Common Folks: Escaped Pig, Missing Husband, & a Heart Attack
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ก.ย. 2024
- In this video series we are reading a book Verna Mae Slone wrote about her life in in the Appalachian Mountains and talking about the things that prick our minds as a way to celebrate Appalachia. The book title: Common Folks by Verna Mae Slone.
Previous readings from Common Folks: • Common Folks - Life in...
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Heartwarming story. Thank you.👍💕
What a great read thank you Tipper. God Bless. Jean
My favorite line: "I'm not complainin'; I'm explainin'." Spoken like a true native of the Appalachians.
I liked that too 😀
Me too!
Enjoying this book very much. ..'not complaining, just explaining '... Favorite thing she says. Thanks for another good read, Tipper. Can't wait for the next one.🌹
I love story time. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for sharing.
I so enjoy you reading.
Looking forward to next Friday.
Thank you
Tough Brave Wonderful woman Verna Mae
Thanks beautiful
Oh my goodness . What another Great Read thanks Tipper
Just love this book and this wonderful Lady!!
One of my favorite parts of this chapter was when her sister made her walk home by herself but then followed to make sure she was alright. That was probably one of the hardest things her sister ever had to do. It also amazes me how far these people had to walk to get anywhere. I can’t even imagine having to walk 5 miles to use a phone and then 5 miles back home all in the rain. They were very strong people. Look forward to next week! ❤️
Glad you enjoyed it 😀
Well life was so hard in those times but at the same time so beautiful and simple, yes and all the walking they had to do and just love hearing her say I'm not complaining just explaining really enjoy this book thanks for the reading Tipper
God bless y'all
Tipper i just love theses stories .
Glad you like them!
Enjoyed the reading again!! Thank you for doing this! I teared up when she talked about her sister following her home to make sure she made it ok. As you said, such love!
Thank you reading another chapter Tipper. I miss those days of old when times was simpler
Thanks Tipper, wonderful listening! JH
Thank you Tipper, this will give something to listen to before bed!🙂
Our author has resiliency in extra measure! Her gracious outlook gives a lasting impression. I appreciate her story. And Tipper, your reading lends a special quality to the story's colorful portrait. Thank you!💐
I love her descriptions of sounds and everyday things. I can smell those leaves as she crunches them underfoot! 😉 One of my favorite sounds is the barks and squeaks of squirrels if they think something is threatening them or their babies. Especially fun if you can see the “tail language” that goes with it! Blessings to you and yours. Til next week, Rev. Chris
thank you for sharing these stories. verna mae was sure an amazing person. it pains me that she keeps apologizing for not being as educated as she wanted because she paints pictures with her life so clear that I can see her in my mind. she tells how hard things were for people just to survive and yet no complaining - just explaining. she has such a kind grateful attitude about life that plainly points to God for all she had and experienced.
I'm loving this story...
I loved it!!!
I love these stories. Verna Mae was a strong resilient woman as most all of the people in Appalachia were. My father worked in the mines for about 40 years. We lived in a coal camp town for the first 5 years of my life in a duplex house. When the coal company sold the houses my dad bought a 33 acre farm and house. It was much better than living in the duplex.
I remember the old cotton mill villages in Gaston county,N.C. The cotton mill owned all the houses employees lived in and the grocery store. Many of those houses still stand in Gaston county but have been renovated.
When you were talking about all the wonderful sounds around us big and small that fill our ears every day, I was reminded of a tv western (Wanted Dead or Alive: Steve McQueen) Buz and I were watching lately. The girl was deaf, but she wrote in a journal. She said since she could not hear she made up the sounds in her mind. The sound of her father saying her name, the sound the trees made in the breeze, the sound the birds make also. She said she had created her own world of sounds and had put sounds to everything she could not hear. It was such a sweet story. We take so much for granted. The things we can hear, see and smell. When not everyone can. Have a great week!
