There is a spot just beyond Winchester, towards Stanton, where the hills seem to rise out of the earth and the view is breathtaking. I have stopped at that spot for many years just to take in the majesty of the image. I always know I'm really driving down into the hills, not up the hills.
I'll ask my engineering friend how the foothills really emerged from the belly of the earth. Erosion? Eruption? From driving this for many years, I know the counties are 20 miles across. I wonder if this is an actual fact of the old English/Irish land division, or if it's only marked that way on my route. When I pass the exit to Royalton, I always look to the right and think, way back there, across several hills, is David, my coal camp home.
My grandchildren were always tolerant each time we passed Route 7 and I would retell the story of walking over the "new road" to the head of the Licking River (at Royalton) to celebrate the end of school each year.We packed, in little brown paper bags, Vienna sausages (Vi-eenies), potted meat, crackers, peanut butter sandwiches, or whatever Mother had for us.We climbed the hill and walked the road, too. At the top of the hill, we always got a drink of fresh water from the hand pump in the yard of someone's house there.
Daniel Boone spent his first winter in that region of David and wrote that it was "severe, and unfit for human habitation". Well, I guess we proved him wrong by living out our entire childhoods in David in little company houses that lined the base of the hills up all hollows and along the main road.
The Licking River site was once engineered by GW's crew as a possible gateway to the west. I hope East Kentucky children are learning the richness of their history and heritage. They would heighten their perception of our land as one of beauty and promise. The promise is still there. It lies in the youth and their willingness to learn from those who have gone before. We are only hampered if we limit their dreaming and don't help them make those dreams come true.
I miss driving through the little towns and sometimes detour for a scenic route. I like to see Oil Springs, Crockett, Moon, West Liberty, Salyersville and all the "real" places that have been supplanted with By-Passes.
Remember the hometown drive ins, freezer freshes, and our favorite, "EAT" at Stanton...from the highway, looking down into Stanton, we just saw a huge sign "EAT". They had upside down banana splits and the best hotdogs and hamburgers. We always stopped there. Now, we choose from McDonalds, Arbys, Hardy's, etc. which now make all By-passes look and taste just alike.
"I cannot leave these prisoning hills...being one with this earth, I cannot go"
from James Still's Heritage.
The hills can look desolate and barren in the winter. Coal dust and poverty paint a bleak picture. Of course poverty is everywhere. We have exhausted ways that people can make money working in coal and still respect the land and the safety of the miners. I believe we're making progress.For more than 100 years, Coal has been the only hope for the East Kentucky economy. I worked in the Appalachian coalfields for 15 years, My father worked for 35 years underground, My nephews worked underground.
It's scary to not draw a paycheck, especially at Christmastime. These miners are great men who deserve their pay. They don't need to "back in to pick up their paycheck". I hope the EKY coal miners are receptive to ideas for a new and innovative approach to making a living in the coal fields
Tomorrow I'll post a picture of the view of the emerging mountains and a copy of James Still's Heritage. Yes, I'm melancholy, I'm homesick, I'm going home Thursday.
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