"Tales From Suburban Widespot" by Roger D. Hicks Just Went On Sale On Amazon

My first collection of short stories has just gone on sale in all three formats, hardcover, paperback, and Kindle on Amazon. These are Appalachian short stories about half of which have previously been published somewhere in paper literary journals or online literary websites. My description of the book on Amazon is: "This book is a collection of Appalachian Short Stories set in and around the mythical community of Widespot which is located somewhere in Central and Southern Appalachia. The stories are purely fictional but based on the author's lifelong experiences in Appalachia. They are about life and common experiences which most native Appalachians have experienced: birth, death, baptism, near starvation, defamation, adulation, love, hate, marriage, divorce, separation, experimentation, and near extermination. There is humor, tears, grief, and a little humor about tears and grief. They are stories about life, the lives of fictional Appalachians and the deep rooted, multifaceted culture in which we live. They are about the common Appalachian Values which were written about by Loyal Jones, Albert Stewart, Robert "Bob" Snyder, P.J. Laska, Don West, and many other native Appalachian writers who have been both my mentors and friends. Now it is the turn of native Appalachan Roger D. Hicks to write about these beliefs and values. It is also your turn to read about and enjoy them!" https://www.amazon.com/s?k=tales+from+suburban+widespot+roger+hicks&crid=D9FJTAVKXQMH&sprefix=tales+from+suburban+widespot+roger+hicks%2Caps%2C128

In Defense Of Appalachian Culture or Conversation With An Idiot!

Abut 25 years ago, I was working as a mental health therapist in a facility for juvenile males in one of the most classically Appalachian counties in Kentucky. That facility at the time had an idiot as its executive director. I had not been employed there very long, we didn't know a great deal about each other, and became involved in a lengthy conversation. The talk wound round and round as such conversations often do, and the fellow asked me something or other about the kinds of things I was interested in or in which I was involved. I said that I was very much involved in Appalachian Culture, Appalachian History, and Appalachian Literature. To my utter amazement, the man who had been raised in a Kentucky county which sits of the edge of Appalachia said "there is no such thing as Appalachian Culture". I was momentarily thunderstruck but managed to regain my mental equilibrium in time to make an honest attempt to inform him of the error of his ways. To this day, I still don't know if he was actually that stupid, and he was definitely stupid, or just attempting to antagonize me. He had been career Army which, I am certain, had not improved his intellectual capacities and skills. i began with a very brief history of Cenral and Southern Appalachia which is the area which constitutes what I refer to as Cultural Appalachia. That area of the entirety of West Virginia and parts of Eastern Kentucky, Western Virginia, East Tennessee, Western North Carolina, North Georgia, and much smaller portions of Western South Carolina and Northeastern Alabama are the area of the Appalachian Mountain Range which comprise the entirety of Cultural Appalachia. The vast majority of the area of the Appalachian Mountain Range is not remotely a part of Cultural Appalachia. Yes, there are areas outside that area which have been deeply affected by the large numbers of Appalachian people who have migrated into them, especially in the Midwest. But having been affected by a non-native culture does not make an area a part of the migrant culture. In the reverse of that premise, let's imagine that I, a Caucasian Appalachian male traveled to Watts in Los Angeles or Harlem in New York City. No one in their right mind would say that I had suddenly become African American or Hispanic. Even if I became a multitudinous polygamist with more than two dozen wives and a hundred children who were all raised in social isolation and steeped in my native culture, no one would say that I had managed to make Harlem or Watts into a part of Appalachia. Cultural Appropriation is not that pervasive. But let's move on to the rest of my discussion with the previous idiot in mind. In a momentary aside in addition to discussing a list of the various elements of Appalachian Culture, I also intend to intersperse throughout this blog post some photographs of some manifestations of that Appalachian Culture. The first of these elments to be so pictured below will be Food which is clearly recognized as a primary element in every clearly acknowledged culture. The photograph below is of a meal I cooked in my home a few months ago of guinea and some side dishes.

I'm certain that most of my readers will say something like "most native Appalachians do not eat guineas" which is true. But most native Appalachians, especially rural Appalachians do eat numerous game animals and some species of non-traditional farm animals which most other cultures in America do not eat such as squirrels, rabbits, grouse, doves, deer, elk, raccoons, ground hogs, etc. The side dishes I had with that guinea were hominay cassesrole and baked sweet potato. Almost nobody in "modern America" eats hominy in any form. But I once took a double batch of that same hominy casserole to a pot luck at a local yak farm and, so help me God, the casserole dish appeared to have been licked clean when I picked it up to leave after the event at which most of us at least sampled yak chili and yak meat loaf. Eating a wide variety of both plants and animals is a key part of Appalachian Culture.

Religion is one of the most commonly discussed elements of all cultures and a key element of Appalachian Culture. I took the photograph above of a little Holiness Church in Blaine, Lawrence County, Kentucky, a few years ago. The building is still standing, but I believe the little church is now defunct. But Appalachian Culture is replete with a widely divergent group of both denominations and non-denominational churches including the Old Regular Baptist, Primitive Baptist, Freewill Baptists, United Baptist, Southern Baptist, Holiness, Pentecostal, Serpent Handling both Jesus Only and Trinitarian, all of which are traditional churches in the region of Central and Southern Appalachia. And several of those including the Old Regular Baptist, Serpent Handling, and Primitive Baptist have been founded in the region by fairly recent emigres from England and the Anglican Church. Several of those denominations have been transported into the Midwest by Appalachian migrants aloong with their food ways and other cultural elements. Near Kendallville, Indiana, there is a church in the Northern New Salem Association of Old Regular Baptists which is named for my half sister, Flossie Hicks Wicker. It is called the Little Flossie Church of The Old Regular Baptists. Just 28 or so miles south of that church in Fort Wayne, Indiana, there have been at times at least three serpent handling churches which were also brought to Northern Indiana by Appalachian migrants. That is the obvious migration of a culture. I also have three or four generations of nieces and nephews who practice the self-sufficient ways of hunting, fishing, and foraging which their grandparents and great-grandparents took to the Northern Indiana area when they left Eastern Kentucky in the heart of Appalachia. I don't intend to discuss every commonly discussed and recognized element of most cultures in this blog post. That would be much more a design for a book. It is actually a book which deserves to be written. But I am not certain that I have the time to write that book. Maybe one of my readers who is a native of Central and Southern Appalachia can do that book in the near future. And, as I have implied in that previous sentence, I do not believe that it is possible for a non-native of any culture to appropriately address any culture of which they are not a native in a rational and fully accurate manner.

My Thirty Minute Phone Call From Mitch McConnell!

