m m m m 'mmmmmrnm Vol. Ill, No. 5
June 1977
Festivities Mark the Grand Opening of Camp Nelson’s 1977 Season . . . and the Good Times Go On From There Despite a chilly reception from the weather, a crowd of 2,200 turned out to celebrate the Grand Opening of Camp Nelson, April 2 and 3. A number of special activities, added to the natural beauty of the mountains, got the 1977 season off to an exciting start. As the days have warmed, the number of visitors to Camp Nelson has increased, making it one of Central Kentucky’s popular summer recreation areas. Bluegrass music filled the air for the Grand Opening when local bands per formed throughout the weekend. Shots rang out on Sunday, April 3, as folks gathered to watch the Camp Nelson Musket Loaders demonstrate these vintage firearms. This was the first of four musket shoots which will be presented during the season. Many other outstand ing attractions are planned as the summer progresses. By mid-afternoon, bands, singers and other performers arrived to compete in Music Hall’s talent contest. A total of 23 acts provided entertainment for Camp Nelson visitors on into the evening. Taking first prize was the “Kentucky Five Plus-One,” a band with a country flavor and a female vocalist. Of course, it wouldn’t be Gfand Opening weekend without Camp Nelson’s annual parade, and this year’s event was as colorful as ever. Clowns and more than 100 horseback riders marched to the accompaniment of high school bands. Antique cars, wagons, and young people on motorcycles also participated,
Young cyclists line up for the Grand Opening Parade
Camp Nelson visitors enjoy a country band
as well as vehicles from local fire and police departments. “Celebrity appear ances” were made by Little Miss Jessa mine and Garrard Counties. The Admiral’s Table Restaurant served up a selection of Kentucky home cooking, while hot dogs and chili were sold outdoors. The specialty of the house all season at the Admiral’s Table is a delicious whole catfish dinner. Special dishes to tempt young appetites, plus reasonable prices, make the Admiral’s Table an ideal family restaurant. A fresh popcorn machine and fresh roasted pea nuts, which made a hit with visitors during the Grand Opening, continue to delight youngsters and adults alike.
Campers take a lunch break from the day’s activities
Camp Nelson’s well-known craft guild shops opened their doors again to feature a varied array of hand-crafted merchandise. Adding to the pleasure of shopping*,, visitors may watch as our craftsmen skillfully fashion their wares. Among items available at the Rivertown Forge are fireplace tools, cooking utensils, hunting knives and custom iron work by blacksmith Preston Bates. Mike Lewis, proprietor of the The Four Winds Leather Shop, will be turning out purses, hats, belts, billfolds, and many other hand-tooled leather goods. (Continued on page 2)
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Kentucky River Soundings Publisher......................................CAP
Published monthly by Christian Ap-
Editor-in-chief. . . . Father Ralph Belting
Palachian P"*** (CAP) Entered as third class matter at Camp Nelson Post Office, Camp Nelson, Kentucky 40444. cSubscription I . I x . in , U.S. , c ■is $* 4.00 a nr\ rate per
^ tor........................Carol Ann Claeys Writer.................... Gerald J. Cashman Design Artist.................... Cindy Baker
(Continued from page 1)
Shoppers may choose bookends, toys and small furniture at the woodcraft shop, and a selection ranging from jugs to flower pots at the potter’s. A good choice for gifts, if you can bear to part with them, are decorative items from the ceramic shop or jewelry from the silversmith. And be sure to let Camp Nelson’s resident pastel artist paint a beautifully-toned por trait of the youngsters. Those who appreciate the more unusual mountain crafts should be sure to take in the fascinating macramè demon stration and watch the carving and con struction of Appalachian dulcimers. All the craft stores are open every day except Monday during the summer season. Bargains galore can be found in the Dollar Days Flea Market as folks from Kentucky and neighboring states display their “treasures” on weekends. As many as 75 booths may be operating inside, while space for several hundred others are available outdoors. Continuing our Grand Opening policy, all items cost just $1.00 each. Boone’s Landing Campground has been filled almost to capacity since open ing weekend. For campers’ convenience, electricity and water, plus an outdoor grill and picnic table are furnished to each campsite. Campers can also take ad vantage of the two bath houses, laundro mat, propane gas, the dump station and a daily garbage service. Boone’s Landing combines the beauty of mountain scenery with a handy location within walking distance of Cam p Nelson’s other activities. The miniature golf course is already in action and the swimming pool opened
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year. Address all correspondence to Ken tucky River Soundings, Camp Nelson, Kentucky 40444.
