Vance diatribe, I find myself once again wasting my time writing about J. D. Vance and his stupid but popular attacks on Appalachia and Appalachians in general.  Just as happened with the book, reviews of the movie are nearly universally negative.  And, just as happened with the book, a sizeable portion of the population of Appalachians, the people who should be universally incensed at this trash, are oohing and ahing at the movie which critics are using their most negative words to attempt to describe.  On several Facebook groups which are, theoretically, populated by natives of Appalachia, people are identifying with the aberrant, ignorant, criminal, and dysfunctional characterizations of the members of Vance's immediate family which both he and Ron Howard are attempting to pawn off on the general public as shining examples of the deviants whom they claim populate the entire Appalachian region.  I said in the November 2017 blog post about the book:

In my twenty years of practice as an Appalachian mental health professional, I never had a client walk into my office seeking professional therapy and carrying a biopsychosocial of their own composition.  If one ever had, that biopsychosocial very well could have carried the title "Hillbilly Elegy..."  The book is a wonderful piece of work if one were working with a single client or family unit in a mental health setting in an altruistic attempt to successfully intervene in the mental health and substance abuse problems within that particular family unit.  As a piece of literature intended to be considered as a blanket analysis of a culture, and particularly the Appalachian Culture, the book is garbage.  The fact that the book was seized upon by mainstream American critics and readers as a legitimate assessment of the overall Appalachian Culture is a great miscarriage of both justice and common sense. It is also an indictment of the decision making capacity of that general readership.(R. Hicks, Blog Post Cited And Linked Above, 2017)

I also said that earlier blog post that I had sworn when the book was released and I had read the early reviews of the book by legitimate Appalachian scholars and intellectuals that I had no intentions of ever reading the book until a copy had been given to me by my dear friend, Warene Hobson, after she and her husband, P. J. Laska, had chosen not to read it.  I swear to each of you who read this post and to the heavens above that I will never waste my time, money, or mind watching the movie, not even if some well meaning fool offers to pay me well to do so.  In a review in "Rolling Stone", David Fear and his editors chose the sub-headline "J.D. Vance’s story of growing up poor gets the prestige-drama treatment — and ends up as a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing".  I commend them in their choice of verbiage and I could not have said it better myself.  If David Fear and "Rolling Stone" had been the only major outlet to eviscerate the movie, his review could be discounted as false.  But nearly ever major writer, magazine, newspaper or press outlet which have wasted ink on reviewing the movie have concurred with David Fear in most opinions they express.  In a "New Yorker" review, Richard Brody states that 

"the film’s stagings, images, and tones are as formless and as vague as its characters’ mental lives, and that vagueness replaces elements of Vance’s book which are politically and ideologically quite explicit—and which have been criticized for the simplistic lessons that they extract from his experience." (Richard Brody, "The New Yorker", November 23, 2020)

Richard Brody is just as accurate in his assessment of the work of Ron Howard and J. D. Vance as was David Fear.  J. D. Vance, in his malignant narcissism and the resultant wounded response to the familial trauma which caused it, attempted to blame the entire world, Central and Southern Appalachia, in which his mother and grandparents grew up for his damaged psyche.   And, Director Ron Howard, who has spent the majority of his life 3,000 miles or more away from Appalachia, chose to take Vance at his word as have many of those mislead individuals who have read the book or watched the movie.  In my 2017 response to the book, I discussed the use of the cultural and ethnic epithet "hillbilly" in this manner: 

