Faith, Folklore, and Friends

Labor: productive   activity,   especially   for   the   sake   of   economic gain; the body of persons engaged  in  such  activity, especially those working for  wages;  this body of persons considered as a  class  (distinguished from management and  capital);   physical   or   mental   work,   especially   of   a   hard   or   fatiguing   kind;   toil;  a   job   or   task   done   or  to   be   done. Labor Day was created to honor the American  Labor  movement.  Since 1887, it has been  celebrated on  the first Monday in September. Labor Day marks the unofficial end to summer,  but  around here, the temperature appears to    be  in  denial. Still, if you are a proper Southern  lady, you  need to ...

Key Underwood loved his coon dogs.  He and his beloved dog, Troop, hunted together for fifteen years before Troop died.  Mr. Underwood wanted to honor his friend by doing something special. On Labor Day in 1937, Mr. Underwood buried Troop near a popular spot in the woods where hunters gathered to listen to their dogs run and swap stories.  Other hunters began burying their dogs near Troop's grave, and the area became known as the Key Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Graveyard. The graveyard contains 185 coon dog graves today.  Here's a sampling of headstones identifying  the dear deceased dogs. In a 1985 interview with writer/columnist Rheta Grimsly Johnson, Mr. Underwood stated that a California woman had contacted him wanting to know why he wouldn't allow other kinds of dogs to be buried  in the graveyard.  His response:  You must not know much about coon hunters and their do...