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The Mountain Spirit The Magazine of the Christian Appalachian Project

May - June 1 9 92

Vol. XI, No. 3

Contents Features 4 A Deeper Concern by Margaret Gabriel

16 Two Stories by Beth Dotson

20 Spring Break Appalachian Workfest by the CAP News Service

23 Chloe by Carolyn Bertram

Departments 3

From Our Founder

Letters

1 0 Around the Project

-------------- May—Older Americans’ Month! ----------------One of our favorite themes for The Mountain Spirit cycles back around every year or two, and we find that it’s one of the m ost delightful aspects of life in the m ountains—the elderly. (As luck would have it, w e’re in sync with Older Am ericans’ M onth this year!) This year w e’re exploring the gifts that Older Americans have to offer. W e’re looking up close at C A P’s m ost distinguished older Am erican—Father Ralph B eiting—and the work he is doing in Louisa, Kentucky, with volunteers that are spending their retirement years dreaming his dream (page four). A local writer takes a poignant look at the past as well as the future of an elderly woman (page twenty-three). Beth Dotson shares some wonderful stories about education in the “old days,’’ (page sixteen), and turn to page twenty to read about some excitement in Jackson County! On the COVER, Father Beiting gives instructions concerning unloading a truck of donated food (photo by Gabriel). On the BACK COVER a Jackson County residence that was part of the Spring Break Appalachian W orkfest (photo by Stephanie Dillon).

14 The CAP Closeup 22 A Thought from the Editor

Published by the Christian Appalachian Project. Editor: Margaret Gabriel. Advisory Board: Father Ralph W. Beiting, Mike McLaughlin, Rose Price, Bill Begley, Ike Adams, Kathleen Ford Leavell, Barbara Delmonico. Graphic Designer: Elizabeth Reed Miller. Circulation: Linda Grider East. The Mountain Spirit is published six times a year. The annual subscription price is $6.00. Subscriptions and other correspondence should be sent to The Mountain Spirit, Christian Appalachian Project, 322 Crab Orchard Road, Lancaster, KY 40446. Copyright 1992, The Christian Appalachian Project, Inc. All rights reserved. Member, Catholic Press Association. The Christian Appalachian Project is a non-profit Christian service organization operating throughout Appalachia. The project operates on the philosophy that “helping people help themselves” is the best approach to Appalachian poverty.

The Mountain Spirit

From Our Founder W hen you are approaching your sixty-ninth birthday it isn’t hard to think of ideas that speak of the condition of the elderly. I would like to share some of them with you. The first thing I experience is that elderly does not necessar ily m ean helpless or ineffec tive. I am constantly amazed at the people in their sixties, seventies, and even eighties who are doing w onderful things for a whole host of people. Just this morning I worked with an elderly couple who are sorting out seeds, both vegetable and flower, that will enable families to plant a gar Father Ralph Beiting. den and create some beauty as well as some food. A widow was donating four days a week to open a rummage store to help the poor. Another man at the age of 74 was caring for a paraplegic who was handicapped as a result of a car accident. W hen I ask them why they are still so active they simply reply, “Why not? Life is to be shared not stored. It gives us purpose. It takes our minds off of ourselves and allows us to think of others.” The elderly are good examples. They are exhilarat ing role models that others can follow. One of the things that saddens me with some young and middle aged people is that they are looking for security and comfort. These items are OK in their proper place and time. But without a doubt, these are not the m otivating factors that once made us a great people and nation. Service, dreaming dreams of a better way, dedication and fidelity to purpose are really the ingredients out of which better tomorrows are built. Often people ask m e,“Why don’t you retire? You have worked long and hard in a difficult area.” Retirement is the farthest thing from my mind. The task has not been completed, the way hasn’t been clearly enough defined, new workers are still to be inspired and trained. I have seen this sense of dedication in so many of our elderly. This is a blessing that not only allows them May - June 1 9 9 2

to continually contribute, but it is an example that will involve many others younger than themselves. Put simply, the story will continue, the good will be repeated because our elderly are challenging a new generation by their example. I also feel that the elderly are wonderful people of prayer. Through a long and often difficult life, they know that good will come, and happiness will follow if God is in the picture in an important fashion. They talk of God as friend and companion. They look to Him as a guarantee of final victory. Not only are their prayers, sacrifices and love going up to God, but they are rallying a new generation to pray and sacrifice as well. They are filling in all the pictures and creating a family where God is the center and the best hope we have. They are a people who make God real in an uncertain world. Finally, I think they are our pledge for the future. Their lives have covered some of the m ost challeng ing periods in our history. No century has posed as many problems as this one. The elderly have not only survived but have made a difference for the better. As we look at their lives, we know that we can overcome as well. Hope and confidence is the legacy they hand on to us. Robert Browning once said to his Elizabeth, “ Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be.” I believe him and I thank him. 3

Deeper Concern Story and photos by Margaret Gabriel W h e n Father Ralph Beiting began his work in Eastern Kentucky in the 1950s he was a young man surrounded by young people. His eleven brothers and sisters—all younger than he—came to lend a hand. Students from the year he spent as a math teacher came to lend a hand. (“Some of those guys owed me a favor for passing grades,” Father Beiting say s.) Young people from throughout the country came to work, to dream with Father Beiting his dream of helping the people of Appalachia to help themselves. More than forty years later the Christian Appalachian Project still has, by and large, a young work force. Locally, staff works in child development, adult educa tion and crisis intervention programs. Regionally, Operation Sharing distributes in-kind donations throughout all of the Appalachian counties of Ken tucky and all of the thirteen Appalachian states. CAP staff works to educate people throughout the nation concerning the problems of the Appalachian area.

In June 1991, at the age of 67, Father Beiting was asked by Bishop J. Kendrick Williams, of the Catholic Dio cese of Lexington, to construct churches and begin outreach programs in Lawrence County, Kentucky. The assignment was similar to that which he received in October of 1950, at the age of 28. Louisa, the county seat of Lawrence County, is a small community on the banks of the Big Sandy River, on the West Virginia border. Within months of arriving in the county, Father Beiting has purchased a house suitable for housing volunteers, constructed a small building adjacent to the house, acquired a warehouse, finished construction of one used clothing store, and begun construction of a church and another store. Asked what he has now that he didn’t have over forty years ago, when he began similar projects, Father Beiting imme diately answers, “A blood clot behind my eye, arthritis, gray hair and a little more weight.”

Some of these programs are staffed by young people just out of school, others by people in the middle of their careers, but still many years away from retire ment.

After a good laugh, Father Beiting says that he has the knowledge that “it can work, if you just keep working at it. When you’re young you don’t know what’s going to happen. After a while you know what can happen with God’s grace and other people’s help.

In addition to several young people, though, the bustle in CAP’S newest location is being provided in great measure by four people who have reached the age when many of their peers are traveling or playing golf or generally taking life easy.

“Age, too, brings a deeper concern for people, despite the fact that they’re stinkers. Age allows you to have climbed a lot of mountains. You might know, at the age of 26, theoretically, that the world is full of stinkers, but at 68, you’re positive, yet that still doesn’t stop you.” The Mountain Spirit

Fan left, Father Beiting talks with volunteer Larry Dickey about the truckload of food that has been delivered to the warehouse in Louisa; left, George Hanafee helps unload wallpaper donated from Operation Sharing; below, George and his wife, Margaret, pack seed for family gardens in Lawrence County.