May 15. Boating enthusiasts will soon enjoy new ramp facilities as Camp Nelson’s new Marina nears completion. If you don’t bring your own, rent a fishing or pontoon boat when you get to Camp Nelson. Fishing supplies, live bait and a season’s fishing license also are available. From the gala Grand Opening weekend thru September, Camp Nelson will be a favorite headquarters for familystyle outdoor summer fun.
cLetters to tlje E d ito r Dear Father Beiting: This is just a note to let you know how much I have enjoyed the past few issues of Soundings, most especially the one in which you reminisced over the 25 years you had spent in Appalachia. Several things have surprised me. One was that it had not occurred to me (probably because I didn’t think about it) that you were Catholic, and second, it hadn’t occurred to me that Catholic priests held ministries in the street or at informal meetings. I guess I thought that kind of thing was confined to Protestant evangelical denominations. One thing, tho, that has pleased and surprised me are the stories you tell of different people, of their enterprise and efforts to be self-supporting, selfemployed and employing others in their expanding businesses. What is so heart ening about this is that too many people (I do not include myself in this group) feel that all poor people are in poverty be cause it is their own fault: that they are dumb, stupid, unskilled, drunken, lazy,
shiftless, improvident, etc. How untrue this is. Was it not Fanny Brice who said, “I have been rich and I have been poor, and I am here to say rich is better.” How many people choose poverty when there is an alternative? Almost none, I am sure. I thank you for reassuring so many of us that we were right the first time: poverty is a social, economic condition over which most have no control, and certainly no choice. Sincerely and aloha, Betty L. Johnson Honolulu, Hawaii Dear Father Beiting: My compliments to you, Father. This is a beautiful Easter message. I was so impressed that I have taken the liberty of having some copies made and am sending them out with my Easter Greet ings and other messages. Keep up the good work. We send best wishes for Easter Joy and Peace to you and all your co-workers. Sincerely, Mr. and Mrs. C. F. Gilbert Dear Editor: FAMILY REUNION Elisha and Eleanor Fortner Johnson August 13,1977 Shillito’s Park No. 2 Lexington, KY Mrs. Helen Burke 211 Danville St. Lancaster, KY 40444
Editorial— Energy Conservation In recent weeks I have had the opportunity to meet with representatives of T.V.A., coal operators and conserva tionist groups. The major thrust of the meetings was energy. How much do we need? Where will we get it? How much will it cost us both now and in the future? In 1974, President Ford announced an energy policy that would give us selfsufficiency by 1985. We are woefully behind in this program at the present time. There are many reasons for this, but surely one of the most important causes is our ever increasing appetite in the U.S.A.
These are doubtless some of the reasons I long so very much to be a part of your Project. True, I’m a “senior citizen”, but that in itself should not prevent me from taking an active part there on location with you and your wonderful Christian people. The inescapable fact is, however, that dream though I may, at 65 I’m seriously disabled with an incurably crooked back. A few months ago, in one of my better spells, I actually found myself laying plans to settle near or among you people and do as much as I could to bring cheer and hope to the folks of your region. Better perhaps to have dreamed the impossible dream than to have sat rocking and crocheting with never a thought beyond the nearest book or magazine or TV program. How greatly drawn I an toward making some tangible contribution, something I could give of myself. Writing the occasional check seems so-ibasy—. Can you think of any way I might help personally at this distance? If you can, I should be so very, very glad to hear from you! Sincerely yours, Martha Sharpless (Member, Haverford, Pa. Friends Meeting)
Dear Father Ralph, Thanks for “them thar kindly words.” Enclosed is a little something. Would appreciate it if you would send me an extra copy of Soundings — the last one where you reminisce about your 25 years as a missionary in Appalachia I gave my copy to my friend, the Rev. Bill Garder, pastor of the United Methodist Church of New Milford, a great preacher like yourself and a fine human being. My wife’s a Methodist, the kids and I are Roman Catholics and I hope we are all real Christians — at least we’re working toward that end. I heard you give the homily at St. Johns and Paul in Larchmont, N.Y., several years ago and I remember that story of the farm gal who mistook you for the president, which you repeated in this last issue of Soundings. I gave this to Rev. Bill Garder because I wanted him to read this particular story. I consider it a classic of its kind, and told
him he could keep this copy for his library. That’s why I want the extra copy, as I’ve kept all the Soundings since the first one and refer to them time and again. Thanks. Sincerely, John M. McKeon New Milford, CT
K entuckians as O thers Saw Them Since Kentucky was the first state to be admitted to the colonies west of the Allegheny Mountains, it was the scene of •much travel and migration. Frequently people from all over the world came to America to see the west and the wilderness. And the place, of course, that they came to more often than any other was Kentucky. Many of them have left accounts of what they thought of Kentucky and the Kentuckians. I would like to record at this time a few of the impressions left by these people. This impression was given to us by a Captain Thomas Hamilton who came from England. He was traveling down the Ohio River and stopped at Louisville. While he was there he wrote this particular passage: “The Kentuckians may be called the Irish of America. They have all the levity of character, that subjection of the moral to the convivial, that buoyancy of spirit, that jocular ferocity, that order both of attachment and of hatred which distinguishes the natives of the Emerald Isle. The Kentuckians are the only Americans who can understand a joke. There is a kind of native humor about them which is very pleasant. And I must say that several Kentucky gentlemen were among the most agreeable companions with whom I had the good fortune to become acquainted during my tour.”
