Character Flesh Out

Here are the characters I see so far that we will need to flesh out:

The Father
I see him as the main character, and the story to be written through his eyes.  We need a history and motivation of this character. 

Need to flesh out secondary characters of the family, but not relevant to plot development such as wife, and any other children besides his daughter that he might have. 

The Daughter
What happens to this girl drives the plot, but it is the decisions of her father that create the moral dilemma. While her character will be used to illustrate the conflict within the father, I feel strongly that as the only main female character in the story that she be a well rounded character. 

We will need to flesh out secondary characters that she will interact with.  This will include school mates and siblings.

The Drifter
I see two distinct paths this character can take.  The reader can either know nothing about him or they can know everything about him.  We will need to understand his motivation and have sympathy for this character.  Depending upon which path this character takes (i.e. we know nothing, or we know everything) we will someone need to figure out how this monster can be portrayed in a human light.

We may need secondary characters developed here.  If we decide to discuss the history of this character, then we will need to develop the characters in that story.

The boyfriend
This character is allegorical.  He represents the "outside world" and he is ultimately the reader.  The outsider looking in.  This is a new world to him.  All customs, exchanges and details are foriegn. 

Plot Flesh Out

Dustin has been working on the plot for the book.  His initial idea that a drifter is taken in and tries to rape the woman who took him in. To defend herself, she almost kills him and runs away. Her father the local minister finds him, finishes it. The body is found and then the father gets the blame. He won't tell anyone his daughter was raped, she's engaged to a college boy going to va tech, will "make it" if he doesn't. The family is shunned, he's kicked out of the church. The gritty nature of the appalacian life comes to bear.

From a story perspective, some additional questions to answer through the development of the plot would be:

• Why would a woman take in a drifter? Is she living with parents and they take the drifter in?  Is this someone she knows and because of that feels safe?  If so, whats the story there.
• Does the girl run away, or does the drifter run away? 
• How does the father discover this?
• How does the father finish this? 
• How will this dichotomy of "getting out" of the mountains be portrayed through the boyfriend?
• I'm wondering if a baby should be involved, i.e. does the girl become pregnant? 
• How does it end?

Foxfire 2

My second Foxfire book was not completed with the speed and enthusiasm of the first.  I need to battle through the lull that occurs after the initial excitement of an idea has ended.  I still think the book is a great idea, its something I still wish to pursue, but I have to find the drive to get it done. 

The second book was not filled with as much "good stuff" as the first.  But there were definitely some great tidbits worth noting. 

The book opens with a interview with a woman by the name of Maude Shoppe.  Foxfire is a high school english project, so these are high school students in the 1970's interviewing past generations of Appalachian natives.  At one point, the students asked Maude what she considered her most valuable possession to be and her answer?  Water.  Water is Maude Shoppe's most valuable possession.  That answer really put things in perspective for me and made me think about the world they lived in.  After water, the next most valuable possession to Maude was her cattle and livestock.  Not because of the food they provided, but because they kept her company. 

The book spent quite a bit of time discussing midwives and burial customs which could be of some use later. 
There was also a very dissapointing chapter on ghost stories that actually had no stories at all.  Everyone interviewed said they didn't believe in ghosts. 

Reading List

For reference, this is my planned reading list before I begin family interviews:

Foxfire Book 1
Completed

Foxfire Book 2
Checked out

Appalachian Values
not in the library, may buy from Amazon

The United States of Appalachia
Reston Library, 975 B 2006

Appalachia: A History
available in Ebook from Fairfax County Library

Witches Ghosts and Signs:  Folklore of the Southern Appalachians
Not in the library

Yesterday's People: Life in Contemporary Appalachia
Located in Fairfax City Library as a Reference Material  VREF 975 W 1965

Night Comes to the Cumberlands:  A Biography of a Depressed Area
At Reston Library 974 C 2001

Uneven Ground: Appalachia since 1945
Not in the library

The Road to Poverty:  The Making of Wealth and Hardship in Appalachia
Not in the library

The Foxfire Book 1

For reference, the entire Foxfire series is located in the Reston library, 630.1F

I resolved to read the first two volumes of the Foxfire books in two weeks and managed to finish the first one in two days.  Lets hope the second book is an engaging as the first.

The book is filled with anecdotes  from Appalachian life, from hog dressing to faith healing.  All with first hand accounts and interviews.  As we prepare to write the novel, this will be a handy book to refer to as it contains many stories that could be used for inspiration.  Below I've listed some of the highlights.

