The Path Was Steep (26 page)
Read The Path Was Steep Online
Authors: Suzanne Pickett
Tags: #Appalachian Trail, #Path Was Steep, #Great Depression, #Appalachia, #West Virgninia, #NewSouth Books, #Personal Memoir, #Suzanne Pickett, #coal mining, #Alabama, #Biography
wallboss — the supervisor of a crew of miners.
windlass — a thick axle, often made of a section of log, suspended above a well, with a crank attached to one end. A length of rope would be secured to and wound around the windlass then through a pulley above; a bucket attached to the rope would be lowered into the well; the bucket’s weight would submerge it into the water. The filled bucket would be retrieved by turning the crank on the windlass, thus rewinding the rope until the bucket reached the top. This action was “drawing” water. Most Southern homes got their water this way until electrification made mechanical pumps practical (and led to indoor plumbing).
Suzanne Pickett was first published on the children’s page of the
Birmingham News
when she was 11. As a young wife and mother she wrote for the
Welch (West Virginia) Daily News
, and still later she published short stories and articles in
Weird Tales
magazine and worked for many years as a reporter and columnist for the
Centreville Press
. A song she wrote was recorded and released on a Nashville label whose artists included Mother Maybelle Carter, Floyd Cramer, Hoyt Axton, Jimmy Riddle, and others. Until her death at age 91 in 1999, she continued to live in West Blocton, Alabama, near her beloved Cahaba River and the green hills of the surrounding mining towns.
To learn more about Suzanne Pickett and
The Path Was Steep
, visit
www.newsouthbooks.com/pathwassteep
.
The Path Was Steep
A Memoir of Appalachian Coal Camps During the Great Depression
Suzanne Pickett
Foreword by Norman McMillan
NewSouth Books
Montgomery
Published in cooperation with
The Cahaba Trace Commission
NewSouth Books
105 S. Court Street
Montgomery, AL 36104
Copyright 2013 by the estate of Suzanne Pickett. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by NewSouth Books, a division of NewSouth, Inc., Montgomery, Alabama.
This work is based on true incidents from the author’s life. Some people and some situations have been fictionalized to protect the identities of individuals or their family members.
Portions of this title were previously published by Black Belt Press as
Hot Dogs for Thanksgiving
, with the ISBN 1-881320-76-6.
ISBN: 978-1-58838-261-0
eBook ISBN: 978-1-60306-334-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013034242
In Loving Memory of David Pickett
(1907–1990)
Contents
Sue Pickett's Appalachian World
1 - You Could Almost Smell the Depression
3 - As Long as I’ve Got a Biscuit, You Won’t Starve
4 - Despite All, Well-fed and Loved
6 - The Value of Papa’s Teaching
13 - The Worst Road in the United States
14 - Score One for West Virginia!
15 - Hot Dogs for Thanksgiving
17 - Every River Leads to Piper
18 - Best Medicine in the World
20 - A Burglar Wouldn’t Try to Break In
Sue Pickett’s Appalachian World