Synopsis "Tales From The Mountains: Recollections of My Youth (in English)"
J. T. Oney is the author of several fictional novels about the Morgan family from the mountains of Eastern Kentucky and books of non-fiction dealing with such varied subjects as war, politics, science, religion, and Islam. In this book the author tells of growing up in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. Under Part 1, Tales from the Mountains, the author begins with a series of stories about growing up in the mountains of Southeast Kentucky in the 1940s. The period in which the stories occur encompasses the end of the Depression, and was bookended by World War II and the Korean War. They were momentous events in our history that changed our nation's history and set it on a different path. However, because they were isolated in the mountains, the events seemed foreign to the author but did, nevertheless, contribute to his education and view of the world. In a large sense, they also contributed to his eventual desire to continuously observe and analyze the culture in which he lived. The tales take place in the isolation of the mountains of Eastern Kentucky where the next hollow seemed like a foreign country and the people encountered highly idiosyncratic. The tales begin with a Trip to Dayton as the author tells of his first trip outside of the mountain hollows and his encounter with foreign food, a teasing cousin, a brother too young to read, and a father who liked moonshine. The tales continue with Copper John Campbell, his mother's father, a brawling, ill-tempered, hard drinking Scotsman, head of the Campbell clan, who rode his white horse to kill Logan Hicks who lived in Number 9 hollow. The tales continue as you meet his father, a union coal miner and staunch supporter of John L. Lewis. You will accompany him to an Old Regular Baptist Church where the mountain preachers are 'sung down' for preaching too long. You will also encounter his grandfather, Will Oney, grandson of Blackhawk, and walk with them to his grandfather's two-room cabin on a mountain at the head of SaltLick Creek where he spent his summers and learned many of life's lessons. Under Part 2, My Fifth Grade Teacher, the author is now an old man and fondly remembers his youth and Mrs. Annis Clark, his fifth grade teacher. He remembers his grade school as a community school because of the close relationship that existed between teachers, parents and students. It was a school that the parents called 'our' school and not 'their' school. Most of all he remembers his fifth grade teacher and the changes she had on his life. In these two essays, previously published in a local mountain newspaper, the Mountain Eagle, he pays homage to her and, through her, all teachers.