"The word "hillbilly" is just as much an ethnic and cultural epithet as the "n" word, the "q" word, the "k" word, or the "s" word.  It is just as inflammatory and derogatory as the "c" word.  Any person who would use such a word in reference to themselves, their extended family, and their dominant culture and ethnicity is both defaming and denigrating those to whom they refer.  For an excellent film discussion of the use of the word "hillbilly" to discuss and describe Appalachia and Appalachian Culture, please acquire a copy of the Appal Shop documentary "Strangers And Kin: A History of the Hillbilly Image". It is particularly enlightening to learn about the history of the mascot of Appalachian State University, a character named Yosef who is dressed as a "hillbilly" in overalls, a flop hat, and no shoes. That character is the one occasion I can remember in which anything positive ever came out of the creation of a "hillbilly" character.  If J. D. Vance had held any respect for his homeland and its people, he would have never allowed the word "hillbilly" to cross his lips, his pen, or his keyboard. And he certainly would not have used it hundreds of times, as he does throughout the book, to describe his closest family members and alleged role models.  The book is no more an assessment of the overall Appalachian Culture than it is a re-examination of "War And Peace"."(R. Hicks, 2017, Cited and Linked Above)

 I find it truly disheartening in this time when the general public is much more cognizant and enlightened about cultural stereotyping and defamation that the same cannot be said about a large portion of the natives of Central and Southern Appalachia.  If the average Appalachian were as aware of our culture and our history as is the average member of most other minority ethnic and cultural groups in America, those people like J. D. Vance who choose to defame, shame, and denigrate us could not succeed to the degree they do in achieving success in their endeavors.  In perhaps the most easily understood example of the flawed and erroneous pseudologic which Vance uses to press his argument about the negative nature of Appalachia and Appalachians, in an early chapter of the book, he makes the statement that in spite of the large number of men with whom his drug addicted mother kept company none of those men was abusive.  In the very next chapter, he tells the story of how, as a teenager, a physical fight between his mother and one of those men awoke him and he had to come from his bedroom in order to intervene in the altercation.  An error in logic of that nature would not have been well received by Vance's law professors at Yale.  Neither should it be well received by his readers. He also proudly tells the story of how, after he fell asleep on a funeral home pew, his grandparents lost awareness of where he was, assumed he had been kidnapped, and, at gunpoint, assailed the departing mourners at the edge of the parking lot in an attempt to locate him before someone, presumably funeral home staff found him asleep on the pew.  Such behavior is not admirable.  It is not exemplary of any human trait of value.  It is criminal and it is also a typical example of the behavior Vance's family members engaged in and which he attempts to pawn off as typical of all Appalachians.  

I have begun and will end this discussion of J. D. Vance, the book, and the movie, which I once again sincerely hope will be my last, as I began and ended that earlier blog post about the book in 2017.  

Let me say unequivocally that the fact that I chose to read this book and write about it on this blog should never be considered a recommendation that anyone read the book, watch the movie, or waste your time, money, or mind on such efforts.

 

"Milky Way Accent & Selected Work" by Robert "Bob" Snyder--Book Review

 

Nearly two months ago, on October 2, 2020, I received in my mail as a total surprise a copy of the new posthumous poetry collection, "Milky Way Accent & Selected Work" by Robert "Bob" Snyder which had been gifted to me by Bob's widow Peggy.  She and Bob's sister, Yvonne Snyder Farley had worked with Dos Madres Press to get the work published on which Bob had apparently been working when he died twenty-five years ago.  First and foremost, let me say that I have always thought that Bob Snyder was one of that very small handful of poets for whom it could be argued that they were the best the state of West Virginia had ever produced.  Bob had self-published several small collections of poetry, both individually and in joint works with former National Book Award Finalist P. J. Laska and Joseph Barrett.  Bob had also published numerous non-fiction articles during his lifetime in a variety of journals including "Appalachian Heritage", "The Journal of Appalachian Studies", and others.  But this is his first, and, sadly, probably his last book from a recognized publisher of poetry.   

