Double First Cousins

Recently, someone on an Appalachian oriented Facebook group to which I belong and on which I often post, brought up what they called "double cousins".  In my experience, the appropriate term for such relatives is "double first cousins" since there can be no such thing as "double cousins" in any other generation.  If you look at a genogram for double first cousins, it is readily apparent that because their parents, all four, are composed of two sets of siblings with two sets of parents in common.  This gives these two couples' children a common set of four grandparents.  But if you try to create a situation with "double cousins" in the next generation or any subsequent generation, it is impossible.  And, therefore, "double cousins" is a misnomer.  When the double first cousins marry outside the family of origin, the closeness of the DNA relationship becomes more distant.  We all inherit roughly 50% of our DNA from each parent on a totally random basis, roughly 25% of our DNA from each grandparent also on a totally random basis.  Only identical twins conceived by one sperm cell which impregnates one egg and that fertilized egg spontaneously divides into two fetuses shortly after fertilization.  Each of us had 46 chromosomes divided into 23 pairs.  Each of those chromosomes contain a total of 20,000 to 22,000 genes, the majority of which have two or more alleles.  That means that each human has roughly 1,012,000 alleles which means that it is nearly impossible for even the best mathematicians to calculate the possibility that any two double first cousins could have inherited identical genetic material in the totally random manner in which it occurs. 

I grew up with two sets of double first cousins.  In the first case, one of my maternal uncles (A) married a woman (B)  from a particular family and they had five children (Y) together.  Then, one of my maternal aunts (C) had an illegitimate son by a brother (D) of the aforementioned uncle's wife (B) .  Those six children (X)  are all double first cousins.  In the second case a son and daughter (Y)  of the aforementioned maternal uncle married a son and daughter (Z) from a third family and had about 8 or 9 children (XX) , all of whom are double first cousins.  While it is very remotely possible that the grandchildren of my uncle who are double first cousins, as are his own children, are nearly identically related, those grandchildren are not much more closely related to each other genetically than if their parents, the original double first cousins had married two people who were totally unrelated.  Now to make this issue even more confusing, another of my maternal aunts (E) , the youngest in fact, married a son (F)  of one of the sisters of the woman my uncle married and to the man my aunt had an illegitimate son by and that youngest aunt and her second generation husband had two children (YY).  That makes for some very complex genograms but it does not make those last two children much more closely related to the first twelve or thirteen than if they were only first or even second cousins.  You sort it out!  

But, in order to actually learn something about this, let us look at some of the sociological reasons siblings marry other siblings and create first cousins.  In almost all cultures, including Appalachia, where double first cousins are common, those cultures are frequently either located in geographically isolated areas or they practice a relatively small and strict form of religion.  In the case of Appalachia, those two reasons are both found although geographic isolation is now less common that it was 50 years and beyond in the past.  But relatively small and strict forms of religion are still practiced in much of Southern and Central Appalachia.  A few examples are serpent handlers and other Pentecostal and Holiness churches, Old Regular Baptist, and Primitive Baptists, and a few other minor sects based on uncommonly held stringent beliefs such as Jesus Only, etc.   Nearly all of these religions produce children who generally marry inside the church in which they were raised.  

Now let's look at what is called "consanguinity" which is a term for being related to another person by blood.  When people with a consanguine relationship marry and produce children, it is much more likely that some small percentage of those children will be born with some form of genetic disease or flaw.  Several groups, both based on religion and/or geography have one or more forms of genetic disease or flaws.  In Appalachia, the best known such group of people are the Blue Fugates of Eastern Kentucky who had a genetic condition called methemoglobinemia, which was passed down through a recessive gene and blossomed through intermarriage.  Phenylketonuria, a condition which causes persons who are born with normal intelligence to slowly become mentally disabled if they ingest phenylketones in their food.  Cola drinks today carry warnings about the dangers of phenylketonuria which is most common among people who were either born in or descended from natives of Northern Ireland, another region where geography impaired outside marriage and made consanguinous marriages more common.  Ashkenazi Jews are likely to inherit nearly a dozen genetic based diseases which arise due to their frequent and long term history of intermarriage within their religion.  So do the Amish and some conservative Mennonites and I have several friends among both those religions.  The Uyghur populations of Northern Iraq, who practice a unique form of Christianity, have a very high rate of diabetes due to intermarriage.  

