Wednesday I continued reading Roaming the Mountains with John Parris. The book is an easy read, divided into short chapters, which makes it easy to pick up and put down. You could read the chapters in any order and it would make no difference.
Here are a few of the chapters that really “grabbed” me –
“The French Broad is a Gypsy” (pp. 64-67) is a beautiful tribute to the River. Parris writes of the French Broad: “He comes brawling into Rosman from the four corners of the compass, undecided which way to go or how” (p. 66) My wife grew up along the French Broad and I used to float it with my grandfather. Parris even mentions the section that we used to float (near Horse Shoe).
“The Drovers’ Road” (pp. 68-71) tells of how farmers used to drive thousands and thousands of pigs from the mountains down to Augusta and Savannah. “They usually made only about eight miles a day with their droves” (p. 70). This is one of those “You-wouldn’t-believe-it-if-it-hadn’t-happened” stories.
One rest entry from Tuesday’s reading was “Nathan Dempsey, Fighting Man” (pp. 39-41) about a famous brawler from western N.C. In the fights “back in the day,” a man would say “calf rope” when he wanted to give up. When I was a little boy, my grandfather would twist me into knots and he always wanted me to say “calf rope.”
Last, I should mention the Roaming the Mountains has some great illustrations of mountain flowers from Parris’ wife, Dorothy. Her simple drawings are vivid, and very attractive. (One of the drawings is shown above in the photo). The odd aspect is that they don’t reference what is in Parris’ prose.
I’m still enjoying Roaming the Mountains. I give it 7.5 out of 10.
mobilemojoman 