Publisher's Synopsis
This book features 72 original paintings depicting rural life in the Appalachian mountains of Eastern Kentucky during the 1950s and 1960s. Although there are undertones of economic hardships, this book focuses on the joy and delight of growing up in the hollers of Pike County during the mid-20th century. Several paintings depict landmarks which no longer exist, including farmsteads lost to strip mining or highway construction. The Greasy Creek coal camp is portrayed in a number of charming paintings as is Tom Maynard's City Market in downtown Pikeville.
.
If one has a connection to Greasy Creek, Hopkins Creek, Powells Creek, Millard, Pike County, or Eastern Kentucky in general, this book will be of interest. A name index is included which contains the likes of Dock Boggs, Pharmer Leslie, Moses Maynard of Hatfield and McCoy fame and many other folks who were mentioned in the narrative or portrayed in the paintings.
.
Molasses-makings and hog-butcherings. Spring plantings and fall harvests. Mule-drawn plows and fat milk cows. Coal-mining ponies and coal-burning stoves. Country stores and one-room schools. Outhouses and well-houses. Well buckets and wringer washers. Foot logs and grapevine swings. Hunting crawdads, carrying coal. Climbing the hills, calling the cows. A mother's canned peaches. A coal miner's bath. These are the memories that were never photographed.
