"She and my grandparents and her brothers and sisters grew up in the woods of Wilkes County with no running water and no electricity, and they lived in a primitive house."
I received the following account from a reader:
"My mom's family is from the Western North Carolina area going back about four generations if not more depending on the line of grandparents you follow. My mom is 93 now but still loves to tell stories about the primitive way she grew up and I love to listen. She and my grandparents and her brothers and sisters grew up in the woods of Wilkes County with no running water and no electricity, and they lived in a primitive house with spaces between the plank walls where snow would blow in during the winter. Life was incredibly hard, full of death, disease, tragedy, horror, and loss but there was also a lot of good.
One story Mom tells is about the orb lights that would hang out at the tree line. My grandpa called them 'jack-o'-lanterns.' They were orbs of light that floated around and you couldn't get near them or catch them. Keep in mind that no one had a car in the woods where they lived and they were a good ways from the nearest road. I went back to the old home place in 2019 and I guesstimate it's about a half mile from the nearest road.
Another story Mom tells is about when she and some of her siblings were working in the field with my grandparents when they were growing up. They did a tremendous amount of fieldwork because without that there literally was no food. A few times they nearly starved. Anyway, they were in the field and they heard a noise like something falling through the air and headed their way. They looked around and suddenly something hit the ground near them with tremendous force. They could feel the shockwave from it in the air and they felt it hit the ground only there was nothing there when they looked.
There are also lots of stories about the sounds in the woods, which I think were bobcats, the local witch that stopped nose bleeds, and the ghost dog in the kitchen that was witnessed by mom and her younger sister (heard the same story from both of them my whole life), and my uncle's cow that was drained of blood and left lying in the pasture. There were also many stories about the Wampus Cat and Little People in the mountains." K
NOTE: Some of the personal tales that come out of Appalachia, especially in Western North Carolina, are some of the best you'll ever hear. One day I would like to compile many of the accounts I was told by family, friends, and acquaintances from the region. Lon
*****
*****
.jpg)
.jpg)
PHANTOMS & MONSTERS VIDEO LIBRARY
-----
.jpg)
We also provide free graphic creation if needed. Thanks. Lon
.jpg)