In my practice in the human services professions, I knew one small boy who had inherited phenylketonuria although I do not know a lot about his genetic history.  I have also known numerous Amish and Mennonite people and have long been aware of their propensity to inherit polydactyly, extra fingers or twos, along with the large number of genetic diseases they can inherit.  I also met one couple in Eastern Kentucky who had chosen to marry despite being first cousins.  But they were very intelligent and moralistic people and chose, before marriage, to come to an agreement to never have biological children and to adopt which they did due to a relative who lost custody of two children due to a history of abuse and neglect of those children.  So what have I learned from all this which I wish to pass on to my readers?  No one should consider engaging in a consanguinous marriage!  Period, The End!

"A Time To Keep Silence" by Emily Steiner--Book Review

 

 I always enjoy reading books and posting about them on these reviews on my blog post and, in general that is especially true when I write about books which were written by my numerous friends who are authors.  This is not one of those times because I have just read and am now writing about a new book by one of my friends whom I like especially well and I do not like this book nearly as much as I have three others she has written and which I have also reviewed on this blog.  The friend and author to whom I refer is Emily Steiner, a young conservative Mennonite woman whom I have known for about three years.  I respect her talent, her intelligence, her writing, her books, and her commitment to her religion.  I value our friendship and we correspond these days by e-mail since she is teaching in a small Mennonite school in Central Michigan.  We met accidentally, or serendipitously as I prefer to believe, in Old Mill Park near my home in West Liberty, Kentucky, and slightly farther away from her childhood home in Crockett, Kentucky. She was dressed in a traditional Mennonite long dress and head covering and carrying a lap top which is odd among Mennonites.  I had already read her book, "Under The Bridge", which is linked above and which is the first book in her triumvirate of books about a coal mining family in Harlan County Kentucky in the union organizing efforts of the 1920's.  While I disagreed with the book's position that Christianity and trade unionism are not necessarily compatible, I liked the book and her writing quite well overall.  I struck up a conversation with her by asking these exact words, "I don't mean to bother you, but are you Emily Steiner?"  She responded "Yes!" and I told her about having read her book and we had about a half hour conversation about her book, writing on both our parts, Appalachia, and writers I knew.  We established what has been a good, honest, communicative, and respectful friendship beginning that day despite the difficulty of an older, married, non-Mennonite man and a younger, single, Mennonite woman having a friendship which respects the social barriers her religion requires in such cases.  We sometimes read each other's writing, sometimes e-mail, and, if a community occasion makes a face to face meeting possible in her community of origin, we sometimes talk a while in plain view of other Mennonite observers.  It has helped that I am fairly well known by numerous members of her congregation because I have done business with them for quite a few years and have always respected and honored the constraints and barriers their religion places on contacts with outsiders.  

So, to repeat myself, this is a difficult review to write since I like and respect the author a great deal and am not particularly fond of the book.   But please do not assume that I am saying you, dear reader, will not like the book.  It has merit as does all the work I have ever read by Emily Steiner.  So, in order to be absolutely fair to my friend, Emily Steiner, I searched out two other reviews on the internet from other sources who have read the book to see what they thought about it.  An anonymous reviewer on the Goodreads website has this to say about the book: ...A Time to Keep Silence shows the loneliness and misunderstanding that singles can face in a tight-knit Mennonite community. This is a book that an older single may relate to, and those who are married can read to understand the challenges of singles.  I agree wholeheartedly with this reviewers statement that the book "shows the loneliness and misunderstanding that singles can face in a tight-knit Mennonite community". From my point of view, the most valuable thing I got from reading the book is that it gave me an improved understanding of the religious based social customs which govern dating and consideration of marriage among young conservative Mennonites.  But, having lived my life in the greater non-Mennonite community, I tend to believe that the social customs in question place undue burdens on those young church members.  I was left with the impression that, in most cases, young Mennonite women are almost required to accept the first young Mennonite man whom they agree to date as the person they will marry even before their first date.  That is a bit too restrictive for my blood.  

