The Mail Box - February, 1987

Issue: February, 1987

Dear Mountain Laurel,
When I was a child I remember a paper that was published called "The Yellow Jacket." In one issue there was a poem about one pair of overalls that was handed down from one brother to another. I wonder if you have seen this poem. I would like to see and read it again. If you can find it please print it in THE MOUNTAIN LAUREL. I really enjoy your paper, I always read it from cover to cover.

Thank You,

Mrs. H. Spraker
Hillsville, Virginia 24343

Dear Mrs. Spraker,
We haven't heard of the poem you mentioned in your letter but maybe one of our readers will know where this poem may be found. Good Luck!

Susan Thigpen, Editor

Dear Mountain Laurel,
I got your November '86 issue at the Chattanooga AAA office and enjoyed it. Although I have not journeyed through your country, I've driven on I-81 through Roanoke many times and I-85 from Richmond to North Carolina a few times. Virginia is very enjoyable.

Please mail me collection # 1, Backroads and collection # 2, [Mountain Memories].

Sincerely yours,

F.D. Miller
Chattanooga, Tennessee

Dear Mountain Laurel,
Enclosed find order for A Special Backroads Collection # 1 and Mountain Memories [collection].

We enjoy your paper and have had most of your copies at one time or the other. We passed them on to friends and I hope they have subscribed to the paper. My parents are from this part of the country and I wish they were alive to enjoy the paper. I can see so much of them in the stories I read.

F.R. Dearing
Lynchburg, VA

Dear Editor,
I have had the wonderful experience of reading two copies of your paper and I can't tell you how much I enjoyed it. So much so that I am sending my order for a subscription.

The paper is marvelous and I enjoy old fashioned things, especially of the mountains and people who live there. I'm 58 now but when I was younger my parents and I used to go up in the mountains every fall. It was such fun to look forward to it from one year to the next. We went to Blowing Rock which is one trip I and my family really enjoyed. All the inns and motels were full and we went to the house of a family and they were out of rooms too. But, they took us in and gave us the guest room and we sat up late that night at the kitchen table and had coffee and talked way into the wee hours. That proves people who live in the mountains have hearts made of gold!

J.L. Henderson
Danville, VA

Editor's Note... The letter above was shortened because of space limitations on the Letter's Page.

Editor Mountain Laurel,
I enjoy your paper very much. I'm a displaced mountaineer from Wise County, Virginia, over on the Kentucky line. I'm ashamed to admit, I was introduced to your fine paper by a native Oklahoman, however I am a subscriber now.  I love Virginia but detest what the strip mines have done to "Old Virginia."

You had an article in December issue, page 6, entitled "Soppers and Gravy." Now let me tell you that the recipe for your spoon bread was not spoon bread but "pone bread." When I was much younger I was introduced to "spoon bread" at the Burton Hotel on Main Street in Danville, Virginia.

SPOON BREAD RECIPE

(Light and Souffle-like)

Pour 1 1/2 cup boiling water over 1 cup of cornmeal, stir until cool, add 1 tablespoon butter, 3 eggs yokes, stir until blended. Stir-in 1 cup buttermilk add 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon soda. Fold-in 3 egg whites, (beaten only enough to hold soft peaks). Pour into greased 2 quart baking dish. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake for 45 minutes.

Recipe Courtesy of,
J. D. Baker, Ocala, Florida.

Dear Mrs. Thigpen,
Read my first issues of The Mountain Laurel in August of this year and thoroughly enjoyed them. My favorite articles were those written by Ivalien Belcher as they depict warmth and caring for her fellow man as well as the well remembered way of mountain life.

My husband's mother and family lived in the white house across the street from the post office in Vesta, Virginia, and I've been researching the family of Wm. H. "Bucky" Hall and Celie Harris for years. Always look forward to visiting the many relatives we have up that way.

By the way, I tried some of the molasses cookies and they were d-e-l-i-c-i- o-u-s.

Have enclosed my subscription request and can hardly wait to get my very own first edition of your publication. Keep up the good work.

Thank you,

Mrs. R.T. Mills
Augusta, Georgia

Dear Mountain Laurel,
Please renew my subscription to THE MOUNTAIN LAUREL. Your paper is such a delight to read.

F. Lockwood
Hersey, MI

Dear Mountain Laurel,
We really enjoy THE MOUNTAIN LAUREL. We come down on the Parkway every chance we get. We came down election day and got cabbage from [Walker] Painter and ate at Meadows of Dan, Virginia.

J. Suiter
Princeton, West Virginia