For six months Father Beiting had a 75-year-old “role model” when Larry Dickey came to Louisa from Carmel, California. “He’s working as hard as I am, and he’s eight years older than me,” Father Beiting says. “That’s when I tell myself not to complain because there’s somebody doing a whole lot more than me. I think the young people look to him, too. He could be out in California, play ing golf and running around in his doodle bug, yet he’s here in Louisa with emphy sema, horsing around in that building with no heat, getting yelled out by women ‘cause he won’t lower the price on their beans.”

the rest of the world. So I joined the Peace Corps and went to Sierra Leone in Africa.” After managing a school for the blind in Africa for a year, “I got sick and didn’t bounce back. That climate

During his time in Louisa, Larry worked in a large warehouse, part of which was used to store donated furniture and food, and the rest to display those items and other household goods for sale to the public. Before his retirement in the late 1970s, Larry worked in transportation and distribution for Exxon, and he be lieves that his skills in distribution have now translated into food distribution. “I got very bored with retirement. Living where I live, you walk the beach and you sit in the sun, and drink a little and eat a little and garden. I figured I had some energy and something to contribute to May - June 1992

“You might say, in one way, Mark really led us,” George says. “We never thought about leaving town to do volunteer work before going to the Dominican Republic to visit him.” As George’s retirement approached in 1991, they be gan to consider how they might like to spend their retirement years. “So many of our friends moved to Florida, but we didn’t really know what we wanted to do,” Margaret says. “We didn’t think we just wanted to go someplace and play, so we decided to take a course in discernment at the University of Detroit. They had a course called ‘Finding God in Your Daily Work.’ The priest contacted us, and thought we might be inter ested.” When George and Margaret told him—in no uncertain terms—that they weren’t planning on working much longer, the course was tailored for their retirement. “While the rest of the class was doing a work project, we worked on a plan for our retirement.” When they began their course, George and Margaret had already decided to volunteer, and their project was to discern where to go and what to do. “We knew we wanted to work with the poor, we wanted to live in community and we wanted prayer,” George says. The mother of six sons, Margaret is an accomplished “ domestic engineer” who would be w illing to share her skills with women of the area.

is very difficult for older people.” Although Larry admitted that physical limitation should be taken into account when older people are accepted for volunteer service, it didn’t take him long to point to the edge that older people have when it comes to outreach work. “The one thing you do have is your brains and your experience. To a certain extent, you’re a lot more patient with a situation. You can give some support to these volunteers who have never even been away from home. They don’t know anything!” Larry says. “They ’re delightful people with a dream of going out and helping somebody.” It was the example of a young volunteer who set the wheels in motion for George and Margaret Hanafee, who began a year of volunteer work in Louisa in March of 1992. George and Margaret raised six sons, in what they termed a fairly typical setting, with George work ing outside the home, and Margaret as a homemaker. When their children grew older, Margaret felt the need to begin reaching out beyond her family. “My older children didn’t see me going out to do volunteer work like Mark did,” Margaret says of their youngest son, who spent a year in volunteer service in the Dominican Republic.

“And we didn’t want to work with teenagers!” Marg aret adds. George and Margaret listed the pros and cons of several programs, including those in which they would work together. “We worked together on wallpaper ing once, and we al most got a divorce,” Margaret says. In spite of the fact that they work very differently, they decided to work together, seeking to grow even closer after 42 years of marriage. As they sorted through programs that inter ested them, they elimi nated some that only took men, others that only took women, still others that had no spiri tual dimension or com munity life. “Finally, we came up with CAP as number one,” Mar garet says. The Mountain Spirit

Below, large cans of sauerkraut serve as bed frames for the vol u n te e rs ’ beds In Lawrence County. Left, Clayton Teel helps unload food at the warehouse in Louisa.

They worked in CAP’s used clothing stores during the summer of 1991, relieving employees who were taking summer vacations, then returned in October to work in the Christmas basket program. After fulfilling several family commitments, George and Margaret moved to Louisa to work with Father Beiting for a year. George and Margaret fit to a “T” Father Beiting’s request for volunteers. “He doesn’t usually make specifications based on religion, but he had asked for an older, Catho lic married couple who didn’t have any responsibilities at home.” The course seemed obvious to George and Marg aret. “We just got here y esterd ay , so we d o n ’t know w hat we’ll be doing, yet,” George says. “And th at’s fine,” M argaret says. “There’s work to be done, so what differ ence does it make?” T here is, indeed, work to be done, Fa ther Beiting says. “W e’re starting off from scratch. W e’re uncovering a lot of needs, and as our vol unteers start to come May - June 1 9 9 2

in, we’re going to take about a month to ascertain where everyone will be on a permanent basis.” The warehouse where Larry has been working is just a beginning. Father Beiting intends to set up a used clothing store, establish work with handicapped adults and children. “The school has asked us to be a part of the school reform act where you get the families involved with the kids, then we’ve got a youth center started. They have to be warm-blooded,” Father Beiting says, referring to the fact that the youth center has been set up in the chilly garage of the new volunteer center. “We want to try and do something with the seed program, and we want to get set up for the summer Bible school programs and summer camps. We have to do a lot of construction and get things ready before we can have programs,” Father Beiting says. “It’s hard to say what we’ll be able to do before we get our full complement of people. So, we’re back at ground zero, where I was when I first came. W e’re doing the same things with these volunteers that we did with the early groups. W e’re saying, ‘this is our prob lem,’ we all have to throw into it and see what we can do, and then as we start getting things ready and get permanent programming, we can see who can do what. This way they all get a part to play in the process.” Despite a wide variety of backgrounds, religious affili ations and experiences, Father Beiting, Larry, George and Margaret seem to agree on methods to help Appa lachians find ways to help themselves. Perhaps, wis dom has come to them with the experience of their years.

“As far as I’m concerned, the church is the last oppor tunity,” Larry says. “This is a golden opportunity for the church to put their money where their mouth is, to bring back religion. They should be able to influence the youth. “They can do it much the same way that Father Beiting’s doing it—by encouraging the kids to stay in school, by establishing a relationship. A lot of kids in Kentucky don’t have a relationship with their fathers, so they get in trouble or copy people who are not good examples.” “I keep saying that the major problem in Eastern Kentucky is not economic, it’s religious,” Father Beiting says. “The reason the wealthy people we have here are not investing here is because they don’t love the land enough, they love money more. You can’t change them by telling them they’re going to make a better profit here than they are somewhere else. You’re crazy— there’s no way they can make as much money in Kentucky as they can in Florida. If they’re going to be nothing but business people, by all means, build a shopping center in Florida. That will bring them a better return on their money. “But if they really think that God is important, that people here are important, that this area needs to be developed, the only thing that’s going to make them do that is a religious feeling, not economics. Groups like ours can make people realize that there’s something more, and we’re willing to give it. Older people, by and large, are much more convinced that religion is an answer.” 8

Margaret works with volunteer Cynthia Kuznia to store seeds that will be distributed later in the spring.

The Mountain Spirit

Letters I have a suggestion: Why does CAP not get involved in the nationwide recycling movement by means of using RECYCLED paper for all its stationery purposes as well for pub lications like The Mountain Spirit? It’s cheaper, it’s safer to the environ ment and it’s a certain way to save resources for future generations in the Appalachian area and all over America. Mr. Aurelio Lopez N. Hollywood, CA CAP is now using recyclable paper fo r many o f its mailing purposes, paper which can be recycled in local programs. We are also preparing to use recycled paper in our carrier envelopes. We appreciate your com ments, and assure you that we are doing as much as we can preserve our environment.

Thank you so much for the name tag stickers. I appreciate getting them very much. I also like your magazine very much. It gives us more insight on the projects that have been started there to give the people help and work. You’re doing a good job with those people. Keep up the good work. Mrs. Percy Strand Wahpeton, ND

Keep up the good work—helping others help themselves! You give more than a helping hand, you bol ster confidence and capacity and fi nally achievement. The ripple effect of that is beyond measure! Fred Whitaker Glendale, CA

Your articles are very real, very ap pealing. The work you do is most commendable. The spirit of goodwill and coopera tion, so evident in both pictures and prose, is the obvious solution to most human problems. May that spirit spread! Franklyn P. Cism, Jr. Harpursville, N Y

You and your dedicated staff are accomplishing a monumental labor of love for the people of Appalachia. Your books are so graphic. I could imagine myself actually being at the incidents you described.

