“The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” — Maya Angelou
Sorry to be late with this post. Sometimes Wednesday sneaks up on me and right on past especially when I’m trying to find the words for a new story and facing a deadline zooming toward me. But these words for a new post here are fun to write too.
Today we are heading back to the Appalachian Mountains, this time with Mira in The Song of Sourwood Mountain. This scene is where Mira gets the first sight of her new home with Gordon in Sourwood. She’s still worried about this new life she’s facing and how she will manage in a place so different from what she knew in the city. But she does wish for somewhere to call home.
Home. Such a beautiful word. And not one that Mira had really known since she left her mother’s house seven years ago. She had rented accommodations that were never really home, even Miss Ophelia’s rooms, a place she liked. She had always considered herself a guest instead of belonging there. Would that be the way she felt here too?
Everything was so different. She couldn’t imagine belonging in a log cabin, miles from any town. Other cabins were scattered along the little valley. Smoke did rise from their chimneys to drift up into the blue sky. A few white clouds floated over the hills.
Even though it wasn’t that late in the day, the sun was beginning to dip below the tree-lined hills to the west. Night would come early here.
Night. She wouldn’t think about that yet.
She had leaned into Gordon’s warmth through the long ride and let him cushion the bumps for her. They had shared Miss Stella’s ham and biscuits and fried apple pies, with John eating the most. Mira thought that would have made Miss Stella smile. The boy looked so young, more like one of her students back in Louisville instead of someone ferrying people over these rough hills. But perhaps he was older than he looked. He had been ready with his sly remarks about them being newlyweds.
She might as well get used to that. No doubt Gordon’s church people would have plenty of teasing remarks for him and many questions about her. After all, he’d left here last week a single man. He couldn’t have given them any warning about returning with a wife. Everything was so sudden. Perhaps too sudden.
No sense thinking about that. Better to think about her new home. The cabin might be cold when they got there, but it would warm soon enough with a fire kindled in its fireplace. Where she would be expected to cook. That thought awoke new worries. What in the world would she cook?
Water would have to be carried from somewhere. A well, perhaps. Or a spring. Cool water filtered by mountain rock. That would be better than water from the creek she could see behind the cabin, but that creek would be the only running water in Sourwood. The cabin would have no water closet. Was there an outhouse? The school would need an outhouse. She would insist on that.
One thing at a time. No need to pile up problems that might or might not be there. Well, people did have to eat. A person did have to have water. Did need a water closet or outhouse.
Other people lived in this community. They managed. She took a deep breath. She had faced challenges before. She would face them now.
This is the last post for you to leave a comment to get an entry in my Appalachian book giveaway. The winner will have their choice of an autographed copy of one of my autographed books with an Appalachian setting. You must be at least 18 to enter. If you’ve left a comment on any of the other posts about the Appalachian stories during this giveaway chance and leave another comment here, you’ll get an additional entry. Deadline to enter is midnight EST on Saturday, March 7, 2026. I’ll contact the winner by email and announce the winner on my post on Sunday, March 8th.
I hope you’ve enjoyed these dips into the mountain settings for my stories. I plan to share a short scene from my upcoming book, A Chance for Kallie Mae, on Sunday’s post. That is, if I don’t let that day sneak past me too. Maybe if it tries, I can grab it before it disappears into next week. The time changes Sunday which will make everything seem to speed up.
What do you think would be the biggest challenge if you had to step back into a time without the modern conveniences we now take for granted?
P.S. Coming soon I will be taking part in the Christian Fiction Spring Scavenger Hunt. It’s a great way to discover new authors and books that might grab your interest. Plus, there will be giveaways at most every stop on the hunt and a chance for the big prizes if you join in the fun of collecting all the clues in the hunt. More about that in a couple of weeks.
Comments 27
We are spoiled by our modern conveniences and don’t really appreciate how difficult our mothers and grandmothers had it. One thing I could not give up is air conditioning.
Author
Air conditioning has been mentioned several times, Rachel. I don’t think I would miss that very much at all, but I don’t live in a really hot area. We have hot weather in KY but usually not for long.
There are so many modern conveniences I would not like to give up. Washing clothes by hand on a wash board surely would not be fun!
Author
We would probably wear our clothes longer before we threw them into the laundry basket, Mary. But the same as you, I want to hang on to all the modern conveniences.
I am old enough, 75 years on this earth, to know first hand about outhouses as we had one at home and at our two-room-school in the Splitlog Community…named after Chief Matthias Splitlog, a very wealthy man back in his time. We did get an indoor bathroom before I went to high school. It made a big enough difference that it would be hard to go back to having to make that trip again to an outhouse…especially at night and in the winter season. ☺️
I re-read your books over & over…especially what I call your Mountain Books. After reading your post tonight, as soon as I have time, I must re-read “The Song of Sourwood Mountain”! 🤗
Thank you for writing such wonderful books & I’m excited that there’s another one coming!!!
God bless you as you bring this new one to life.
Author
I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed my mountain stories, Connie. I’ve enjoyed going to the mountains for stories and mining the great history in the Appalachian regions of Kentucky.
I think running water and electricity would be what I would miss most. I don’t know about living without electricity. My parents got that when I was a baby. My older sister can remember when the electric lines came to our house. But my dad wasn’t one to care whether he had running water or not. Of course, Mama was the one who had to do most of the water carrying in and out. He did finally get a pump for the cistern so we didn’t have to draw the water with a bucket.