The second review I chose to read about "A Time For Silence" is by a relatively young Mennonite widow who describes herself on her blog as follows: I am Gina, a Mennonite mom who writes about books, broccoli, and baking bread. In May, 2017 my husband was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, which took his life two years later in May, 2019. These pages share my journey of searching for joy with cancer and widowhood."  I know nothing about Gina other than what I have read on her blog and the fact that Emily Steiner has told me she knows Gina. As it turns out, I have just discovered that Gina was the person whose writing was used in part on the Goodreads website for the first quotation I used about the book since the language is identical on that website to part of Gina's review on her blog which I recommend for anyone who wants to learn more about Mennonites, their religion, and the self-sufficient lifestyle of gardening, canning, freezing, cooking, and other things such as homeschooling and church based childhood education.  I should also say that the photo of "A Time To Keep Silence" which I have used above is taken from Gina's blog, "HomeJoys" as linked above.  I have been unable to locate other independent reviews of the book at this time and will attempt to use quotations in others I might locate in the future to update this review.  

Now to more adequately address my personal issues with this book which Emily Steiner has told me is selling better than any of her previous books.  In fact, she and I had one e-mail exchange when she was actually at her printer, Haines Printing, watching the presses run so she could pick up several hundred more copies of this book.  That could be an indication that I am wrong about the book.  But, the first critique I have of the book is that it is a story which is told in 341 pages and could, I believe, have been told in a more literary manner in 200 or 250 pages at the most.  I have told Emily in an e-mail that I think that a lot of dialogue does little to advance the plot and I stick to that assessment.  The book is broken into 60 relatively short chapters, the longest of which is about 10 pages and several are 1 page.  Emily has explained this to me as a choice she made "to keep people turning pages".  I did keep reading to the end and I will buy and read the other two books which are to follow in this series about the main characters, Justin and Monica, whom I expect to be married by the end of the third book.  I was also put off mildly by one section in the book in which the protagonist, Monica, who is working in a coffee shop she and a friend, Ida Belle, have recently bought and are operating as single Mennonite women. Monica becomes scared of a rough looking non-Mennonite man who is staying in the coffee shop too long, asking a few too many questions and is dressed somewhat inappropriately by Mennonite standards.  To see single Mennonite women operating a business as Monica and Ida Belle do in the book is uncommon but not totally rare.  I regularly do business in a bulk food store which is owned by a woman in Emily Steiner's community of origin.  I also know of a bakery business in that same community which was operated for a time by the former Mennonite divorcee daughter of a devout Mennonite friend of mine.  But I have never known of a Mennonite who pre-judged a person to the degree I perceived in that section of the book.  Monica fears are used as a tension builder before the male in whom she is interested, Justin, enters the shop to buy coffee for himself and his employees.  Monica fights the desire to ask Justin to rescue her from the perceived danger of the rough look man and allows Justin to leave before making the request.  The book also winds to a conclusion without either Monica or Justin taking any action to move their relationship to another level.  It simply ends with the two of them still thinking about the possibility of dating each other but doing nothing to bring it about.  Both are afraid of entering a dating relationship because they have both been unsuccessful in one prior dating relationship.  Both fear the disapproval of the community if they enter a relationship which does not end in marriage.  In the real world, almost no one, except Mennonites apparently, gets married to the first person they date.  In my opinion, no one, not even young Mennonites, should feel compelled to marry the first person who asks them to consider a dating relationship.  I sincerely hope the next two books in this series are better than this one.  But use your own judgment about whether or not you want to read this book, especially if you have read other books by Emily Steiner and enjoyed them.  This could turn out to be the very book you have been hoping you would find.

"A Time To Keep Silence" is available directly from the author, Emily Steiner, for $12.50 plus $3.00 shipping for a total price of $15.50 by check or money order from: Emily Steiner, 5532 N. Shepherd Road, Rosebush, Michigan 48878.  If you have questions, Emily will answer her cell phone in person or return your call if you need to leave a message at 606-495-8090.  But, if you call, please keep in mind that she is a school teacher.  Call after 4pm on weekdays, never on Sunday. 