I enjoy The Mountain Spirit so very much. I especially like the articles on the conditions there with the various accounts of individual situations. The articles and photos really tell how much is needed for these dear folks there. I pray for these folks and for you and your staff as you continue to serve God through CAP. May God bless all of you. Betty Keys Manassas, VA

I will pray for you and all the won derful people who work with you.

I have enjoyed The Mountain Spirit. It embodies the people of Appala chia, their spirit in adversity, and their pride in their work and culture.

Blanche Ricco Old Say brook, CT

Sherry Warkentien Virginia Beach, VA

May - June 1 9 9 2

As a firefighter in an inner city com munity, I have witnessed the kind of desperation and poverty your orga nization struggles to overcome in Appalachia. Your efforts are truly an inspiration to those of us who share your concerns and I must add I am equally inspired by the perseverance, character, and faith of the people profiled in your newsletters and The Mountain Spirit. It still baffles me that in a country with such wealth and technology as ours, people are hurting for the basic necessities in life. Keep up your special calling and may the Lord lighten your burden through the prayers and support of His people. Don Huber Milford, NJ

Through The Mountain Spirit, I am able to see the truly Christ-like work you are doing for the people of Appa lachia and how my contributions are helping in this important effort. Richard O ’Donnell Bethesda, MD

There is very interesting and chal lenging information that appears in The Mountain Spirit. Thank you for all you are doing among the people there! Rev. Evan W. Rentre Cedarville, NJ Letters to the editor are welcome. They should not exceed 150 words in length, and we reserve the right to edit them for space. Address letters to The Mountain Spirit, Christian Appalachian Project, 322 Crab Orchard Road, Lancas ter, Kentucky 40446. 9

Around the Project Martin Youth Adopt Grandparents A new project at the Martin Youth Center in Floyd County has the kids excitedly looking forward to Fridays. “Today we go visit Grandma and Grandpa!” is heard as the children come through the youth center door after school. In cooperation with the Riverview M anor N ursing Hom e in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, Ann Shep herd, youth worker at the center, has dedicated many hours of time and effort to make this very caring “people project” a huge success. Ann is involved with the Adopt-AGrandparent program and has re cruited 14 youth for the program. Some of the kids don’t have living grandparents or have grandparents who live some distance away. In the time that Ann has been working on the program, she has seen benefits for everyone involved. Visits take place one day a week and during the two hour stay, the youth and the elderly talk, play games and watch TV. If someone has a birthday or another special event, there is a cake and handcrafted gifts and cards for that “grandparent.” Songs and short skits or plays are performed by the kids and the grandparents are welcome to join in the fun or just enjoy the entertainment.

Cindy Mullins, center, and Jessica Mullins visit with Elizabeth Vaughn as part of the Adopt-AGrandparent program. Cindy and Jessica are part of a group from the Martin Youtli Center in Floyd County.

Art Show Tours Pulaski County A unit entitled “I Can Create” led to an exhibit of 50 budding artists, said Sarah D ixon, m anager o f the Children’s Discovery Center, the Christian Appalachian Project child development center in Somerset. Head teacher Kim DelRe commented to Sarah that the center should have an art exhibit, “And that’s all it took. I said, ‘that sounds fantastic—do it! ’” Sarah said.

Ann has taken pictures of each child and their adopted grandparent— prints were given to everyone to dis play in their rooms and show to friends.

The unit began with a trip to the art gallery at Somerset Community Col lege, and an exploration of art history books and discussion of famous art ists. Kim and the other teachers con centrated on the children’s imagina tion and individuality as they ex plored different media. “We told the children, no one can do another pic ture just like Justin,” Kim explained. “We had a lot of exploration with materials and everything we did was process ratherthan product oriented.”

Visits are concluded with a great big bear hug for each grandparent and a promise to return next week.

The children experimented with tem pera paint, using it with string, drip ping and screen printing and with

Residents and staff at Riverview Manor have expressed their pleasure and anticipation of the weekly visits from the “adopted grandchildren.”

cardboard, pipe cleaner and plaster sculpture. The exhibit attracted 120 art lovers; moms and dads, of course, as well as grandparents, aunts, uncles and sib lings. “We even had a few people who just came into see what was going on! ” Sarah said. “I was amazed at how well the kids recognized their own work. They’d come into a room and immediately pull their mom over andsay, ‘This one’s mine! This one’s mine!”’ Each work had a card telling the medium and the name of the artist, Kim said. The tables in the school were arranged in cafe-like fashion, with cookies and Kool-Aid served, “To make it seem as much like a professional art show as we knew how.” Kim and Sarah said that they now have a traveling art show, as the works were displayed in the Pulaski County Public Library during the Week of the Young Child, April 1318. When Kim was asked if the show would tour further, she said that she didn’t think so because the young artists wanted to take their work home to their mommies. The Mountain Spirit

around the project. . . continued

Emmaus Celebrates Older Americans In celebration of May as Older Ameri cans’ Month, Peggy Patrick, man ager of the Emmaus Christian Life Center in Berea, is planning an event with Teri Mehler, manger of CAP Child Development. “We want to prepare kids at a couple of different levels by telling stories and using videos and get the kids and the older people together.” Peggy said that after they’d already selected May 19 as a date for a gettogether she learned that it had been set aside as National Inter-Genera tional Day by the National Coalition of Older Americans. “I was really surprised,” Peggy said. “I didn’t even know there was such a thing.” “W e’re preparing the elderly by giv ing them materials to read about kids, and, of course, the kids already have a lot of story books about grandpar ents and relating to older people. “W e’ll get together at the child de velopment center, and the kids will have a welcome for us, maybe a song and dance. Then they’ll spend some time with the elderly in small groups, or one-on-one. W e’d like to do the same thing at the elementary school,” Peggy said.

“I don’t know exactly how big their garden is, but it’s pretty good size,” said Marie Bonner, caseworker for Garrard County. Three men are taking responsibility for the garden, and are sharing pro duce with those who have a need for beans, com, peas and several variet ies of greens. Seed for the project has been donated by Asgrow. “I think it’s good for folks to work together,” Marie said. “It gives them a chance to socialize that they might not have otherwise.”

Operation Sharing Distributes Seed The Christian Appalachian Project is having a successful growing sea son, as 800 family gardens were planted in the Garrard-Lincoln area, and 600 in the Big Sandy region through CAP’s outreach workers in Martin. In addition to these gardens, seed and seed potatoes were distributed to 25 outreach organizations in Eastern Kentucky which sponsored an addi tional 3000 gardens, according to

Charlie Deaton, manager of Opera tion Sharing, CAP’s in-kind distri bution program. “Asgrow has given us all the seed we’ve asked for during the last five years.” Charlie estimates that the donation of 77,830 pounds of seed has a value of $327,862. Four trailer loads of seed potatoes— 174,000 pounds—were donated by the Society of St. Andrew, Charlie said. “They’re from Big Island, Vir ginia. Two graduates of the Duke Divinity School have made a mis sion out of gleaning fields, going behind farmers and picking up what’s left after they harvest. It’s been a great benefit to us and to everyone who’s been in touch with us.”

Memorial Gifts Honor Loved Ones Respecting the wishes of deceased loved ones or in honor of them, fami lies often request that memorials be sent to us. Memorial gifts live on to benefit others. Many also specify memorial gifts in their wills. Any size gift is welcome. Contact us for more information.

Peggy and Teri say that they hope to increase awareness for the elderly and the children about the special talents and gifts of the other group.

