A Country Rag Tales of Jewell Hollow
A Year In A Blue Ridge ForestEver wonder what it's like to embrace a totally different lifestyle? Over the centuries and into the present Appalachian culture has been absorbed and enriched continually by settlers from various countries and states. Its initial appeal and surprises from the perspective of a current day urban refugee are serialized beginning July 11, 1997, in this section. On retirement from a sophisticated life of worldwide travel and legal prominence, Gary R. Frink and spouse Jeanne burrowed into the forested foothills of the Blue Ridge for a new life of woodstoves and roving bear.... (If you missed earlier sections,they're archived in "Word Preserve".)
Graphic: Holston River, TN, drained by drought at its mountain creek source
"Writing is alchemy. Dross becomes gold. Experience is transformed. Pain is changed. Suffering may become song. The ordinary or horrible is pushed by the will of the writer into grace or redemption, a prophetic wail, a screed for justice, an elegy of sadness or sorrow. It is the lone and lonesome human voice, naked, raw, crying out, but hidden too, muted, twisted and turned, knotted or fractured, by the writer's love of form, or formal beauty: the aesthetic dimension, which is not necessarily familiar or friendly. Nor does form necessarily tame or simplify experience. There is always a tension between experience and the thing that finally carries it forward, bears its weight, holds it in. Without that tension, one might as well write a shopping list." -- Andrea Dworkin, Autobiography
Midi music file (click to play): Africa, America, Apache
January 1996ThursdayWe celebrated the New Year out of Jewell Hollow, in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. We took some gifts to Chris, Emily and Baby Helen in Baton Rouge and had a wonderful twenty-four hours with them. In New Orleans, we spent time with friends and enjoyed ....cont'd |
February 1996SaturdayWe are again buried in snow; over six inches and drifting. It is mid-morning and the outside temperature is 10. The eastern half of the United States is gripped in record-breaking cold. We are burning Locust wood exclusively; cont'd.... |
Graphic: Stone-walled creek on the campus of East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN.
Gary R. Frink, born January 22, 1933, in Pontiac, Michigan, has lived a complex and colorful life across continents and political parties in service of governments, corporations and extraordinary individuals. Retired from the law, but not from worldwide travel, he is currently an inactive member of the State Bar of Michigan and The District of Columbia Bar Association. His work as contributing editor of "The Shoestring Traveler," a monthly publication, and as an author ("Tales of Jewell Hollow," serialized on-line in the Country Rag beginning July 1997, and "My Secret Life as an International Courier and Other Travels," a work-in-progress) occupy his days in a secluded forest cabin that hugs Appalachian foothills. Send e-mail to: frink@shentel.net.
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Tales of Jewell Hollow © Gary R. Frink June 1997. All rights reserved.