Just as Bob Snyder was a complex and multi-talented man, this is a complex book of poetry. Bob was an aficionado of jazz, blues, scat, and Bluegrass music.  He loved the rural areas and small milltowns of West Virginia along with the mean streets of Appalachian Cincinnati where he lived and listened to bluegrass while finishing his masters degree at the University of Cincinnati.  As you read his book, you will hear scat riffs, blues laments, and fiery hot Bluegrass runs straight from the hills of Appalachia which Bob Snyder loved.  Two of my favorite older poems from Bob are included in this work: "Aubade" which was imprinted on a limited edition broadside shortly after his death in 1995 and is considered by many of his admirers as his poetic masterpiece, and "Grandma", a subtly powerful poem written from the viewpoint of a grandson who found his grandmother's old purse "...stiff as a weed in winter with a fading goldengold  clasp..." and, in a moment of connection, grief, and respect "...from your very last pack smoking one of your Phillip Morrises...".  That, my friends, is poetry from West Virginia, born and bred in those green, fog shrouded mountains both pristine and ravaged depending on which creek or branch you travel up or down, which ridge you cross or simply can't find anymore in the silt working its way down the Kanawha River. The other poem, "Aubade" which I consider Bob's masterpiece is paean to love in rhythmic, flowing, trilling syllables which worm their way into your brain and never leave..."if thieves come baby and steal the chairs we won't get up    won't go nowheres".  It captures that moment all lucky people have or have hoped for when love was ripe, young, fervid, and articulate requiring nothing except the presence of that one you love in a quiet room where memories are made for an entire lifetime.  

If you love Appalachia, West Virginia, flowing language, and sweet, bucolic phrasing which can turn suddenly into the sound of a neighbor's barking, biting dog tied on a short chain to a porch post in the head of a holler where you have to walk by on your way home while hoping the chain holds, this is the book of poetry for you.  If you love to see a brilliant poet who could carry on a lucid conversation with Rilke or Sappho just minutes after drinking Raleigh County moonshine with the man who made it in the middle of a moonlit night, this is the book of poetry for you.  If you love language, linguistic tricks, subtle phrasing mixed with sledge hammer blows, sweet words scattered through a lover's quarrel, or just damn fine, down home poetry, this is the book for you.  If you do not know the poetry of Bob Snyder, you need to meet the man as he appears on the pages of this little jewel.  You need to imagine spending an evening listening to Bob read his work in a Vine Street bar or watching him perform great scat without a musical instrument.  Buddy, you need to read this book. 

Stochastic Terrorism In America!

 

Stochastic Terrorism is defined as "the public demonization of a person or group resulting in the incitement of a violent act, which is statistically probable but whose specifics cannot be predicted".  Stochastic Terrorism is being committed in America every day and the source of the most serious portion of that terrorism is the illegal occupant of the White House.  Stochastic Terrorism results in hate crime attacks on members of targeted minorities all across this country.  Rampant ignorance about targets of Stochastic Terrorism is being spread like wildfire by the primary source of that terrorism, his appointed co-conspirators, and hundreds of  thousands of other voluntary co-conspirators who believe his lies.  

 

 

 

This week in Lansing, Michigan, at least 13 Domestic Terrorists were arrested in a plot to storm the state capitol, kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer, place her on "trial for treason", and eventually kill her.  These people were known members of a group called "The Wolverine Watchmen" had conducted surveilance on the governor's vacation home and had, at one time, talked of using up to 200 men to attack the state capitol.  The group had been infiltrated by FBI agents and large numbers of recorded conversations and telephone calls had been obtained detailing the plot along with other acts of terrorism which the group wished to perpetrate.  The two leaders of this terrorist group had been involved in public protests with at least one elected county sheriff in Michigan.  Dar Leaf, the sheriff in question, has refused to disown the group and was a vocal opponent of Governor Whitmer's active interventions into the Covid 19 pandemic.  That action should tell you that this sheriff is also a Domestic Terrorist and should be charged. 