So true! Thank you for sharing that 😀
The sounds she was talking about was one of my favorites parts, that I also pay attention to. I loved the way her sister tricked her but was doing her a favor! Thats the tuff love. Kids in todays time don't realize, in comparison, how easy things in life are today.
Tipper, thanks once again for sharing and reading to us!
Enjoyed this ! Another great section of the book! I love the sounds too tipper ! I love hearing the birds , katydids, the screech owls at night, the footsteps of family. All very comforting sounds . Like you, I know who is walking by their footfall. I have traveled through west Virginia quite a bit and I've been through the coal towns , I've seen the coal mines , seen mountain top removal, seen milky colored streams. It is very depressing to see. I'm so thankful we never had this happen to our beautiful western North Carolina mountains. I've has heart surgery in the past and I've talked to my cardiologist quite a bit . I have always taken care of my health, exercised , consistently eat right. My cardiologist has told me that over half the cases he sees are inherited heart problems/disease. It's genetics. Of course the other half are lifestyle choices . But sometimes it doesn't matter what you do , when it's inherited...thank you tipper . Appreciate y'all always. God bless...🙏❤️
Thank you Ben! Sorry to hear you have heart problems too-I'm glad you stay in good touch with your doctor and hope you don't have any future problems 😀
OH and try to get any clothing today for 15 cents. Just amazing Tipper. Thank you so much for your telling Verna Mae Slone's story.
I always love to listen to the stories you read. Sometimes Friday just can't get here fast enough so I can hear what is next in the book you are reading. Thank you for taking the time to read stories to us. God Bless you & the family.
I especially liked the part, that you mentioned, too, about the 'sounds'. All the ones she mentioned were just right. Also, the " ' I'm not complain'...just explainin' " . It's easy to admire her simple determination. Thanks
Laughter and tears for me in this chapter. Tender tears and sad ones too. I'd like to find and read a copy of her book about her daddy.
Sounds like my grandmama life with her sisters & brothers. Emma, Velma, Willard, Woodrow & Alvin. Love listening to Grace my grandmama talk about them grow up in the Hills of Kentucky. Thanks Tipper! Enjoyed!!
Alicia Jean’nette from Kentucky living in Arkansas
Loved her saying “Not complaining, just explaining”. She is something else for sure!
Just a marvelous book. I am SO glad that she fulfilled her desire to write. What stories, indeed. Thank you!
Actually love the whole book. We sold our place in Blairsville 5 years ago. It just wasn't the same place when we bought it in 1992. Miss the old flea market there in Murphy. Horrible it burnt down. Thanks again.
I have heart failure from a virus that started at age 29. Took me 4 years to get back to fully functioning then I had a growth on my aortic valve that needed open heart surgery at 36. The virus can come back at any time but the good Lord saw fit to carry me into at least the age of 54 that I am now. Not sure why but I am grateful. I hope that he can look at me and say well done though good and faithful servant especially with all the extra time he gave me that I truly did not deserve. God bless! Enjoying this reading!
Bless you Tina! I'm sorry you've been through all that. I will be praying for your continued health!! 😀
Verna Mae had a life time of education , and possibly over half of that education was self-taught .
Enjoyed !
Once again, Carlos and I enjoyed your reading as we ate breakfast. You read in such a way we SEE the story. So much I could say because it's all good and we get an understanding of life back then. Thank you. ❤
Glad you enjoyed it 😀
Do you still hear whippoorwills? as a child I would hear them every evening in the summer. I have often wondered if they had left our state entirely, thank you for the stories, I pop in every Friday evening something I really enjoy.
So glad you enjoy them! We don’t hear them near as often as we used too.
She's such a character...and her sister impressed me with her tough love. Wonderful book... thanks Tipper 🤗❤️
Summed up, pretty plumb, Ms. Tipper, @ 28:37 : "...It's the least things that make your life, enriches it, and makes up the whole of your life: A lot of times, not them "important" things..." @ 29:20 "...You can tell who's walkin' by the sound of their footsteps. I really love that...'" Me , too, Ma'am and professor Verna Mae Slone and after, everything you expressed with the terrible heart troubles.