Last night, just as I was falling off to sleep, my telephone rang and I answered. To my ecstatic surprise, it was Mitch McConnell in the flesh, so to speak, since so many million Americans have begun to doubt his existence. I spat, sputtered, regained control of my rapidly beating heart and finally responded, "Mr. Senator, thank you very much for calling me! I'm surprised you remember me since it has been so many years since we last spoke." Mitch rejoined, "Not remember you??? How could I not remember you? We ate pinto beans together at the old Rock House Restaurant at the mouth of Slone Fork between Hindman and Mousie in the summer of 1968 when we were both just young whipper snappers. You were sixteen years old and fresh out of high school at that wonderful old Knott County High School at Pippa Passes on Caney Creek, what an institution! I was a young, wet behind the ears attorney, just twenty-six years young, just graduated from law school the year before, working for Marlowe Cook in his run for the US Senate seat as his college coordinator with all the colleges in the state. We were desperate for every vote we could find so he sent me to see you in Knott County because you were enrolled in Alice Lloyd College after a wonderful academic summer or two in Upward Bound, that reprehensible program which had been such a waste of federal money by Democrats." I was thunderstruck to say the least but I tried to speak, to ask what he could possibly need from me now almost 60 years after that fortuitous bowl of pinto beans. I tried to speak, to question why it was his idea to call me now. "You and that bowl of pinto beans changed my life forever. You actually agreed to be the campus student chair for Marlowe Cook and Richard Nixon, God bless their sainted souls! You worked that job so hard, called me once a week at my office in Louisville and repeatedly told me the truth, that there were no Republican votes on Caney Creek. You taught me how to face the truth with that kind of honesty. You set me on the path to great power, motivated me to become a powerful United States Senator and Senate Majority Leader for a record stretch. I'll never forget you or that wonderful bowl of pinto beans." I said,"Sir, I'm afraid that you have more important calls to make than this one. I hope you don't intend to waste twenty minutes of your valuable time with me as you have with so many of your Republican colleagues! To my utter surprise, Mitch then said with a sly chuckle, "Waste twenty minutes? Oh no, this won't be a waste, and I'm going to give you a full half hour unlike the others. Just relax and listen as I tell you my plans." I agreed to sit quietly and listen as the half hour flew by, or actually just twenty-eight minutes of it. I can't divulge what plans Mitch told me about but they were fantastic, exhilirating, stupendous, supercalifragilisticexpealidoscious, but he swore me to secrecy. Then just as my bedside clock showed the call to have been going on for twenty-seven minutes, I heard a stentorian but heavenly voice in the background of Mitch's call. "Mitch, it's time. Let's go, please!" I heard Mitch respond, "Peter? Saint Peter, NO, it can't be. I have so much to do. I was just telling Roger Hicks how much I have planned from now until the end of my term...". Then,to my utter consternation, the line went dead...and, I suspect, the line did not go dead alone.

Ned Pillersdorf Appearance At The Mountain Arts Center, July 4, 2026

Yesterday, July 4t, 2026, my wife Candice and I attended a meeting at the Mountain Arts Center in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, in support of the campaign of Ned Pillersdorf for the US House in Kentucky's 5th district. The event was smaller than I had hoped for but it was attended by somewhere between 75 and 100 people on a very hot day which I am sure kept others away due to the extreme heat even though the event was held indoors. Tommy Webb, one of the best voices in Bluegrass, was also featured at this event, sang a few songs, and delivered somoe of his political wisdom. The event was smaller than I had hoped for but still fairly well attended on a day hot enough to keep many from traveling. I would say that most of the attendees at the event are politically involved people who attend at least a few such events each year. However, this is no ordinary year! We are facing a concerted effort by TRAITOR Trump and the Criminal Syndicate which supports his TREASON while posing as a "cabinet" to destroy America and American Democracy. There were close to dozen there whom I have known, at least superficially, for anywhere from a year or so to fifty or more years. Three members of my extended family were there, Jack Terry, and Ed and Judy McGuire who live only a mile or two away from the MAC as the Mountain Arts Center is known. I was particularly pleased to see famed AppalShop filmmaker Herbie Smith and his son Attorney Evan Smith who works for AppalRed Legal Defense and Research Fund in Prestonsburg. I had known or known of Herbie Smith and his work literally since the days of the inception of AppalShop in the late 1960's or early 1970's. I had met Evan at the Memorial Day event at the home of Ned Pillersdorf and his wife, Retired Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Janet Stumbo. Retired Big Sandy Community and Technical College History Professor Tom Matajasic was also there and spoke to Candice and I briefly. I had also initially met Tom at that same Memorial Day event. Famed barbecue cook James Butler served the food as he does at many events in which Ned is involved. His food was excellent as always. But James is much more than a barbecue cook. He is also a local minister and serves on the board of the Floyd County Animal Shelter. Ned's daugher, Sarah Pillersdorf, was there as she is at most of her father's campaign events, and also works as a child support enforcement worker in Louisville. Naturally, her mother Janet Stumbo was there and we spoke briefly about a few issues. Tommy Webb and I were able to have two conversations during the afternoon, one just as he arrived in which we laughed about a lunch we had almost two years ago in which I had attempted to induce him to begin supporting some Democratic candidates publicly since he has often quietly expressed some liberal views. But like most Bluegrass musicians, he has rarely appeared publicly at such events, if ever, since many fans of Bluegrass have historically been to one degree or another conservative. But I firmly believe that is changing rapidly as it is with most previously conservative people in America. Due to the actions of TRAITOR Trump and the Criminal Syndicate which poses as a "cabinet", America and Americans have suffered in a multitude of ways over the last 11 or so years since the tragic day TRAITOR Trump rode down that gold escalator and began to promote the farce that he was fit to be the leader of the free world. The time is long past for all Americans to do our duty and put an end to his TREASON. We must elect a Democratic president in 2028, and we must elect Democratic majorities in both houses of congress. This nation and our Democracy cannot survive if that does not happen.

"The Temptation: Edgar Tolson And The Genesis Of Twentieth Century Folk Art" by Julia S. Ardery

Rarely, if ever, have I seen a book which is so meticulously researched, documented, and written. This book by Julia S. Ardery is a masterpiece and one of the most important books in the field of Appalachian Folk Art. The only potential negative in the book is the fact that it is so well written that it can become a bit pedantic at times. But if one chooses to read books written by a potential pedant, this is the book to read. It is based on the well justified premise that Campton, Kentucky, folk artist Edgar Tolson was largely responsible for the popularity of Appalachian Folk Art and, in some ways, the increased popularity of American Folk Art in general. It is also fascinating that the book was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1998 more than 22 years after the death of the author. That fact is a clear indicator that it must have been preserved in manuscript form by her son Major General Phillip P. Ardery who was her sole surviving child at the time the book was published. Julia Ardery was also the editor of another book, "Welcome The Traveler Home" which is the memoir of Jim Garland, a career union organizer. That book was also published after the death of Julia Ardery by the University of Kentucky Press. Edgar Tolson was an enigmatic, garrulous, and sometimes abrasive man whose eventual fame might not have been foreseen in a person who fluctuated between periods of preaching and excessive drinking. He is even credited with once having blown up the little church he preached in with dynamite. But he gained many supporters, promoters, and fans as he moved from a life of itinerant labor to become the premier wood carver in America in his lifetime. He was obviously well respected by Ardery who spent a vast amount of time and resources to compile this book which is sourced with numerous interviews by the author with more than 60 people other than her primary subject. She also did an excellent piece of work in detailing the lengthy relationship between Edgar Tolson and Scuptor and educator Michael D. Hall who promoted Edgar Tolson's work tirelessly, collected large numbers of his carvings, and eventually was able to sell his entire folk art collection to the Milwaukee Art Museum which has an entire wall in one room which is dedicated to Edgar Tolson's carvings of the biblical story of Adam, Eve, and their sons, Cain and Able. Ardery goes to extensive and well justified lengths to discuss how Edgar Tolson's growing popularity in the world of "real art" enabled many other folk artists, both Appalachian and American, to sell their works, gain credibility in the art world, and in some cases to actually make a living from what had previously been known more often as "whittling", "fooling around", or "wasting time". This is a truly beautiful piece of work with numerous photograpns of Edgar Tolson, his art works, his family, and others. The research for this book is some of the best I have ever seen on any topic. If you are a person who enjoys reading a well written, extensivley researched, and flawlessly documented work, this is the book for you whether or not you are already an admirer of good folk art. It is actually capable of inducing you to become another of the aforementioned admirers and collectors of folk art. The book is widely available on most used book websites and well worth reading.

