For those of you who happen to be in the area or passing through...

The Foxfire collection was originally started as an elementary school project to get the kids to learn more about their heritage and to listen to their elders and document what was typically either poorly or not well undocumented lifetime knowledge / experiences.

This started around the early 70's (IIRC) and the timing was pretty good because it blossomed with some help from the "Mother Earth" group and other organizations.

These writings were eventually compiled into a book called Foxfire, which subsequently grew, I belive that they are up to volume #12 or so. As others have mentioned, they are well worth reading and they cover many aspects of life mostly from around the 1800's on, although much was similar in the 1700's.

If you happen to be on US 441 and traveling through North East Georgia, take some time to pass through the town of Clayton, located in Rabun County (Rabun County comprises that little "dog ear" at the top east corner of Georgia, and is about 40 miles south of Franklin North Carolina).

Just north of Clayton, on the west side of 441 in the neighbor hood of Rabun Gap you'll find the Foxfire Museum has a little historical collection of buildings (log cabins, several of which are actually around a century old).

These include a black smith shop, church, several miscl. buildings including a home and stores. It is a great day trip with the kids. When we were there about two years ago, there was a lady there that was handweaving Tartan cloth. It is amazing how much labor goes into something as simple as cloth. The particular batch she was working on was a custom pattern, it was very specific in how many threads between this color and that, and the details were mind boggling.

[Sidenote: The museum was originally several miles north of its present location and recently had to move to the current location. The buildings and everything else were transported.]

Regards,
Comanche7

Martin,
I am responding to you directly as your comments hit a chord with me having grown up in Upper Bucks myself. I grew up riding my mini bike in either the cornfields in front of my house or the cow pastures behind it. I could see RT 309 from wherever I was so I didn't need a GPS either.
Regarding the "Mom & Pops", not to defend Walmart here, but if you look back far enough in the history of commerce, you will see these store put the old "general stores" and Feed and Grains" out of business just like Walmart has displaced Main street recently. I think that 25 years from now, when historians are looking at the the genesis of retail, they will put containerized shipping up there with the invention of the cotton gin and the printing press.
Your comment on dying from a simple cut hits home with me as my mother was orphaned by age 6 halfway due to her father, a horse of a man, who came 1/3 of the way around the globe from Poland to make a better life for him and his wife, stepped on a nail in a Pittston mine and died 3 days later from tetnus.
I also think you and I would agree the Mayberry people seem to remember actually took place during the end of the Great Depression. It was a time of great hardship, much more like the Cinderella man than the Hollywood produced Andy Griffith show.
Finally, I remember a Bucks County where if you didn't go to college, you went to the Tech school where you learned a skillset that is now performed by mostly by "new immigrants" to this country.
In one short generation, we have "advanced" to the point where I don't have a car to teach my kids how to drive a stick shift, I have to teach my own kids safe gun handling instead of having the Boy Scouts or the HS Rifle team show them and kids have never seen an animal die to provide food for the family... we are moving forward much quicker than any generation in history. That much I know.

Here's another reason to miss Mayberry -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CvoC551i2E

Amen.

In one short generation, we have "advanced" to the point where ... I have to teach my own kids safe gun handling instead of having the Boy Scouts or the HS Rifle team show them and kids have never seen an animal die to provide food for the family...

(Knock on wood) Every summer, when we take the troop to Scout camp, I fear that the People's Republic of Massachusetts will have taken away the shooting ranges, but, so far, so good. We still have ranges for archery, rifle, and shotgun. After firearms safety lessons, many boys are out there with 22's daily shooting all the rounds they can during free shoots and rifle merit badge. The older boys, after additional training, can then go on to the shotgun range and go after those crafty clay pigeons.

The concept of hunting / trapping and cooking small game is still taught, but not actually practiced anymore in Wilderness Survival. When we were boys, we would regularly sample culinary delights such as squirrel, frog, rabbit, and snake; not anymore. Fishing is all catch and release now too, except salt water species. At least we can still hike and camp and make fires (but, make sure you follow LNT).

Mine is Southwestern PA's Washington County, and the Southern, South Hills Suburbs of Pittsburg, -just to the North of it. Both "Back where I Come From!", -as Mac MacAnally used to say! (Early 90s New Country).