People Will Garden Together The Christian Appalachian Project outreach department will help over 800 families in Garrard, Lincoln, Rockcastle and Jackson counties raise gardens this summer. At least one will be a special garden, though, a community effort on the part of resi dents at the Lancaster Estates Hous ing Project. May - June 1 9 9 2

Inter-generational exchanges are a part of life at the Emmaus Christian Life Center. Here resident Mary Gwynn entertains Guy and Peggy Patrick’s daughter, Anna.

around the project. . . continued

about four times a week, we sit down and plan menus and work on cooking and cleaning,” Angela said. “I really like to see him progress, and to see him making his own decisions. Eventually we hope that he’ll be able to manage more independently on his own. “Monte also really enjoys social ac tivities—we’ve gone to the bowling alley, and he enjoys dances that we’ve had here and at the Rainbow Respite Care Center.”

Volunieer Angela Dumouchelle is working on a pictorial cookbook for Monte Rost, a trainee in CAPrice Industries. She photographs Monte preparing various meals and assembles the pictures in the proper sequence, in order to give Monte a “ recipe” in pictures. The photos

Although she has no training in speech therapy, Angela is also help ing Monte with his speech. “It’s not really clear, and sometimes it’s hard for people to understand him. I get him to copy the way I say things, to make his communication better.”

also reinforce Monte's memory of learning cooking skills.

CAPrice Encourages Independent Living

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The Independent Living Skills divi sion of CAPrice Industries, CAP’S training program for adults with handicaps, has branched out again in order to give participants an even greater range of abilities. “W e’re working with several people on skills in their own apartments,” said Teresa McAnly, CAPrice man ager. Until recently, participants honed cooking and housekeeping skills in the CAPrice facility in Somerset, Kentucky. “We think that actually going into homes will trans late better for the folks. That way they don’t have to leam two different kitchens, different equipment, that kind of thing.”

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Mail to: The Mountain Spirit, 322 Crab Orchard Road Lancaster, KY 40446.

Angela Dumouchelle, a volunteer from Colonial Heights, Virginia, has been working with Monte Rost, a participant who functions below the third grade level. She coaches Monte in reading, cooking and keeping his apartment clean. “When I visit him,

Angela and Teresa both say that Monte is beginning to make choices concerning his life. “He’s held jobs in the past, but never had the opportunity to express a pref erence in the type of work he did,” Teresa said. “Right now, our sup ported employment people are help ing Monte to determine the kind of work he enjoys, then we’ll help him find that kind of job and train him to do it.”

How Can I Help? Christian Appalachian Project sup porters often ask what more they can do to eliminate suffering in Appala chia. First, you can tell others of the problems in Appalachian which you leam about in The Mountain Spirit and other CAP publications. Please share this magazine with a friend and we’ll send a replacement. Ask us about any of the problems in Appala chia and we’ll be happy to share any knowledge we have or to refer you to another organization that can help you. The Mountain Spirit

around the project. . . continued

Secondly, you can give us a most valuable commodity—time. Since 1950, millions of hours have been donated to helping the people of Ap palachia help themselves and their families out of poverty. If you would like to volunteer three weeks or more to working in Appalachia, please con tact The Mountain Spirit, so that in formation can be given to the volun teer department. Finally, our most powerful form of assistance is prayer. We believe that if our supporters spend at least one minute a day praying for poor people everywhere, mountains can be moved, the course of rivers changed. The CAP family forms a powerful prayer network reaching into Appalachia and across the nation.

“Doc” Holliday Hosts Egg Hunt Willard Holliday, pastor of the Old Philadelphia Tabernacle Church and his wife, Frankie [see The Mountain Spirit, September-October, 1991] sponsored an Easter egg hunt for 50 Magoffin County children on the grounds of his church, which is also the location of the Attic in Magoffin County.

“Doc,” as he is known to his friends and congregation, worked with Owen Wright, manager of the Christian Appalachian Project emergency as sistance program in the county, to determine which children to invite to the egg hunt. “All of the children are from families that Owen has met through emer gency assistance,” said Donna Turner, emergency assistance case worker in Floyd County. “I gave him some little rabbits to put in the bas kets, and some toothbrushes, so they can brush that candy away!” Doc and Frankie are assembling the baskets with proceeds from the Attic which they operate out of their church. Money that is realized from the sale of used clothing is used to operate a food bank, and for local emergencies. “These baskets aren’t emergencies, but he’s got money set aside for this kind of thing,” Donna said. “And he’ll have some candy and baskets donated by local mer chants. “This is the first year that they’ve done this. Doc just loves children, and he loves to do what he can for them.”

What You Don't Know About Wills Can Hurt Your Heirs. . . Find Out Why. Request Your Free Copy.

M uch o f what you know about wills m aybe m isinform ation that has been floating aro u n d for years. If you think, for example, that wills are prim arily for rich people, o r the elderly, you may be the victim o f a com m on mis conception. T he helpful book let offered here will explain how your will can save your heirs from costly delays and confu sion. Send for your copy today. Clip and Mail

C hristian A ppalachian Project 322 C rab O rchard R oad Lancaster, Kentucky 40446 Please send w ithout obliga tion, your booklet, “37 Things People ‘Know’A bout Wills T hat A ren't Really So.” N a m e _____________________ Address ___________________ Staff of Parenls-Are-Teachers, a CAP program that works with pre-schoolers with disabilities, has made a presentation called “ Everyone’s Alike” to public school teachers as they prepare to take special needs children into their classrooms. Here, a teacher learns of perceptual difficulties as she draws based on the reflection in the mirror.

May - June 199 2

C ity _______________________ S tate____________ Z IP _______

The CAP Closeup

Clayton Teel An Appalachian Man of Today

by Elizabeth Harshaw photos by Joan Hellenbush

Clayton Teel.

T h e r e is a quote in Yesterday’s People by Jack E. Weller, a book about life in contemporary Appalachia, that summarizes how much of mainstream America views the work ethics of the Appalachian people. “For the mountaineer, work has never been particularly enjoyable. It was a necessity. He did not plan to enter a particular kind of occupation because he liked it—he worked at whatever there was to do be cause he had to make a living. The concept of choosing a vocation, becoming trained in that field, and traveling wherever it called him was—and is—largely foreign.” As someone from outside this area, I found myself agreeing with Waller’s generalization—until I began to talk with Clayton Teel, Christian Appalachian Project vehicle maintenance manager in Martin. Originally from West Virginia, Clayton was reared in a holler, like many of the folks in Eastern Kentucky. Clayton under stands well the people of Eastern Kentucky. He relo cated to Kentucky 17 years ago, met Dorothy, his wife 14

of 15 years, and fathered three children, Sabrina, 14, Clayton Jr., 13, and Kristi, 11. On most weekends, Clayton Jr. can be found at the garage helping Dad with the cars. Some predict that he will follow in the foot steps of his father, as Clayton did. Like his father, Clayton is certified as a master mechanic through the Ford Motor Company, and is qualified to do any kind of work on automobiles. Clayton overseers all vehicles in Martin, Tyner and Louisa, approximately 40 vehicles. He is also respon sible for six school buses, the farm equipment and the equipment at Camp Shawnee. Presently, only Clayton and his co-worker, Ronnie Conley, handle needed auto work, and there is always much work to be done— enough for three or four people. Clayton thinks that expanding his staff would require money that could be put to better use helping the people of Eastern Kentucky in a more direct way, so he and Ronnie will hold down the fort for now. The Mountain Spirit

A self-proclaimed workaholic, Clayton describes the garage as his first home and “I just visit my house.” Putting in long days and unofficially on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Clayton demonstrates a never-ending dedication to CAP. He ensures the safety of every employee and volunteer who drives one of “his” cars, and boasts their depend ability. Sounding like a professional salesman, he in sists only quality materials go into the cars. Never cutting comers where safety is concerned, he keeps a watchful eye on the budget. Expressing a common concern for the mission of CAP, Clayton says, “We try and keep costs down for other programs.” Before coming to CAP six years ago, Clayton worked at a garage in the area. The rigors of the private sector were becoming more of a burden then a joy. CAP had been taking its vehicles to various garages in the area and found that Clayton did the work at a good price. “As a matter of fact, I felt like it was almost like a contribu tion,” explains Mike Sanders, senior director of CAP’s Martin operations. “He seemed to just make enough off the job to cover his work and the materials and didn’t try to break us.” In the early years of expansion in Martin, Clayton was told that he would be a welcome addition. He joined the staff, and a year later became vehicle manager. He loves every minute of it—well, almost every minute. “The worst part is the paper work—it keeps me sittin’ in one spot.” “He is happy when he is busy. He is happy when there are 14 cars coming in to be fixed,” says Mike.