"Kinfolks: The Wigus Stories" by Gurney Norman

A recent reread of this book was, naturally, prompted by the death of its author, Gurney Norman, who is most famous for his first novel, "Divine Right's Trip: A Novel of The Counter Culture" which I had reread and written about earlier this year. I honestly don't remember the first time I read this collection of short stories. It is composed of a collection of ten short stories which have a cast of common characters who are all either family or friends of the protagonistg, Wilgus Collier, an Appalachian male who is raised in the home of his maternal grandparents. I believe all but one of the stories had been previously published in several literary journals around the country. In some respects, an argument could be made that it is a similar kind of collection to Mildred Hauns's "The Hawk's Done Gone". However, this collection falls a bit short of Haun's book in being a major part of the argument about what actually constitutes a novel versus a collection of short stories with a common setting and a common cast of characters. Norman's book and the stories it is comprised of is less tightly timelined across the lives of the characters, and falls a bit short in the depth of the character development of most of the characters as opposed to Haun's work. Enough about that. The protagonist is a member of a family which has a complicated structure and mercurial interactions. He is the grandson living in the home of his grandparents, is a close friend of his slightly older uncle Delmer who teaches him how to drink among other acts of coming of age. This book is generally perceived a series of coming of age stories and spans the boys adolescent years to his young adulthood. He is better educated than the other family members and is often viewed as a source of assistance when family problems arrives. One of the stories is about the illness of the grandfather and Wilgus' spending a night sitting with him in hospital. A similar incident with different characters is also a significant part of "Divine Right's Trip" in which D. R. the protagonist in that book performs the same chore for a family friend. The family fight often, love each other always, and show it clearly when the chips are down. They might fight each other in private but they always fight common enemies in public. These stories will make you laugh, and make you cry. They will make you a fan of Wilgus and his extended family. I sincerely doubt that any of these stories will be forever enshrined into the pantheon of great American Literature. But they are already enshrined in the pantheon of serious Appalachian Literature. This book is well worth reading especially if you are a devotee of the American short story.

"That Far Paradise" by Gene Markey

This is the second of Gene Markey's novels I have read lately and written about on this blog. The first was "Kentucky Pride" which I reviewed at this link. This novel, "That Far Paradise" is actually a prequel to "Kentucky Pride" with its protagonist being the grandfather of "Kentucky Pride"s protagonist, Aidan Kensal. The grandfather is named General Jared Kensal, a former revolutionary general who fought for American independence and is the first Kensal to settle in Kentucky on the land which becomes the setting for "Kentucky Pride". Jared Kensal is the holder of Revolutionary War land grants for several thousand acres of land near Lexington, Kentucky, and as the novel begins is preparing to relocate his family from his Virginia plantation,along with more than fifty slaves, to a fabulous home he has built on his Kentucky land. He has deeded the Virginia plantation to his brother Carter Kensal who is a heavy drinker and man of little consequence. Jared Kensal is married and has five children with his wife Ardath who is from Old Virginia upper class stock, hates the idea of moving to Kentucky and is very far removed from any positive feelings she might have had about her husband in the early days of their marriage. The husband and wife have effectively divided their children between themselves in terms of loyalty and affection. Jared has close connections to his younger son Harry, middle daughter Lexie, and the youngest daughter who is only a young child and a minor character in the novel. Ardath has close ties to the oldest daughter and son, Elizabeth and Garland who is attempting to become a doctor. Ardath attempts persistently to control all five children and prevent them from being closely attached to their father. Like most generals in most armies, Jared Kensal is a man of his own mind and forces the family relocation to take place. As the move becomes imminent, Carter Kensal meets a British spy and his wife, Polly Blayden, who has nearly killed her husband and abandoned him in possession of a letter he has from his British commander which proves that he is a spy. I nlight of their lack of intimate relationships with their spouses, Jared Kensal and Polly Blayden are immediately attractedto each other. Polly asks to join Jared's wagon train so she can travel to Kentucky to visit her sister in Paris which was a tiny Central Kentucky village in 1794, the period in which the novel is set. Jared has put together a massive wagon train for his trip to Kentucky, comprised of his family, an old Kentucky woodsman friend, Ab Caiton, about 65 slaves of all ages, a small detachment of militia whose purpose is to provide security for the group. He has a plan for taking the train across a route which is rarely used through what is now West Virginia, down the Little Kanawha River to the Ohio, and down the Ohio to Maysville, where they will go overland to Lexington through the area where in real life Daniel Boone and a party of his were engaged in the Battle of Blue Licks. Although Boone is a minor character in the novel, Blue Licks is never mentioned. The trip is an incredibly arduous effort requiring the hiring of mule skinners and ox drovers to drag the many wagons across mountains, the buying of several flat boats to haul the party, livestock, and plunder down the Ohio. It is a trip which most observers in the novel see as a doomed venture. But Jared Kensal and his team manage the feat as he and Polly fall in love, engage in a torrid affair along the way, and ends with battles with warring Indians along the Ohio, a final battle with Blayden himself, the death of Ardath Kensal. Gene Markey was a devoted student of Kentucky history during his life as the husband of Lucille Wright Markey, the owner of famed Calumet Farm in Lexington. The book is well researched with a cast of purely fictional characters, and is well worth reading. It leaves a gap of several years between "Kentucky Pride" and "That Far Paradise". It is my belief that Gene Markey had intended to write a third novel to cover the gap between General Kensal's trip to Lexington and the Civil War and Reconstruction novel, "Kentucky Pride", which tells the story of his grandson who was a Confederate officer who returns to find his plantation in Lexington has been seized by the government due to his support of the Confederacy. I fully realize that many readers will dislike the novel because of the fact that General Kensal is a slaveholder and his Kentucky woodsman friend Ab Caiton hates Native Americans and scalps a few in the course of the novel. But it is my position that fiction which is labled as "historical fiction" has a serious responsibilty to accurately represent the times which it purports to describe. Any attempts to either ignore, rewrite, or misrepresent the history being portrayed is not historical fiction. It is simply fiction, inaccurate fiction, and not worthy of an intelligent reader's time.

"A Driving Tour of Elliott County Kentucky" by Sharon Boggs

This is a little book originally published by Kindle and written by Sharon Boggs, a neice of Appalachian folk artist Minnie Adkins who also lives in Elliott County Kentucky where she was a teacher for many years. The book gives a very detailed driving map of the county and includes at least a basic mention of most of the roads in the county. For myself, the best piece of information I got from the book was the story of how seven Civil War soldiers, whose loyalties were not known apparently, were murdered near Sandy Hook after the Civil War had ended. There is a state historical marker a couple of miles west of Sandy Hook on Kentucky Route 7 which I believe marks the spot where those men are buried. It is on the side of the road without a decent parking space without either parking some distance away and walking to the marker or simply imposing and parking in a nearby driveway to a home. I admit I have considered doing one or the other several times but have never done so in order to actually read that marker. The book also gives a basic explanation of the Laurel Gorge Cultural Heritage Center site which is one of my favorite hikes in Eastern Kentucky although I don't hike there regularly. There are also a large number of historical photographs of people and places in Elliott County but the reproduction quality is poor. The book also gives a basic history of the small local post offices whch used to be operarting in the county, nearly all of which are now defunct. The book is available on Amazon for $10.00. If you want to know more about Elliott County Kentucky, it could be worth your time and money.

