Reminiscing Barefooted Summers: An Appalachian Tale

Where it all began
“That if we kept going barefoot outside before the sun had dried the grass we’d get dew rot, summer night’s condensate”
From The Appalachian Journal: “Dew Rot” by Michael Mcfee Running around in the yard on a warm summer evening. No shoes are needed for this activity, they thought. My mother sitting next to her grandfather, swinging her bare feet from the old wooden bench out back. Her fondest memory was unfolding in front of her eyes. Uncle Scott and Cousin Kevin were running around yelling “throw it to me, to me.” My mother’s grandfather was throwing the baseball back and forth with the boys as my mother watched. “I loved watching the boys push and shove each other to be the one to catch the ball.” my mother said. As my mother bonded with her grandfather, they could hear the okra popping in the grease and the smell of the cheesy mashed potatoes lingering through the kitchen window. As grandma finished with dinner, she came outside and saw that the kids didn’t have shoes on. My mother vividly remembers this part of the story because she said “one thing that I remember is that maw maw never raised her voice very often.” Grandma looks sternly at Grandpa and shouts “what

My mother received a job offer from the City of Shelby in the finance department right out of college. She accepted and began working. A few years passed and my parents decided to expand their family. My older sister, Chelsey, was born May 5th, 1994. When my sister was one year old, my mother started thinking about going back to school to get her masters. “I knew it would be difficult with your dads schedule and us having your sister, but one night at dinner I brought the idea up to your dad. Of course he was on board because he is supportive of most anything that I decide to do” She said. Off to master’s school she went to Gardner Webb University. By getting this extra piece to her degree, she gained many