Clayton has been described as hard working and dedi cated, and as a jack-of-all-trades. “He has done plumb ing for us. He has taken care of the lift stations for the sewage system,” Mike says. “I really find it hard to find something he can’t do. He has helped us do carpentry work, lay flooring, put carpet down. Anything! You name it, he can do it.” Recently my car had a flat tire, leaving me stranded on busy Highway 8 0 .1 was able to get help changing the tire and I made it back to the Martin offices and drove directly to the garage. No one was there. I left the car with a note that read: “Got a flat. The tire is in the trunk.” I expected the car to be out of commission all weekend, but to my surprise, at the end of the day the car was parked in front of the offices with a new tire. Not only knowledgeable, but efficient too! Clayton recalls a local family in desperate need of transportation. Their young daughter, diagnosed with leukemia, required treatment every two weeks at a hospital in Lexington, over 100 miles away. They had no way of transporting her. In the past, they had rented a car at a cost of $ 100 a trip, a price their small income couldn’t support any longer. They turned to CAP. Father Beiting was able to get a car donated and a benefit concert was held to raise funds for the family. “The car was a pretty bad, rough old car, but I brought it up to the maintenance shop and got it fixed up. We made sure it was in good running condition for the trips they had to make,” proclaimed Clayton. “I feel that we did something that was needed.” Clayton performs many tasks that are above and beyond the call of duty, going far beyond those listed in his job descrip tion. For Clayton, work is enjoyable. It is not a necessity. He pursued a career in mechanical maintenance, went for training and was certi fied, because he likes it. Clayton is not one of yesterday’s people, but an Appalachian man of today. t

Clayton maintains all of the vehicles in the Martin area, plus buses and farm equip ment.

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***

Two Stories Story and photos by Beth Dotson

R e c e n t conversations with Ed Rourke and Maud Dye, two participants in CAP’s elderly visitation program in Floyd County, led me to do a little bit of research about country schools in Kentucky. Ed had many memories of his school days and Maud taught in a one-room school house. After reading so many statis tics about today’s poor graduation and literacy rates in Kentucky, then hearing stories from Ed and Maud, I was curious to discover how similar, or different, education was at the beginning of the century. According to “America’s Country Schools” by An drew Gulliford, published in 1984 by Preservation Press, half of the students in the U.S. attended 212,000 one-room school houses in 1913. A benefit of the oneroom schoolhouse was that it allowed students to progress at their own rate. The Kentucky Education Reform Act hopes to put that benefit back into the school system by implementing “ungraded primaries,” a system similar to the one-room schoolhouse ap proach. Kentucky was an innovative leader in adult education in 1911 when Cora Wilson Stewart, county superinten dent in Rowan County, began a campaign to educate adults through “moonlight” schools. School board members anticipated a county enrollment of 150, but received 1,200 eager students in the first session and 1,600 in the second. Within three years of its founding, the movement had spread to Alabama, Minnesota, Oklahoma, North Carolina and Tennessee, Gulliford writes. 16

Ed never went to a moonlight school, but spent most o f his life on Cow Creek in Magoffin County. His primary work was farming and he built his own house in 1965 when he was 67years old. He still lives there, with afew cats, and h e ’s great fo r telling a story. I went to school in a log building up here on this creek. I never was in the ABC class or the primer class; I had two sisters that was always just having me say little poems and helping me. That’s where I learned my ABCs before going to school. I was a first grader, the first grade I was ever in, and I went up into the 8th grade and that is as far as I went in school, but I’ve studied a lot since then just at home. If I have nothing to do at night, I ’ll get onto a hard problem and see if I can accomplish anything. I can remember when the teacher would promise us that if we would work hard all week, on Friday afternoon we’d have a spelling bee. The school would divide up half and half and we’d have 40 or 45 students in the community. W e’d guess a number between one and ten and the one who got the closest would have first choice to take in on his side. And I cut the teacher down on one occasion. That side give out and I was still spelling, you know, and they put the teacher in against me and the word that I cut the teacher down on was “Czechoslovakia.” Now take that there spelling bee that come up. I tried to get to study that spelling and prepare it through the week for Friday. But, if I put in too much time in trying to prepare for it, I’d get behind on my other lessons. Well, when school was out of a evening, and I went home, supper was ready. I had a job, if it was in the summer time, of pickin’ beans or diggin’ taters, some thing like that. It was hard for me to study that spelling there, so I’d try to study it of a night after I got those jobs done---- Sometimes I went to sleep with a book in my hand. I was hard on that spelling. It was remarkable how hard the children of my day tried to get above one another and stay there. We didn’t do nothing much but study. We played marbles, we played ball. When it got cold, the teacher would take the children to the hillside to gather wood to make a fire with. I can remember the superintendent from Salyersville, when she come to visit the school, on a big horse, and I can remember the teacher tellin’ the children, “If I catch you up on this floor running around, when she The Mountain Spirit

leaves, you see them whips I’ll give it to you.” And when the superintendent come in, you could’ve heard a pin drop, you shore could. When that superintendent come in, she called out so many of the students, put ‘em at the blackboard to see if they was a-doin’ any good in school, that’s what she done. And even up to the higher grade, even the eighth grade. And I can remember the superindentent said, “Mr. Adams, these students is not a-gettin’ along as well as I expect to find them, and when I come back I’m expecting much improvement.” I run off from school a time or two and I’d go home and tell my mother a hard luck tale, and she ’d send me right back to school. I thought it was strange that she didn’t go down there maybe and jump on the teacher and raise a big t’do about it but I found out that she investigated every bit of that, but I didn’t know nothin’about it. One time when I was no more than seven years old, I was writin’ notes to a girl at school. I was just a little bitty feller, wasn’t bigger than nothin’, and I wrote her one and she went up to the teacher with a word she was wantin’ the teacher to pronounce fer her. She had the answer to that note in her hand and as she come back by me, she reached it to me. When I took it the teacher said, ‘Bring that up to me Ed,’ and I put it in my mouth and chewed it all to pieces. And the girl was standing there cryin’.

I run

or two . . .

The word I cut the teacher down on was “ Czechoslovakia.”

One time the teacher give me a poem to learn for the next day and the next morning I got up and went to school and I told him I was ready to say that poem. He said “I believe you knowed that already son, but I’m gonna give you another.” It was “The Night Before Christmas” and it was 17 pages long. That was the second one. I learned the first one too quick. My teachers seed that you were studying day in and day out. He or she was on their feet from morning till the school turned out. So, in the morning, they made it pretty good up until 12, and then at noon the teacher would go through the smaller grades just as quick as he or she could you know, and that would take the teacher up to four o’clock, and then the teacher would take

May - June 1 992

I had an interest in school on account of my children.

What I done I done for the good of the school children in my district. And out of my trusteeship there was four or five that went on to high school, something that had hardly ever happened before.

***

Maud Dye lives on Arkansas Creek in Floyd County. She taughtfor three years then married. While raising her children, she also ran a restaurant and drove afruit truck up from the south to sell produce at a market. She says she was driving before they required an operator’s license, and she still has thefirst one that cost her $.50. It’s just six months of school, and we had to walk to school. When the creek was up my Daddy would take me on a horse and come get me of a evening. The creek would be up and we couldn’t cross the creek. We had to walk.

Maud Dye.

the eighth grade, he would let these here smaller classes go home if they wanted to, and he would take the eighth grade class and he would recite it after four o ’clock. That’s a long day in school but nobody never objected to it, nobody never did. If you had that kind of teacher today, why our children would be going right on up.