"Poems To Ponder" by Alva Rice

Alva Rice produced one small, self-published collection of poetry to my knowledge which was printed in 1965, two years before his death. The printing company was Young Publications in Appalachia, Virginia. The book contains roughly 30 poems about life in Eastern Kentucky with some leaning toward being nature poetry and others which are reflections of family life including one which talks about young boys playing, most likely at some family affair. Rice used a lot of rhyme and sometimes exercied a bit of poetic license with regard to his rhymes. None of the poems are remarkable for the level of talent they show but they are a good look into every day family life in Johnson County Kentucky in the middle of the twentieth century. In particluar, Rice mentions a place called Little Mine Creek. I found the copy of the book which I own in a local Goodwill Store and bought it since I have a great deal of trouble ignoring anything which can be said to be autographed and this one is inscribed "Your Frien, Alva", and in the same handwriting contains the name Escom Chandler. The fly leaf of the book also contains the names of his wife Erma Maxine and three daughters Alice Evelyn, Mary Kathryn, and Betty Lou. As I often do when I encounter such self-published books, I did a quick internet search and located the burial place of Alva Rice and his wife in the Price Cemetery in Johnson County Kentucky. I also located a Find A Grave memorial for a fourth daughter, Phyllis Deane Rice, who died in a car wreck according to her tombstone at the age of 13 in 1957, ten years before the publication of his book of poems.

"Lilly The Cat" by Destiny Conley, An Early Reader Book With A Kentucky Connection

Recently I strayed into a copy of an early reader book for K-2 or so readers with a strong Kentucky connection. The title of the book is a bit confusing since there is another more widely known book for children by the same title and written by a different author. If you go hunting for a copy of this book online, be sure that you are locating the book which has been written and illustrated by Destiny Conley and published by STARS Publishing. It was also an outcome of a project by Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative. But a search of the websites of both the publisher and KVEC failed to locate any information about the book. And to further complicate any history or sales information about the book, it was actually printed by a third organization, Minutemen Press in Lexington, Kentucky. The publication date was 2016. The information I was able to find about KVEC identifies it as "...one of eight education cooperatives in Kentucky consisting of 27 member school districts. The organization serves 161 schools with over 53,000 students and nearly 4,000 educators." The website shows a mailing address of 412 Roy Campbell Drive, Hazard, KY. It's listed members serve a large geographical area in the watersheds of the Big Sandy, Licking, and Kentucky Rivers. The book appears to have been chosen as a result of a contest for students being served by KVEC, and it seems that the author and editor was actually a student in some program served by KVEC. The primary character in the book is a cat named Lily who loses her favorite ball of yarn and finds it in the possession of a mouse. When the mouse refuses to surrender the ball of yarn "Lily comes up with an idea" and asks the mouse if they can share the ball of yarn. The story ends with both Lily and mouse remembering "that sharing is caring". It is nice little book written in age appropriate language for early learners, and the author/illustrator was apparently at roughly the same age as the target audience when she wrote the book. It is a nice little book for both teachers and parents to utilize in the effort to teach and reinforce sharing behaviors in young children. However, considering the fact that I found it difficult to learn more about the book, it might be a bit of stretch to locate more copies. But the internet is always a great place to find almost anything. Good Luck!

Minnie Adkins Day in Sandy Hook, KY, July 19, 2025

Today, July 19, 2025, my wife Candice & I traveled to Sandy Hook, Kentucky, for Minnie Adkins Day, an annual folk art event which is intended both to honor the great Appalachian folk artist Minnie Adkins and to bring together some 100 or so other folk artists and crafts persons along with folk art lovers and collectors from several states. We try to attend this event every year and I have written about both this event and Minnie Adkins a few other times on this blog. Although Minnie is past 90, she is still able to work effectively and uses the event to both sell her most recent works and to meet both her long time followers and new folk art lovers she has never met. Personally, I love to attend any event Minnie is at. She is a joy to talk to and is a real giant in both the Appalachian and American Folk Art movements. I also use the event to search for good folk art which I can afford to collect, meet other folk artists and collectors whom I know, and to renew numerous relationships which I might only benefit from on unpredictable schedules. One of my favorite artists and a man I consider to be a friend in the great Appalachian folk artist Brent Collinsworth who lives just a few miles from my home. But due to our busy schedules, we don't see enough of each other. I love Brent's work and we have collected several of his pieces which are among my favorites. This year, I happened to encounter Brent at the booth of another of my favorite artists and people, Tim Lewis, who is a fine folk artist also, a great bird carver in particular, and a great worker in stone which is less common than it could be among folk artists. I actually bought two of Tim's carved and painted birds today and I love them. We had discussed more than a year ago the fact that Candice and I had been visited by a large flock of relatively rare birds in Kentucky, the Evening Grosbeak. These birds I bought today from Tim might not have been painted as actual representations of the Evening Grosbeak but they are, if we allow for a bit of artistic license, decent approximations. But, above all, they are simply great bird carvings by an Appalachian folk artist who has work in the Smithsonian.

We also encountered and spent time with our friends Misty Skaggs and her mother, Bonita Parsons, who are both folk artists also. Both of them gave small pieces to Candice which is typical of the kind of generosity they tend to show to the entire world.

Altogether, it was a wonderful day at Minnie Adkins Day and we had a ball.

"Pink Flamingoed" Book 1 Aylesford Place Series by Steve Demaree

Steve Demaree is a writer in Lexington, Kentucky, who has self-published a pile of books, generally on Amazon as far as I know althought I believe he does sell his books on other websites. I believe he has somewhere between 30 and 40 self-published books on his personal page on Amazon. He tends to write books in series with common charcters and common locationis. This particular book, "Pink Flamingoed", is book 2 in a series called "The Aylesford Place Series". I found an autographed copy of book number 2 in that series on a used bookshelf which belongs to the University of Kentucky Hospital Auxillary at the hospital. I bought that book, autographed, for 75 cents. When I got it home and my wife found that it was book 2 in a series, she insisted that I buy book 1, this book, before we read book 2. My copy of book 2 had an address and phone number listed for Steve Demaree so I called the number hoping that I could buy an autographed copy from him since I like to collect autographed books. He answered the phone himself and we had a nice ten minute or so talk about his writing and our common memories of the area in Lexington where we had both lived and, in particular, of Aylesford Place, a little one block residential street near the UK campus. The book series is a use of the street name and the actual book has little to do with actual Aylesford Place as I have known it for the last 50 years or so. But any author is required to invent or appropriate a lot of names especially if they write a lot of books as Steve Demaree does. This book is not quite 350 pages and has a group of characters who, for the most part, live on the fictional Aylesford Place. Their relationships among themselves are much like a large extended family. They all attend the little church on the street, visit each other's homes, and know an awful lot about each other's lives, likes, dislikes, and unsettling habits. They can all be said to be protagonists of a sort to one degree or another. The book does not contain a genuine villian or antihero. Steve Demaree can write in a style to satisfy the heart of most high school English teachers. The book moves on from one very minor crisis to another in the lives of one or more of the primary characters. It lacks real conflict of any consequence and, therefore, lacks any significant conflict resolution. It is readable and every fifty or so pages Steve Demaree will construct a sentence of some consequence or a humorous line which can make you actually giggle. But the book would be far better if it contained a decent and decidedly effective villian. There are no train wrecks, violent deaths, nasty divorces, or crimes of stature to keep one awake at night. The characters live happy, fulfilled lives and no ever seems to break a leg or a more. But I was pleased to see that Steve Demaree did insert a female,wheelchair bound character into the book who is generally realistic and worthy of respect. As a man who has been married to woman who has been in a wheelchair for more than 25 years, that was important to me. That female character, Allison, is the friend of the primary female character, Amy, who is in love with the primary male character, Brad Forester, who is a successful author of mystery novels who has decided to move to Aylesford Place after inheriting his grandparents home on the street. They meet in the first few pages, are still together and apparently in love at the end of book, but conveniently for other characters who enjoy being a part of their lives they are not married at the end. But there is hope for that marriage in book 2. There is also hope in book 2 for the marriage of Allison and her new school teacher boyfriend Chuck. But nothing really dramatic, tense, or dangerous happens in the book. It was a relief to make it to the end.