But while the good gentleman was very high in his praise of the Kentucky people, there were others who were not quite as enthusiastic about the folks that they met while / / on their travels through Kentucky. There was, for example, a homesick Virginian who had moved to Kentucky and was now regretting the choice he had made. One particular day, a traveller from England, a Mr. Faux, came by and the homesick gentleman declared to the visitor that this land west of the mountains was inhabited by rogues and cheats. He said that no man’s word was of any value and everyone tried to live without doing any work. The land in the west was a land of ruination both physically and morally. He said that back in Virginia it was long ago said that when a man was missing from his community, he has either gone to hell or to Kentucky. Even the Irish at times found it difficult to accept some of the customs and activities of the folk in Kentucky. One particular immigrant from Ireland, a man by the name of Timothy Flint, declared that the west, i.e. Kentucky, was populated by an influx of immoral and ignorant elements of the Eastern civilization. Another gentleman from France, Francois Michaux, estimated in 1802 that some 20,000 souls annually traveled the west Wilderness Road or floated down the Ohio River to perdition in the West. The K entuckians them selves, however, were much more generous in their praise of the state. Once a Kentuckian was asked by a stranger what kind of place this Kentucky was? And the reply the gentleman made was this: “Stranger, there’s no place in the universal earth like ol’ Kentuck’. She whips. all out west in prettiness. You might ■ ’bile’down creation and might not get such another state out of it like Kentuck’.” On another occasion, one of the frontier preachers was trying to excite his audience with the wonders of the Promised Land. And after some attempts to adequately describe it, he finally blurted out, “Honeys, Heaven is a Kentucky kind of place!”
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G reenhouse Project The number of interesting people who make up our Appalachian area never ceases to amaze me. Just the other day I received a visit from a young man by the name of Mike Durham. It was his 19th birthday. The reason for his visit was to tell me about a project that he was presently involved with, and to see if we might be able to assist him. Mike was in the greenhouse business. He had already erected his second greenhouse and had high hopes for its future. Like almost everyone who goes into business for the first time, there was the great problem of a cash flow — how to pay for the abnormally high heating bills that come in during the most severe winter in history; how to take care of the added plants needed if you were going to be able to sell to the larger stores. These and many other very real, and yet ordinary, problems faced him as he began his new business venture. He had heard of us and wondered if we would be interested in assisting him to get this business going. As his story unfolded I became more and more enthralled with it and promised to come out and visit his operation. As you drive south out of Junction City toward Liberty, there is a little community called Moreland. Right outside Moreland proper, there was a sign beside the road with an arrow pointing to “Durham’s Greenhouses.” Leaving the main road I went back a gravel lane to where Mike lived. I found him by a row of plants trying to prepare the site for an additional shipment which he was expecting the next day. The 30 x 60 foot greenhouse was already over half full of plants. I asked Mike how he ever got started in such a way of life. He said his grandmother had a great deal to do with it. She lived on a farm in this area and used to grow irises — as many as two and three acres of them at a time. It was a hobby with her but they looked so beautiful, people came to see them and even asked for sets to take to their own 4
Mike Durham
homes. From her Mike acquired a great love for plants and flowers. During the years that he was in high school he took vocational agriculture and specialized in flowering plants and indoor household plants. In fact, he must have impressed his high school faculty considerably, because the day that he had come to see me he brought his former horticultural teacher. The teacher thought so highly of Mike’s ability, ambition and qualifications that he had, in his own right, loaned him money. I was to leam that Mike belonged to the Future Farmers of America and had held many offices with the local chapter in the Lincoln County area-. He had been named Statewide Farmer in their organization, an »honor only one percent of the members of the Future Farmers are able to acquire. He also won first prize for the state in growing and culture of flowering plants. In addition to this the Daughters of the American Revolution had named Mike good citizen of the year in his final year of high school. Many other
similar awards had come to him because of his abilities and his willingness to spend time working on something that was worthwhile. I was about to leave and go visit someone else when I asked Mike why he kept the seats in the van that he purchased to deliver his plants. He said “Well, I do church work in addition to the plants. I help teach young people the Bible and help them in church leadership.” He has three or four small congregations of people that he brings together in one central place. There he helps them with their scripture studies and lessons. Quite an unusual thing for a young man of 19 to do. Almost by accident he mentioned that he was also the Assistant Scout Master for a troup of boy scouts in Danville. “I never heard the dogs barking when you came in,” he said. “How did you get past them?” I said “Well, I noticed the dogs when I came in but they were so sound asleep that I simply walked right by.”