Sunday In A Mennonite Community--A Cross Cultural Experience, August 18, 2019

On this past Sunday, August 18, 2019, my wife Candice wanted to go to church at Faith Hills Mennonite Church in Crockett, Kentucky, where we have several friends in the community and congregation.  We have attended church there in the past a few times and I have attended and written about the last day of school in their religious based school.  I also have one novelist friend, Emily Steiner, in the congregation and community and have written about three of her novels on this blog.  I regularly do business with several people in the congregation including having used those people for the roof on my house, regular mechanical work on my vehicles, repairs on my septic system a few years ago, a new deck several years ago, and buying produce and pasture raised chickens from two families in the congregation over the last several years.  I know several of these people well and respect and trust them tremendously.  Sunday services at this church start at about 9:30am when most people arrive and spend nearly half an hour in silent meditation in the sanctuary.  Services usually end at about 12:30pm and conversation in church might last another half hour before everyone departs. When we attend any kind of service there, I always try to wear dark pants and a long sleeved solid blue shirt buttoned in the sleeves and collar just as most of the men in the congregation do.  Candice, who is in a wheelchair, will always wear a long dress but usually does not wear any kind of head covering as all the female members do.  I will address this topic a bit later in the post. 

Anonymous Mennonites Walking--Photo by Huffington Post

When we arrived, the family greeting congregants at the door and whose father was teaching Sunday school were friends of ours from whom we had just bought fifteen pasture raised chickens and some tomatoes a few days before.  There were also several others whom we knew in the congregation on this particular Sunday.  But we did not know the man who preached the sermon.  He was visiting from another congregation.  As he began to preach, he stated that he had not expected to preach on this particular Sunday but had been preparing to preach in another church the following week on the topic from the highly structured "Adult Bible Studies" book which all these congregations use.  Those "Adult Bible Studies"  books are written, printed, and distributed quarterly by Rod And Staff Publishing which is also in Crockett, Kentucky, and is one of the largest Mennonite publishers in the entire country while being located in a county which only had about 14,000 citizens according to the  2010 US Census.  The topic he said he was not prepared to preach about was from First Corinthians 10: 1-15, "Warnings From Israel's History".  The next week's topic which this preacher chose to preach on was "God's Order of Headship" from First Corinthians 11: 1-16. This topic concerns in part the fact that conservative Mennonite women always wear a head covering when they come in contact with others. From Candice's point of view, this made a significant change of topic since she had not worn any type of head covering to church which she never had before and had never heard a Mennonite preacher take up the subject.  Naturally, she felt that it was possible that she was "being preached at" which I also considered possible.  But in support of some of the mild mannered ways of Mennonite preachers in general, they rarely bring down hell fire and brimstone as I have seen in numerous Baptist, Methodist, Holiness, and Pentecostal churches which I have visited.  It is their way to logically discuss any topic in a calm, clearly audible voice without any shouting, jumping up and down, or pacing animatedly around the room.  But Candice even sent an e-mail message to one of our female Mennonite friends after we got home to inquire about the possibility that she had been the cause of the change in topic and was actually being "preached at".  She received an interesting and typically mild mannered Mennonite response which said: "To be honest, I wondered how it made you feel to listen to that message.😊 Like we heard in (sic) Sunday, I believe that it is God’s plan for all Christian women to cover their heads. However, we welcome anyone to worship with us, regardless of how they are dressed, including whether ladies cover their heads. I really hope you come back again soon! I enjoyed talking with you too."   

After church was over, there was a long period of conversation among many people in the congregation including one Candice had with a woman we had not met before who has also recently been experiencing neurological symptoms to the point that she has had to stop driving.  Her husband also approached me and asked many of the same questions about his wife's symptoms, what I knew about neurological disease, doctors and hospitals who treat such cases, and the nature of Candice's problems and impairment.  I gave him what information I had at the time and when we got home I also found that I had a medical school textbook on "Fundamental Neuroscience" which I offered to loan them by telephone.  I suspect that we are likely to share further information about this topic in the future and could even become friends based on our common problems.  

