Beech Tree News Network

I’ve swung from a tie swing hooked to a tree limb.  I’ve swum in a pond where cows drank.  I’ve shot marbles on a dusty school ground, I’ve drunk cold well water at that same school as well.  I still say “yonder”, and “stay all-night” and “supper”.
I resent the South being put-down; in short, I’m a Southerner- born and bred.  It rankles me when something goes array and people say, “It went south.”  I hate slavery.  As far as I know none of my people ever owned slaves.  My Great Grandfather, Joe Vicks fought in the Union Army: 11th Kentucky Infantry Regiment.  Pa Joe was conscripted at South Carolton and discharged at Bowling Green.  In between came the battles of: Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga Creek, Lookout Mountain, and more.  Great Grandpa Joe was very much a Southerner.  He came home from the war, raised four girls and two boys.  One of the girls was my grandmother Locke (Mam-Maw). 
Had Grandpaw Joe lived south of Green River, he very likely would have been conscripted into the Confederate Army.  But he lived at New Cypress, where my own roots are…Greenville, R.I.
I know who I am and where I came from, because I came from a certain people and a certain place.  And I know my life has gone a certain way because of this place, a place I’ll never forget- or the people I won’t forget.
These people had a love of togetherness of land and of family; a shared language of endless stories told in a variety of accents: “Hit”, “hered”, “haint”, “taint” (Elizabethen English) not incorrect; we thought so, but not so.
Writer, Eudora Weltz (Mississippi), said of us: “There’s something in the water down here; this may account for our dozens of dialects, of our love of talking, of stories, and of those who tell them.
The old characters like Bob Lee… when the wine was passed to Bob at the New Cypress Baptist Church (one glass for all), instead of taking a sip, Bob would turn the glass up and down the whole thing.  This called for a pause and a refill… Bob would always smack his lips after consuming the wine.  The Lord’s Supper resumed.
Bob never married.  He has a niece here in Butler County.  We laugh about “Uncle Bob” when we see each other.
Kindest regards….