I'm a mountain person, been in them all my life except the 4 years in
the Navy in the 50's. I'm never comfortable for very long in flat land,
I long for the shelter of the mountains around me. Our home farm in
the Ozarks where I grew up was called Pleasant Valley Farm. It is a
beautiful valley surrounded by the hills of the Ozark plateau. I lived
there until 4 months after my 18th birthday when I left for the Navy. I
have lived
for a longer period of time
in the mountains of Tennessee, and have enjoyed the same feeling of
surrounding comfort. I suppose it is something in your heritage that
draws you to certain areas where you feel at home, and with me it's not
just mountains because I don't get the same feeling in the Rockies
although i love to go there and think they are beautiful, and I had no
special feeling when I stood at the foot of Mt Fuji in
Japan....beautiful, but no comfort. No, it is the subliminal knowledge,
ancestry placed in some part of your inner being, many, many
generations ago, starting maybe in the Scotch Highlands, moving to the
Appalachian Mountains and finally on to the Ozark Mountains, that your
place in this universe is in the subtle mountain ranges of the center of
our great country. One branch of my family tree, The Proctors, were
mountain men who came through the Cumberland Gap in the 1700's with the
Daniel Boone party and looked out across the beautiful valleys of
Kaintuck, wild, untamed and bountiful with game and gently rolling
grasslands that seemed to stretch as far as the eye can see. These men
were settling land that had never been settled and they had to fight
hard to do it. It's almost like the situation during the Civil War,
when kin
fought kin. Most of the Appalachian settlers, at some point in their history had kin that met, mingled, bred, married into the Cherokee Nation that had lived in this same paradise longer than anyone knew. Very few Southern Appalachian families, that I know, that do not have some Cherokee running through them. And fight both cultures did, and the Proctors were strong Indian fighters with Boone. The McAlister side of my family, on my Grandma Hitchcock's side, were from the Carolina Mountains, but moved West, like all of my people, first into Kentucky and then into Illinois, around Peoria County, Illinois. And, by the way there are some beautiful rolling hills in that part of Illinois. The Hitchcock's came over from England and Wales and settled in Carolina's moved through Tennessee and on to Illinois also around Peoria, and married some beautiful McAlister girls. While on my mothers side, The Wallis men were headed into Indian Territory in Arkansas in 1840, leaving Tennessee and headed farther West, to be some of the first into that Ozark Plateau. None of them got very far form the hills and my branch moved to the Ozark Mountains just in time for me to grow up in them, which I thought was mighty thoughtful of Mom and Dad. So my stage was set, my preference checked, my decision made and here I am, just after a heck of a storm in Middle Tennessee, with torrential rain, heavy wind and Cloud to Ground lightning that bout scared old Buck The Collie half to death. The creek is running full, the mountains are pretty and green again after a few weeks of rain coming back, my grass is gonna need a goat to cut it and I gotta go try myself or else give up and bale it. The sun has come out and the grass awaits.....stan
fought kin. Most of the Appalachian settlers, at some point in their history had kin that met, mingled, bred, married into the Cherokee Nation that had lived in this same paradise longer than anyone knew. Very few Southern Appalachian families, that I know, that do not have some Cherokee running through them. And fight both cultures did, and the Proctors were strong Indian fighters with Boone. The McAlister side of my family, on my Grandma Hitchcock's side, were from the Carolina Mountains, but moved West, like all of my people, first into Kentucky and then into Illinois, around Peoria County, Illinois. And, by the way there are some beautiful rolling hills in that part of Illinois. The Hitchcock's came over from England and Wales and settled in Carolina's moved through Tennessee and on to Illinois also around Peoria, and married some beautiful McAlister girls. While on my mothers side, The Wallis men were headed into Indian Territory in Arkansas in 1840, leaving Tennessee and headed farther West, to be some of the first into that Ozark Plateau. None of them got very far form the hills and my branch moved to the Ozark Mountains just in time for me to grow up in them, which I thought was mighty thoughtful of Mom and Dad. So my stage was set, my preference checked, my decision made and here I am, just after a heck of a storm in Middle Tennessee, with torrential rain, heavy wind and Cloud to Ground lightning that bout scared old Buck The Collie half to death. The creek is running full, the mountains are pretty and green again after a few weeks of rain coming back, my grass is gonna need a goat to cut it and I gotta go try myself or else give up and bale it. The sun has come out and the grass awaits.....stan
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