This discussion also made clearly apparent one major difference between conservative Mennonites and the general American population in how we seek, utilize, and pay for medical treatment.  Mennonites do not buy or use health insurance for Biblical reasons which are too complex to get into at this time.  When they become ill, they usually seek treatment from non-traditional sources before seeking treatment of a more conventional and expensive kind from mainstream hospitals and their staff.  They use some form of mutual aid or simply strive to pay their own medical expenses when they occur.  I have known of one young Mennonite woman, only 42, mother of 8 children from 2 to 16, who died of cancer in this community in the past two years because she sought non-traditional care when she first became aware of her disease.  That disease was untreatable by the time she had sought care at our local Appalachian Regional Hospital.  Her widowed husband is now trying to complete raising those 8 children while working a full time job at the aforementioned Rod And Staff Publishers.  

One form of mutual aid is discussed in this manner at the link contained herein:  "The Conservative Amish and Mennonite Medical Resharing Pool, based in Middlebury, Ind., requires groups of at least 10 people who are “active members or active participants of a Conservative or Amish Mennonite church” to form their own plan in order to join the pool, according to the program’s bylaws. Shares are paid quarterly by each plan depending on how many members each plan has. Amounts vary based on what medical needs are approved for coverage each quarter." My Mennonite novelist friend recently had a minor automobile accident which the local police ruled as having been her fault.  She paid more than $2,000 dollars to repair the other driver's car out of her own funds in addition to her own relatively minor medical expenses for a broken finger  since she did not have automobile insurance.  It is also important to note here that the Amish and Mennonites receive a religiously based exemption from complying with laws regarding required insurance as guaranteed by the First Amendment.  Perhaps, I will discuss this topic in greater length in a future blog post since I have seen several Mennonites I know who have either used mutual aid or their own funds to pay health, automobile, and funeral expenses because of the insurance prohibitions which they practice.  

Also, after church this past Sunday, the wife of one of my Mennonite friends invited Candice and I to their house for lunch where we have eaten on other occasions.  But, it turned out that this woman's father and step-mother were the assigned family to feed visitors that particular week and they also invited us to eat with them which we chose to do.  We have also known them for several years and used to buy fresh eggs from them for quite a while before I changed my eating habits more than a year ago.  It turned out that they had also invited a relatively young Mennonite couple and their four children to lunch who are members of another congregation in Grayson, Kentucky.   It was also our hosts 18th wedding anniversary which was mentioned but not made a great deal of.  I will mention that it is odd to see an elderly Mennonite couple who have been married such a short time.  But the first wife of this man died about 20 years ago of cancer and he married his current wife who was nearly his own age of roughly 50 or 55 and had never been married.  Their home was spotless which is how I have always found every Mennonite home I have ever visited.  The food was home raised, simple, delicious, and nutritious.  The wife gave Candice some leftover cucumber salad she had made along with a few cucumbers to make her own salad at home since she had liked the salad a great deal and made a point of saying so.  We stayed in the home about two hours and learned that the younger couple and their children, including the youngest girl who is less than 2, had just returned from a missionary trip to Guatemala.  The two older daughters, about 5 and 7, talked animatedly about how much they enjoyed Guatemala which is also interesting since I have rarely seen Mennonite children speak much in the company of other adults.  

Also, after church, I was stopped by another Mennonite woman who was inquiring about my having grown up in Knott County Kentucky where she had also grown up in a non-Mennonite home before converting and marrying a local man whom I have known for several years without having ever heard that his wife came from the same area I had.  We talked briefly about relatives we each had in Knott County and went our separate ways.  I would not be surprised if this doesn't lead to further such exchanges in the future.  

My wife and I will always maintain our business contacts and friendships in the local Mennonite community.  They are deeply religious, totally honest, hard working, self-sufficient, and respectable people who are frequently misunderstood.  I gain in many ways by knowing them and the small number of Amish friends I maintain also.  Once we set aside any prejudices or misunderstandings we have about these people, we stand to benefit in many ways which are impossible to foresee when we first meet them or encounter them in a business setting.  