Verna Mae was a tough woman! Heart attack n no help. All that walking ,everything. She must of had a close relationship with the Lord. Tks for all the stories Tipper! Plz pray for my son Matt he's in danger and I don't know where he is, but God does and prayers change things I know 🙏 ❤
I'm sorry Cindy. I will pray for him!!
Praying
Praying in Virginia, too. May Matt look to our Father in Heaven for guidance, and take the Holy Spirit as his guardian, and Jesus Christ as his grace.
I too liked that her sister followed her home. Oftentimes those who show tough love are the ones who have real love.
Her comment about God making us be still, and take time to think on the important things is so right, but when she said “There is nothing except Jesus that I love more than my children” she said it all!! Blessings
Got to admit, been a minute,since I had the opportunity to listen to ur reading, glad I did ur way of doing it is way calming, did strike me funny when them docs said nervous break down , I right away said na , never guessed a heart attack. Talking about the difficulty of a phone reminded me , of when I was 12 years old , times where lean for my family,the house phone (land line ) cut off . After awhile, if u still did not pay ur bill. The phone company would come and get their equipment. (Because u leased the phone from them )Any Who The Funny is , The man had to use the restroom, apologize that he had to ask. NEXT THING WE HEAR IS Ma'am ain't no toilet paper , my whole household yelled up , See them Yellow Pages next to the toilet 🤣🤣🤣. Can't get more real then this ! Man that was 50 years ago ,
😀
Both my Grandpa’s worked in coal mines & my Mom’s Papa died from a coal mine cave-in when she was 13 years old. My Dad had to quit school in 10th grade to go to work in the mines during the depression to help take care of his younger siblings. But he got out of the mines before long & invested in a saloon. Not long after that he was drafted during WWII.
Love this chapter! “Not complainin, just explainin”!! 💕 and love when her sister made her walk home by herself and followed her to see she made it ok. Verna Mae was so strong doing all the walking she had to do!! And her heart attack!! My Daddy was a coal miner for 20+ years and ended up with black lung!! Hated it and that company store!! Thanks Tipper for your readings. Love them! God bless and love to all!! 💕🤗🙏🏻
“Down by the green river where paradise lay”. John Prine was a national treasure ♥️
We use to love the Whipperwills. For some reason they all left. I haven't heard one in 40 years.
I’ve been listening to some the readings of this book. I live here in southeast Kentucky, the County the story takes place in is called Knott. I live in Letcher County where the hospital at Whitesburg was mentioned, me and two of my three kids were born at that hospital.
I’m a fourth generation coal miner, I worked thirty years as a coal mine electrician.
I’m proud of my Appalachian heritage, I’m old fashioned. I have lots of stories and memories of the challenges and struggles of living during that time that were shared by my grandparents.
Thanks for sharing the book.
Thank you Chris! I'm so glad you're enjoying the book 😀 and thank you for sharing your perspective!
These books make me think there is so much we are missing in our modern times.
Thank you so very much Tipper. Love your Friday book readings. 😊 such an enjoyable treat.
So glad you enjoyed it 😀
I love her life story. I love when she says not complaining just explaining.
I really enjoy these readings! Just to put walking into a 'time' context: most adults average a walking speed of ~ 3 mph. Given that, to walk 5 miles it will take 1.67 hrs (or ~ 1 hr 40 min). One way....in the rain. I can not fathom even walking a mile to a grocery store, buying groceries, and toting all that back home!
Thank you Johnny! I can't either 😀
I enjoy your Friday readings very much. I had to laugh when she said " the next time you get lost, you can go hunt your own self". 😄
I loved that too 😀
Wow, she sure was one tough woman, for sure…I enjoyed this chapter 😊
Praying 🙏 for you and your family
Heart attacks seemed more prevalent when I was growing up. My wife's dad died at age 49 from a heart attack leaving her fatherless at age four and a half. Her youngest brother died from a heart attack on our back step and he was just 50. There are a number of reasons why we don't have heart attacks as often today. Statin drugs and less smoking and our knowledge of how to prevent them seems to have helped. Verna Mae would have been the same age as my mama. Times were tougher back then. Love the story, Tipper.