Daniel Manous
Daniel Manous lives in an abandoned bread truck in the back of which he has placed a wood stove and a bed.  He is a loner.  His job is to watch over the local fish hatchery, sitting high in the woods looking down over the creek.  He has two books in his truck, two volumes of poetry.  One is Burns and the other is Tennyson.  He also keeps a banjo with him. 

Daniel tells the story of a Preacher who can charm snakes.  The preacher keeps a box in his pulpit with a rattlesnake, and when he feels the lord is blessing him, he will pull the snake out of the box and show the congregation how the lord's love is protecting him.  On one occasion, the congregation kept pushing the preacher to pull the snake out of the box, and when the preacher did, the snake bit him.  The moral of the story is to let the lord guide your heart, not people. 

Preserving Vegetables and Fruit
A chapter in the book is dedicated to the art of preserving vegetables and fruit, and the means by which this is accomplished.  The section that discusses Pickling states:

"Be sure that th'signs are not in th'bowels" says Daisy Justice.  "When th'moon is new is th'best time to make kraut, pickle beans, corn, or green tomatoes.  If th'signs are in th'bowels, they will be slimy or soft and not fit to eat."

This paradox between strict faith and the zodiac interest me.  I am interested to know where this following and knowledge of the zodiac comes from and how this reconciles itself with their faith.

The chapter that discusses preserving fruit.  One woman noted that with a peeler, she could core, peel and slice a bushel of apples in 54 minutes. 

Churning Butter
Interesting rhyme the ladies would sing to help the churning time move faster. 
Come butter come
Come butter come
Peter standing at the gate
Waiting for a butter cake
Come butter come

Much like military marching, these chants would give the women a rhythm and help pass the time.

Slaughtering Hogs

Most families paid strict attention to the phase the moon was in, and they killed on the first cold day they could get when the moon was "right."  As one said, "If you kill a hog on th'new of th'moon, slice it and put it in a pan, it'll just blow you 'til you can't fry th'grease out of it hardly.  You got t'kill it on th'right time of th'moon.  You don't ever want to kill it on th'new moon."  Another said, "We'd kill hogs on th'full moon or just about th'full moon.  While th'moon was shrinkin' th'meat'd shrink.  There'd be a lot'a lard an'grease if it'uz on th'shrinkin' of th'moon."

Weather Signs and Planting by the Signs
This chapter discusses the myriad of signs that predict an upcoming harsh winter.  Some signs include if animals fur is thicker than usual, root vegetables growing deeper in the ground than usual, and the old moon in relation to the first snow. 

The chapter also goes on to discuss the best signs of the zodiac under which to plant crops.  It states that planting is best done during the signs of Scorpio, Pisces, Taurus and Cancer.  Plowing and tilling and cultivating should be done in Aries.  Never plant anything during the "barren" signs.  They are good only for trimming, deadening and destroying. 

When the students asked if this type of cultivating should be preserved, one woman answered, "I can't help but think that it ought.  There are too many things to think about today.  A good home and plenty of land should make anyone perfectly happy.  Too many things now that call for money.  We had a good time when I was growin' up, and we got along as well as you all now."

Home Remedies
This was a particularly interesting chapter, and I'd like to do more research into whether or not some of these things actually worked, because, for the most part, they sound ridiculous to me.  The chapter lists ailments and then proposes Appalachian remedies that were commonly used.  They also sound a little of the voodoo or black magic elk.  Some of the most outlandish include:

• Asthma -- Swallow a handful of spider webs rolled into a ball.
• Asthma -- Drill a hole in a black oak or sourwood tree just above the head of the patient and put a lock of their hair in the hole.  When the patient passes that spot in height, they will be cured.
• Chest Congestion -- Render the fat of a polecat.  Eat two or three spoonfuls.  This brings up the phlegm.
• Colic -- tie an asafetida bag around a baby's neck for six months to keep away six months of colic.
• Nosebleed -- Take a small piece of lead and bore a hole in it.  Put a string through the hole, tie it, and wear it around your neck.  Your nose won't bleed again.
• Warts -- Stick the hand which has warts on it into a bag and tie it up.  The first person who opens it will get your warts.

The book also gives detail accounts of hunting stories, moon shining (with diagrams) and faith healing.  This is definitely one to look up again when the time comes.

Friday, I begin book two. 

Novel Ideas...literally and figuratively

I've spent almost the entire day reading and writing about Appalachian life today.  The research today has definitely given me some ideas for the story. 