July 4, 2025, A Major Political Announcement For Kentucky's 5th Congressional District

On July 4, 2025, my wife Candice and I traveled to Prestonsburg, Kentucky, to attend and support the announcement by Ned Pillersdorf that he is running against Congressman Hal Rogers in Kentucky's 5th Congressional District. It has been far too long in this district since a viable Democratic candidate has run against Rogers. The event was held in Rosenberg Square, a small, but beautiful park at the corner of West Court Street and North Lake Drive in Prestonsburg. The event was attended by somewhere in excess of 100 people which, in my opinion, is a good turnout for a political event on a major holiday which is often saved for family reunions and yard sales. And the heat was in the low to mid 90's all day so it was somewhat oppressive which probably depressed attendance to one degree or another. Ned gave a speech after being introduced which is roughly what is conained in the text of one of his blog posts this morniing which can be found by scrolling down his Facebook page which is found listed as "Ned Pillersdorf". Or you can go to this link on Facebook and watch or simply scroll to the point Ned starts speaking and see this video of the event which lasts in total for slightly more than an hour. I am actually completing this post on July 7, 2025, and some of the media responses to Ned's announcement have now been deleted from their companys' websites. But I remember one in which the writer stated roughly that Ned had given a "blistering speech" about TRAITOR Trump's "Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill". I was somewhere between surprised and shocked by that coverage of the speech I had seen in its entirety. I had thought that Ned had given an honest, accurate, and measured response to the "Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill". You can bet that if I had been asked to speak to a crowd of a hundred in Kentucky or anywhere else in the nation, even Texas, Alabama, or Mississippi, the speech I would have given would have been far more derogatory of TRAITOR Trump than anything Ned Pillersdorf said in Prestonsburg on July 4, 2025. Yes, Ned's speech was accurate, tasteful, mild in my estimation, and a lot less than anyone deserves to have been accused of who voted to support that 900+ page attack on America, her citizens, and the world in general. Ned Pillersdorf is the first viable, electable, and deserving candidate for congress in Kentucky's 5th Congressional District in at least twenty years. Ned has done more for the people of the district in the last forty years than Hal Rogers ever attempted to do. Vote for, support, and elect Ned Pillersdorf to the US Congress from the 5th District of Kentucky.

July 4, 2025, Stand Up With Ned Pillersdorf And Kentucky's 5th House District

On July 4th 2025, at 5pm, in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, Attorney Ned Pillersdorf will hold his formal announcement of his candidacy in the Kentucky 5th US House District in the upcoming 2026 election. He is opposing long term Right Wing Radical Repugnican Hal Rogers who has just voted to support TRAITOR Trump's Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill which will be highly likely to force the closure of 23 hospitals in the district due to the vicious, widespread cuts to Medicaid. The Announcement will be held at Rosenburg Squre in Prestonsburg about one block from the Floyd County Judicial Center. I am asking all my readers of this blog to make an honest effort to attend the announcement. Ned Pillersdorf is the most legitimate opposition to Rogers to arise in the district in twenty years or more. He is a nationally known and respected attorney who won more than 1,000 appeals of the cuts of Social Security benefits which werel levied against a vast pool of the former clients of attorney Eric C. Conn. Ned is also the attorney who represented the former employees of Blackjewel Mining when their jobs were cut and they were not paid for their last weeks of work. For forty years, Ned has represented the poor, needy, disabled, infirm, and elderly of the 5th district when they were engaged in tough fights against a plethora of agencies, prosecutors, and corporations who were determined to make the lives of those people even worse by their actions. Ned is also the spouse of former Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Janet Stumbo who has also devoted her career to the improvement of the human condition in the 5th district. Please attend the announcement and join in the huge show of support for Ned and his candidacy. Bring your family! Bring your friends! Join all of us who will be attending in a show of support for change in the US House, protection of constitutional rights in America, and common human decency around the world.

Kentucky Hospitals Likely To Close And Counties Without A Hospital In That Event!

Over the last few weeks, we have all heard a lot in the news media about how TRAITOR Trump's "Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill" will do myriad kinds of harm to America, especially to rural America, the lower and middle classes, hospitals, education, health care in general, vaccines and vaccine production, Medicaid, Medicare, WIC, SNAP or Food Stamps, agriculture, food safety, airline safety, the arts and sciences, and several other critical aspects of life in America. It will also add about 4 TRILLION DOLLARS to the budget deficit, and all of this damage is being done to provide vast unnecessary tax cuts to the rich, super rich, and corporations. Every word you have heard about the upcoming damage is true! The damage is intentional, purposeful, and will cost thousands of lives across this country in addition to the vast economic damage it will do. But in this blog post, I just want to address one aspect of that damage, the damage to hospitals and health care in Kentucky. Every legitimate news agency and policy analysis corporation is telling us the same thing. If the proposed cuts to Medicaid are approved (and it appears they almost certainly will be approved) thousands of hospitals, especially rural hospitals will be forced to close due to lack of income. Hundreds of thousands of the poorest, and often sickest Americans will lose their access to health care, and thousands of those people will die along with the hospitals which have been serving them. According to the Kentucky Center For Economic Policy, there are 35 hospitals in Kentucky which are likely to close on that list of hospitals. Since I first heard that dire forecast, I have been studying the issue both on my own and in consulations with others who understand the issues and politics involved. Two of the people I have discussed this with in depth are a retired attorney who spent her career in Eastern Kentucky and comes from a very politically centered family, and a retired nurse who spent her career working in one of the poorest counties in the state which does not have a hospital at this time to lose. We all agree that there are a vast number of issues that would arise for Kentucky and the nation if this Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill" becomes law. My reading of the article which I supplied the link to above shows me that the majority of the 35 hospitals in Kentucky which can be expected to be starved out if Medicaid is cut are in Eastern Kentucky. Although I generally think of I-65 as being the border line between Eastern Kentucky and Western Kentucky, that is not absolutely accurate. We can also take the position that I-75 is the border between the two. But for the sake of somewhat original thinking on that issue, let's say that the border is an extension of the line created by the border between Ohio and Indiana. If we go to that point on the Kentucky border with Indiana and Ohio and draw a straight line from there due south to the Tennessee border, it is as good a candidate for the border between Eastern Kentucky and Western Kentucky as any other. The image below is of that map showing the locations of the endangered hospitals in Kentucky from the linked story by the Kentucky Center For Economic Policy. If you use that imaginary line from the KY/IN/OH intersection, you will find that only 12 of the endangered hospitals are west of that line. East of the line are the 23 remaining hospitals which are most likely to close due to the loss of Medicaid funding created by the "Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill". God Help Us In Eastern Kentucky If That Happens!