There wasn’t nothing like a school bus. Wasn’t no radios, no television, no electric lights. I never seen a piece of ice except winter time. Mommy would get up before daylight and find a colored lamp, a kerosene lamp and get breakfast by that and then we’d go to eat and she’d sit it on the end of the table fer us to eat breakfast then Poppy’d go to work. We had it hard.

I was married and had a family by then, I was 25 or so. I was interested in school on account of my children. They was 34 families lived on this creek here. No road up and down here where you’re traveling now. Our road was that creek up and down through there. When it froze up in the winter, you were just about shut up in here.

I’d wear patch dresses. Mommy didn’t have the money to buy nothing with. W e’d patch our clothes. You know what I’m talking about. You have a hole in 'em and Mommy’d patch 'em. The same material if she had it and if she didn’t, she’d get something else to patch it w ith. C hildren now don’t know n o th in ’ about hard times what we did. My mommy wouldn’t let me cut my hair. I had to wear long dresses w ith sleeves. I worried a little bit after I gro wed up and cut my hair, because I knowed cutting it was against M om m y’s will. That was just old rules they had, you know.

Well, I hired the teacher and she come here and she rode a mule across the hill. There weren’t no such thing as school buses. She really taught a good school.

We shelled the com off the cob and put it in a big

I run for school trustee one time and I won and I hired a teacher two years under that trusteeship, the best educated person that I kno wed of in that time in Magoffin County, a graduate from college. And she was at that schoolhouse day in and day out and she was on her feet day in and day out. She didn’t idle her time away. Before that, somebody else was the trustee and they hired the teacher. Maybe the teacher would give them $50 or something, you see how it worked. The teacher I hired didn’t pay nothing for the school and she taught a good school.

The Mountain Spirit

sack and throw it across a horse and take it to a mill and have it ground. They’d take out so much, depending on the size of the com, fer his part of the com and they grind that com and make meal and they’d put that meal back in that sack and throw it across the horse. Then they’d have to have a sieve—some calls it a sifter—to get the bran out of it. That’s how we got our bread. Sometimes we had biscuits on Sunday morning. We had com bread for breakfast during the week. But we didn’t know no better. We didn’t know nothin’ about television or radios or nothing like that. Had no water in the house. We lift it up out of a well with a chain or a rope or something. Had outside toilets. Parents were strict on their children then. After I got big enough to have boyfriends I used to make ’em leave before dark on Saturday evening. Mommy wouldn’t have a boy there after dark. I think I was about 16. I was the only child. Never had any brothers or sisters. When I was 18 years old, I got a teaching certificate. Had a county examination and county superintendent graded our papers. And Mommy was so pleased that I got a certificate. They hired me on Caney Creek. I got $60 a month for teaching. Paid $ 10 a month for board. We had bread and milk almost every night for supper. The people I stayed with had milk cows. Times was hard and that milk and bread was good. And I’d walk across the big mountain on Sunday evening and go to where I was staying. Mommy said “I ’ll let you go but I won’t let you stay at a place where there’s boys.” That’s the reason I said she was strict. And we found a place, Poppy did, with two daughters and Uncle George. Poppy’d go with me on Sunday evening across a big mountain, we’d walk. And then he’d come on Friday evening and came back with me across that moun tain.

I was so pleased to buy something for Mommy and Poppy. I bought a hog ready to slaughter. A big fat hog, a big white hog, for $ 5 .1 guess it weighed 400 pounds. And I bought a Jersey cow, a choice Jersey cow, for $25. It pleased me to do something for Poppy and Mommy. My daddy’d go to work at sixo’clock in the morning and work til six o ’clock at night. It wasn’t like it is now from eight and go home when eight hours is over, or wait for a check to come in on the third of the month. So it pleased me to do something for them. He’d work for 75 cents a day is all he’d get. He was a farmhand. Most of the people farmed or they’d starve, they had no money to buy nothin’ with. Not much money. That 75 cents went a long ways. You get a 25 pound bag of flour for a quarter. Everything else was cheap, you know. I’ll tell ya something else. Some of the children’s parents would invite me home with ’em to spend the night. I decided I would go one time. They called me to supper. Now this is true. This is funny but it’s true. When I went to supper, I sat down at the table and they had one big dish of kershaw. Do you know what kershaw is? It’s a thing grows like a watermelon, about the size of a watermelon, they’re striped, green striped, and you cook ‘em. A lot of people like ‘em but I don’t like ‘em. They cook ‘em in the hull. That’s all they had on that table’s that big bowl of kershaw. I don’t remember what we had for breakfast. Times was hard. I taught from the first primer class to the eighth grade, all from the same room, just one big ol’ room. One school I taught, I rode a horse. Didn’t have to walk to it like I did the first one. I rode a pretty horse. I’d ride it and put it in a neighbor’s bam that lived right over there by the schoolhouse, then ride it back home of a night. I’ll say teachers today got better educations than I had. They got to go college, a lot of ‘em, and they wasn’t college when I was growing up. The teachers is got better educations and more qualified to teach children than I had when I was teaching. I just had regular school books to leam ’em to read and write. That’s about all there was. •kick

Ed and Maud impressed me with the life wisdom, book knowledge and hard-working spirit that they were willing to share with a stranger. Sandi Knight, manager of CAP’S eld erly visitation program in Floyd County visits with Maud periodically. She says that Maud loves company.

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I hope Kentucky’s education reform initiatives will be able to help today’s students and teachers develop some of these same qualities. f 19

| together at Camp An drew Jackson, sharing meals and living space. A post-work, pre-dinner breaksaw some students playing cards, others helping Rose DeRosa, a caterer from New Jer sey who volunteered as the staff chef, prepare dinner. A few lucky ones were able to duck in for a quick show er and some were sharing ex periences of the day with classmates.

pring Break Appalachian Workfest

T h o m Flammang, a stu dent at Western Illinois University, found a philosophy that he learned at Kionoinia retreat helpful during spring break, 1992. “Participate, don’t anticipate,” Thom said, as he and six other students prepared seed packages for the Christian Appala chian Project garden seed program.

During the week of March 8 students from Brescia College, Murray State University, Aquinas College, Mount Saint Joseph, the University of Notre Dame, Wabash College, Valparaiso University and Alveria College lived together at Camp Andrew Jackson, as they worked on CAP home repair projects in Jackson County. They were followed the next week by students from Alice Lloyd Col lege, the University of Kentucky, the University of Kansas, Western Illi nois University, Canisius College, St. Joseph College, Springfield Col lege, and St. Joseph’s College and 20

Several of the workfest days fea tured beautiful Kentucky spring weather: moderate temperatures and abundant sunshine. On several days, though, the students awoke to snow flurries and bitter winds. The CAP outreach program took advantage of an eager workforce, as one group was able to package all the seeds for CAP’S garden program. While a group representing colleges from Maine, Connecticut, New York, and Illinois packaged seed for family vegetable gardens, they reflected on the experiences they had in Jackson County.

Ken said that several of the students have requested information about working as permanent and summer volunteers, and “One young lady wants to be involved with ‘Partners With CAP,’[a new program that works to recruit people to help eduPillion

Thom was one of over 200 students representing 18 colleges who worked during their spring breaks as CAP volunteers. Although CAP has been hosting enthusiastic, spring break ing college students for years and years, the volunteer season in 1992 was ushered in by the “Spring Break Appalachian Workfest.”

the Great Hartford Campus Ministry in Connecticut.

“We had the idea for the workfest in November,” said Ken Kinley, CAP’S volunteer recruiter. “We decided to put the program together and start contacting colleges that might be in terested in sending students. As they were leaving they told us how much they enjoyed it, and that they hope to come back next year.”