I am most thankful for the modern convenience of hot showers and indoor plumbing. Especially on cold winter mornings. When I think about my great- Granny and all that she had to do just to get her day started, I’m amazed at her resiliency. People call them the Good Ole Days….but Granny would be amazed at today’s technology and easy living.
Author
Indoor plumbing is a big one for me, Lavon. Running water that I don’t have to haul in and out. So many of the modern conveniences would be difficult to say goodbye too. But, I’m thinking before we all have televisions and computers to entertain us inside, there was more front porch sitting and neighbor visiting.
I’m glad you mentioned the time change- it may have slipped by me otherwise! Thank goodness cell phones update by themselves now. Maybe the time change thing will stop sometime soon…
I would miss microwaves the most- and the electricity that powered them!
Author
I definitely would miss electricity, Kris. I wouldn’t want to give up my computer and keyboard and have to either write my stories with pen and paper or on a manual typewriter. I’d have to get more power in my fingers to go back to that. Plus all the other things that electricity makes possible.
For me I would miss a washing machine and of course running water.
Author
Washing clothes by hand the way people used to have to do would be no fun at all, Diana. I did a post once about how my mother had to do laundry when she got married. In fact I used what she told me in a scene where Kallie Mae is doing the wash in my upcoming book, A Chance for Kallie Mae. Mom had to build a fire under a big black kettle to heat the water for her washday and then she used a scrub board. You know that had to be hard on the knuckles.
All of the book excerpts just keep me wanting to read more of your books, Ann. Thank you for sharing them.
I think one of the biggest challenges without modern conveniences would be to not have running water.
Author
I agree, Janet. I answered Susan and told her I remembered living without running water when I was a kid. But we managed. You will probably find this funny, but I did sort of miss being outside more to get water and to dump water. That let me hear the birds and see the sunrises and sunsets and to feel closer to the earth. I suppose there is good and bad in everything.
You made the most of your situation by seeing the good in it. We live far away from town. It takes a half hour to get to the closest store and most places are an hour or more away. I used to complain about the fact that I had to drive so far just to get milk and bread but now I enjoy that time to enjoy nature as I drive and the quiet time praying. We can make the most of any situation I believe.
Author
You are so right, Janet, and sounds as if you’ve done just that.
My biggest challenge would be doing without A/C, although since we didn’t have it in our house until 1994, I can still remember being without it!
Author
That would be hard in the hotter climes down in the south, Trudy. I suppose people learned how to find ways to make it through the hottest parts of the day and enjoy the cooler mornings and evenings. People probably planted more trees around their houses and had windows that allowed plenty of drafts. People did make it for centuries without air conditioning somehow.
Trudy, we didn’t have A/C when we were growing up and somehow we made it through. I remember the nights when I’d keep billowing my sheet to create air flow. I’m glad I didn’t have to do without until 1994 lil you, though. I married in 1988 so had A/C after that. My mom still doesn’t have A/C even though us kids try to talk her into at least having a window unit. The summer days can be hot and sticky. I’m also grateful for A/C but having to go to an outhouse would, for me, be worse.😊
Myself I would miss the A/C in the summertime!
Author
Several have mentioned missing air-conditioning, Sarah. I wonder if you might change that if you’d ever had to live without running water. I grew up on a farm without running water and I wouldn’t want to go back to having to carry in all the water for washing and drinking and laundry and then you had to carry it out when you were finished with it.
But being cool in the summer and warm in the winter is nice for sure.
One of the biggest challenges I think would be in cooking. If there wasn’t wood for the stove or fireplace you would have to carry some in, or chop some up, or go find some in the woods to get a fire going. Then you would have to carry water from a well, creek, or spring. If cooking breakfast you would have to gather the eggs from the chicken coop, go down in the cellar and get some bacon. and make up some biscuits, or stir up a pot of oatmeal. You would have to milk the cow if that’s what you wanted to drink, or might need some in your cooking. The husband or you might want coffee, so would probably have to grind the coffee beans for that. Hopefully someone would be helping you with the chores and have things organized so you could just put things together and not have to venture out when the rooster started to crow. There would be two more meals to cook in the day, plus any other work that needed doing like washing, ironing, and cleaning and looking after the children.
Author
Housekeeping in those days was a lot of work, Connie. Not much time for rest. That’s why many of their visiting times were work bees such as quilting or helping shuck corn or planting gardens.
Mira, in my book The Song of Sourwood Mountain, was very concerned with learning how to cook over an open fire and how to handle life in a cabin without any kind of conveniences. My mother had an electric stove as long as I can remember, but she did sometimes cook on the woodstove that was still in the kitchen when I was a child. You had to have the wood the exact right size to fit in the stove. But it did keep the kitchen warm in the wintertime. That’s when she used it the most. And we did gather our own eggs and have bacon and ham from hogs we raised.
When I write about the mountain families, I always wonder how the women managed with so many children. Of course, the older children did help, but the women had to be expecting almost all the time.
If I had to step back in time without modern conveniences, I would miss a flushable toilet the most!
Author
Packing out chamber pots or making the trek to outhouses would be a new experience for most people today, Susan. Because we do all have to go. 🙂 That makes it something you have to consider when you’re writing about the days before those flushing toilets.
For me it would be the heat with no AC, the long dresses, and no modern conveniences! I think I just plain like the here and now! :’d!
Author
All those would take some getting used to, Shari. Whenever I’m researching fashions for ladies in the past, I’m really glad that blue jeans and sweatshirts are fine to wear these days. Corsets and stays had to be miserable and as you say, all the long dresses and petticoats and bonnets. No wonder ladies had fainting couches.