I'm a County north of there now, -but my Heart of course remains Fondly back in both Places! The NE Washington County Countryside the more so, -in that of course its so Spandiferously (Don't Bother, -you won't find this one in the Dictionary!) Country and Rural ! Than even the also Spando enuff "Southern Subs".

There's of course much that yet applies to and from me, -from that ole adage, -"You can take the Boy out of the Country, -*But you Can't take the Country out of the Boy!*" Not one bit of my earlier such, -has ever since faded away! (though I've certainly since picked up some Good non-country ways, as well). Also John Denver's "Take me Home!, Country Road! (...to the Place, I Belong!...!). And of course his "Thank God I'm a Country Boy!" And while at it, -a slight adjustment in Chicago's late 70s "Take me Back to Chicago!... To by now you know what!

My Heart's of course Warmly and Ardently still Back There! In Washington County and those South Hills!

Back in late '68 as a 11 year old upon the Move, -it was like moving onto the Kentucky Frontier! Not that the Half Wooded Blue Collar neighborhood I'd previously Grown Up in in South Pittsburgh was Bad either! But the Place was growing So So and Stale! Got out at just the Right Time!

To soon Experience what I like to call a "Personal Golden or Classic Age", (a la Ancient Greece, the Rennaissance, a Vintage Year and Harvest, Portuguese Ships Boldly Setting Out to Explore the World!, etc.), -over the next Two or so years. That First Apollo Moon Landing, Getting Bitten by the Stamp Collecting Bug, -and a Good number of Other Things Else! (Not the least of which was beginning to Discover Gals! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> and All !).

A Lesson you Learn, -from the later, much more Humdrum and "Fish Out of Water" of Times!, -is to *Not* take that earlier, Spandro, Golden Age!, -for *Granted*! -As you once did!!! "Make New Friends!, -while Duly Keeping the Old Ones!..."

(And speaking of Kentucky Frontier, -I just happened to get assigned to do a Report on Daniel Boone!, -there in my new 5th grade. Of among other things, -him moving over into the Yadkin Valley, -and then Moving Out again! Further Westward! "Because its Getting Too Crowded!...).

I'd noticed my first Cloud Shadow moving across the Roadway and Ground!, -something which previously never even occurred to me as "Happenable"!

And speaking of "Southern" and the Southland, -I was then, including Washington County itself, -only two Counties North of the Mason Dixon line! So while the Burg may seem as Yankee as Boston or Chicago to a Southerner, (and quite Correctly and Understandably so), -I was and yet am, "Almost" a Southerner! (Now 3 Counties North, including my current own).

I once took a Nice Trip down to Atlanta, -a Long Held Dream. I stayed there for 3 or 4 weeks, -long enuff to to now Fondly enuff Feel that that was a Place I once Lived! -Not only Visited. I rode their MARTA all over the place! Whenever I catch WSB Atlanta in the course of my DXing, -which is pretty Solidly Regular, -I *get* that Feeling of Familiarity! Whenever I hear them talk of this or that Road, Suburb, or whatnot. (And "O'Neill Outside" is a Good to Great Outdoors Radio Show, -emanating from there at nearby Kennessaw Mtn, on Saturday mornings). I also once Climbed Stone Mountain! (via its typical Trail), one Summer Evening in the gathering Dusk. Another kind of Long Held Dream! I've mentioned this in more detail, -back in an earlier post.

Well the point that I was here leading up to, -concerns this Good Ole Redneck Shopkeeper I ran into. Upon telling him that I was from Pennsylvania, -he said something to the effect of "I Like you, -even if you are a Yankee!" Followed quickly by a Good, Hearty, Understanding, Laugh! Helpful Guy in a moment when I Really Needed it, -for which I of course remain Appreciative.

While there is much that I of course Like and Love about the South, -I have not jumped Fully, -every last bit into the "Southern Pool". and remain in many Respects also, -in a Good, Great, and Spando Northern one! (Things are "Cooler" here! As well as right now *Colder*, -here on the bottom edge of this Northern Winter! -But I'm keeping Perfectly Warm!). (Heck!, Philly and Bucks County over on the other end of my State, -are even Closer to the Southland! But quite Understandably enuff don't think themselves so!). (I'm *Glad* we've Preserved the Union, by Beating ya all down there, back in the Civil War! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />. I Hasten to Add, -"With All Due Respect!, -for the South and its Reasons!").