"Under The Juniper Tree" by Emily Steiner--Book Review

Steiner, Emily. Under The Juniper Tree (Haines Printing, Northeast, PA, 2019)

My friend Emily Steiner has just completed and released her fourth novel and the third in her "Lilly Of Appalachia" series about a coal mining family in Harlan County Kentucky.  I have previously reviewed the first two books in the series and apparently played a productive role in the second, "Under Fire", for which Emily provided me the head swelling mention on the acknowledgements page of this book as having been "..a bottomless well of research material".  I must admit that I am flattered since I respect and like Emily a great deal.  All three of the books are directly available from Emily at her home address of Emily Steiner, 155 Memorial Gardens Road, West Liberty, KY 41472.  You can actually call Emily at 606-495-8090 and she will actually answer her own telephone and talk to you immediately or return your calls if she is busy.  The full set of books are available or each may be ordered individually.  This is what Emily says about pricing: "I charge 10.99 plus 2.75 for shipping for a single copy of the new book. (If it’s to someone in KY, there’s also sales tax.) The others are still 9.95, and will be until I reprint them in a few months. Then they’ll all be 10.99. I know this is sort of confusing... If you want to tell your people, I also offer a special in the whole set—28.00 plus shipping."  Since this is a self-published series of books, please allow me to say this about Emily and her professionalism.  Emily is the daughter of the manager of the editorial department at Rod and Staff Publishers, Crockett, KY, one of the two largest Mennonite publishing companies in the country, and she takes her writing and all aspects of publishing seriously.  Rod and Staff are not the publishers or printers of this book although they did publish another of her books which is more directly about life in a Mennonite family.  This book was printed by Haines Printing in Northeast, PA, a small Mennonite owned printer, and I have never seen more professional work from a small printer or publisher.  Based on having seen Emily's three novels, all of which were printed by Haines, I am willing to recommend them without reservations.  They do high quality, fully professional, crisp, tight, slick books which are comparable to the work being done by any publisher in America.  

But let's talk about this novel particularly.  It is the third, and Emily says the final, novel in the series about a poor Appalachian coal mining family from Harlan County Kentucky although most of this novel is set in a fictitious West Virginia called Three Springs.  The protagonist, Lilly Sherman and her husband, coal miner and strongly non-violent preacher Everette Sherman have left Harlan County because Everette's non-violence and refusal to participate in union activity have made him a target of violence during a strike which is detailed in the second novel, "Under Fire".  For those of you who, like me, strongly support trade unionism, let me say that Emily's discussions of and beliefs about trade unionism are strongly based in her Mennonite religion.  It is genuine, a basic part of core beliefs about life, morals, and religion and I respect her for it.  She and I disagree about this aspect of our lives but we disagree amicably and respectfully.  I value her friendship and respect a great deal and I believe that feeling is mutual.  Despite that difference of opinion, this is a book and a series of books that is worth reading for the Appalachian reader or the reader in coal country.  

Emily Steiner--Photo by the Steiner Family

This novel does not directly address the union movement at length and unionism and strikes are not a major part of this book.  Coal mining and life in a coal camp is a major part of the plot of this book.  The key characters of the novel are members of two extended families who live in the two sides of a typical coal camp duplex.  They are realistically drawn, believable, living and breathing humans who are working together to make the most of terrible lifestyle.  Coal camp life is realistically portrayed and I can assure you that Emily has done her research for all three books.  This book is filled with unemployment, coal mine disasters, and untimely death.  My most serious concern about the plot and the eventual resolution of the conflict in the book lies in the fact that the ending is, in my opinion, somewhat unrealistic.  But I am still pleased with the book as I have always been with the work of the author.  Her work is more mature from the first book to this one.  She is growing into the strong, young, female novelist I knew she would become based on the first book.  She is well worth reading and appreciating.  Use the contact information above and order at least one of these books.  Do yourself a real favor and order all three.  You can have the set for just a little more than the price of a hardback bestseller from a major publisher.  You will enjoy this book and it will give you a better understanding of coal camp life shortly after the turn of the twentieth century.  

"Under Fire" by Emily Steiner---Book Review

This book is the second volume in Emily Steiner's "Lilly Of Appalachia" series.  I reviewed the first, "Under The Bridge" on this blog on July 30, 2018.  These books are self-published through Haines Printing in Northeast, Pennsylvania, but that company does not sell the books.  They are available only from Emily Steiner and I will place her contact information at the bottom of this review.  Unlike many self-published books, the printing work is well above average and they are high quality volumes which are only $10.00 each directly from the author.  The stories follow an Eastern Kentucky Appalachian family as they and their relatives are involved in a coal mine strike and the minister husband of the protagonist, Lilly Burchett Sherman, refuses to join the union based on his interpretation of the New Testament admonitions against violence. The father and brothers of Lilly Sherman are union members and one of them is actually shot and paralyzed late in the work as a result of his union activity. I was lucky enough to read much of this book in manuscript and provided my suggestions about it directly to the author who is a friend of mine.  We met shortly after the release of the first book in this series, "Under The Bridge".  The writing in this book is more mature from a professional standpoint than in "Under The Bridge".  It is well-plotted.  The characters are believable, real people, and show the many hours of research which the author has put into the book.