A Time to Remember You Aren’t Getting Any Younger When I first came to the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, I was a young man of 26. There was excitement, exhil aration, and the challenge of new things to be done. I guess the story that I am going to relate to you now took place about 14 years after I had arrived. I must have been about 40. I had dark brown hair, and still looked as if I might have a few years left to live with enthusiasm. I was searching for a way in which to help people, and I hoped that I might do so through agricul ture. So I was looking for land that we might purchase and develop into a farm. Hopefully, it would be some place that was run down, that we could improve and bring to new productiveness. As I was walking along this hollow, back in the hills, I stopped at a little old log cabin. It was one of those picturesque places that you see in post cards and paintings which depict Appalachia in a romantic fashion, complete with the ever present creek, the towering hills, the trees and the log cabin nestled down at the base of the cliff. An old woman came to thè door, and I asked her if she knew of anybody who had land that they would like to sell. She gave me some general direcf tions and some ideas of a couple of people who had been speaking about selling. I asked if she would be interested in selling. She said she wasn’t. It was all she had, and since she was caring for her two grandchildren since their parents had died, she needed the property. It was her only real security. I told her I understood and thanked her for her time and was about to leave. Now I was dressed in ordinary clothes, walking through these back hills and fields. She said, “Aren’t you the Catholic preacher down there at McKee?” I was taken a little bit by surprise, but I said, “Yes ma’am, I am.” She said, “You and your missus live in that trailer down there by the church building you’re putting up?”
I said, “Why yes ma’am, I live in the trailer down there.” I started to explain to her that Catholic priests don’t get married, but I simply said, “I don’t have a wife.” Well, she looked at me full of puz zlement and amazement and said, “Mister, let me tell you, you’re not getting any younger. You better not wait too much longer, or you ain’t going to get anybody.” I often think of that, a humorous little story, one that is full of the excite ment and joy of a good laugh. “You’re not getting any younger.” I guess that it doesn’t have much of a moral, this story. Except perhaps that you have to wait a long time, and do without things that you
might like, if you’re going to be of service to others. There are many, many times when I wish that I could have taken her advice and had someone to share the dreams, the sorrows, and the joys of these last 26 years. But in the providence of God, it is not meant to be. If we’re going to be of service to others, frequently we have to be without concern for ourselves. Somehow, or other, whenever I start feeling sorry for myself, I’ll remember a story like this one. A lady’s sincere, but humorous, remark makes me smile and laugh. You don’t take yourself quite so seriously and you don’t feel as important as you might think you are. If you can laugh at yourself, I think you can keep from crying, too. I remember her a lot, that lady with her cabin along the creek.
Warehouse Repaired in Mt. Vernon The spring program to begin the remodeling of older homes in the Rock castle County area is now well under way. An initial step made in this direction is the rehabilitation of an old warehouse acquired by CAP several years ago. The warehouse has been in rather bad shape for the last year as a portion of the wall had given way and fallen down. The warehouse will figure prominently in the remodeling efforts in the Rockcastle area since it will serve both as a storage place for the building materials that will be used in the remodeling and also as a shop where much of the prefab work can be done and taken to the job site. An extensive program of remodel ing, repairing and winterizing the barn is now underway and should be completed by the first of June. The building is quite extensive—125 feet long and 50 feet wide. When first built, it served as a large
chicken house, but the original owner eventually gave up this project. After standing idle and vacant for several years it was acquired by the Christian Appa lachian Project. Several local people have been employed to do the necessary repair work on the building. Once this is finished they will become part of the crew that will be doing the remodeling work in the county.
Newly repaired wall of Mt. Vernon warehouse
Interior of storage warehouse with donated building supplies
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Experimental Agriculture It has been the habit of most people to simply follow in the footpaths that their fathers have walked. In the farming areas this has been particularly true. It has been one of the endeavors of CAP to bring in new ideas and to advance new tech niques whenever they seem to be applica ble to the problem and need of the area. Once again we have gone to the Univer sity of Kentucky in Lexington and asked them to assist us in programs we hope will be beneficial to the agricultural efforts of our area. We are interested at the present time in two specific areas. One is the growing of fruit. Fruit possesses many natural sugars, proteins and vitamins that the daily diet requires. It is also a crop that can be preserved and shipped to almost any place in the country. It is bur hope that the hillsides in Appalachia will be a very productive ground for the growing of fruit. With this in mind, we have embarked upon a pro gram this spring whereby we will be plant ing several acres of fruit trees. These will include not merely apple, but pear and plum and peach. Instead of the conventional tree that has been grown for many years in all parts of the country, we are going to the dwarf fruit tree. There are several reasons for this decision: one being that the tree will bear in three years whereas with the con ventional tree you might have to wait six or seven years. Not only is the tree much quicker bearing, but the labor involved in harvesting the fruit, pruning the trees, spraying them and cultivating the ground around them is much easier and requires far less complicated equipment. The advances in dwarf fruit trees apparent ly has been very profound in recent years and their yield has been astounding. At our Camp Nelson location on the banks of the Kentucky River, we will be conducting our largest experiment in the growing of fruit trees. One of the hazards that we anticipate from this par ticular venture, however, does not come from the soil or from the atmospheric con ditions, but from the deer that roam in the forests in the Camp Nelson area. We have a considerable amount of deer in these hills and palisades along the Ken
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tucky River and deer love to chew on young tender fruit trees. A recent article appearing in American Farmer indicated that some enterprising individual has tried a new method of keeping deer from eat ing on the trees. He collects human hair from the barber shop, fills a stocking with this hair and ties it onto several of the trees that form the perimeter of the orchard. So far this has had miraculous results in keep ing the deer from eating the trees. No one seems to know why this happens. So not only will we be trying a new crop in the hills overlooking the Kentucky River, but we will be trying a new method of insuring the safety of the trees from the ever present appetite of the wild deer. We will be keeping our readers informed in future issues of how this particular project is progressing. Another area that we shall be in volved in is the planting of grapes for a vineyard. The time of such planting is not
appropriate until the fall of the year and so this aspect of our program will be wait ing until September. It is our hope that we will not merely be able to grow the vine yards that will produce the grapes for wine, but that eventually a small winery may be set up and the final product can be turned out from the vineyard. In recent years the Kentucky Legislature has passed a law enabling small distilleries to start up and to process the grapes that are growing at a site into wine. We will be try ing this particular experiment at the Camp Nelson location. This has for us at Camp Nelson a n . added significance because it was here in 1799 that James John DeBoer attempted to establish the first commercial vineyard in the United States. It is our hope that this new crop may produce the results for the hills of Appalachia that James DeBoer dreamt of nearly 200 years ago.
