We were destined for simple country life with great adventures and family-building. At least, I thought as much when I ran across this picture from the early eighties. It was taken in an Old Timey Photography Booth in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I remember the photographer telling us we looked authentic.
My husband probably never felt more at ease in his life. (The hat he’s wearing might have belonged to him. He had a similar one.)
A few years later, we had our first and only child. We were at our local Brushy Mountain Apple Festival, and I thought adding another old-timey image to our collection would be fun.
Without disclosing my age, this child is now in his early thirties, with a wife and daughter.
I love these pictures because they feel like connections to our past–replications of our ancestors through modern DNA. Our familial lines run deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and our lineage has multiple Revolutionary War Patrons. I am a member of the DAR–Daughters of the American Revolution–where we still honor these noble heroes who risked everything for the spirit of Freedom.
This blog is dedicated to simple country life, nature’s beauty, and what it means to live simultaneously close to the land and in sync with modernity. We will have a lot of fun together–exploring, decorating, cooking–and discovering how special life can be in its simplicity.
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Renee Johnson is the author of To Ride a Wylder Horse, Reminiscing Over Rainbow Gelato, Behind The Mask, Herald Angels, Acquisition, and The Haunting of William Gray. She is currently working on a sweet romance and a historical novel while editing a suspense novel with international flair–an homage to her love of travel and foreign food. She lives on a farm in North Carolina with her husband, Tony Johnson, and two spoiled German shepherds, Hansel and Hannah.
The Mountaineer Woman 