The counties in this list will all be without a hospital in the event Medicaid funding is cut as designed in the "Big Ugly, Vicious Bill" They are Letcher, Knott, Floyd, Martin, Lawrence, Elliott, Carter, Rowan, Greenup, Lewis, Breathitt, Jackson, Lee, Owsley, Rowan, Rockcastle, Montgomery, Powell, Clark, Clay Fleming, These counties are contiguous and constitute a vast block of real estate in Eastern Kentucky which would have no local hospital. Patients in these counties would have no readily available emergency rooms, ICU's, maternity wards, or other services which require a hospital setting. To illustrate just how bizarre this possibility is let's look at some geographic possibilities which would be created. It would be possible to travel by car from Jenkins on the Virginia border to Vanceburg on the Ohio border without ever driving through a county with a hospital. It would also be possible to drive by car from Mount Vernon in Rockcastle County to Greenup in Greenup County without passing through a county with a local hospital. In addition to the loss of these hospitals, the job losses would be catastrophic in a region which is already economically distressed. Nearly all the prescribing professionals (M.D.'s, APRN's, PA's) would be highly likely to leave the region, perhaps even the state. Additionally, thousands of licensed providers such as imaging professionals, Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses, Certified Nursing Assistants, and a few other professions would be forced to leave the region in order to find work. There would also be hundreds to several thousand unemployed food service workers, housekeeping workers, maintenance workers, clerks, bookkeepers, and security professionals. Yes, there are a couple of hospitals which might survive such as those in Pike and Perry Counties but those two counties are on the Virginia and West Virginia borders and the drive for many patients would be just too far, too expensive, too time consuming, and thousands of low income patients would be likely to not receive regular ongoing health care. One hospital not on the list in Johnson County would suddenly be the primary source of care for Lawrence, Martin, Floyd, Magoffin, and Elliott counties due to the closure of the one hospital in Lawrence County and all three in Floyd County. In legitimate emergencies and accidents, the concept of The Golden Hour for transport to an emergency room would no longer exist. Distances would be too great in many cases for an ambulance crew to assess, transport, and facilitate admission to a hospital for many critical patients in a timely, life saving manner. EMT's and other emergency responders would suddenly be traveling far from their primary service area and their numbers would, at present levels, be too small to provide both the added transport and provide the current level of services in their primary area of responsibility.

The Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill is a disaster in the making for Kentucky and many other states where multiple hospitals will be lost. The damage of this bill is deliberately designed to minimize the poor of this region and several others, to deny them medical services as are customary in a real Democracy. It is intentional! It is criminal! It must not be allowed to take place. This bill must not be approved.

The 21st Century "Fireside Chat": Governor Andy Beshear's Podcast

There are very few people in America who are old enough to remember the last episode, or any other, of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's famous Fire Side Chat which took place from 1933 until the final one in June of 1944. During the Great Depression and most of World War II, the Fireside Chats provided a link by radio, the most technologically advanced media of the time, beween the President of The United States and the American people. They allowed FDR to exert a persona of firm, steady, calm, unswerving leadership to the country during the most incredibly dangerous period of his presidency. Today, Aemrica is in just as critically dangerous a time and the White House is occupied by the most dangerous human on earth anyone could ever imagine allowing to be anywhere near even the most lowly position of power, TRAITOR Trump. We are in desperate need of a person and a media event which can provide the same kind of persona of firm, steady, calm, unswerving leadership to a country in the most dangerous times we have seen since Pearl Harbor was bombed and our participation in World War II began. Our political times today are just as much days which "will live in infamy" as those during President Roosevelt's terms. Our nation is just as endangered now as then and the danger is centered inside the White House, inside the deranged mind of the person who works on a daily basis to destroy America and American Democracy, TRAITOR Trump. But we have a leader in America who is qualified to lead the country, committed to doing anything within his power to provide that calm, steady, effective leadership to take us out of the danger zone which is daily being perpetuated by the Criminal Syndicate which poses as a "cabinet" inside the White House. That person is Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and he is already providing the country with a form of media which can be the 21st century equivalent of FDR's Fireside Chats. That person is Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, and the media from which can do the trick, if only enough Americans watch it each week is Andy Beshear's Podcast which is available on all forms of internet based communication. I prefer to watch the podcast on Youtube and it can be found at this link. The podcast can also be found at its internet website at this link. The podcast is roughly 50 minutes each week and broken into several regular segments, most of which appear each week with a few exceptions. The primary portion of the podcast is an interview of roughly 25 minutes with a major American political leader, corporate executive, or other important poublic figure. Such guests on the podcast have included Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, Pinterest CEO Bill Ready, Senator Amy Klobuchar, and others from both poltics and business. Other segments of the podcast include "In My Kentucky Accent" in which Governor Beshear discusses some important political issue of that particular week in his customary honest, ethical, probing, and straight forward manner. He pulls no punches, tells the truth as he sees it, doesn't seek to protect himself from all possible criticism, and says exactly what needs to be said in every instance. Another regular segment is a conversation with two of the governor's closest friends, John McConnell and Jonathan Rabinowitz. McConnell is a Kentucky insurance agency owner. Rabinowitz is an attorney and sports agent who is a managing partner for the national law firm Morgan and Morgan. Both are successful, intelligent, politically astute men who have long standing friendships with Governor Beshear, and are obviously well trusted friends. Once in a while some member of the governor's family, wife Brittany, children Will and Lila,will appear in a more casual family oriented brief appearance. The two children often educate their three elders on the slang of their peers in high school.

If you want to see Aemrica become the country is once was, an actual democracy, a safe place for any member of any special interest group to live and work, a country which is respected by the rest of the world, and a bastion of constitutional freedomes, Andy Beshear is the best person to assume the presidency and lead us out of the deliberate destruction in which we now find ourselves and our country. Watch the podcast, share it with your family and friends, and begin to work to support Andy Beshear as the best possible person to lead America out of the horrible disaster in which we find ourselves.

17 Year Cicadas, No They Are Not Locusts, And Also Not A Plague

I'm a bit late in writing about the recent, and still ongoing, hatch of 17 year cicadas in my area of Eastern Kentucky. But I was reminded of them, as I am every day at home, by seeing a television news anchor in Lexington at WKYT-27 actually mention on air twice that she could hear the cicadas in the studio. I have also frequently heard reporters and anchors at that station say that they could hear heavy rain and thunder storms in their studio as they work. It has led me to believe that their studio must have been built much more cheaply and poorly than most television broadcast studios are built since soundproofing is a necessary part of that type of media. Anyway, the cicadas seem to be abating somewhat around my house where I have heard them nearly every day since the first two or three began singing in search of mates. As for the title of this blog post, they are CICADAS, not LOCUSTS, not a BIBLICAL PLAGUE, and generally NOT HARMFUL TO YOU OR YOUR PROPERTY IN ANY WAY! Yes, cicadas have always been commonly referred to as locusts especially in this area. A locust is a completely different insect. The best resource I can give to you about cicadas is at this website which is operated by a college entomology professor who happens to be an international expert on cicadas. There are numerous different broods of cicadas and all of them are not living a 17 year life cycle. Some are living a 13 year cycle. They come out of the ground, make their characteristic noise to attract mates, mate and lay their eggs before dying, the eggs hatch, the young and immature larvae go back underground and come out again in either 13 or 17 years. They are not harmful to you and should not be killed just because you are afraid of them or angry at their noise.

