A Barefoot Thanksgiving

I'm not using Barefoot to describe Thanksgiving in Appalachia. No, no. I got to celebrate Thanksgiving at home. It's great being back in Hallsboro, NC for the first time in over 3 months. I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgivings!


So what is a Barefoot Thanksgiving? My mom's side of the family are Barefoots. We spend every Thanksgiving with the Barefoots, and I don't just mean my mom's parents and brother. I mean close to 200 descendents of my great-great grandparents, Napoleon Bonaparte Barefoot (Poli) and Fredricka Augusta Blake (Freddie). A Barefoot Thanksgiving is truly a Barefoot Reunion and it's been happening for probably over 65 years.


Poli and Freddie had twelve children, three of which died during early childhood. Every year on Thanksgiving Poli and Freddie's sons and sons-in-laws would gather back at the homeplace to go bird hunting. After the men had made their kills, the women and young children (my papa and his cousins) would join the men in the woods and bring with them a black pot full of rice. There, gathered around a spring of water in the woods of Columbus County, they would have their Thanksgiving dinner: bird and rice.

As the family continued to grow, Thanksgiving moved out of the woods and to the grounds of the old Homeplace. After Freddie and Poli passed away, my great-grandparents, Bud and Myrtle Barefoot, kept the family farm and the tradition of Thanksgiving running. Every year family continued to gather in Hallsboro. Somewhere along the line, the bird and rice converted to chicken and rice - or chicken bog as we like to call it. However, one thing didn't change about it: it was still prepared outside in a big black washpot over a fire.

Thanksgiving was held at the Homplace until 1988. By that time Nannie and Poppie had passed away, and my Papa and Aunt Iris (and their families) had taken on the duties of hosting. At that time, some of the "cousins" began to offer their hunting camps as a venue for the big event. For a couple of years we gathered at Cousin John Jay Burney's hunting camp. When it became apparent that our family had outgrown that site, we moved the party over to Cousin Billy Corbett's hunting camp on Long Creek in Pender County (the county where Freddie Augusta was originally from). We've been at Billy's camp for over 15 years now.

So yesterday we once again loaded up and headed down to Pender County. Upon arriving we added our contributions to the seven-table long line of food. Our end of the family can always be counted on (or expected to bring) Grandmama's ham biscuits, butterbeans and corn, deviled eggs, pecan pie, and pumpkin delight. We mix it up a little each year - but if Grandmama's ham and biscuits aren't on the table, someone's in trouble. After making myself a name tag I went and spoke to Uncle Bryant who was standing guard by the washpot of chicken and rice. He's been the man in charge of the most important dish of the day for years now. He now has several understudies who help him stir the pot with a large wooden paddle. They had been out preparing the chicken bog since 8 am. It seemed their friend Jack Daniels had been up that early as well. Next, I headed over to look at the family tree posted on the side of the house to see if any names had been added. Cousin John Jay called us together for the blessing around 1:00. We paused to remember all that we are thankful for and to especially remember the cousins who had passed away since the Thanksgiving before. Then, it was finally time to eat and to continue in the Barefoot Thanksgiving tradition.

My first love in history is the history of my family. Thanks for letting me share a bit of it with you.

Why I Never Write Blogs

Hey friends. I know, I know - it's been a while. To all of my devoted readers out there, thanks for being patient with me and for nudging me to write more. I won't try to give you any lame excuses, instead I'll explain what I have (and haven't) been doing instead of updating Heaven and Hollers on a more regular basis.

When I haven't been writing blogs I've been...

1. Reading. All of a sudden I'm excited to read! I always thought this idea of liking to read once you got out of school was a myth. But no, I have discovered it to be quite true. At least in my case. It's wonderful having the time and freedom to read what I want to read - and at whatever pace I want to read it! I'm making it through most of my books right now at a pretty slow pace. I suppose that's due to me reading 3 or 4 at a time. Here's what I'm flipping through now:
Bedtime Reading - Knowing God by J.I. Packer. Christianity Today said that this was one of the top five most significant works of Christian literature in recent years. I'm not sold on that quite yet, but it's still early.
Chapter a Week Reading - Irresistable Revolution by Shane Claiborne. This is the book I'm reading through with the house. The author discusses living an authentic faith and being obedient to what the Bible really says about loving and being with the poor. It is definitely making me think and challenging me to reconsider my love for the status quo!
Doctor's Offices and Exercise Bike Reading - The American Home Front 1941-1942 by Alistair Cooke. Those of you who know what my thesis was about will understand why I am LOVING this book. Alistair Cooke was a foreign correspondent for the BBC during WW2. His beat was life on the American Home Front - and he traveled through every region of the country noting how the war was affecting (or not affecting) the people. 60 years after he wrote up his travelogue, the long hidden manuscript was finally published. I bore you non-history majors with the details. But if you have any interest in American social history or WW2 -put down the blogging and pick it up!
Y'alls Blogs - Several of you already had or now have blogs of your own. By the time I get through reading all of the blogs I have bookmarked it's time to move on to something else!! ;-) Keep writing though! I'm enjoying them all!

