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The Rugged & the Tough
Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: 2018/11 - November | Photograph By: Highlands Historical Society
When a younger version of me got stressed about money, my Bohemian friend, Vici, would say, “Quit worrying. It’s just green paper with pictures of dead presidents on it.”
Call me pathetic, but I kind of understood that. When was the last time you saw the gold/silver those bills represent? For all we know, Fort Knox is Fort Hard Knocks and the vaults, like our gas gauges, are sitting on “E.”
Nowadays, we simply live off plastic. What next? Pixels on a screen become currency? No, wait, that’s already happening. And after that? Hackers have shown us how close to the falls our finances teeter.
The Scots-Irish who settled these mountains were familiar with hard times. They were pros at squeezing blood and turnips out of hardscrabble in Scotland and Ireland. So when the Great Depression hit America, they already knew the lay of the land, literally and figuratively. Everything seemed the same to them. The bottom is the bottom no matter where you dwell.
Highlands resident Herman Wilson said this about the Depression, “Well, we fared better’n anybody in the whole country. I’ll tell you why we did. We grew our meat, our vegetables, our corn and hogs, and chickens, and we never went hungry.
“There were no dollars for shirts, dresses, shoes, utensils. Folks cobbled/repaired their own boots, patched their clothes, carved ladles and spoons, made baskets and bowls, and kept their clothing and themselves clean.” And as Herman noted, “Shucks, it was tough.”
This Thanksgiving, while we feast, let’s remember the hardships that many suffered a century ago. Join in gratitude for those green presidents who still make themselves available in 2018. Thank you, George, Thomas, Abraham, and Benjamin. (Okay. They’re not all presidents.)
And, thank you, Ran Shaffner, for providing the material for this story in your book, “Heart of the Blue Ridge.” Visit highlandshistory.com, email [email protected], or check out The Highlands Historical Museum at 524 North Fourth Street, for more information and anecdotes about the rugged and the tough who settled this land.