I of course Live every bit in the Present, -as well as being one hoo Warmly and Fondly Looks Back to the Past and to the Great Outdoors Countryside, -from which I came! A Sunny Summer Afternoon Lawn!, for example,-is as Spando now! As it ever was back then! And so on concerning many things else. Often the more things Change, -the more they Stay the Same!

"Take me Back!, to the Country!, -Urban Sidewalks are *Not* my Style!....!"..... [color:"black"] [/color] [email]ScottRezaLogan[/email]

When I was a kid we moved to a little town just below Mount Rainier, where every day at school I would look out the window and sketch the NW face of the mountain during Social Studies class. At night we would tend to our chores, and on the weekends we would entertain ourselves with a game of touch football with friends out in the street, or with an expedition into the big woods behind our house. It seemed that we could walk from our backyard clear to the park border if we wanted without encountering another soul along the way, even if we wanted to. I spent many days and nights in those woods, learning mostly by experience how to stay dry, build a fire (much to the displeasure of the fire dept and my parents), hunt and trap animals, how to kill with my bare hands, how to navigate without a compass, how to forage grub etc. Later on as I became more mobile and more interesting to my dad, I made it to good fishing holes and such.

Nowadays when I go back to where I grew up, it is inundated with housing farther than I can walk in a day. Things change I reckon.

(Or anyone else here for that matter).

I know you mention being near the Far Larger and more Dangerous Mt Ranier. But Helens of course is not terribly that much farther away. And chances are great that you were under some pretty heavy Ashfall ! (even *if* perhaps a little West of Helens, -prevailing Winds blowing the great mass of it Eastward). Have you either Directly or Indirectly witnessed St Helen's Eruption or mighty Ashcloud, -perhaps some distance away? (if you were even in the general Washington / Oregon vicinity at the time).

If you don't mind answering, -about how old were you at the time? (May 18, 1980) (I was late 22).

I was of course Far to the East, at the time, -here in Southwestern PA (my Beloved Washington County), -Clear over on the other end of the North American Continent. (You're Washington State, I'm Washington County <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />).

Thus I could only catch it in print Media and Newscasts. But Man of course was that ever Something! Even if only a Pipsqueak by Volcanic Standards! I mean it was no Crater Lake, Pinatubo,Toba, or Tambora!....Speaking of such Print Media of the Time, -Two Great ones are a "Grey Covered Newsweek" I've seen at the time, -and most certainly the National Geographic which came out some months later, -revolving around and featuring the Event. Especially that Great Foldout of the Blast therein!, -No diminishment meant to any of the Rest. Including their Map of the Blowdown zone!, -Just Look at that!!!

Ash *did* of course come here to the East, -if not readily Detectable or Visible.

I *did* however Directly Experience our Mt St Helens Experience!, in one way. Twas some months or so thereafter, -when I had the Nice Little Pleasure of coming across packets of Mt St Helens Ash, -at a Quiosque at the Mall. For only a buck, -I obviously Snapped one up! Twas about the size of a smaller Tuna Pouch you might find in the stores nowadays, -Transparent of course so as to be able to "see the Product".

To say the least, Chances are overwhelming that it was Genuine. Had exactly that same Gray as in any of the Photos. Plus otherwise Looked like it!, -I so knew in my Gut. And with this "Product" so Readily Available from the Pacific Northwest on Eastward, -Why Not do the Real Thing!?, -Why bother doing a Fake Job? And so I can Safely and Overwhelmingly assume that it was Genuine!, -the Real Deal!

Alas!, -between the various Sordid personal Problems and Preoccupations that I had in Life, -many Un-asked for, -I've Regrettably long since Lost!, -that Prized enuff of a Possession! -Genuine Mt St Helens Ash!

Last but not least,-while I Love and continue to Hold a Place in my Heart!, -for our Mt St Helens Experience!, -I'm flat out Indifferent to somewhat Disliking, -of the Name itself! (just something Personal, -and it has nothing to do with any Helens!). Nearly all Volcanos have some Really Neat, Apt, and Spandiferous Names! To me personally, -Mt St Helens just does Not!

But Name aside, -What an Experience and Memory Mt St Helens 1980 was!!!!!

What more or less Direct Personal Experience have you or others maybe had with it?!?

(And any other Volcano or Earthquake & the like, -would also do!). [color:"black"] [/color] [email]ScottRezaLogan[/email]