While I feel that its important that the story be a modern-day story, I also feel that its important to shed light on the history of Appalachian people.  So, perhaps this is a family story, a generational one.  Maybe the conflict that is occurring in the modern story is the result of strife or conflict that has occured in the family's past. 

It may be interesting to illustrate the dichotomy between the Appalachian people in the 1940's vs. those alive today. 

I also think it would be a interesting exercise to use different narrative voices in the story.  A modern voice and a voice like Ms. Marvin's that I quoted earlier.  Something to consider. 

Foxfire

In the early 1970's, Eliot Wiggington, a graduate of Cornell made his way to the mountain region of Georgia to become a high school English teacher.  He quickly became frustrated with the students attitude towards his class and in a last ditch effort to engage his students, he decided to establish a magazine that would be created by and ran by the students.  That magazine would become known as "Foxfire,"  a bio luminescent fungi that grows on decaying trees and is commonly known to make the mountain forests glow at night.  It is the "Northern Lights" of Appalachia.  The magazine became a folklore magazine, and is one of the best known records of Appalachian life, a culture that is largely oratory in nature.  The best stories from the magazines have been comprised into 9 volumes of books.  I have resolved to read volumes 1 and 2 over the next two weeks.

In the opening of Foxfire book 1, Mr. Wiggington wrote a passage that particularly appealed to me:

"The big problem, of course, is that since these grandparents were primarily an oral civilization, information being passed through the generations by word of mouth and demonstration, little of it is written down.  When they're gone, the magnificent hunting tales, the ghost stories that kept thousand children sleepless, the intricate tricks of self-sufficiency acquired through the years of trial and error, the eloquent and haunting stories of suffering and sharing and building and healing and planting and harvesting -- all these go with them, and what a loss.

If this information is to be saved at all, for whatever reason, it must be saved now; and the logical researchers are the grandchildren, not university researchers from the outside."

As a grandchild descended from this Appalachian culture, I do feel a sense of responsibility to preserve and tell the stories that I fear will die with my generation. 

Within these stories that Mr. Wigginton and his students compiled, there is a voice, loud and clear. The opening story is written not by a grandchild, but rather, a grandparent, and their words and phrases say it all:

"This is the way I was raised up"
- Mrs. Marvin Watts

"my dadie raised the stuff we lived one he groed the corn to make our bread he groed they cane to make our syrup allso groed they Beans and Peas to make the soup beans out of and dried leather Britches beans and dried fruit enough to last all winter he Killed enough meat to last all winter

he Killed a beaf and a Sheep and two or three hogs for the winter he diden have mutch money for anything  we ust had our briskets for sunday morning and when mother ran out of coffie she parched chustnuts and ground them one her coffie mill to make coffie out of  and when it rained and the mills coulden grind our bread we ate potatoes for bread  my dad usto weaved woal cloth to make blankets and cloths out of I have worn woal dresses and my dad has worn home made Britches out of woven wool to  my mother mother also knit our stockings and socks to"

This is the voice that needs to be captured.

Three Weeks with the Poor of Appalachia is Urged

In researching the history of the Appalachian culture, I came across an interesting article published by the New York times in 1969 urging affluent city folk to spend time with the poor in Appalachia to better understand the problems the region was facing.  The article advertises trips for the affluent to spend three weeks with an Appalachian family for $378, meals and lodging are included.  The article states that 35 individuals responded to this advertisement.  The advertisement touts that it is "ideal for the intellect who wishes to learn."   

In August of that same year, the New York Times published a follow-up article that discussed the reactions of the visitors that went on the three week tour of Appalachia in West Virginia.  The visitors indicated that while the families they stayed with were very friendly and hospitable, they felt the welfare they received was a waste of the taxpayer dollar.  One individual interviewed pointed out that the house contained a color tv, but no running water.  Another source for the story hinted at their frustration over locals not being on time for appointments and tours, noting specifically a decendent of the Hatfields that took 2 days to show up to be interviewed about his famous family feud.

I find irony in the fact that the modern visitors thought the Appalachians to be lazy and using the government dime when all recorded reports of life prior to 1969 establishes that culture to be a very strong and hardworking ethic of survival.  I'm unsure what caused this transition, or if the visitors accounts are accurate.  But it is definitely an interesting item to research. 

read the full article here and use sign in 22769104582147:

Original Advertisement in the NY Times:
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=89349185&sid=1&Fmt=10&clientId=1452&RQT=309&VName=HNP

Follow-Up Story in the NY Times:
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=3&did=78389910&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=10&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&TS=1296586664&clientId=1452