 

Emily Steiner accepted some of my suggestions about the book and flatly refused to take a position in the book in favor of trade unionism which I strongly support.  But, like the characters in the family of the protagonist, Emily Steiner and I have managed to remain friends.  Her objections to supporting unionism are based on her interpretation of the Bible and she is devout Mennonite woman living in our local Mennonite community where I also have numerous other friends and sometimes attend events and write about them on this blog.  I know many of these people well enough and understand their beliefs to a degree that we can disagree and still remain friends.  Emily used one of my suggestions, provided as a copy of the wonderful Jack London description of a scab in a way in which I would never have used it.  But I can say that she at least read it and inserted it in the book with a statement of attribution at the end of the book.    

The book moves along as the strike deepens in a community set in Harlan County Kentucky.  Emily accurately portrays the poverty, destitution, and desperation of the miners and their families and I have to say I like this book.  It is simply not the kind of book I would write or wish to write about a union struggle in Appalachia.  But, like everything Emily Steiner writes, it is well worth reading.  I also suggested to Emily during the completion of the book that she read Davis Grubb's wonderful union struggle book, "The Barefoot Man", which I consider to be the best union novel I have ever read.  I have never heard from her that she found a copy and read it.  I suspect that if she had she might not have ever discussed it with me due to her religious opposition to some of the language and scenes in that book.  But I wish she had read it before she finished this book.  I understand fully that having read "The Barefoot Man" would not have changed her perspective on trade unionism.  But it would have broadened her understanding of the union struggle and given her a deeper knowledge base about trade unionism, the coal fields in Appalachia of the early twentieth century, and the irreplaceable role trade unionism has played in the social development of both Appalachia and the country as whole.  

But, do not allow my difference of opinion with Emily Steiner deter you from reading "Under Fire".  It is an excellent book in many ways.  It is a fine addition to Emily Steiner's ever growing body of work.  She will continue to write and publish novels.  She will continue to mature as a professional writer.  She will come to establish herself, quietly in her own deeply religious manner, as one of the better young writers in Appalachia.  She describes herself in the biographical statement within the book as "...born and raised as a mountain girl in Eastern Kentucky."  I agree with that statement.  However, any description of Emily Steiner must begin with a clear understanding that she grew up in a religious based subculture in Eastern Kentucky which consciously separates its members from the mainstream to varying degrees and her understanding of the primary culture of Appalachia is affected by that separation.  I value her friendship.  I value her ability.  I value this novel.  You will also value this novel regardless of the personal position you take on trade unionism and the way it is deeply ingrained in Central and Southern Appalachia.  

 

"Under Fire" and "Under The Bridge" are both directly available from Emily Steiner at $10.00 each.  She will autograph them and mail them to you.  You can contact her at Emily Steiner, 155 Memorial Gardens Road, West Liberty, KY 41472.  You can call her at 606-495-8090.  She will personally answer her phone and actually talk to you.  When have you known another published author who would do that?  

 

 

Last Day Of School, Faith Hills Mennonite School, Crockett, KY--A Crosscultural Experience

On Thursday, May 10, 2018, I traveled from my home to Crockett, KY, to attend the annual celebration of the last day of school at Faith Hills Christian School, the local Mennonite School.  I had been invited the event the previous year by my friend, Aquila Derstine, but was unable to attend at the time.  I have mentioned in several other posts on this blog that I maintain relationships with many of the local Mennonites for both business and friendship reasons.  I generally use Mennonite workers when I need to do anything major to a vehicle or my home.  But I had never been to the last day of school celebration even though I have known a handful of previous Mennonite teachers. I also wanted to attend this year because I was taking some books to a young Mennonite woman who has just published her second novel.  Her name is Emily Steiner and she is one of the former Mennonite school teachers I know.  I will write more about two of her books on this blog very shortly.

