Back When Stories #3 - Isaac Johnson House
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.พ. 2025
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In this episode of BACK WHEN STORIES, produced by Germain Media, we visit an unusual old house and farm in Wilkes County, NC.
Interviewing Virginia Dare Couch, we learn all about the Isaac Johnson house and the people that used to live there. Great Appalachian memories!
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This makes me think of my grandmas house back 50 years ago and I could just sit down and cry for missing it and missing them, grandma out picking beans in the garden aunts, uncles, visiting and cooking, cousins playing, dad, grandpa and friends on chairs on the front porch smoking and talking... Those were better times, with good people...Thank you for posting
This!!!!! The porcelain pans the beacons were shelled in! 💜💜
God bless you, I too have similar memories. You are right those were better times with good people.
Remember the song, If The World Had A Front Porch Like We Did Back Then?
Music, singing, visiting, food and fun.
Children got to stay up late, run and play and make all the noise they wanted.
Sometimes people would stay overnight and you would just grab a quilt and a pillow or cushion and curl up on the floor.
That was a good time
Growing up you didn't heat the whole house, usually the kitchen was the warmest. When you got up in the morning you headed for the kitchen.
I am going to miss my Aunt Dare (Virginia). She was a blessing to have as an aunt. She touched many lives through the years. If it wasn't for her I wouldn't know the Lord the way I do. She passed away this last Monday, September 3rd.
I have heard some good memories of when my mom and aunt would stay at Granny & Papa's house. Everytime I visit the mountains I try to take the time and stop by the old homestead just to take in the peace and quiet and the beautiful scenery.
If life was only as simple as it was in the days that my Great-Granny & Papa were living...
Dare was a special, special lady! I enjoyed every moment I got to spend/talk with her! The world is the poorer for her passing!
@@appalachianfilms 💕😭💞
Still miss her so..We visited there this weekend. A piece of my heart stays there everytime I go back. Missing my sister & Papa & Granny..Heaven is so much sweeter & am looking forward to holding tgem again... 💝😭🎻💝
@@marywagner5673 Bless you!
My deep sympathy on the loss of your loved one.
Every time I drive by an abandoned house or cabin I wonder about the history-someone designed it and worked for the materials and worked hard to build it, then built a life within its walls. And eventually moved on, in one form or another, usually taking the memories of cold winter days, hot summer evenings, holidays, births, deaths, weddings, with whoever was left. How wonderful that you're seeking out these stories and sharing them. Thank you-you bring these people back to life.
Kittydoc90 I think the same when I see old houses out in the grown up weeds, that used to be a happy place with people coming and going. 🤔
@@deborahchesser7375 I agree with both of you.😄
Yes, me too.
@@deborahchesser7375
This is such a nice story. You can tell that lady has a deep love for that house and the memories of her dear family! If you grew up in the south you can easily identify with many of the things she talks about.
Well said Chris! Although she has passed since we filmed this, Dare continues to live on with everybody who knew her. A beautiful human being!
Thanks I really enjoyed hearing her story. My wife and I love to go to the mountains and look at the old places and explore the area.
Life is so precious. I decided to look up Ms Virginia because she was so interesting. Sad to learn that she too has now passed on. Thank you to the family for these treasured and shared memories
Oh, I hate to hear she has passed……sadness.
Love history when u get older it get better. Hard living we today dont know how lucky we are thank u lord.
Sitting with the dead is real, runs in my family history!!!
In the mountains of eastern Kentucky, people would sit up with the dead or go pay their respects to the family of a neighbor who was “laying acorpse” (a deceased person in a casket in the living room or church sanctuary).
It’s an old tradition here in Scotland too, we call it a “Wake”.
Honestly, I wish this were still a popular custom.
Death has made many people wealthy and the family removed from the process.
My Dad also sit with the dead back when he was a kid in Rockford, Illinois area and Beloit, Wisconsin!
My great grandma died in the 40's. She had a feather crown in her pillow. Any of you have that in your family from Appalachia?
I love the house, I am in my late 60's and it reminds me of my Grandparents and Aunt and Uncle's homes. My Granny always had a Crock of Corn, Pickled Green beans and Sauerkraut sitting in the Kitchen. The well was right outside the Kitchen door. There were cardboard pictures on the walls of Flowers , Cracker boxes and anything else with Flowers taped and stuck on the walls. When I was maybe 9 or 10 I decided to clean while my Mom and Grandma walked down the holler to visit my Uncle. I pulled all those Flower pictures off the wall and swept the old wood floors until I had blisters. The home was heated with a pot bellied coal stove and those wood floors would never come clean !. Being a child I had no clue that all I took down from the walls was to help keep the wind out and had to be put back up . Grandma was not happy but she was not mad at me, she also made quilts and braided rugs. That was in McDowell County West Virginia. Your Grandparents old home brings back good memories, even the old Stove is similar. I love this house and video. Thanks
What a beautiful story!...Memories of her grandparents and family will live on through her stories.