Sorry for the heart issues in her family Norence.
"Not complainin', only explainin'"...I like that...
My grandfather worked in a coal mine for a while in the 1930s and didn't have much good to say about it, other than it was a steady paycheck..
Incredible woman, so resilient. Her sister Frances was so dedicated to Verna Mae when she had her heart attack. What love and devotion.
I love the names of the children and her name too, wow she was a busy woman with all the pregnancies. You mentioned in the book the tinkling of the cowbells. That brought to my mind the other day I saw cows in the field that never wore cowbells until this day. So I drove back to the farmer who owned the cows and asked him. Sir why are your cows suddenly wearing cow bells. He said simply and I Quote " I woke up yesterday morning and discovered their horns wouldn't work." You look lovely in these colours Tipper.
Love that story! Thank you Patrick!
Thanks again Tipper for another great video story. 👍🙏
Glad you enjoyed it 😀
Thanks so very much for these stories!
Glad you like them!
Hi Tipper I just started reading Light to the Hills written by Bonnie Blaylock. It’s about a lady who brought books to the Appalachian Mountains of Eastern Kentucky.
Sounds great I'll have to look for it 😀
Me and my wife both love your channel.
Thank you 😀
My dad and his people were from Pocahontas and Greenbriar counties West Virginia. I always remembered our summer vacations going from Texas and Louisiana to visit in West Virginia. Loved that area. My grandfather, grandmother and her mother lived in the same house in Rupert W VA. The cooked all their delicious food / meals and home bread and scratch cakes in an oil fashioned 8 top coal stove !!!
The cooked bread loaves Twice a week to sell to all the old folks who were no longer cooking their own bread and cakes for special occasions. My grandfather kept a milk cow too so there was fresh milk and butter.
My grandfather was addicted to caugh syrup 1 to 1 1/2 bottles a day. That was in the 60's & 70's when it still had codine in it.
My grandfather also worked in the WPA on several projects.
Blue Ridge Parkway above the James River at Buchanan VA and helped build several State Parks in West VA,. Droop Mountain and Babcock were a couple I new about but there several others.
Their daughter, my Aunt , was the first Post Mistress in a Greenbriar , West Virginia that was her lifelong career.
My greatgrand mother was from Hillsboro, WV and as child lived next door to Pearl S .Buck family home place.
Sadly almost all my cousins from Greenbriar WV left and moved to Roanoke, VA for work and had /made good careers working in the large tire factory. My father left after going into the Army for the last year of WW II ended up a career in the Air Force flying on several different types of larger type military planes. Other than visiting his folks once every few years he never ever expressed an interest of moving back " home" after retirement.
I gathered he never liked living there as a child, growing up very poor and that hard life was to much of a bad memory for him.
But we always had great family vacation visit back in WV.
I will always have very fond memories of my visits to that part of Appalachia.
Thank you for sharing about your family and for watching!
good
I listened a little out of order ☺️. I enjoyed the reading🥰
Another great read !! ❤️❤️
Thank you 😀
Thank you for this reading. I don't live back where you do, but I sure had ancestors that did!!! I love stories about the Appalachian mountains, that s about all I read. Gods blessings 🙏
I love Appalachian Women,with all due respect of course. My Momma's One & hers was too! GOOD FOLK💪
That woman was so strong. Nothing got her to give up and say I can't do this anymore. I love that phrase "not complainin" which I think I will adopt. I hope Granny had a lovely birthday. She looked as though she was enjoying herself and it's really good she has so much family around her. I was shopping this week and saw root beer on the shelf so I brought one home to try. I can safely say I won't repeat it. I think it smells like Pepto Bismol! Mind you I can't stand chamomile either.😂
😀 Thank you Margaret!
