The Mail Box - December, 1985

Issue: December, 1985

Dear Bob and Susan,
At the present time both I and Patti Troxler are subscribers to The Mountain Laurel and we both enjoy it. Patti and I are getting married on Nov. 16 and there's no longer any need for us to get 2 copies. Please change my address to [Patti's] and renew my subscription for a year. We're going to let Patti's subscription lapse.

Thanks,

E. Smith
Greensboro, N.C.

Dear Ed and Patti,
Congratulations and our very best wishes for your future. I'm sure all who are reading this wish you well also.

Everyone at
The Mountain Laurel

Dear Friends at Mt. Laurel:
I am writing to request information on back issues of the paper.

I would like to buy back issues from the first printing through Nov. 1984. If you would please write me if it's possible to get them and total price, I will send you a check.

We now subscribe but missed the first issues.

We wouldn't trade the papers we have for a "farm in Texas."

We love them.

Thank you,

Mrs. C.J. Zachary
Lafayette, IN

Dear Mr. Heafner:
Please send me your 32 page collection of the BACKROADS TOURS. I love areas that are "for real" and not just made for tourists. This sounds like what I've needed to find those special places off the beaten path.

Thank you,

J.A. Lindley
Pittsboro, NC

Dear Readers,
In our November issue, we printed a story about Shirley Mitchell. We were saddened to hear that Mr. Mitchell died  the night that issue was printed. Mr. Mitchell may have lost his wealth by the time of his death, but for a while, he lived the all-American dream - that any person, no matter what their beginnings, can work and achieve success.

Susan Thigpen, Editor

To The Mountain Laurel,
Last Friday evening a nice surprise came my way. My wife answered a phone call and told me some lady wished to speak with me. Well this lady had read the November issue of The Mountain Laurel and gotten a nostalgic touch of Floyd County from it. The picture of Andrew J. Weddle family funeral group recalled old memories of the past, for as she said, "The man leaning on the crooked stick was my grandfather Joel Weddle." The other men with white beards were her great uncles (one by marriage). None of the others had white beards. Joel was the oldest living member of the group when the picture was taken.

Why was this phone call a surprise or unusual? Until the lady saw the picture she had never heard of me, nor had I heard of her. She lives in Troy, New York.

Frank Hylton
Martinsville, VA

[Dear Mountain Laurel:]
I recently saw an article concerning your paper and having been an American History teacher for 30 years. I have a keen interest in early America and its crafts. I am sending a check for one year's subscription to your newspaper.

R. Jimison
Bowling Green, OH

[Dear Mountain Laurel:]
I am searching for a poem that I feel sure originated with the mountain people of the Blue Ridge It is the marriage ceremony in rhyme. The part that I know goes like this: "Jim will you take Beth with no regret/ to love and cherish 'til you perish," and it goes on and on.

If any of your readers can supply the next of the poem I would very much appreciate it. Also enclosed is my check for a year's subscription.

D.R. Wallace
Lynchburg, VA

Dear Sirs:
Just read article in Greensboro News about what you folks are doing. I think it's really great!

Enclosed is a check for a years subscription to "Mountain Laurel."

I have a great feeling for that beautiful country and its people. My g-g-grandfather settled on Bull Mountain in 1790.

Sincerely,

H. Trent
Reidsville, NC

P.S. Would you like a story? You may have heard it already. One of my great-great uncles planted corn on a mountain side so steep that he fell out of the cornfield and broke his leg. It's true.

Dear Mr. Trent,
We printed the story about William Trent, who fell out of his corn field near Lover's Leap, Patrick County around or before the turn of this century. It was told by his grandson, 87 year old Henry Harris of Stuart, Virginia. It appeared in our April, 1984 issue. I'm sorry but we don't have enough of those back issues to mail out, but it definitely will be one of the stories included in an upcoming addition to the Laurel Library in an issue called Mountain Memories.

Dear Mountain Laurel:
If you should run across a recipe for old-timey fried apple pies. Would you print it or mail it to me? Thanks,

R.K. DeTar
Lexington, NC

Dear Mrs. DeTar,
What a coincidence! We already had planned to put that very recipe in this issue. We hope you enjoy it.

Susan Thigpen, Editor