There sure is a lot to be said for sittin on the porch drinking your coffee, absolutely right.
Yep! Watching that empty swing swing, wondering what stories it could tell! ♥️
sitting on the's house porch swinging in the porch swing brings back memories of my grandma😌
I absolutely love this story. So glad to hear her tell it. I love the house, the walls upstairs are beautiful.
It reminds me of my childhood, the big garden, canning the food.
I grew up in rural Kentucky on a big farm.
Love your channel, glad I found it.
Her who?
@@majoroldladyakamom6948 Watch the video! Mr. Johnson's granddaughter, and her memories when she was a child.
Oh my goodness I came across this in my TH-cam feed. Thank you so much Virginia for sharing your memories and this lovely old home.I am thankful I got to grow up in a simpler time and way of life. Bathing in the nearby creek and spending days in the garden and putting all that food up. Wondering through the woods and down trails until mommas voice hollering time to get home would float on the evening breeze. Memories of beautiful times. I love hearing others stories. I loved hearing my mommas about going up in Harlan Co KY during the depression. Momma lost her mother at the age of 3. My grandpa would walk coal camp to coal camp with momma in tow. Throwing a little dirty pillow on the ground by a campfire where momma would sleep. Many a time they had to eat out trash cans in the coal camps. God bless you and yours Virginia. Tell your stories because believe me they do mean something to a lot of us.
That sure was a pretty song she wrote. That house still almost looked livable inside.
I'm 6 years late, but I loved this! ❤️
I remember the belt. When I was young it was the Home Law. Discipline.
Ooooo gosh...if I were her, I'd want to live in that house!
This is a beautiful story and her memories are precious!
Thank you to both of you for sharing this wonder story from a simpler time, long gone! This woman and I are probably not too far apart in age so I can definitely relate to her family stories!
,
I would want to live there too if I was her. What a really cool house! My maternal grandmother had one of those kelvanator refrigerators when I was growing up.
God bless her for sharing a wonderful memory tour with us all!❤💝
Omg what a beautiful home, someone please buy this house, the wood that’s in this house is some awesome, omg wish I had some money
How delightful to listen to Virginia's story
The house my grandma and my mom were born in , looked like this house.❤ Great storytelling.
Thank you! Make sure you check out our main page www.youtube.com/@AppalachianMemoryKeepers
It's stories like this that make people want a simpler life, why so many people are buying up land in the middle of nowhere, giving up the consumer rat race and building log cabins, off grid and becoming self reliant. Back in the early days people had little choice but these days it is definitely a life choice. We can learn a lot from these stories, thank goodness there are people keeping these stories alive for those of us lucky enough to have a choice.
A lot of what she talked about I remember doing the same or similar things as a child. Picking beans, canning, playing in the attic on the rafters....living out in the country. Thank you for perserving these memories.
everything she says is so true..times were so much harder and simpler back then..being born in 62 i do remember my grandparents and great grandparents very well..how they worked hard and lived simple..now i live in a big city and miss the times of growing up in rural nc..i visit often and have a spot on a lonely road i go and park..i walk back in the woods to sit a spell...and hear nature..nothing else..birds and love to hear the wind blow through the pine trees..i love how she got teary eyed as she sang the song...just hate they cut her off..
We didn't cut her off....we just transitioned into the recorded version of her singing her song.
Thank you, Virginia for sharing this beautiful memory. I was able to stay with my grandparents in the summer for two weeks with my little sister. They were very special times and I didn't want to go home either but knew better than to defy my Poppa. All he had to say was that our dog, Scamp, missed us so off we'd go. Your song was very touching.
i love her story and her memories. she lived in the best times. the world is so fast now, its good to see old living. i grew up in the good old day's too.
If you like our stories Sandra, you should check out our facebook page....facebook.com/appalachianmemorykeepers
Also, please feel free to share some of your stories there, we would love to hear them!
Thanks for saving all these great stories.
I love hearing about these old homesteads. Back then there was a deep connection to family and community. Now that's all fading away. It's so sad to see it going away and families falling apart. It was such happier times back then.
This is wonderful!!! Takes me straight back to when I was little and memories of my Papaw and Mamaw Hatfield. 🤗❤️🤗
That was EXCELLENT! I love how you were able to get a person to tell the history!!!
Reminds me of my Grandmama's house by the mill pond. I would love to live here. Thank you for sharing.
She and Her Family are awesome Americans . God Bless Y'all 🙏
Yeah, I miss my granny & granddad....I lived on their small farm until just b4 my 7th bday.....granny did sewing/quilting, needle work...canning...she could do anything...granddad always had a job, plus taking care of the place...he had a HUGE GARDEN.....HE ALSO could build,weld,knew everything there was to know...including they were good christians....