As is the case with many volunteers, they found the friendliness of the Appalachian people a true blessing. “They’ve made me want to share a lot more,” one young lady com mented. “I appreciate what I have a lot more, and see that I can definitely live with less. A lot of these people have so little, but give so much. I know a lot of people who have much, but give little.” The students had a real lesson in the meaning of community as they lived

Above, Dr. Jim Wayne Miller, Appalachian poel and chair of the English department at Western Kentucky University, talked with students about the history of Kentucky. Above, left, Eva Gross of Jackson County lends a hand with repairs of her house.

The Mountain Spirit

Taul

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On the Wednesday evening of each week, the students met Dr. Jim Wayne Miller, an Appalachian poet, who spoke and answered questions con cerning the history and sociology of the region. On Thursday CAP’s founder, Father Ralph Beiting, told of CAP’s history and allowed the

volunteers a glimpse of how they fit into the overall scheme of CAP’s work in Appalachia. “When I see these people, I see that they’re still exciting human beings,” Father Beiting said of the volunteers. “I only had a couple of hours to spend with them, but I keep getting re newed. While you hear that a lot of them are fooling around with sex and drugs and all kinds of weird stuff, there’s an awful lot them that are wanting to see what God wants and t are willing to be a part of it.”

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cate the American public about the problems in Appalachia and the work of the C hristian A ppalachian Project]. So already we’re starting to see results. W e’d really like to have a Workfest ’93.”

Over 200 hundred students from eighteen colleges (including four colleges in Ken tucky) participated in home repair projects in Jackson County. The success of the event should result In “Workfest ’9 3 .” Taul

A Thought From the Editor Corsale

I’ve learned a valuable lesson as I’ve worked on this issue of The Moun tain Spirit, one that I hope will stay with me for years to come. It started quite a while before we started work ing on this issue, but as I’ve focused extensively on older people the last few weeks, I’ve found many experi ences of the last few months coming together to give me some things to think about. It all started in August of 1991, with the birth of my daughter, Ellen. As I watch her grow and experience more and more of the world around her, it’s almost like I ’m seeing the world for the first time, too, but through her eyes this time. Then, when I started working on stories about older people, I realized that because of these new discover ies I ’m making with Ellen, I’m tak ing a lot more time to see and appre ciate the experience and wisdom of older people. One of the things I’ve learned is that while I’m seeing and appreciating their wisdom, they’re still learning, too. Beginning when one is a baby, life is a continuum of experiences to be savored and appre ciated. When I had the opportunity to travel to Louisa, Kentucky, to visit with Father Beiting and the volunteers who are working with him, three of whom were past retirement age, I realized more than ever the rich bless ings that older people have to offer because of their years of experience and accumulation of knowledge. They, however, have a sense of dis covery that’s just like Ellen’s. First, I got to talk to Larry Dickey. Periodically he turned off my tape recorder, so that he could transact business with folks who came in to buy food or household goods, but he gave me quite a lesson in the simi larities he’s come to see between 22

Margaret Gabriel, left, introduces her daughter, Ellen, to Miss Bea Bogle of Lancaster.

Appalachia and Sierra Leone, where he spent time recently as a Peace Corp volunteer. Larry dismisses any suggestion that his work in Africa and then Appalachia might be ex traordinary in any way. He said that after fifteen years of retirement he wanted to keep busy, and figured that he might as well be busy doing good.

As we chatted, I felt his sense of exhilaration because of the newness of his work in Louisa. I guess it’s the same exhileration Ellen feels with every new experience, from the way her mouth feels when she spits out peas to the yucky taste of her medi cine to the smell of the hyacinths in our front yard.

I spent quite a while talking to George and Margaret Hanafee on their first full day in Louisa and they reminded me for all the world of Ellen. Despite the fact that they had no idea what kind of work they would be doing, they were perfectly open, perfectly trusting and implicitly knew that they had nothing but good experiences ahead. Ellen has a beautifully warm smile that seems to say to whoever sees it, “Fill me up—I know you have wonderful things in store for me.” The sixty-plus years difference in their age kept the Hanafees ’ smiles from being quite as guileless as Ellen’s but their sentiment was ex actly the same, “Fill me up, Lord—I know you have wonderful things in store.” What a blessing to have the wisdom of age to share, and still look forward to new experiences.

Father Beiting said that in his sixtyeighth year he’s still learning, and some of the things he’s learning are because he’s sixty-eight. He told of his need for help in climbing a hill recently, but he’s learned not to feel any humiliation because of that weak ness. Father Beiting has learned that people enjoy helping him. Quite a revelation, he said. While he needs physical help climbing mountains, figuratively Father Beiting is taking on challenges—mountains, he calls them—because he has learned that through hard work, perservance and God’s help, anything is possible.

Whenever I talk to Father Beiting I feel like I’m learning something new.

I’ve really been lucky the last few weeks as I’ve had the opportunity to share the benefits of the very young as well as the elderly. I ’ve been able to recognize that there are lessons to learn at every age and to be open to the wonderful things that life has to teach. —MMG. The Mountain Spirit

T o d a y is Chloe Jenkins’ seventy-ninth birthday, which is about thirty more than she ever expected to see. Carefully, she opens a pink flowered package from her son, Elroy, his wife, Nan, and their daughter, Stacy, who have come from Texas to Kentucky just for this annual family reunion. “Don’t bother with the paper, Chloe,” says Nan. “Hurry up and see what’s inside, Grandma,” says Stacy. Chloe’s oldest child, Jean, and three of her five kids, Katrina, Brian and Regina, are there from Nashville. Red-haired Katrina is sitting beside Chloe on the green vinyl couch. She has trouble telling Regina and Katrina apart since they are similar in size and also dress alike. Almost everybody thinks they’re twins. Junior, her oldest son, is there, too. He is forty-eight, still single, and very independent. He lives about a mile away and takes care of his farm and Chloe’s. “Here. Let me help you open it,” Katrina says, impatiently. “It’s such purty paper I thought I’d save it and wrap you grandkids’ presents in it,” Chloe says, neatly folding it and laying it in a stack with the other paper. Later she will cut out around the tape and tom edges and it’ll be as good as new. She memorizes which present came in which paper so as not to give them back their own paper. Housecoat and slippers in the yellow paper from the grandkids. Handpainted ceramic vase that Jean made wrapped in the gold striped paper. Junior had give her a blue wall clock to match her newly remodeled kitchen. He had wrapped it in newspapers. But she kept them, too. She doesn’t get many newspapers since Cyrus died. When she finally opens the box and sees the elegant black dress trimmed with lace, she exclaims, “ ‘Pon my honor, it’s the finest dress I’ve ever seen!” May - June 199 2

Chloe by Carolyn Bertram 23

I don’t drink, smoke or chew, and I don’t ’sociate with them that do.

“Go try it on and see if it fits,” Regina urges, her pigtails bobbing up and down as she jumps. “I declare, it’s too good to wear,” Chloe insists. After their continual pleas, she goes into her bed room with the dress. She sees a small, hump-backed woman in the dusty wardrobe mirror. Her gray hair still has a few strands of dark brown that are pulled back in a bun which sits relaxed on top of her head. Her wrinkled neck sags loosely and she smiles when she remembers Brian once telling her she looked like the old tom turkey. She expects he’s right, when she pulls off her patched apron and faded squash-print house dress, she accidentally knocks her black rimmed glasses off her sweaty nose. She has a hard time picking them up off the floor. “My back just ain’t what it used to be,” Chloe mutters, “Too many buckets of water and armloads of wood, I reckon.” When she comes back into the living room wearing the dress, twelve-year-old Stacy says, “It looks like it was made ‘specially for you, Grandma.” Jean says, “Now, Mama, you can wear that when you come visit, and w e’ll go to the Grand Ole Opry. You know you’ve always liked to hear Bill Monroe. W e’ll go see him in person.” “Law me, child,” Chloe says, “You know I’m too old to go sashaying off around the country like you young folks, a-spending money like it growed on trees.” Jean and Junior look at each other and wink. Jean always brags that she’s in the music business, which in a sense is true. She’s a salesclerk in a record shop. Junior adjusts the bill on his “Red Man” cap and says, “You’re only as old as you feel.” 24