New Volunteers Arrive A young married couple from Min nesota, Mr. and Mrs. Roy Eder, have arrived on the 28th of May. They have made a committment of a year to the work that is being done by CAP in the Appalachian area of Eastern Kentucky. The particular skill which the husband has is carpentry. He has had experience in construction back home in Minnesota and will be using this skill in the remodeling of older homes for the elderly and the poor of the Appalachian area. He will be work ing out of Lancaster, the main head-
Mr. and Mrs. Roy Eder’s home at CAP
quarters, and servicing Garrard, Lincoln and Rockcastle counties from that point. The couple will be living in a fifth wheel trailer that was donated by the Jayco Corporation for the use of CAP in the Appalachian area. Various volunteers who will be coming for shorter periods of time will be working with Mr. Eder during the course of their stay here. Mrs. Eder will be used both in work for the elderly and our child development programs. She has had prior experience in both of these fields back home in Minnesota.
Kathy O’Donnell Heads CAP’s Volunteers Kathy O’Donnell is a CAP volunteer among volunteers. That is to say, she is Head Volunteer for the entire Christian Appalachian Project. How she came to that position is an interesting story in itself, and an insight into the varied back grounds of CAP’s whole volunteer group. Half a dozen years ago, Kathy was living at home in Mansfield, Massa chusetts, studying at Bristol Community College. In the Summer of 1971, she first heard of CAP while attending the LaSalette Retreat House. She learned of CAP from Mo Mercier, who would him
self become a CAP permanent volunteer. (Today, Mo is directing the CAP foster home for boys.) In the Summer of ’72, Kathy slipped over the Mason-Dixon Line, and signed up for four weeks’ duty as counse lor at Cliffview Lodge. There she dis covered that, in addition to counseling the girl campers, she would also be “allowed” to participate in camp cleanup and help with the cooking. She enjoyed the experience of working with these Appalachian youngsters, and took strong memories of the CAP program home to
Massachusetts with her. Kathy spent the next year working in a jewelry factory, but the challenge of Appalachia kept surfacing amid the rhine stones and beads. So, she returned to Cliffview the following Summer. Soon after her return, she found herself teach ing Bible School at Our Lady of Mount Vernon. At the end of that busy, happy summer, Kathy decided to become a permanent CAP volunteer. And so, with the approval of her family, she made the change to permanent volunteer in the Fall of 1973.
Mountain Roads Throughout the Eastern part of the United States, this past winter has been unusually severe. People have suffered in many ways. One that is not normally thought of as a consequence of the severe winter has been the damage done to the roads by ice and snow. This was im mensely complicated by the overloaded and overweight coal trucks. It is a tragedy to see the harm that these vehicles have done to roads that were not suited for their traffic to begin with.
Unexpected holes are hazards to motorists
Many roads have been reduced to rubble
In one day of traveling in one of our counties in Eastern Kentucky, the gulleys and the ruts were so deep that the muffler was knocked loose on my car, the selector lever for the automatic transmis sion was severely bent and a set of shocks was completely mined. Several of the blacktop roads were so heavily damaged that state and county had simply sent out a patrol grader to grade them down as if they were a gravel road once again. Many of these roads are permanently ruined and will require an entirely new road bed before any new surface can be put on them. When you consider that many of the roads so destroyed were the roads that brought the outlying regions into a major highway or into their county seats, you begin to understand the plight of the people who live along them. They cannot get to work without tearing up their automobiles. They cannot get to doctors or the grocery store without going through an immense amount of difficulty.
