I have lived on this property my entire life. My kids will be the 7th generation of my family to be raised on this little plot of rock and sod. Growing up in Appalachia, this is not that uncommon. Many of the families around these parts have ancestors that go back to the 1600s, mine included. Out of these families, there are many who still reside on the piece of land bought many years ago for a few dollars.
Of the people who live near me , there are many who attended the same school as I did, and now their children go there as well as do mine. It's a sweet dream to feel so connected everywhere I go.
One neighbor, who has a daughter in my son's class, came over to day to play my piano. She does not read music but plays by ear and she blows even seasoned players out of the water. She became a Mother at 16 and despite what Dr. Drew thinks about unwed teenage Mothers she has done a fine job raising her daughter who is very sweet. They are both very good singers and today they graced my family with some Gospel music. This particular neighbor still lives with her parents and her father it the go to man for anything farm wise. You need to know how to bury a cabbage or fix a lawn mower or make homemade blueberry wine and he is your man. Such knowledge is a true blessing and a rarity in this day and age.
The Mother of my chicken killing friend also is very much a self made woman. She lives in the house my great grandparents built, at the top of the small road leading to three houses, all occupied by close family. She gardens every year and raises chickens. When the porch need a new roof she pulls out her hammer and goes to ripping. She is the epitome of a strong Appalachian woman.
A few miles down the road, in a small house next to the New river lives the sister of my oldest living friend. This friend has long since moved on to bigger and better things as a documentary film maker, but her sister lives in the house that they were all raised in . Their Mother has a Doctorate in Anthropology so going over to their house was always a learning experience filled with lessons from other cultures. They had the largest collection of National Geographic I had ever seen ( not that I had any idea what the publication was before I met them). My parents were not, let's say, Cultured like Sisters mother was. In this light it would be easy to say that these girls, childhood friends, were the start of my desire for an education, to better myself and learn more about the world outside of my own. Sister is very much like her mother in that respect, and her three children are being raised with such a respect for the world around us. It's really a beautiful thing.
Not all neighbors around me are kind. One in particular owns a mobile home part across the road. When my dogs get out the shoots a gun over their heads and we actually had to report him to animal control recently as he was keeping goats, and not very kindly. The final straw for us was when he let a few die and didn't remove their bodies from the pen. When you are in the country, sometimes a lot of things get swept under the rug.
We have our share of meth heads and drunks. Parties and Parasites but for some reason I love them to. They make life interesting when they set their house on fire, let their 15-year -old get drunk in the yard or drive their car down the road on only three tires with the back axle locked up. I take each one with stride and try to accept them for what they are, even if it is nothing more that entertainment purposes.
Either way I am surrounded by life at its best and worst and wouldn't change much of it if I could. Just like everything in life, it's a dance that it going to go on with or without you, so you might as well jump in and get to know your neighbors.
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