 

Photo Of An Unknown Mennonite School by Pintanderest

 

 

Incidentally, the only requirements, to my knowledge, for a person to become a Mennonite school teacher are that they be a practicing Mennonite, completion of Mennonite school themselves, and worthy of the respect of the local school committee and the community. Mennonite students only attend school until they are about sixteen years old and immediately go to work at some job in the community. Some of these former students might also leave home for a period to attend a church run Bible School. The church receives an exemption to mandated attendance laws across the country under the same Freedom Of Religion protections that the Amish receive. 

Program Last Day Of School-Faith Hills School

When I attend any church related event in the Mennonite, Amish, or serpent handling communities where I have ties, I always wear clothing which is nearly identical to what the men in the that community will be wearing to that occasion whether it is a church service, funeral, or a school event such as this.  The celebration started around noon and was attended by most of the local Mennonite community especially including relatives of the current students.  The event was primarily a religious song fest by the students and teachers with one song, "I Sing The Mighty Power Of God", being sung by the entire audience, students, and teachers.  The school is broken into three rooms each with a single teacher who is usually in their late teens or early twenties and, in most cases, unmarried.  They may or may not have grown up in the local congregation.  A few such as Asa Derstine have traveled out of state to teach school for a year or two.  There are usually three or four grades in a particular room with the lines of separation being roughly equivalent to those you would find in a similar sized public school in a rural community.  After an introduction by Aquila Derstine along with a prayer, the singing began with the opening and closing hymns being sung by all the students and teachers adn the remainder being sung by the students in a single room.  The audience contained several other non-Mennonite members of the community who also have relationships with the Mennonite community.  There was also one non-Mennonite man who is married to a Mennonite woman which usually happens rarely.  It is my understanding that his wife was not raised as a Mennonite but joined the church as an adult.  The men, including myself were almost all dressed in long sleeved blue dress shirts and plain blue, black, or dark grey pants.  All the women and girls wore traditional long Mennonite dresses in either solid colors or mildly muted, small patterns.  They all cover their heads with small, gauzy hats or head coverings of a sort.  

 

Photo Of Anonymous Mennonites by Huffington Post

 

 

During the singing I sat with my friend, Ottis Conley, and his wife.  Ottis and his brother Cletus were both born non-Mennonites and their mother joined the church when they were young boys.  The woman who cleans our house is a cousin to Ottis but belongs to a conservative Baptist congregation.  I was able to also spend time talking with several other members of the community with whom I have relationships and in some ways it was a lot like a family reunion or homecoming ceremony.   

Song For Entire Audience-Faith Hills Last Day Of School

Nearly everyone, or at least every family, brought some sort of food item and everyone ate in same folding chairs which were used for the audience during the singing program.  The food was simple, wholesome, and tasty without a great deal of expense which is how nearly all Mennonites cook and eat every day.  I have eaten on a few occasions in Mennonite homes and I have never seen a meat entree at a meal where every person had a personal piece of meat such as chicken, beef, or other farm animal meats.  Meat is usually included in at least one recipe as an ingredient but not necessarily the main ingredient.  I ate the meal with my friends, the Derstine family and the Bear family.  After the lunch was over and the chairs, tables, and other equipment put away, there was a long baseball game for the young people and the adults and small children spread out in the grass and shady areas between the baseball field and the small cemetery near the church.  The baseball game was quite interesting in that no young person who wished to play was excluded.  During their defensive side of an inning, each team had nearly a dozen outfielders.  During offensive halves of innings, the players lined up in some pre-ordained order and eventually everyone got a turn or two at bat.  Most surprising about the game was the fact that I never heard a single occasion when any player was derided, belittled, or even seriously ribbed about missing a defensive play, failing to outrun a fielder's throw, or striking out.  All these players, many less than ten years old, were naturally respectful of everyone else on the field.  After the game ended, we all walked to our vehicles, shook hands, exchanged pleasantries, and pledge to see each other sometime soon.  To say the least, I thoroughly enjoyed the event and will try to be there next year.