 

 

 

The question which  many people are asking about this incredibly treasonous and violent plot is "how could this happen in America" or "why are people in America engaging in such domestic terrorism".  There is a simple answer to such questions: a Domestic Terrorist has been allowed to live in the White House for nearly four years and, as a pubic figure, has been engaging in Stochastic Terrorism for at least 5 years.  At least since, Gretchen Whitmer began her run for governor of Michigan in 2018, TRAITOR Trump has often, randomly, unduly, and falsely attacked her because she has not only opposed him and his TREASON,she has publicly opposed him and always been correct and on target in her negative assessments of him.  Immediately after this plot was announced and the 13 people arrested by the FBI, TRAITOR Trump attacked Governor Whitmer again without saying one negative word about the Domestic Terrorists who had just been arrested for plotting her kidnapping and murder. TRAITOR Trump has variously attacked nearly every elected Democratic official in statewide offices, Democratic senators and congress members at the federal level, and even attacked retired Democratic officials in his efforts to incite such groups to acts of violence.  

 

 

 

The most often stated support of American Domestic Terrorists by TRAITOR Trump has always been the occasion after the Charlottesville, Virginia, murder of an innocent protestor when he stated that there were good people "on both sides of the protests".  Yet, somehow, a major portion of the American electorate was willing to ignore these blatant occasions of Stochastic Terrorism from TRAITOR Trump against non-violent protestors expressing their constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech, ongoing Stochastic Terrorism against Democratic office holders, candidates, and activists.  Anyone who utilizes their right to free speech, public assembly, or freedom of the press to question the motives, actions, or intentions of TRAITOR Trump has always been a target for his virulent rabble rousing and Stochastic Terrorism.  Finally, his TREASONOUS actions have reached a point in their consequences that only the most ignorant or uncaring Americans can ignore them any further.  It is long past time for the decent, law abiding citizens of this country to stand up against TRAITOR Trump and his Stochastic Terrorism, his TREASON with Russia, his burgeoning insanity, his crimes against humanity, and his complete incompetence in a job to which he was not legally elected.  Impeachment failed because he had 51 Right Wing Radical Repugnican co-conspirators in the US Senate.  Now, the only option is to vote STRAIGHT DEMOCRATIC, elect Democratic officials nation wide, and support them in the necessary work to ensure that TRAITOR Trump is not allowed to incite civil war in the nation, ensure that he is removed by force if necessary from the White House on January 20, 2021, guarantee that he is indicted, convicted, sentenced, and imprisoned for life for his crimes against this nation and the entire human race. 

The Dog Eye Bean and The Eagle With Spreading Wings Beans

Partly as a result of my other recent posts about Appalachian Heritage beans and shucked beans I have had an ongoing e-mail exchange with my friend Frank Barnett who is one of the most important experts in the entire country on Appalachian Heritage beans.  Frank has spent  years locating, collecting, and saving Appalachian Heritage beans and has several hundred varieties in his collection.  He grows a large crop each year, sometimes beginning with as little as the seeds from one bean and protecting, propagating, and saving the bean in amounts large enough to be viable long term.  If he has only a few seeds for a particular variety, he will plant them in one spot and build a protective wire or mesh cage about 12 feet tall to set over the growing bean vines to protect them from animals.  Bill Best my other Appalachian Heritage crop expert says that he has regularly used poles about 12 feet tall topped with a bicycle rim to which he attaches strong strings so the bean vines can grow up the strings and be protected.  At the end of the first year with these rare varieties for which they have only a small amount of seeds, every bean will be dried and saved for seed.  In the second year, it might be possible to plant one short row from which nearly all the seed will be saved again.  Or if this second year is particularly abundant, they might try to eat one small mess of beans and save the majority of the seeds.  

As a result of these recent e-mails between Frank Barnett and myself, Frank recently sent me photographs of two beans which he is working to save. They are two of the most unique and appropriately named beans I have ever seen. 