Yes, I wonder a lot about the farm home I have live in over a decade. Its never been modernized except 5 electric outlets in the entire 2 story home built in 1830. Still no insulation and it has asbestos shingling for siding which much of is long gone. It gets cold in north central Indiana 😵💫
I'm still trying to get my mom to write down some of her growing up because it's a forgotten day. They evidently didn't have indoor plumbing until she graduated at 17 in 57 when my parents married. She says she can remember revenuers sitting in trees watching the house growing up.
It's very important to capture her memories while you are still able!!!
How wonderful to know the story of this old house! Virginia has the most beautiful blue eyes I've ever seen.
I could listen to her stories all day!
Wasn't she great? You can watch all our stories at appalachianmemorykeepers.org
Beautiful interview.
I love the genuine, honest people that I hear in these videos. Respect🙏
We had one of those Wood Cook stoves when I was a kid and an outhouse. Oh and had to go to a spring to get water
I love hearing these stories... I've lived some of these things... Can't know where you're going, unless you know where you've been!
I absolutely loved this and the memories shared..and seeing the furnishings...❤❤
I loved growing up tgere. It was a kids dream & our granny & papa were tge best! Virginia Dare was my sister. We lost her to cancer a few years back.
@@marywagner5673
Would you please share some more memories you have of your family?
@@Fannieannie2024 thank you. I was next to the youngest of nine children to of which shortly after birth. So I was 13 years younger than my oldest sister Virginia Dare. My granny Flora passed away when I was almost 8 years old so I didn't have the years there as my older siblings did. But the few years I did have were precious to be. Like Dare said, they didn't have a whole lot but it doesn't seem they ever did without. They planted and and put up food all summer in order to have food through the winter months. I can remember Papa being a very humble man. I don't remember him being the type to love on us a lot but you could tell he loved us. He always carried Juicy Fruit gum in the front of his overalls for all of us kids. And we thought that was the biggest treat ever LOL and my sweet granny was everything a granny should be, soft spoken a heart of gold and enough love to go around for all of her children and grandchildren. They were members of Cane Creek Baptist Church in McGrady where Papa taught the choir. I can remember him teaching at the choir singing shape note music. If you've never heard it look it up. I love it to this day! We used to have the Johnson reunion there at Papa and Granny's house and as a little child it seemed like those tables of food went on forever! LOL it seemed like there was every kind of food you could ever dream of was there. Lol My granny married Papa Johnson when my mother was 6 years old. Granny's first husband passed away in 19 30 from pneumonia. So her and her four living children had a pretty rough life until she met and married Papa Johnson. His wife too have passed away and left him with two children to raise so marrying my granny was pretty much a marriage of convenience for both of them. They loved and lived many years together, from 1936 until 1969. Papa's daughter Beatrice decided that Papa and Granny should be split up at that point and she took Papa and put him in a nursing home in Dobson where he lived until 1974 and Granny came to live part of the time with one of her sons and with us part of the time until she passed away in 1970. It broke both of their hearts to be separated but there was nothing at that time to do to stop Beatrice. I can remember visiting Papa in the nursing home and it seemed like he just had no life left in him. That was one of the most heartbreaking things I ever witnessed as a young child into this day is still brings me to tears. My papa and granny both are gone now as well as my sister Virginia Dare and her husband Merle who traveled as the Couch Family with their bluegrass gospel band. They are all laid to rest on that little mountain side at Cane Creek Church with so many other members of our Absher, Felts family. If you still have family, parents and grandparents, love them and spend time with them. They are an open book just waiting to be asked about their lives. Take advantage of it. Get to know them that way you can pass their stories down for generations to come and by doing this you can always keep a little bit of them alive.
@@marywagner5673
Oh Mary you blessed me so by telling more of your families story. I hung on each word. God bless you sweet lady
and keep you till his return. Who owns the land & home now? I hope it's in the family.
@@Fannieannie2024 thank you so much!! Papa Johnson's great niece owns it. They built a house up about the homeplace.
greetings maam; this was an absolutely wonderful video and i enjoyed it to the fullest! btw, the roof is a work of art. amazing! may God bless you and yours.................g
Interesting. So differen't than life today.
What a wonderful memory of the simple life back in the day. Such a beautiful home and property. I know times were hard but the memories are more cherished than they are today. I'd fix that house up right back to the way it looked in it's heyday and live in as so. That garden space wow....just think of the good wholesome food you could grow. My Grandpa never had a big place but but he had a coal shed a 1/2 acre garden along with raspberry bushes and fruit trees. When I was 4 years old I cried every time we had to go back home, I wanted in the worst way to live with my Grandparents. Those are my beautiful memories. Thanks for sharing your memories with us and God Bless you doing so.🙏🏼
This video made my day.I found out last night i have the covid and i was down about it ..i watched this and how i wished i could live there even now..i would love to live n this house...i remember gong to stay with grandma down the road from us and ended up living with her all through my teenage years...how i miss my grandma and stayng with her in the old house with a porch and fan...thank you for sharing...and i have a feeling this lady and i would have lots to laugh and talk about...i would ask why she doesnt live there for one..the roof is in great ..i notice the porch needs some work but nothing too serious costly to fix.
