Reading through Glenn Bolick’s new book today certainly brought back memories.

My mother, Margaret Sims (1915-2004) was a woman some southerners might call a card. One might say, she was as sharp as a tack. I don’t know anyone other than Glenn Bolick that was exposed to as many crazy sayings. Actually, many people might have heard this a time or two, but it requires a character to remember it all and recall it for the world.

Most people know about being dumb as a bag of hammers or

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Well, it’s about time to see my friend, Glenn Bolick’s book appear in bookstores. Two years in the planning and publishing seemed like a long time, but when all’s said and done, we’re thinking how short two years has been.

Glenn’s plan for the book was a tribute to his upbringing, and that it is. It’s full of fun. Appalachian fun, that is. He says people think he talks funny, because he shortens words when he speaks. He points out how everyone in his community spoke the same. Therefore, he captures the spirit of his life and times as well as that of

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Everyone who knows me knows I’m big on oral history. I like to hear people talk about their families, and I enjoy writing down what they say. Just today, a lady shared her experience as an eight year old student. A sudden hail storm came up when she was having class in a one room wooden schoolhouse. The wind was so strong, it blew the structure off its foundation and the school landed on the front door trapping the children inside. While hail pummeled, the sky was as dark as night and everything became chaotic. It was a fascinating story of survival by a young female teacher about seventeen years old and her twenty-two pupils.

Personal histories are valuable to

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