“Then I guess I’m a hundred and three,” Chloe says, heading back to the bedroom. But she admits to herself that with kids and grandkids there she feels more like a spring chicken. They always put fancy ideas in her head. Like going to the Grand Ole Opry. What would people say down at church? Brother Jasper always preached any music besides gospel was the devil’s music. Back before she got converted, Chloe had been Square Dance Queen two years in a row, and her feet still got happy when she heard the old fiddle tunes. She even found herself patting her foot in church to the song, “Give Me That Old Time Religion.” She knew it was a sinful thought, but she always felt it would have been a good square dance tune. She pictures the couples swinging their partners. She can see herself, sixty years younger, promenading with Cyrus like they had done so many times. She reckons bluegrass music is her only big sin. Otherwise, she has lived a moral life. As she often tells her kids, “I don’t drink, smoke or chew, and I don’t ’sociate with them that do.” Of course, she knows Junior smokes and chews, but he abstains in her presence. He tells her he’s just support ing his livelihood by keeping the prices up on his own tobacco crops. It just doesn’t seem possible her kids are all grown. Even Jean’s oldest boys, Michael and Troy, are teenagers. This is the first year they haven’t come home for her birthday. They have summer jobs and can’t take off. It seems only last year they were crawling through the house and hiding in her kitchen cabinets. She misses them, but is more lonely for Cyrus on days like this. See, already they have her all flustered, reliving the past again. They are always jumping on her about that. Jean has often told her to live today and not to dwell in the past. The Mountain Spirit

But that’s the trouble with young folks, she figures. Their idea is to “eat, drink and be merry.” Well, I just can’t be that way, she thinks. I’ve got a lot more past than I do future. Here in this old world, anyway. Chloe often dreams about her mansion she has waiting in heaven where she’ll see Cyrus again. That’s why she doesn’t care about the niceties of this earth. If she could only make her kids understand. She is looking forward to death in the same way they are looking forward to the rest of their lives. She puts the dress carefully back in its box and rejoins her family in the living room. She hears Junior say, “Remember what a fit she had when we wanted to put in the bathroom.” “Yeah,” says Elroy, picking up his guitar and singing a line from “Little Brown Shack”. “. . .Please don’t let ‘em tear that little brown building down. . .”** The grandkids punch each other and giggle. Jean and Junior join in with “. . .’Cause there’s not another like it in the country or the town.”** “You can make fun of me all you want,” Chloe says, “but I still think it’s unnatural going out-a-doors in the house.” They all laugh. She is used to their jokes. She accepted a lot of the modem ways after Cyrus’ death. When she took ‘a bad spell’ back a year or so ago, the kids per suaded her to let them fix up the house. Jean, her hus band, Claude, and Elroy and Nan paid for the materials and Junior did most of the work. Why, if Cyrus was alive today, she thinks, he would say I was plumb spoilt.

She now has electricity and indoor plumbing. But she still has her outdoor toilet, too. She doesn’t tell the kids, but she uses it more than the indoor one. Sometimes when she is alone she lights up the kerosene lamps. Junior came by one night when she was using them. He said she was just being stingy. He didn’t understand. Many nights she knits and pretends she’s sitting by the fireplace talking to Cyrus, while the lamps bum on the mantel. Junior closed up the old fireplace and she has electric heat now. She hasn’t been as warm since. “What did you do with the dress, Mama?” Jean asks. “I put it away,” Chloe says, “I’m going to save it for my burying. I’ve got that black hat with the veil you young’uns got me last Christmas. It’s never been out of the box. I think I ’d look right respectable laid out in that.” “Now, Mama, don’t start that foolish talk,” Elroy says, “You’ve been getting your burying clothes ready ever since I was just a towhead. You done throwed away your first burying dress after the moths ate big holes in it.” Jean laughs. “No, she didn’t even throw it away then. She cut it up in little strips and made that old rag mg out of it that’s on the back porch.” “We bought it for you to wear now,” Nan says gently, “You deserve to dress up now and then. You looked ten years younger in it.” “The Good Book warns against pride and vanity,” Chloe says firmly, “The Lord provides me with enough clothes to get by. I’d be shaming Him if I got all puffed up with pride wearing these fancy outfits like folks wears nowadays. It just ain’t proper!” 25

May - June 1 9 9 2

Is it an angel’s harp?

Chloe notices that everybody looks at each other. They change the subject quickly to crops and the dry weather. Nan and Jean go into the kitchen to fix supper. They always refuse to let Chloe lift a finger since she is the guest of honor. She is content to sit and talk with the grandkids since she doesn’t see them often. They live in a different world. Brian has all kinds of robot toys that turn into cars or planes. Katrina, Regina and Stacy play with a pocketsize piano which makes music by itself. She has a hard time thinking of something to say to them. Finally, she asks if they like their Christmas presents. She knitted them all a pair of mittens after making a drawing of their hands on her last birthday. “Yeah,” Katrina and Regina say.

“Oh, no, Grandma. I didn’t think you made the mittens to wear, anyway. You always save the presents I give you. I thought you wanted me to keep the presents you give me.” Chloe hugs her and pats her blonde curls. I have been a foolish old woman, Chloe thinks. The rest of the night, she ponders all the conversa tions they’ve had today. When she goes to sleep, she dreams she sees Cyrus and reaches out to him. He moves back away from her, then disappears in a foggy cloud. She looks behind her and sees her family in a jumbled maze of cars and giant robots. She is floating. Desperately, she reaches toward the cloud, while her family is beckoning her to come back to them. They seem to be shouting, but she can’t hear their words.

Brian nods. Stacy doesn’t say anything. “Did you like your mittens, Stacy?” Chloe asks. “Sure, Grandma.”

She hears a metallic ringing sound. Is it an angel’s harp? Half-awake, she sits up, her arms stretching upward. For a moment, she feels suspended in mid-air.

“Did you wear them?” “No, I put them in a drawer. I’m saving them, though. It hardly ever gets cold enough to wear them in Texas.” Chloe doesn’t know what to say for a minute. She realizes she doesn’t know her grandkids. She has never once thought about the way them live. Besides, she’s never been to Texas. “You must think I’m a foolish old woman,” Chloe says. 26

Now, fully awake, she looks around, weak from disappointment. She is still alive. The girls are entertaining themselves in the living room with the toy piano. Chloe wipes away her tears with the tail of her nightgown and reluctantly puts on her new robe and slippers. Resolutely, she shuffles her feet toward the living room and joins her smiling granddaughters. **Words and music written by Billy Edd Wheeler. The Mountain Spirit

“It’s a two-way s tre e t. . . It seem s like so little, b u t in reality, it’s so m uch, ’m o st everyone involved w ith C A P’s elderly visitation p ro g ram says. A corps o f w orkers—som e are volunteers, o th ers are p e o p le w ho live in th e a r e a sp en d th e ir days traveling the back roads o f C A P’s counties. T h e ir d estin atio n s are th e hom es o f elderly m en an d w om en w ho have little in th e way o f m aterial goods o r com p an io n sh ip , b u t m u ch to give a n d share with those w ho take th e tim e to visit with them . In exchange fo r th eir w isdom (an d occasional hom e-cooking) CAP w orkers give m uch, too . . . advocacy . . . Bible read in g a n d study . . . p a rtn e rsh ip in p ray er . . . an d som etim es, ju s t a willing listener. W o n ’t you help keep o u r w orkers o n th e ro ad s o f A ppalachia? A d o n a tio n o f $10, $15, $25 (m ore, if y o u ’re able) to C A P’s elderly visitation p ro g ram , o r w here it’s n e e d e d m ost, will enable us to co n tin u e giving w hat folks n e ed the m ost of—o u r time!

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