And, if you are into exotic foodstuff, cicadas are edible. You can find cicada recipes on numerous websites and many people do eat them. I have to admit that I have not eaten cicadas but I am intrigued by the idea. If my wife would join me in eating some, I would gladly do it. Many millions of people in some of the poorer countries of the world eat large numbers of insects, and they are reputed to be a very legitimate source of protein in impoverished areas. Try some if you are an adventurous eater. I have no idea if I will live to see another hatch of cicadas, and neither do you. If there is anything you want to learn about cicadas, now is the time to do it. Here is a chart for the various species of cicadas. Study it! Learn from it! Become a cicada expert!

"Divine Right's Trip: A Novel Of The Counterculture" by Gurney Norman, Observations On A Rereading

I just looked back over the blog and realized that I haven't written a post since March about anything which was absolutely Appalahchian in its focus. It is long past time to do that and my subject matter today cannot be more clearly Appalachian. "Divine Right's Trip" by Gurney Norman is subtitled "A Novel Of The Counterculture" and I do agree that it is. But speaking from the viewpoint of having been a hippie in Eastern Kentucky when the book was originally published in the corners of the pages of "The Last Whole Earth Catalog", I cannot think of a more Appalachian book. Admittedly, it covers a lot of ground on several topics and geographic areas which are not Appalachian. But it covers those topics from the viewpoint of a protagonist who is a fine example of the young Appalachians I knew when I was growing up not more than 30 or so miles where Gurney Norman grew up, and we both are definitely native Appalachians. The protagonist in this novel is David Ray Davenport, Divine Right, or D. R. as he is severallly known both inside and outside his head. He and his girlfriend Estelle are on a trip around the country in a Volkswagon van name Urge which has been painted in a very random fashion by D. R. and an equally random collection of his friend and momentary contacts. They are sometimes under the influence of marijuana, LSD, and malnutrition. Movement and new sights to be seen are generally more important to them than a normal workaday world. They are very typical characters of the hippie counterculture of the late 1960's and early 1970's. D. R. is a bit of a lost ball in the high, high weeds having been raised for the most part by his grandparents in a fictional county in Eastern Kentucky which can be assumed to be at least a marginal facisimile of the Letcher County in which Gurney Norman spent his childhood. D. R. does not know his father and his mother has given him the last name of a less than desirable step-father. Estelle is at least a competent enough woman that she can usually drag D. R. out of whatever mire in which has found himself. They take turns driving Urge across the country from one crisis to the next, from one interesting interaction to another with generally benevolent strangers. Eventually, the return to Cincinatti where they have friends and family and then become separated from each other somewhat unintentially when D. R. goes to visit his sister and her family and fails to return to Estelle on time. Then he hears by telephone from the local female country storekeeper Mrs. Godsey that his uncle Emmit is dying on the old homeplace in the head of a holler in Kentucky. D. R. offers to come and care for the dying uncle and actually delivers on the promise. They spend a few weeks getting to know each other again as the uncle attempts to train D. R. in the daily routine of his ramshackle house and a plethora of rabbits and chickens. Mrs. Godsey and her husband Leonard take D. R. under their wing so to speak, allowing him to have credit in their little store with little or no proof of ability to pay and he grows up a bit during the deterioriation and death of his uncle Emmit. He spends the last few days of Emmit's life caring for him in the local hospital, arranges his funeral, helps dig the grave in the old family graveyard in order to save some money, and decides to try to track Estelle down through a mutual friend who actually accomplishes the task. Estelle comes to Eastern Kentucky to live with D. R. and they decide to get the married. The final wrapping up of all the loose ends of D. R.'s life are brought togehter during the wedding which is performed jointly by the local mainstream (for Eastern Kentucky) preacher and a very hippie type of friend from California who is known only as the Annaheim Flash. The wedding is attended by a large crowd of people from both of D. R.'s worlds, Eastern Kentucky and all of hippie America. As many great stories end, a fine time was had by all. The old homeplace contains many of the things which have endeared Appalachia to thousands, perhaps millions of us: the homeplace itself now strip mined to near total destruction, the old family graveyard in danger of being buried by strip mine sludge, good friends and neighbors who step in at both the best and worst of times, and all those sometimes lost but never forgotten heartwarming experiences which always make home a home and prove that Thomas Wolfe was wrong. You can go home again, at least if your name is David Ray Davenport.

Reflections On Rereading "The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come" by John Fox, Jr.

