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Bessie Grows up in the Bluff: Collected memories of Bessie Gowan Bartlett Davis

by Sherian Howard

65 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #05-2120; ISBN 1-4120-7225-5; US$12.99, C$14.94, EUR10.67, £7.47

Get ready to take a small trip to another time and place. Hear how mountain families lived in the Bluff before it became part of the Smokey Mountains National Park.

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About the Book

About the Author

Excerpts

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About the Book

"Bessie Grows Up in the Bluff" is a patch-work quilt of mountain memories, folk lore, poems, and recipes. Bessie Fannie Mae Gowan was born in the Bluff on November 10, 1917, one year and one day before the peace signing of WWI. Far from the drama taking place on the world scene, Bessie knew only that she was "the baby" in a large loving mountain family. It was a simple time. Life revolved around growing and harvesting crops, going to church, and large Sunday dinners.

Bessie, now 88, has never forgotten that time and place. Here are her memories of a magical childhood...the sights, sounds, and smells...the mystery and mischief...the work and play. She writes of a time when mountain families lived their lives in harmony with the seasons, the crops, their faith in God, and little more.

Today, the Bluff is part of the Great Smokies National Forest near Hot Springs, N.C. Sometimes Bessie hikes back to the old church/school house with friends and family. She can still hear the haunting echoes of children laughing and grown-ups singing hymns from the steep hillsides. Her girl-self is there still, I think.

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About the Author

The author, Bessie's oldest granddaughter, lives and works in Asheville, NC. She calls her grandmother "Nanny." As a young child, she loved to sit with Nanny and listen to her stories of long ago. To see the gleam in her eye, and hear the joy in her laugh as she relived those events was so much fun. Over the years, Nanny would include bits and pieces of her memories, poems, and songs in her letters. She couldn't seem to end a letter without including some story or folk lore from childhood. Finally, she encouraged the author to put her memories in a book. "I just want people to know what it was like then," she explained. "When all us old folks die, no one will know what it was like to live in the mountains. Everything was so different then. We didn't know anything about the rest of the world. We just knew about going to church, raising food, and having fun."So began the project of "Nanny's book."

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Excerpts

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Catalogue Information

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