Love this house. Love the covered porch! Well built. ❤️🤗
Makes me cry for the love of memories and people gone by.
thank you so much for that wonderful story, Virginia, you are indeed a treasure, the little stories you remember are just so special, and I know your grandees will love to hear all the little gems you will leave for them to pass onto their little ones. Beautifully done, congratulations. Love from Queensland Australia.
Klamath falls Oregon is listening and watching
This Lady is Precious. God Bless her
Can't begin to tell you what it meant to me just listening to this lady talk, it brought back a lot of good memories.
Horse drawn sled, canning beans, shockin corn and Sett'in up..yeah I remember those very well.
The house looks very nice I would live there might remodel living room. And. Kitchen looks like nice place to live
I'm distantly related to the Wilkes county johnsons
Well done Virginia... well done.....
Such a beautiful story and place! I ve been thinking about the best time of my childhood I would spend a week with my cousin at my Grandparents farm Fishing picking blueberries running around the pastures Just such a better simpler time! Thank ya
BLESS YOU! YOU ARE A KIND WISE LADY. I HOPE YOU TELL YOUR CHILDREN AND GRAND CHILDREN THESE STORIES.
This was great!!!!❤
Your life sounds just like mine. I do miss those days and family. I enjoyed your story. Thank you.
Thank you for making these videos I Love them!!
I've been by this house many times,so great learning the history of it.
Love the story thanks for sharing.
My condolences for your family 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏❤️❤️❤️❤️I could live here and love it
The song was beautiful
th-cam.com/users/shortsZolCXlrgUNY
From one Appalachian heart to another ♥
I love this it reminds me of old home week. The most amazing times when I was a girl and and becoming a woman on my grandparents farm in appling county Georgia. Thank you for this video and your other videos that bring the light back to my soul
Margaret Moore,I could almost reach out and TOUCH the love at Granny's farm in WILCOX county,GEORGIA !
@@ghayes6237 I miss being in Georgia. I'm definitely a peach 🍑🤫
Love this!! And, I really enjoyed hearing her song at the end.
This house is solid.. Still looks good 😍😍😍
I truly enjoyed this story. What a beautiful homestead with the creek and hills.
Granddaughter had wonderful tender memories of her Poppy.. ❤. Thank you . I can sleep soundly hearing these stories.
This is exactly the stories I've been looking for... ( INFORMATIONAL ! ) THANK YOU !!! 😘😘😘😘😘
wonderful stories!
Glad you enjoy them! Thanks for watching!
It is a shame that the house is slowly rotting away. Hopefully someone can restore it.
The house still looks nice.
Love the old stories!
I loved this! No flooring and playing on rafters? Wow. 😊
Spankings showed us where our limits ended. Kids nowadays don't have any limits!
Has great potential.
Absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much.
So interesting. The house looks very liveable. Thank you!!
That was so lovely! Wonderful memories ❤ thank you!
I am in Montana now but I miss my mountains.
The mountains will always be in you....no matter where you are!
But they are not the Appalachians. There is something so very spiritual and special about the Appalachian Mountains. God's fingerprints are just everywhere in those mountains...............
I agree!
That house is absolutely gorgeous… ❤️
Thank you for sharing and for sharing the song. God bless.
This was my sister-in-law years ago. I wonderful loving caring Christian lady. I loved her so so, she cares for my whole family. Love n miss you Aunt Dare
Beautiful interior!!! Good memories!!!!
Back in those days people had purpose in life.
Beautiful voice!
I have a Hoosier Cabinet and I remember my grandmother had one I just love them
This is awesome. Feels like home. Well done!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed!
that's a nice place, hard work with serenity
Thanks for sharing this. It was a some really nice memories you have. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing them 😊🙁
Thanks for listening
Love it...so true about todays youth..everything on a silver platter...most have no idea about how hard it was for people just to have the basic things in life
Thank you for sharing this story…..my mother’s and my story in Irving, Texas when my mother grew up from 1925, my grandfather from 1886, and me from 1947…times have changed and not necessarily for the better. I still have several of my Christmas dolls…one Alice in Wonderland Madam Alexander doll and my other favorite, my 1955 Tiny Tears with a whole box of clothes…several others but not many clothes….I LOVED my dolls and took good care of them. I love listening to this lady!
Wow! , what a great story.
I love it.. Please keep up the very good work. I love it.
Thank you.
Lots of love in the interview
What a sweetheart of a lady