The Holler

This is Salt Gum Holler, as recreated by Google Earth. This is the land my great, great grandfather Simon settled when he immigrated to Ohio from Germany. His son John built the house that my grandfather, father, and brother lived in at different points in their life. My aunt and uncle live in it now. My dad's aunt and her brood live in the branch of the holler that leads off to the right--they are the rebellious drunken side of the family. My aunt's (the one who lives in the homestead) inlaws live down the left fork. My dad's brother lives at the bottom of the picture, across the street from his cousin. My cousin lives in one of the trailers at the top left, and his aunt and cousin live in the other trailer.

The fields just above the fork in the road are fields my family farmed and plowed for generations and generations, only ceasing in the last few decades. My great grandfather built the barn on the homestead with logs he pulled from the Muskingum River during the great flood in the 1920s. Down the hill there is a machine shop where my grandfather kept an ancient lathe, as well as a root cellar, and a shack that has housed a nanny goat for I don't know how many years.

This is where I spent my summers growing up. My parents worked, but my aunts and grandparents didn't, and I would spend all day with them on the front porch swing of the homestead, looking down into the valley out over the beautiful countryside and going for walks.

This piece of land and the people who live on it are an awfully big part of who I am. They are the reason I love country music and listen to it when I'm alone. They teach me what faithfulness and loyalty mean. They remind me to treat poor people well, and to take care of people you care about. This place is everything that holds us back, and everything that comforts and defines us. This has been home for 200 years.