We at CAP feel extremely concerned because of these reasons. For us an additional reason is in volved when we talk about our camps for children. Two of them are located on such roads. The conditions are so bad now that we dread to think what they will be like when summer comes and the children are going to be transported to the camps from their various homes. We fully expect that several vehicles will be ruined as a consequence of this travel and we can only hope and pray that no accidents will occur. Somehow an end must come to the conscious violation of the laws of the state and of the land. When those who extract the minerals from the earth run rough shod over the rights of others and destroy the property of all the citizens of the state, there surely has to be some recompense made. We at CAP will be doing every thing humanly possible to try to rectify this injustice perpetuated upon people of our land.
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New CAP facility when completed
CAP Announces Plans for New Headquarters in Lancaster Over the past decade the work of CAP in Garrard County has expanded greatly. The headquarters of the Christian Appalachian Project has always been in Lancaster since its inception in 1963. As the work grew, facilities were acquired wherever it was possible to get them. At times buildings were rented, such as the building that houses the rummage store and the warehousing for many of the other CAP activities. The mailing service that sends out the appeal letters informing people of CAP’s activities is also in a rented building. A home was acquired in 1970 that has served as office facilities for the various people who work for the Christian Appalachian Project. A printing press is located in still another building. In order to acquire greater effi ciency, it has been the hope and plan of CAP for several years to try to unite all these activities into one building. In addi tion to the need for such centralization there is also the possibility of expanding CAP’s operation. This new expansion would mean additional jobs for as many as 20 to 25 people. With these opportuni ties in mind the Cowden Manufacturing Company of Lexington, Kentucky, was contacted a little over a year ago to see if they would be willing to sell the ware house they had formerly used in Lan caster. Due to the generosity of the Cowden executives, the building was sold at a reduced price to the Christian Appa lachian Project because they admired the work that we were doing. With the acquiring of this large warehouse, plans were then drawn by
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Work begins on new CAP headquarters
Mr. Paul Kissel of Lexington, Kentucky, for the remodeling that would be neces sary to accommodate all the activities and the expanded facilities for the new work that would be done. A contract was awarded in May to George Tucker & Sons of Danville, Kentucky, to do the re modeling work. The building should be completed sometime in the early part of July. During the month of August the
various activities such as the printing press, the mailing service, all the offices of the Christian Appalachian Project, to gether with the rummage store and stor age area, will be located in our new build ing. A picture of this new facility is included in this issue of the Soundings. It is hoped that we will be able to do our work more efficiently and to create new jobs as a consequence of this new facility.
A Saw Sharpening Business For several months we at CAP have been investigating new means of creating jobs for the people of our area. One of the fields that we think has a great future is a service oriented type of business. The particular area that we have given considerable thought is a saw sharpen ing operation. Because of our experience in the woodworking shops, both in Grey hawk and in Lancaster, we know how frequent ly it is necessary to have blades of the various saws, as well as hand tools, sharpened. Frequently it is difficult to find anyone who can do this, and if you do find people, they are so busy that you have to wait a period of time. In addition to that, they are usually located in Lexing ton or some more distant area. , During the course of this past week I have received a call from a gentleman who has a saw sharpening business that he wishes to sell. He has arrived at the retirement age and because of poor
health would like to get out of this field of work. He heard of us and offered to sell us the business with all the tools and equipment that he has. We hope to move this from Lexington to Lancaster where we have no such service at the present time. We do not know as yet the exact cost of this business, but hope to learn this information in the next couple of weeks. If there is anyone who is interested in helping us acquire this new business we feel that it would be a fine step forward, not only in making a service available in a community which does not have one at the present time, but also that it would be another means of employing local people. In addition to this, if any of our readers may happen to have equipment that is designed for the saw sharpening business and would like to make a dona tion of it to us, we would be very pleased to hear from them.
M ountain P oet In this issue of the Soundings we are publishing our second poem by Ralph Pennington. The title of the poem is “A Big Fish Story,” and in it he traces the adventures of Jonah and draws an interesting conclusion for the youth of today. Ralph Pennington is quite an interesting man. On a sunny winter day I drove to Jackson County to meet him. He lives in a wooden frame house just beyond the general store at Green Hill. As I walked thru the yard and started up the steps to the porch I was greeted by Billy and Bobby, his two hound dogs. They turned out to be far more friendly than their bark at first promised. Ralph met me at the door and invited me and Father Joe Saulino, who accompanied me, inside. Because of the terrible severity of the winter, he and his wife had been living in the one room where they had a fireplace. The house was poor and the room was crowded, but friendship and good cheer filled every corner of the place. Both Ralph and his wife, Lizzie, were the soul of hospitality. You would have thought we were good friends of long standing. Pictures of the family were passed around, and the family Bible was brought from its place of honor for us to see. The notebook containing Ralph’s poems was found and for nearly a half hour he read from the book, giving the poems an added jest. Ralph has been writing poems since he was 15, when he exaggerated his age and entered the army during World War I. A little over a year ago Ralph and Lizzie lost nearly everything they owned when their house burned down. All of his poems went up in the flames. His present notebooks contain only a few of the poems he remembers. Ralph has visited many places in the world because of his services in both World Wars, and he has also traveled extensively in the United States.
