Faith, Folklore, and Friends

The Foothills Parkway is the oldest unfinished road construction project in Tennessee.  Congress authorized construction of the road in 1944, and they are still working on it some 74 years later.  Fortunately for all of us, a 16.1 mile section was completed on November 10 of this year.  It takes you from Walland to Wears Valley. We drove on it last week, tired after driving all day.  It was a gloomy, dark day, and we really didn't know what to expect. It was awesome, literally breathtaking. I don't know if I have ever seen anything so beautiful. That is Townsend, Tennessee in the valley. Below is Wears Valley, just before the end of the parkway.  We had planned to watch the sunrise on our way home, but because of snow and ice, the parkway was closed that day..  You can be sure our next trip to the Smokies will include some time here.

 I grew up in a very tight-knit community.  One time, a new family, with different ideas and different ways of doing things,  moved in.  Everyone was  accommodating and welcomed them, but Mama said, "They are just not our kind of people." When the woman came by our house, Mama  showed off her latest quilts, and tried to hide her shock when the new woman said she had never quilted.  In fact, she couldn't even sew her own clothes.  Mama tried to give her a mess of fresh turnip greens, but the woman turned them down, saying she didn't know how to cook them.  Mama just shook her head when her company was gone; they were just not our kind of people. Years later, in a sociology class in college, our professor expounded prolifically about how it is human nature to seek out our kind ; people who share our values and beliefs, people who love the same things we do, and people we are comfortable with, no matter where we a...