I really enjoy Friday book reading. I too like the description of the sounds. And the miles they walked! Mercy! Have a great weekend, you’ll probably have rain 🙂. I drove my husband 2 hours to town and 3 hours home so he could do physical therapy, all in a white out blizzard, we had 6 “ more snow when we got home. I just keep telling myself it’s spring snow.😂
Oh goodness! Glad you made it safely 😀
Thank you, and thank you for wishing my husband’s knee a healing. I just haven’t had time to make it back over to the video to thank you where you told me that. You’re so kind. It’s still snowing and we have at least five more inches of snow on top of the other. I’ll be plowing snow tomorrow!
I’m from a coal mining town,the town that the Upper Big Branch Mining disaster occurred. Our community depends on the jobs from coal but I’ve seen the destruction it causes. They are getting ready to open a strip mine, close to where I live. We need the jobs but I hate the thought of our mountains being stripped. I’ve lived here my entire life.
Thank you for sharing your perspective!
A neighbor has chickens so I hear the rooster in the am. My favorite part was her sister following her home. Looking forward to hearing you read more next week.
Thank you Frank 😀
Stop talking about those wonderful sounds at your home.Gonna make me cry. Just kidding about stopping. I love it. Keep up the good work
😊 thank you
I keep thinking how hard life was for just about all people living in the mountains back then. Walking 5 miles in the rain to make a phone call, chasing down their pig that escaped at midnight and having to quit school now and then to help the family survive. She only made 15 cents for each dress she sewed and still had enough money left to make her a dress or clothes for her baby on the way. Determination and hard work made the way for them. Thanks for story, Tipper. I really look forward to them each Friday. Hugs from the southeast coast of Florida 😎🦩🌞🦩😎
It’s amazing that she didn’t know she had a heart attack she’s so lucky it didn’t kill her . My husband had one and fell off a ladder about twelve feet when he was working. Some how he survived thank goodness. 😊
Oh goodness! I'm glad he survived 😀
So true! And usually they have congestive heart failure from having a heart attack.
So true! And usually they have congestive heart failure from having a heart attack.
I’ve been waiting all week for this! ❤
😀
I’ve been listening to some of your readings of this book. I live here in southeast Kentucky, the county that the story takes place is called Knott. I live in Letcher county where the Hospital at Whitesburg was mentioned, I was born at that hospital as was two of my three kids.
I’m a fourth generation coal miner, I worked 30 years as a coal mine electrician.
I’m proud of my Appalachian heritage, I love the old time ways. Lots of memories made and things learned from my grandparents. I’ve listened to many stories about the challenges and struggles of there early life.
Keep up the good work.
Frances was Verna May's physical therapist without knowing the term. 😊
😀
Enjoyed this chapter very much, it brings back a lot of memories of my Dad working in the coal mines in Southeastern KY in the 50s, it seems so long ago, thanks Tipper.
Glad you enjoyed it 😀
I liked the part about the sounds. One of the things I miss is the sound of a cashier ringing up your groceries one at a time. No beep beep beep like it sounds now. Or the sound of a rotary dial phone. Those things just seem comforting to me.
I love those sounds too 😀
I’m grateful that I’m old enough to remember those sounds. I’ll never forget the ugly yellow rotary phone on the kitchen wall with a 3 foot cord. And only 3 channels on the big old TV set, that also acted as a little table to throw our book bags on when we got home from school!
@@sandsquid1 book bags weren’t invented when I was in school. We also used paper bags to make book covers for school books. It was a simpler time to be going to school. The worse thing that ever happened was not getting into the “It” girl group at lunch time. 😂😂😂😂
Being from Michigan we call grocery carts, well, carts. I remember shortly after moving to Georgia I was at a store checking out and the girl asked me if I wanted a buggy. I was confused by the question. I thought what kind of buggy? Dune buggy? I didn't know what to answer and kind of hemmed and hawed a bit. She got exasperated with me and told another employee to get me a buggy. He brought me a cart to put my stuff in. She must of thought I was just another dumb yankee but at least I learned what a buggy means in the south.