Lizzie and Ralph Pennington
Finding himself a widower for a second time when he was 46 years old, Ralph courted a widow from Bond in Jackson County. On the second date he told her, “Lizzie, I am a man of few words and time is running short. I reckon I will marry you before the week is over.” Lizzie agreed, and 29 years later she says they’re still “plumb happy.”
help the poor at Annville Institute, a school operated by the Dutch Reformed Church. Lizzie insisted that we each take a jar of her homemade jelly home with us. While the jelly was mighty fine, the warm open friendliness of two wonderful people was by far the most cherished memory of that sunny winter day.
Before we left, we had to sign our names on a long paper poster hanging on the wall. Many visitors from other parts of the country had put down their signatures ahead of us. The Penningtons had befriended many young people who came to
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Carry N ation on Wichita, and finally the whole world. In 1901 she began to need a more substantial ally in her fight against drink and the saloons, so she enlisted the aid of the “hatchet.” Before long this became the symbol of her work. She was, of course, invited by women from all over the country to preach in their towns on the evils of drink' and to bring her trusty “hatchet” along. Her motto during the course of these speaking tours was “SMASH, WOMEN, SMASH!” She would take her speaking not merely into the halls of the various women’s clubs and into the streets and saloons, but she even went overseas. England and Scotland saw her invade their shores. Carry even went on theatrical tours. She rewrote the drama “Ten Nights in a Barroom” and retitled it “Hatchetation.”
Carry was bom near the present community of Bryantville in Garrard County, very close to Camp Nelson on the Kentucky River. She would become famous in later life as the prohibitionist and the “darling” of the women’s liberation movement. In her early years, the pattern for her future conduct was laid out. She fell in love and married a gentleman by the name of Charles Goyd. He was a doctor and she, at 21, was madly in love with him. The only problem was that Dr. Goyd was madly in love with liquor. He was drunk on the day of their marriage, and apparently remained in that state during the course of their married life. It was undoubtedly from this experience that Carry absorbed a great deal of hatred for alcohol. Dr. Goyd not only became intoxicated, but he also became fearful of going home. And since he belonged to the Masonic Lodge, he would go to the Lodge for shelter and protection when Carry came looking for him. In those days, the Masonic Lodge would not allow women to enter into its sacred halls, and Carry would parade up and down outside the Masonic Hall shouting slanders against whisky and quoting Bible verses. It is rumored that some of the responses that came from the windows of the hall were not entirely of a biblical nature After 17 months of marriage, Carry had had enough. She separated from the doctor, and within a few months he died. Carry then developed mental illness, a condition prevalent in her own family background. Carry’s mother also had been insane, fancying herself to be Queen Victoria and demanding of her family all the courtesies befitting a royal personage. Her children could speak to her only by appointment and were required to bow in her presence. Some 10 years after the death of her first husband, Carry married a lawyer and a minister of the Christian. Church named David A. Nation. They lived in the little town of Medicine Lodge, Kansas. The lawyer was some 19 years older than Carry and depended upon her for support and
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encouragement. The marriage was doomed to failure — nothing seemed to go right from the very beginning. Carry did not find the support and affection she had hoped for, and apparently she turned to the Bible as the source of her strength. She would use it to rail against the evils of drink, tobacco, cigars and cigarettes, fancy dresses and stylish millinery. She also would find great problems with the Masonic Lodge, the Republican Party, and the Presidents of the U.S.A. (whoever they happened to be at the time). With Bible in hand, Carry began to walk up and down the main street of Medicine Lodge reading and telling the people of the evils of drinking. She was now 53 years old. The year was 1899 and, together with a neighbor, she made her first women’s march through the town. She destroyed every saloon and drinking place' there. The next day she went to the nearby town of Kiowa where she began to call down a similar disaster on that community. From there she moved on out into Dixon County, Kansas. Then she went took
Frequently the saloon-keepers bore all this with patient resignation, allowing her to do all the damage that she could, but at times this was not true. On at least one occasion gangs attacked her on the street, beating her with whips and sticks, and left her bleeding in a gutter. They took some seltzer bottles from the saloon and squirted her down thoroughly. Some of the bung stoppers were used to soften up her cranium and then she was baptized with buckets of water and sometimes beer. One saloon keeper broke a chair over her head. When she tried to pull a cigar out of a bus driver’s mouth to throw it away, he picked up Carry threw her off the bus. Finally, she moved to the small comm unity of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and there on January 13, 1911, she died. Carry Nation once described herself as a bulldog. She said “I am a bulldog, running at the feet of Jesus, barking at what he doesn’t like.” She was an unusual woman motivated undoubtedly by pure intentions but suffering from a deep dark mental sickness that afflicted much of her family. She became world famous as a prohibitionist and mover for women’s rights. It all goes to show that not all the rough-and-tough pioneers in the Kentucky story were men.
