Beth Durham's Blog, page 6

Our Changing World

I may have mentioned to you before that I’m not a big fan of change.  Yet, everywhere I look things change.  I took a little trip to Key Town and the amount of change in that old neighborhood really got me to thinking – and reading a little about change

Albert Einstein said, “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change,” which may say quite a lot about me!  2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are...

Steps of Change

Steps of Change

There’s a big change taking place on the mountain as the main North-South road, Highway 127, is being re-designed.  Now, I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a fan of change; yet I realize that an historian’s mission is to document change.  The beginn...

Pennies on Headstones

At Decoration Day, I noticed a few headstones with pennies left on them and we were discussing what that could mean.  I came home and did a little research and it’s such a neat tradition that I wanted to share it with you.

I knew of the Jewish tradition of leaving stones on graves so I started there.  There was more to it than I realized.  Apparently, this tradition may have started out very practically as stones were necessary to protect a grave.  Over time, it became a symbol of respect to pla...

Memorials and Unknown Graves

My Sunday School teacher has been teaching through the book of Matthew and a couple of weeks ago as we studied Jesus’ dinner with Simon the Leper, my mind went to Decoration Day.

Tomorrow is Decoration Day at Campground.  We’ve talked about Decoration several times and I will undoubtedly return to the subject again, hopefully from different angles and with new information to share.  This is a holiday that historically was anticipated on the mountain the same as Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas,...

Blackberry Winter

It’s 80º as I write this at noon and the forecast is for a high of 82º this afternoon, yet there are still blooms on the blackberry briars.  I already have it on my calendar for next spring to chronicle the various Tennessee Mountain winters.  Hopefully, we are nearing the end of the cycle for this year, although we’re st...

House Work

I have a major house-project going on so I need to take a few weeks break from the Tennessee Mountain Stories Blog.

I thought I’d point you back to a previous story and coincidentally enough this week in 2015 I began writing a series about “Our Heritage in Houses”. So I hope you’ll visit that story and at the bottom of th...

The Old Old Songs ...

The Old Old Songs

I have written here many times about music.  It tells our stories, motivates our works and memorializes our dead.  The history behind hymns in particular fascinate me.

As I was looking at Easter music this week, I...

Mountain Resources and Resourcefulness

I took my children to visit The Lost Sea this week and was fascinated to learn how both Cherokees and early settlers had used this great cave.  The Cherokees used one large room for council meetings.  The marks from their fires the tour guide now calls damage, but it looked to me like evidence of a great use for that spac...

After the Storm

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Yesterday the weatherman was saying things like “sustained high winds” and “long-track tornadoes” and this morning the sun is shining on most of Tennessee.  Even as I rejoice today that the winds weren’t so bad last night, I realize there are those who are digging out of storm damage today, and my prayers are certainly wi...

Corn - Mountain Gold

A few years ago I was a proud member of the Future Farmers of America.  The emblem for the FFA is a cross section of an ear of corn because that is the vegetable that is grown in every state in the union.  Today it is an embattled vegetable, yet the history of corn is old and complex and essential to life.

Way back in the ...