Remembering A Blue Ridge Mountain Father

This book is about growing up in a home under the strict guidance of a Blue Ridge Mountain father where we learned to accept responsibility, to live frugally, to appreciate what we had and how to work together as a team. We developed a strong work ethic, and were taught that if we wanted something, we had to work for it. Our dad believed in "tough love", and at the time, we felt he was extremely hard on us. But, by forcing us to work diligently and seldom expressing his love for us openly, we knew deep down he really cared. In this book, you will see and hopefully, appreciate the perserverance so typical of the displaced dwellers of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and their way of life.

This book tells the true story of the people who had made their homes for many generations in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, the hardships and sorrows the mountain people endured for being poor and secluded for living their way of life in the mountains. They were put out of their homes and put off their land to make way for the Shenandoah National Park. Memories linger in their minds of days gone by—what it was like not to have enough food on the table, hard work every day, thinking what the next day might bring. The history that has been left behind by the mountain people should never be forgotten. Oh, what secrets those Blue Ridge Mountains hold.

Journey into the Blue Ridge Mountains of 1918 where Laurel McAdams endures the challenges of a hard life while dreaming things can eventually improve. But trouble arrives in the form of an outsider. Having failed his British father again, Jonathan Taylor joins is uncle’s missionary endeavors as a teacher in a two-room schoolhouse. Laurel feels compelled to protect the tenderhearted teacher from the harsh realities of Appalachian life, even while his stories of life outside the mountains pull at Laurel’s imagination. Faced with angry parents over teaching methods, Laurel’s father’s drunken rages, and bad news from England, will Jonathan leave and never return, or will he stay and let love bloom?

Autobiographical reminiscences of Mayberry, Va. (in Patrick County).

A Walk Through My Blue Ridge Mountain Memories is an autobiographical account of a way of life unique in many ways to the Appalachia Mountains. This narrative depicts the ways in which West Virginia helped to shape the person I am today. This story describes the birth of my soul with all of its joys, challenges, hardships, and struggles. It is a tale about a family with strengths and weaknesses, but mostly, humanity. I would like to invite you to take a journey with me back to those days "to have you walk by my side through my experiences, to witness the events that, even now, warm my heart and some that haunt my soul."

First pens a celebration of the mystery and allure of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the daily discipline of immersing himself in the discoveries to be found there.