2. Sleeping. I'm going to be honest. There were evenings last week that I could have made the time to blog, but I was simply too exhausted. My busy weekends over the past month finally caught up with me last week. Three weekends ago I hit Cumberland Falls, Corbin (birthplace of KFC) McKee, Berea, Louisville, Lexington, and Richmond, Kentucky in a span of 72 hours. Two weekends ago I made the 6 1/2 hour trip (each way) to Chapel Hill. Both weekends were fabulous - and totally worth it. But, needless to say, I was in bed by 9:30 or 10 every night last week. Sleep took priority over everything, including blogging!

3. Spending time with my Housemates. So I pretty much love my house. They're really fun and I don't like missing out on the fun. I've had to remind myself that I do need to take time for myself now and again. We don't really have a coffee house to hang out at within an 80 mile radius, so on Monday night us girls made Bob Evans our coffee house. We took some playing cards, knitting needles (not me), and books to Bobby's for some coffee (sweet tea in my case, of course) and pie. We're probably going to make it a ritual. I hope so!!

4. Working on Grad School Applications. I'm applying to Wake Forest's and Carolina's MAT in Social Studies (master of arts in teaching) programs. I really feel like this is where the Lord is leading me. I have a sincere excitement for history/social studies and a sincere excitement for serving and encouraging people. Teaching allows me to use both of those passions. It's been in the back of my mind for so long now. If I don't try it, I'll always wonder what if?. Lord willing I'll find out sometime early spring and start one of the programs in June. I'm leaving my options open. As I said, I'm really feel like I'm being led to this - but I'm giving myself and the Lord wiggle room. It's something I'm going to continue praying about through the year.

5. Taking time to pray/think/reflect. I haven't had an active prayer life for a good chunk of 2007. I love being in scripture. But when it comes to prayer I've lost almost all enthusiasm for it. And that's pretty dumb. I mean why am I choosing to miss out on something that is so freely given and what can be so simple yet life enhancing? Hopefully, I'm on my way out of the rut. I'm encouraged daily by my participants, co-workers, or housemates about how prayer works. Anyways, I'm beginning to journal my prayers again. It helps me focus and will also be good to look back on to see where and how God has moved. Along with that, I've been thinking deeply about issues relating to Christian living. Just a few things I've been chewing on:
Proper Stewardship - of my time, money, and talents.
Alcohol
Why I experience God in different ways than some other Christians around me
Relying on the Lord to provide
Baptism
Which is worse? The sinful thought or sinful action?
Perhaps I'll get around to writing a blog about these issues. If I don't get around to it - just ask me for my thoughts on the issue at a later date.


When I haven't been writing blogs I HAVE NOT been...

1. Building tee-pees. The weekend I was in Chapel Hill my housemates built a MASSIVE tee-pee behind our house using duct tape, vinyl sheets, slender trees, and rope. They built a fire in it and camped out in it and everything. Folks - this is the kind of innovation and creativity that comes from having nothing better to do in eastern Kentucky on a Saturday afternoon.

2. Training for a half-marathon. Jenny and I have retired from training until the spring. We were originally going to run one in Virginia this past Sunday, but a little over a month ago decided it would be fun to go somewhere like Memphis to run one. The Memphis half is on December 1st. That would of course have given us more time to train. But what that actually looked like was us slacking off. Then we were out of town for 3 weekends straight, then I was exhausted, then it rained, then it got cold, then it started getting dark at 5, then we realized that the drive to Memphis was really long, and then we said we'd run one in the spring! ;-)

3. Learning how to play the guitar. My grandmother graciously purchased a guitar for me recently. I have played it some - after all, I've learned 3 chords. But recently it has been sitting in the corner staring at me. I've always wanted to learn to play the guitar - and I'm going to, it just isn't a priority right now. Don't worry grandmama - I'll get back to it!

4. Learning how to knit. This is another one grandmama may be a bit disappointed with. Three or four of my housemates are constantly knitting or crocheting. I know I ought to take advantage of the opportunity to learn a new skill. I can crochet a bit, but have never finished anything. I imagine that as we continue to settle into the colder months that keep us inside I'll eventually pick up some needles and get in on the fun.

5. Becoming a UK Basketball fan. UNC vs. UK basketball tickets went on-sale to the public today. They play December 1st in Rupp Arena. They were sold out before I had a chance to get any :-(. This makes me SUPER SAD! However, the fact that UK lost to Gardner-Webb makes me chuckle a bit.



Well, that's all for now.

Y'all come back now, ya hear?