Frank and I have also had a message or two back and forth about the nomenclature of Appalachian Heritage beans and I hope my readers will find it as fascinating as I have.  For the majority of this post, I will use Frank's own words since he is the real expert.  I am simply the messenger attempting to pass on his excellent knowledge to as many people as possible, especially those of you in the Central and Southern Appalachian region.  As the title says above, the two varieties of bean Frank and I have discussed are the Dog Eye Bean and the Eagle With Spreading Wings Bean.  The photograph attached to this paragraph is of the Dog Eye Bean and Frank Barnett took the photos and grew both beans.  As soon as you look at the photos of the individual bean seeds in the photo, it is easy to see why it is called the Dog Eye Bean.  The eye of the bean looks a great deal like the eye of a dog.  

The second bean which Frank sent me a photo of is called the Eagle With Spreading Wings Bean and it is just as appropriately named as the Dog Eye Bean.  It is truly a compelling photograph when you combine it with the name.  Until I saw these photographs, I had no idea there could be so much variety in the appearance of individual bean seeds. That is a very graphic name which is fully justified when you see the photograph of the bean seeds with their very distinctive eye. 

As I said earlier, these photographs caused me to engage in an e-mail exchange with Frank Barnett and to ask his permission to use his photographs and messages in a blog post to which he consented.  However, his copyright should be respected and protected if you choose to pass this blog post, these photographs, Frank's e-mail messages as inserted below, or any portion of this blog post.  Also, please not that with recent changes to the Blogspot format and software that it is not currently possible to insert a caption at the bottom of a photograph as I have always done previously.  The bottom line is simply that you should honor both my authorship and Frank's.  I have also done a Google search for more information about these two incredibly unique beans and found nothing which should tell you just how cutting edge Frank Barnett's work with Appalachian Heritage beans really is.  

When Frank sent me his first e-mail on September 29, 2020, he simply sent the photographs appropriately labeled with their respective names in response to my earlier writing about the Lazy Wife Greasy Bean to which I responded with the following e-mail message: 

"Frank,        Those are interesting beans with very appropriate names.  Candice & I went to Bill's on Thursday and bought some Lazy Wife Greasy Beans, froze four bags and ate one last night.  We really like the taste.  Bill & I were talking as we have a few times before about the fact that we both agree that you really should write a book about your exploits in the world of Appalachian Heritag Beans.  Winter is coming on and when you get the gardens put to bed it would be a great time to start."  (R. Hicks E-mail September 29, 2020)

 Frank responded on October 4, 2020, with the following e-mail message: 

"Roger,  You all need to come and visit me especially when I have beans ready in the garden. Like my Grandma I will draw a fresh bucket of water from the well (actually in these days and times, bottled spring water from the refrigerator ) and give you all a mess of beans to take home.  My garden here at the house in around 50ft by 100ft. It is nice to work a little in the garden and then run back into the house with the A/C. I have enjoyed my visits up the hollers and some have been right in the head of a deadening. People have been good to me and most times we have spent hours just talking. I started chasing beans down when I was 59 years old and my rules were to find the actual growers and they had to be older than me. However, now at 73 years old that is becoming more difficult. I do need to organize my notes from the past years. I have certainly enjoyed my retirement of what is now approaching 14 years." (Frank Barnett E-mail, October 4, 2020)

Although that e-mail from Frank may not have a great deal of information about the two beans in discussion here it contains a great deal of other wonderful information about gardening, bean chasing as Frank calls it, and life in the Appalachian mountains all over Eastern Kentucky and Southern West Virginia.  The comment about drawing "a fresh bucket of water" is a throw back to hand dug wells, spring houses, Appalachian hospitality, and general customs all across Appalachia. Both Frank and I have spent years traveling all across Appalachia in a variety of capacities.  Frank grew up in Floyd County Kentucky about 25 miles or so from where I grew up in Knott County and both of us have spent the majority of our lives in the region although we also spent several years outside the region and have traveled extensively in the United States.  We both like to believe we understand Appalachia and Appalachian people.  I responded to Frank's message above with the message below: 