Jayco Corporation Donates Motor Home The Jayco Corporation has donated a motpr home to the Christian Appalachian Project for use in many enterprises for the people of Eastern Kentucky. The vehicle is the prototype of the new line introduced by Jayco in 1977 for the vacationing public. The motor home is 22 V2 feet long and is completely self-contained. It has sleeping accommo dations for six, as well as a complete kitchen, shower, bath and toilet. Besides its own generator for electricity it has a stove and the other necessary elements for preparing food. The purposes for which this vehicle will be used in the coming year are the following: The elderly programs that are con ducted by CAP frequently feature trips for the old people to various places of inter est. The motorized home will serve very well in this capacity as it has couches and chairs for their comfort. By having a bath room facility and a place where their lunch could be prepared, it enables the elderly to have a rather enjoyable time as they are traveling to the places that they wish to visit. In addition to the work with the elderly, the vehicle will also be used in the various child development centers operated by CAP. Children, too, are taken on field trips to places where they have an opportunity to leam about the world in
Father Beiting and Mr. Lehman show the new motor home to children from the Sunshine Center
which they live. Trips to such places as zoos, state parks, various farms, fire departments, libraries and other interest ing places will be much more practical and easy with the utilization of the motor home. The foster home for boys will be using the vehicle when the boys go on extended trips that will keep them out on the road for three or four days at a time. Also, the motor home will be used in the outdoor preaching sessions that are conducted by Father Beiting during the summer. The preaching sessions are of an ecumenical nature and involve, an emphasis on God and his importance in our lives. These talks are given through out the counties of Eastern Kentucky and require a mobile base from which to operate. Normally there would be as many as five and six young men accom panying Father Beiting on these trips.
Father Beiting greets Mr. Marion Lehman of the Jayco Corporation
They need a place in which to live and prepare their food as well as sleeping accommodations. It is also anticipated that this vehicle will accommodate some of the volunteers who will be doing repair work and the remodeling of older homes for the people of the area. Mr. Marion Lehman, who is the Director of the Charitable Resources of Jayco Corportion, delivered the motor home to CAP’s headquarters in Lancaster during the first week in May. Several years prior to this particular donation, the Jayco Corporation also made a fifth wheel trailer available to the Christian Appalachian Project for its work in street preaching, camping and caring for the young people of the area. This particular fifth wheel unit this year will be used pri marily as housing accommodations for the volunteer crews that will be involved in the remodeling of housing. All of us here at CAP are particu larly grateful to Mr. Bontrager, the Presi dent of Jayco Corporation, for his truly Christian outlook on business and life. It is because of his dedication to the well being of his fellowmen that he has made these donations possible. The Jayco Corporation is headquartered in Middlebury, Indiana, and makes a complete line of recreational vehicles, from the motor homes to fifth wheelers, travel trailers and pop-up trailers. Their address is included at the conclusion of this article so that anyone interested may write for a list of nearby dealers. Jayco Incorporated Middlebury, Indiana 46540
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Fruit Trees Planted in Three Counties In an ever-increasing effort to find new means of raising the food necessary to feed the families of Appalachia, the Christian Appalachian Project has em barked on a fruit tree planting program. After considerable consultation with the University of Kentucky it was determined that the wisest move would be dwarf fruit trees. While these trees do not grow as large as the conventional trees nor have as great a life expectancy, they do bear much quicker (within three years) and are far easier to maintain, harvest and care for. In addition to this they can be placed in certain terrains that the more conven tional size trees cannot. The fruit, how ever, on these trees is of conventional size and varies in no way from that grown on the larger trees. The program that has been initiated this spring has fruit trees being planted in Jessamine, Garrard and Rockcastle counties. In the fall, additional efforts will be made to get other trees planted. One hundred seventy-five trees will be planted this spring. The varieties that have been
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Fruit trees will supplement income and food for Appalachian families
Fruit tree planting project begins
selected are eight different species of apple trees, four species of peach, some plum and apricot trees. The largest number, however, will be represented by the various species of apples. The purpose of this program is to furnish additional supplemental income for the family and supplemental food as well. No one seriously proposes that a person can gain his entire livelihood from the growing of apples in this section of Appalachia, at least not at the present time and not without a considerable
amount of investment. The small plots of dwarf trees can play a significant role in the family’s economic struggle for survival. These first plantings will be supervised and done by CAP with the hope that it will be an incentive to many local people to follow their example in the years that lie ahead. From the information gathered from the University it seems that many sections of Appalachia can be adapted to the growing of fmit. Some ex perimentation has already taken place on some of the old strip mining areas. Other plots are being planted on areas that are more agricultural in nature. We shall keep our readers informed of the progress being made by this new venture on the part of CAP to supply food and income for the families of the area.
3rd Class Permit No. 46 Lancaster, Ky. 40444