The first time I read this book must have been at least forty or fifty years ago, maybe even longer. I didn't like it then and I like it even less now. Yes, John Fox, Jr. could write well. But that is not the real issue(s) which I have with this book. It is often described as an Appalachian book since it is set primarily in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. It is also sometimes described as a Civil War novel which is a bit more accurate. But the majority of the book is not about the Civil War, perhaps less than 20%. That is enough to say about my doubts about it being a Civil War novel. It is most frequently described as an Appalachian Novel and has been for nearly all of the 120+ years since it was published in 1903. I disupte the idea that it can be called an Appalachian novel. Yes, it is set primarily in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky in a fictional area that is roughly near the headwaters of the Kentucky River, perhaps in the region of the current Kingdom Come State Park in Harlan County. Yes, many of its characters, including the protagonist Chad Bufford are natives of Appalachian Kentucky. But John Fox, Jr. was not remotely an Appalachian man. He grew up and lived much of his life in the area in and around Lexington, Kentucky, which is not remotely a part of Appalachia. It is the heart of the Bluegrass and Central Kentucky. Fox later moved to Big Stone Gap, Virginia, which is in Appalachia. Upon his death there, he was returned to Bourbon County Kentucky for burial in a family graveyard. Bourbon County is very much in the heart of Central Kentucky. For those who might have a tendency to make the claim that if Fox spent time in Appalachia and lived there at his death it made him an Appalachian, I would ask you if you believed that if you moved to Watts in Los Angeles, California, would it make you either African American or Hispanic? You know absolutely that it would not. Neither did living in Appalachia make John Fox, Jr. an Appalachian. As for the novel itself, I believe, based on my life and experiences as a native Appalachian with a strong base of knowledge and expertise in Appalachian Culture, that "The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come" is actually an anti-Appalachian novel. Throughout the novel, Fox will sometimes make a few positive comments about the people of the Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky and will, almost immediately, follow those postive comments with very negative statements, stereotypes, and defamations. Those negative descriptors he resorted to include poverty, ignorance, illiteracy, feuding, and a wide variety of other defamatory remarks. The Encyclopedia Virginia website describes the novel as a local color novel which is more accurate than the claim that it is Appalachian. The California Learning Resource Network website describes local color as being: Local color is a literary term that refers to the unique cultural, regional, or social characteristics that are often used to describe a particular place, community, or group of people. Sometimes "The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come" is described as being a coming of age novel which is also more accurate than saying it is Appalachian. The novel has Chad Buford, the teenage protagonist, making his first trip to Frankfort, Kentucky, as part of a log floating operation down the Kentucky River. When he arrives in Frankfort with his friends he is soon hopelessly lost in "the big city" and forced to try to make his own way back to the mountains. This type of description of a mountain boy becoming lost on his first trip to town is a typical case of portraying native Appalachians as being inept in urban areas and can be found in hundreds of cheap, tawdry novels today, many of whose authors may well have learned the trick from Fox's work. Miraculously, Chad is rescued by Major Buford who turns out to be a relative who suspects their kinship and takes the boy in with the unspoken idea that if he can prove the relationship he will have the boy educated and made into a gentleman. As the novel progresses, that is exactly what does happen. Major Buford takes him in, he falls in love with the daughter of a general who at least initially either belittles or ignores him for his coonskin cap and backward mountain ways. Eventually, Chad becomes friends with the girl, her two brothers and the entire family of General Dean. Then the Civil War intervenes and the novel turns toward the conflicts between family members and neighbors in both Central Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky. One of General Dean's sons joins the Confederate Army and the other, along with Chad Buford, joins the Union Army. In the mountains, two brothers, both giants, Daws Dillon and Tad Dillon, who also join opposite sides of the war and come to hate each other totally. It is an interesting point that Fox chose to create two giant brothers in the novel since a very famous giant, Martin Van Buren Bates, was born in Letcher County Kentucky, not far from Kingdom Come in Harlan County. Bates lived from 1837 to 1919, fought in the Civil War at 7 feet 9 inches and later toured the world as a sideshow act. It is even possible that Fox met Bates during his time traveling in the mountains to buy land and mineral rights from the locals. I have little doubt that the Dillon boys are both based on Martin Van Buren Bates. The Civil War ends and Chad Buford goes to visit his friends in the mountains who include Melissa Turner, a young woman whom Chad grew up with and who saved his life during the Civil War by misleading Rebel sympathizers who were attempting to waylay and kill Chad. As a result of her winter trek through the mountains to save Chad, Melissa becomes ill and dies. Upon Chad's return to the mountains, Melissa is dead and he doesn't even stay for her funeral before returning to Central Kentucky and then on to an unwritten life wandering the country. This failure to attend the funeral of a close friend is a very basic misstatement of behavior by any native Appalachian, especially in 1865. Another related misrepresentation of life in the time of the novel describes Major Dean's disinterment of Chad's parents to transport their bodies for reburial on his Central Kentucky farm with his relatives. At the time of the novel, nothing was considered more sacred in Appalachian Culture than the graves of the dead. This is just one of many misrepresentations of the Appalachian lifestyle in the middle nineteenth century. While "The Litte Shepherd of Kingdom Come" is an entertaining novel and written in a professional literary manner, it is an insult to every Appalachian who ever lived and loved his/her culture and homeland. If you choose to read it, paperback copies can be found all over the nation. But read it with a very jaundiced eye. It is not what it is often misrepresented to be.

March 19, 2025, An Interesting And Informative Day In Prestonsburg, Kentucky

On March 19, 2025, my wife Candice and I took a trip to Prestonsburg, Kentucky, to complete a variety of intended actions including a minor amount of shopping, eating out for lunch, and a hike for me at Jenny Wiley State Park where I often hike when we are in Floyd County. Our first stop was at Wal Mart to do a minor amount of shopping, and then off to Jenny Wiley State Park where one of my favorite hiking trails starts near the lodge and has about 4 miles of linked trails around the mountain, over and along the ridge, and a connecting trail which can take you off the mountain to the site of the former Jenny Wiley Amphitheater which still exists as a building but is, sadly, no longer in use due to the demise of the Jenny Wiley Summer Music Theater which functioned there for several decades. When we got to the park, I left Candice reading in the van as I often do and headed out to hike toward the trailhead near the lodge. As I approached the trailhead, I could see yellow construction barrier tape across the start of the trail with a printed message taped to a post. The message stated that this portion of the trail was closed due to a mudslide, and that the remaining portions of the trail could be accessed at the amphitheater spur. I started back in that direction, stopped for a few minutes to read the names and text on a monument to the children and bus driver who died in the 1958 Floyd County School Bus Wreck, and then headed on toward the amphitheater which is situated near the convention center which is used for a variety of purposes including state employee training sessions, weddings, banquets, and other public events. I have even once seen a rained out performance of the Roger Miller written musical "Big River" in the convention center. As I approached the convention center parking lot, I realized that several vehicles including a group of travel trailers, several cars from various othet states, and one or two vehicles actually marked with signs for the American Red Cross were in the parking lot. I realized the convention center must be in use as the stationary site for the Red Cross Disaster Response to the recent flooding in Eastern Kentucky which had devestated larger portions of Eastern Kentucky and Floyd County in particular. I also remembered that the Jenny Wiley State Park Lodge was once again in use as emergency housing for flood victims as it has been used on at least one other occasion under the incredibly effective and compassionate leadership of Governor Andy Beshear. I had to walk past the rear entrance of the convention center to get to the trail and when I turned that corner I saw two people sitting at a table outside the rear entrance. I suspected they were Red Cross volunteers and stopped to verify that and thank them for their work. We introduced ourselves and my hike turned into a long conversation with these two people and a third who showed up a bit later. They were from three different locations in the country, all long term Red Cross workers, one with ten years of service, one with sixteen years of service, and the third with an amazing forty-one years of work with the American Red Cross and on their third deployment to Eastern Kentucky in disasters. Our conversation quickly turned political and they opened up to me about their fears for the future of FEMA and the likelihood that TRAITOR Trump will destroy that agency and further worsen the disaster response to upcoming hurricanes, floods, forest fires, and other disasters. I expressed my own identical opinions and they reassured me that the Red Cross will always continue to provide disaster services since it is a private non-profit agency. But we all agreed that the future response from the federal government to disasters in the next four years, if TRAITOR Trump is not removed from the White House, will be slipshod at best with any federal funding likely to come to the states in block grants which will be pillaged on two or three levels before any of it actually reaches victims themselves. One of these Red Cross workers had actually been part of the response to the most recent Puerto Rican hurricane disaster when TRAITOR Trump was living in White House the first time and sent almost nothing to the people of Puerto Rico for a variety of reasons including his racism, ignorance, TREASON, and total lack of compassion and empathy. It was very refreshing to have this conversation with people who have traveled the world doing good works for the betterment of the human race, who understand the dire straits our country has been in since January 20 2025, and who can speak as openly as I do about the danger which is presented to the country by TRAITOR Trump and his Criminal Syndicate. I never finished my hike due to the length of that conversation but I have put in about a half hour between my parking location at the parking lot of the old golf course, the lodge, the closed trailhead, and the convention center. I also got a second half hour afterward at the Big Sandy Community and Technical College walking track and campus. As I walked across the campus, I encountered the sign at the top of this blog post, realized immediately that it would be considered a violation of TRAITOR Trump's malicious executive order against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and decided to document these signs for my readers before the Right Wing Radical Repugnican head of the state community college system in Kentucky can force these signs to be removed from the campus, and order that racism, sexism, and mysogny be practiced in the community college system across the commonwealth. Below is the seond sign which was available on the BSCTC campus and all the other community colleges in Kentucky.