"Frank,  We have gone to Bill's in the last few days and spent a couple of hours with Bill and Rene' but, due to the second surge of Covid which is devastating the state, we are back to pretty much where we were in March and April in terms of low contacts and self isolation.  With Candice's general condition, we cannot take a chance on getting out much.  But we appreciate the offer to visit and will when Covid is under control and an ethically produced, tested, and confirmed vaccine is being widely marketed by public health officials in the Joe Biden administration.  Maybe we can do it next year at bean picking time but we don't need to have the beans to agree to the visit.  If an appropriate vaccine from a company with no ties to TRAITOR Trump is available in the spring, we would be willing to visit then.  And, if you are out in the general area of Morgan County, under the aforesaid terms, we would be glad to have you visit here." (R. Hicks E-mail October 5, 2020)

Candice and I have visited with Frank on only one occasion when we shared a lunch with him in a fine Italian restaurant not far from his home near Georgetown, Kentucky.  We have also visited with Bill Best at the Lexington Farmers Market where he sells beans, the Berea Farmers Market, and the aforementioned visit at his farm near Berea during the first few days of October.  But all three of us (Bill, Frank, and I) regularly e-mail each other and often include all contacts in the group on our messages.  They have taught me a lot about beans, farming, eating wholesome homegrown foods, and Appalachia, Appalachian Culture, and life in general.   So, Frank responded to my E-mail of October 5, 2020, above on October 5, 2020, with the following discussion of beans, bean chasing, and raising beans.

"Sure you can do a blog about Dog Eyes and Eagles but use the last photo I sent of the Eagle Spreading Wings. There has always been a big discussion on FaceBook about Hazard Red Eyed Fall beans and Leslie Tenderpods being the same varity. Last week the Clay Bank Fall bean from me was mentioned and I had to tell everyone that the bean was from Leslie County at a spot called Hell for Certain. And besides that are at least 4 sub varieties that folks want to call Hazard Red Eyed Fall beans but folks in Perry County know better. I will try to put something together tonight that is clearer.  Maybe I need to add the Big Teddy story about the bean I got at the Morgan County Sorghum Fest a few years back, a big old boy from Owsley County selling his beans."  (Frank Barnett E-mail, October 5, 2020)

Obviously, in that message immediately above, Frank briefly mentioned several more varieties of Appalachian Heritage beans including the Hazard Red Eyed Fall Bean and Leslie Tender Pods which are probably the same variety.  He also mentioned a bean he had gotten during a visit to the Morgan County Sorghum Festival in my home county and the Clay Bank Fall Bean from a spot he called Hell For Certain.  But I have always known that creek in Leslie County Kentucky as being Hell Fer Sartain as it is called in Leonard Roberts' wonderful book of Appalachian folk tales with the title "South From Hell Fer Sartain".  But the message immediately above tells a lot about how hard Frank Barnett has worked in his efforts to save as many Appalachian Heritage beans since his retirement from IBM about 14 years ago.  He has traveled thousands of miles, visited with hundreds of small mountain farmers, driven up many small, isolated hollows, and eaten a lot of good meals in little houses with common people who welcomed him in, gave him a share of what little or much they had, and treated him like a friend even though they had often never met this man who seemed to enjoy good beans as much as they did.  

Frank and I have had a few more messages back and forth since October 5, 2020, about Appalachia, our common raising in Eastern Kentucky, and our love for traveling narrow, two lane mountain roads all over Appalachia, and learning everything we can from older Appalachians as soon as we can before any more of it is lost.  If you feel the same way, contact me at my E-mail address rchicks@mrtc.com and tell me your stories.  It would be wonderful if you allowed me to pass that information along so other Appalachians can benefit from it also.   Frank also sent me this photo on October 8, 2020, of our mutual friend, national Appalachian Heritage crop expert Bill Best with his freshly made shucked beans.