A Trip Down Possumtrot Road

Special to Free Republic ^ | 21 October 2003 | John Armor (Congressman Billybob)

[Eaker]

Ping to a thoughtful read.

[WaterDragon]

Thanks for the ping. I wish BillyBob great success in his campaign!

[WaterDragon]

Thanks for the ping. I wish BillyBob great success in his campaign!

[an amused spectator]

Dang. As usual, your words are poetry.

[billhilly]

Very, very eloquent. As an oldster now, and having grown up in hardscrabble rural America, a look forward is almost like a look back. "Things are tough and getting tougher" was a nightly refrain back then. Your Possum Trot was my Pea Ridge and we substitute Kentucky for North Carolina. In the end, there was a powerful resolve in our folks, and it usually ended in "we'll get by."

We need folks like you here in congress. I sure hope it works out that way for you, and for us.

[billhilly]

Howie, your "clack clacking" up the Tennessee River as a boy strikes me at the heart. Many days as a boy I stood on the bluffs in Hickman, Kentucky watching the towboats move massive numbers of barges up and down the river. One of the places I stood watching was behind the library, just across the street from the elementary school where I attended the earliest years of school. From the books checked out there I was familiar with many of the towns and cities along the Mississippi, the river that flowed beneath those bluffs.

Fifty or sixty miles east of there grew the massive dam that turned the Tennessee River into one of the country's largest lakes. I hope your boyhood, like mine, included passage through the locks at Kentucky Lake, outside Gilbertsville, Kentucky.

[azhenfud]

Reading your work brings back some childhood memories - some good, some less than good.

It's well known, once a farm has been destroyed by adverse government and commerce policy, there's little chance of it ever returning or being replaced.

As you so eloquently point out, farmers can absorb and adjust from the occasional punch from bad weather or from bad crops, but the constant and increasing barrage from bad policy wreaks blow after blow that disheartens and destroys the inner hope one must have to farm.

In summary, not only are the policies hostile to the farm proper, but they're equally destructive of the farmer's hope for maintaining their standards, much less for better.

Commendations to you for a fine article, and best wishes for your bid to help lead this State.

Az

[EagleMamaMT]

This was beautiful. Thank you. And you're so right about there being Possumtrot Roads in every state. Here in rural Missouri, we're facing the most of the same problems. I wish we had someone running for Congress here who could speak about the problems as eloquently as you have.

[wattsmag2]

If ya include the Black Mountains crosschain, and I think most do, that maximum would be 6684 feet.

[Congressman Billybob]

I was using the highest point on the Eastern Continental Divide, on the spine of the Great Smokies, as my reference point. My home is located on that Divide. The rain on one side of the roof flows to the Atlantic, via the Chatooga and Savanah Rivers. From the other side, it flows to the Gulf of Mexico, via the Little Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers.

John / Billybob

[Howie]

I remember a double-lift lock along there, Wilson, or something like that. It had a 90 foot total lift that was spooky when you got to the top and looked down.

[Howie]

When I was a boy the southern cotton farmers were in a crisis of over production. The feds stepped in and put limits on the acreage allowed per farmer.

A few in my neighborhood discovered soybeans. They were much easier to grow, requiring little labor. I suppose by now they are over-produced too.

It's too bad someone can't "discover" a new crop that is suited to small plots/farmers. Of course if someone discovers a NEED for tobacco other than snorting/smoking it that will solve most of the problem.

[cav68]

I grew up on a small farm in Isle of Wight county in southeastern Virginia. The farm itself is located on part of the the Old Pine Tree Plantation, the majority of the Old timers have gone and have been replaced by their children who have become the Old Timers of which I am one now. Our farm house is located on the Blackwater River which forms a peninsula which helps even more to seculde it from all others. Hurricane Isabel caused an extreme amount of damage to the tree crop and we have been cutting trees from our excess road for almost a month and with the grace of God I hope to have the road open at the end of the day on Saturday. As we toll along with our work we always take time to see the beauty the old place displays each time I visit, it remainds me of a quote from the movie Gone with the Wind, " The earth is the only thing that is worth living for" the smell of the soil especialy this time of the year as it is harvest time for the peanuts and corn and soy beans. As the combines come in and gather the fruits of bounty the earth give us a smell which seems to bring out only the best in the people involved, they all are happy and glowing with pride for its at this time they tend to share even more openly with family friends and if you are lucky enough starngers from time to time. My youngest son has the same feelings about the simplicity of the farm from riding on the tractor to a simple walk along the swamp area and he really gets excited when he sees the wildlife right up close, his favorite is the Wild Turkeys, as they are so colorful and he knows when you see one you have become part of that animals day. Well I am long winded but I too enjoy a simpler time where beauty at this time of year in my area is worth each morning I get out of bed, I can hope that others enjoy the scenery in their areas during the wonderful fall season. I hope everyone takes time one afternoon and watch the sun go down, the sky is truly a HD plasma screen of color.

[Congressman Billybob]

Thank you very much for your heartfelt response to my article. Replies like yours have been among the most gratifying posts to my writing.

I agree with you about two specifics you mention. I live in the middle of an oak forest with substantial undergrowth. More than two dozen times this year, flocks of wild turkeys have come grazing on our lawn. At most, we had 19 of them at one time. (It would have made a turkey hunter's eyes roll back in his head.)

And, as for sunrises and sunsets -- when I rebuilt this old farmhouse I put ten windows at two levels in the master bedroom, all facing to the south, southeast, and southwest. In the winter, all the kalaidoscope (sp?) colors of the rising and setting sun are spread out on sky before the house, and painted across the foothills of the Blue Ridge up to 80 miles away. It is different every day, and as you say, it is always breath-taking.

Thanks for taking time to write of your experiences.

John / Billybob

[lilylangtree]

My friend's husband (they live in Carthage, NC) just lost his job about 3 weeks ago. Forwarded this article to them asking for their comments.

[Congressman Billybob]

Thank you for forwarding the article. I look foward to hearing the response.

And, how did you arrive at your screen name? I've been to Langtry, Texas, and I've read Lily's biography. LOL.

John / Billybob

[Oorang]

Excellent piece, thank you. Made me long for my childhood summers spent in N.C. at my grandparents. Your part of the state is truly a beautiful place.

I sent your ArmorforCongress website to a couple of cousins in the western part of the state.

I would like your opinion as to what can be done, or should be done, to keep jobs in America.

Thanks, and good luck to you in your upcoming endeavors.

[Smokin' Joe]

They're just playing....'possum.

[F.J. Mitchell]

"They're just playing...'possum."

They are good at it too.