THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Last week’s column was on the
subject of
fertilizing, turning (plowing) the land, harrowing it, and getting
ready to
plant crops. On the farm, there was
hardly ever a slack season, but that did not mean our lives were all
work and
no pleasure. The Fourth of July stood
out as a favored holiday, and attending our nearby churches during
revival
season was a distinct pleasure (yes, plural, for we attended
neighboring
churches’ revivals, in addition to our own). These “high religious
festivals”*—protracted meetings—came in July and August, after
cultivating the
crops had come to a halt and the time to ‘lay them by’ had arrived.
Planting was a solemn and
thought-engendered process, as well as hard work on our mountain farm. After all danger of frost was past (he hoped)
my father would “lay off” the rows in given sections of the farm for
particular
crops. Our main crop was corn, and we
had fields of it, mainly in the bottomlands along the Nottely River. One year when I was a very young child (I
don’t recall the year) a late snow and freeze came when the corn was
already up
and several inches high. That was a
discouraging situation, for my father had to replant those corn fields
after
that cold snap had destroyed his early crop. But dealing with
eventualities
like the weather was all a part of planting and cultivating. It was known as “rolling with the flow,”
praying a lot about what only the Lord could control, and trusting for
a
harvest in the fall. I recall not only
the cold that sometimes required replanting of crops, but one summer it
was so
dry it looked like the crops would parch in the fields.
Much like our hot summer in 2001, growth was
at a standstill, and prospects for harvest were slim, indeed, unless
rain came
soon.
Our church leaders and pastors
called a
special prayer meeting for rain. As I
recall, that meeting was on a Saturday afternoon, for we normally had
“church
conference” on Saturdays. We came from
hot, parched fields where our work was not yielding results anyway. We cleaned up, dressed in our Sunday clothes,
and went to church. A prayer meeting of
great intensity occurred. I can hear
some of those good old saints of God, like Hayes Hunter, and Great
Uncle Jim
Dyer, asking God to intervene and send us rain.
When we finished the prayer meeting, dark clouds had already
gathered. We stood at windows of our
little white clapboard church and some at the doors, giving thanks for
rain and
answered prayers. Those who had faith
enough to bring umbrellas began their walks back to their houses even
before
the welcome shower was over.
Cultivating the crops consisted
of two
processes. First, the farmer with his
“one-horse” cultivator plow would go back and forth in the rows
stirring the
sod. This loosened any weeds growing,
turned them over and covered them. It
also gave fresh dirt against the growing plants and helped to nourish
them. Then came the second step: Hoeing.
Usually, women and older children did this work.
This process got the weeds out of the row
itself and from around the plant. We
were also instructed to gently heap up the dirt around the stalks of
corn. Imagine a cultivated field, free of
invading
and robbing weeds, and the crop of corn (or sorghum cane or potatoes or
beans)
growing inch by inch in favorable weather.
A farmer’s field was his pride and joy and a testimony to his
diligence
as a good worker. “Laying by,” or the
process of not cultivating any more but leaving the crop to grow on its
own,
came after about three times of plowing the middle of the rows and
hoeing.
We didn’t usually get into town for
the Fourth of July to participate in the celebration there, for we
lived eight
miles out in the country and didn’t have a vehicle to drive. We did, at times, however, have a celebration
in our own community on our nation’s birthday—at the schoolhouse, close
enough
for us to walk—or at the church. We
always had good orators and sometimes those running for some public
office
would take advantage of 4th of July celebrations to proclaim
their
merits for the office sought. We
seldom
had ice cream in those early years, for no one in our community had a
source
for ice needed to make homemade ice cream.
But we would have cookies and other goodies to eat, whatever the
housewives in our community could provide from their kitchens. By the 4th, usually fresh green
beans were ready to pick, and the first potatoes ready to “grabble.” We would often have a celebration dinner at
church, with fried chicken or fish (caught in the river) fried to a
golden
brown, fresh vegetables, and apple stack cakes made from fresh June
apples.
Choestoe Church still practices this 4th of July
dinner-on-the-grounds, with a fish fry to which all have an open
invitation.
And it seems that nearly always,
some of
the older boys had firecrackers to shoot on the 4th. Some might be shot toward the end of the
gathering, outside away from the building.
Or else at night, back home, if we listened, we might hear
firecrakers
exploding in the distance. As a small child, I was not thrilled by
these little
explosions and rather that had not been
a part of our 4th observance.
Simple though these 4th of July celebrations were, we
came
away with the distinct feeling that we lived in a good country. We were grateful for the gift of freedom.
Soon after the Fourth of July, our
church would have summer revival, which we called then, “protracted
meetings.” We would have a visiting
preacher in addition to our own pastor, and sometimes a visiting song
leader. It was customary for the revival
team to stay
in the community for the duration of the “protracted” meeting, so
called
because the revivals went a week, two weeks or sometimes longer, as
long as the
Spirit moved among the people and there was a harvest of souls for the
efforts
expended by the evangelistic team and the people who shared their
faith. We
always had the ministers in our home—to eat dinner (as we called the
noon meal)
and supper (the evening meal), and sometimes they spent one night with
us as
well. They traveled to several homes in
the church community where they were invited.
It was a time when only
necessary work was
done on the farm, like tending to the livestock and milking the cows,
gathering
the eggs, and feeding the chickens.
People visited one another and sat on porches, talking and
enjoying a
brief respite from the hard work expended on the farm up until “laying
by”
time. It occurs to me that the term had
a multiple meaning: not only were the
crops “laid by” to grow into their upcoming harvest, but the people
themselves
were “laying by” their troubles and concerns and enjoying spiritual,
social and
recreational time together.
In our fast-paced times now, it is
hard for us to even imagine a time when general work was placed on hold
and
people enjoyed a time of refreshment (Going away for vacation now? Yes.
But not
having one right at home in your own community!) Maybe
that’s what made us as strong as we
were, a time-out, a time to gain perspective before the next season and
its special
demands descended upon us. And when our
church’s “protracted meeting” came to an end, there was always another
church
near by holding meetings—near enough to walk.
And everyone was always welcome, whether you normally attended
there or
not. That’s how it used to be in the
country. A certain rhythm existed, and
if you were fortunate, you joined in the song of the particular seasons
and
enjoyed each one.
(Note: *The term, “God’s high
festival, protracted meeting” was used by poet Byron Herbert Reece in
his poem,
“Choestoe – A Dancing Place of Rabbits”
published in The Prairie Schooner, in Spring, 1944. I highly recommend that you find a copy of
the poem and read it. He gives many
characteristics of our mountain people in that particular poem.-EDJ)
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
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