😀
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I tell my husband all the time that I’m not complaining that am just explaining. Sometimes he thinks I’m fussing when I’m just trying to tell him what happened.
😀 Love that!
My grandpa was a Diamond Driller in Wilkes-Barre Pa. He died when my Daddy was just 11. Black Lung. My Daddy had to quit school in the 9th grade to work and support his family as he was the oldest. He finally got his HS diploma when I was in High school. We were super proud of him. I miss him very much. He died at only 63.
Thank you for sharing about your family! I'm so sorry you lost him so young.
This is one of my favorite readings she is such a wonderful storyteller
Folks from here in N.I. suffer higher than most on these Isles from heart disease Tipper. It's been found to be caused by a genetic mutation called Hemochromatosis, or the Celtic disease. It's caused by high iron content in the body and causes damage to the heart muscle. As a lot of people in Appalachia have ancestry from here it's not surprising that there sounds to be a high incidence of it there too .
Fascinating! Thank you Wallace for sharing that 😀
My favorite part was about the sounds. When I was little I had to go to bed before my older brothers and sisters and I can remember laying in my bed listening to them and my parents talking downstairs and the sound of the TV as well asleep.
But, the part about her trying to get to the store with all the little ones made me remember my experiences with my boys. I have five sons but my last came much later than my first four. When I had four little ones their father worked six days a week but sometimes he worked the full seven days. On the weeks that he worked six days I would just try to run all my errands on the day he was home but on the other weeks I would wake up around four in the morning so I could get to the 24 hour Walmart, do my shopping, then get back home before he had to leave for work by 7:00am. There were plenty of times I still took all of them with me. They loved going to Publix with me. On the weekends the employees would hand out samples at the end of every aisle. Then at the deli the lady would give each one of them a slice of deli meat and a slice of cheese. At the bakery kids used to get one free cookie. Then at the seafood counter they loved to visit the lobsters in the tank. Going to Publix was quite an event not to be missed.💜
Love those memories!
0:36 I can't be the only one shocked that a child still young enough to have a tricycle had the ability to get a knife to cause that kind of injury. Wow
What in the world was involved in the medical exam? Did they require a pelvic exam? Unfortunately, I understand what it is like to be misdiagnosed & want to quit after enduring the treatment. It's a long story. Had it been back then, I would have died
Yep, it's me again!
😀 Thank you Papaw!
Heart attacks are not common in women. How terrible that she should have had to suffer that way. I'm loving this story.
So glad you're enjoying it 😀
That archaic saying “hard work won’t kill you”, is dismissive. The empathy I have for those before me, present and after, that endured and will endure hardships not intended by our creator but accepted and imposed by fellow man, runs deep.
❤
I think sometimes it is forgotten that the coal miners have provided heat and power to many many people over the years. It isn't just providing for their families, they have provided so much for so many more.
So true! Thank you 😀
Does the book tell us how many children she had? It sounds like she had a lot.
👍👍👍
I wait for you to read to me it is so much nicer to have you Tipper to read to me !!! It is Friday afternoon time for me !!! Have other things I watch also but this is Friday Afternoon Reading !!! I remember once walking with my First Born who was Sick in the middle of winter time off of the hill !!! The bus I was going to take to the Doctors office had come and gone right pass me !!! I thought I was going to have to walk 10 miles with a Hot First Born who was so sick !!! A van pulled on up and the Man driving it said you want a Ride ??? I looked at him and saw all of the kids in the van (((there were 8 little ones in there with HIM ))) I thought well sure I will go with you !!! He took me to the doctors office and waited and then drove me home then !!! That was a ANGEL in the Driver's seat then !!!
Love that story Linda! So glad he helped you 😀