We have looked at Appalachian Values as
specified by Loyal Jones in his book, Appalachian Values (Jesse Stuart
Foundation, 1994) and listed thus far religion, independence (that covers also
self-reliance and pride), neighborliness, familism (love for family) and
personalism (or relating well with others).
Today we will complete his list with humility (modesty), love of place,
patriotism, sense of beauty and sense of humor.
Mountain people hold to humility and
modesty. They do not like to take credit
for any achievements they might have accomplished. They had rather defer compliments to others,
or at least deflect them from themselves by saying such things as, “Well, this
of which you speak is really not that good, not worthy of honor, anyway.” Take for example a man from Union County, who
had to bear much of the responsibility of helping his mother rear his siblings
after his father died. After a hard
youth and manhood, he went forth from the mountains and did quite well as a
leader in the state of Georgia. His name
was Mauney Douglas Collins who for twenty-five years served as the state school
superintendent. During his decade in the top school position in Georgia, he led
in innumerable achievements in
educational advancement to his credit.
Among them were moving scattered one-teacher schools into consolidation,
getting the “Minimum Program of Education” funded and a more stable tax base
for education established, free textbooks, school and public libraries, nine
months of school for all students, bus transportation. The list could go on of
accomplishments under his administration.
But when commended for his work, as is so often the case with
mountain-bred persons, he would reply with, “It was time for a change, the
people were ready for change, the time was right.” He did not like for credit to accrue to his
own name. Yet the record is there for
all to examine and admire. Loyal Jones
describes this sense of modesty and humility:
“We believe that we should not put on airs, not boast, nor try to get
above our raising” (p. 90).
Love of place is almost a built-in part of
our mountain ways. “Where’re you from?”
one is likely to ask a person when hearing his/her mountain talk and wondering
what cove or valley in Appalachian is home.
Sense of place is deeply ingrained.
There’s more truth than fiction to the saying, “You can take the boy out
of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.” We could substitute “mountains of Appalachia”
for country and have a true evaluation of how much we who were born there cling
to place. North Georgia Poet Byron
Herbert Reece had the right idea when he wrote lovingly of his home and mine,
“Choestoe,” the Cherokee Indian name meaning “Dancing Place of Rabbits.” It is a long poem, three pages published, so
too long to quote here. But a few lines
carry the strong sense of place he knew of the community where he was born,
reared and lived:
“What does a land resemble, named for
rabbits?...
There is peace here, quiet and unhurried
living,
Something to wonder at in aged faces;
These are not all I mean, but symbols for
it,
A thing, if one but has the spirit for it,
Better, I say, than many rabbits dancing.”
Patriotism seems almost to be a built-in
characteristic of Appalachian people.
Next to family, another beloved entity for which one will die is
country. So many people now dwelling in
the hills and hollows of Appalachia can trace their ancestry back to someone
who fought in the Revolutionary War.
Likewise, when the rift came between the states in the 1860’s, many
mountain people sided with the Union in that fray. The county of Union, when founded in 1832, was
named Union because the representative, John Thomas, when asked what to name
it, declared, “Union, for only Union-like people reside there!” From every war in which America has engaged
since the Declaration of Independence was declared in 1776, Appalachian
mountain military persons have fought with the bravest to win and maintain
freedom.
A sense of beauty permeates place with
majestic purple-clad mountains rising toward the sky and green valleys with
meandering streams rushing through the rocks and rills of what is
Appalachia. But as if nature is reflected
in what hands produce, beauty is seen in creative projects from looms, needles,
workshops, blacksmith shops. Mountain
music played on banjo, dulcimer, and fiddle pays tribute to beauty of sound and
accompanies voices that might have composed the songs telling about the land
and its people. A concert of beauty
rises in place, project and pursuits as if in tumultuous offering of what the
people enjoy in Appalachia in loveliness.
Is life not hard there? We wonder
and yet know that it often is, but amidst the hard toil and sometimes
deprivation, the imagination and industry of a people seek after and produce
beauty.
And, finally, all the characteristics of
mountain life are wrapped in a sense of humor.
Loyal Jones assizes the humor of the mountaineer by stating: “Humor is more than fun; it is a coping
mechanism in sickness or hard times” (p. 123).
We often make ourselves the brunt of our own jokes. I remember the Rev. Jesse Paul Culpepper who
was born and reared in Wetmore, Tennessee and who, for 26 and ½ years of his ministry
was the director of missions among churches in rural Fannin and Gilmer Counties
in Georgia. He was known far and wide
for his preaching, and the points he could easily make on a difficult passage. He had the ability to do that oftentimes by
telling one of his funny stories, with himself more likely than not the one who
had put himself into a humorous position which would help the people to
remember the point he was making. For
example, in teaching tithing as a biblical way of giving, he would sometimes
tell: “Our churches need a better way to
raise money than to make punkin’ pies with foam on top (his word for merinque)
and try to sell them to the highest bidder. I got one of those pies one time,
and it was awful. We’re not winners when we get something like that. Why not give the money to the Lord’s treasury
to start with?”
In closing his book on Appalachian Values, Loyal Jones appeals to us all to help
correct the abuses to place and people that have occurred within our
environs. We can no longer put on
blinders and hope the problems of environment and social conditions will go
away on their own. He implores: “The reasons for change (must be) sound and
desired by mountain people” (p. 138).
[Resource: Jones, Loyal.
Appalachian Values. Photography by Warren E. Brunner, with an Introduction by John B. Stephenson. Ashland, KY:
Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1994.-
©2012 by Ethelene Dyer
Jones. Published March 8, 2012 online
with permission of the author at the GaGenWebProject. All rights reserved.
[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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