SELF SUPPORTING HILL- BILLIES

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5287, 27 December 1946, Page 2

SELF SUPPORTING HILLBILLIES

FIVE ODD LADIES OF TH1E MOUNTAINSSpinning wheels turn slowly in front of a craekling fire at a weatherbehten, * gra'ying, ' miud^chunked1 log cabin, more than a century old, back in the frested Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Dut on a rocky hillside, near an old log barn, sheep graze contentedly, penned in by a sagging rail fence which zigzags around an opou field and up into the woods carpeted by red, brown, green, and golden leaves. There is a link between the spinning wheels and!' the sheep at this picturesque coye of Green Briar Valley, which time seems to have forgotten in its mad whirl. The Walker Sisters, who live alone, are shepherds of their flock. The four sisters — there were five of them until last year— shear the sheep, wash the wo'ol, card, spin, and dye it with wajaut bark. They make their own clothing. / Hetty, Louisa, Martha, and Margaret Jane, ranging in age from 57 to 76, are considered examples of resourcefnlness and independence seldom seen since the early days of Amrica. That was recognised by the Nationai Park Service, which, after j taking over their . 122-aere mountain I farm as a part of the Great Smoky Mountains Nationai Park, permitted the sisters to live on, undisturbed. They do all the chores on the farm, nuch of its work that is ordinarily regarded as a man's. They sow, cuti7ate, and harvest their corn, beaUs, potatoes, and other crops. • In the spring they can be seen ivalkihjg along the furrows, their 'aces almost hidden in the big poke- ! jonnets which reach to their shouldsrs. Two of them v/ill drop seed corn and another will quicky rake over ;he dirt with a hoe. In the fall they haul .in much of he fruits of their labour, often with he help of a heavy wooden sled. Then oo, they carry over a ladder from j .he' cabin loft to the orchard to gathi ir apples high in the trees. Pep,pers I>fl(corate Porch Strings of green and yellow pepiers are hung on the porch. Seed lucumbers also mellow there and;

)efore Thanksgivinig, pumpkins are lrought in. Sweet milk, buttermilk, and buter are kept in crocks in a dark, cool >pring house, where clear water bub)les out of the nlountain side and lows on around the cornfield, down j dongside the dirt road which winds lp from a wooden gate a quarter of i mile, away. Back a few steps from he spring house is a deep, vine-shap-id spring, where a long-handled dip)er sests on the green moss. Watermelons, in season, are kept old in the spring house. Jars of preserved. fruits and vegetables are stacked up in this natjral refrigerator/ ' Wraps which the sisters wear eround their shoulders were woven )y them from their own woollen yarn. lotton, hand-batted, used for pad'ing in some quilts coines from a patch m their farm. Their bedspreads take | i lot of work. The spreads are hand- | voven and hand-dyed, of different i 'esigns. The designs have names like j ;eashell, Welstem Rattlesnake, and ; Jouble Bow Knot. It takes more than I wo months to spin and weave all ! hat goes into a quilt. The woollen l lose which they wear were knitted ;y- them too. During the war they :nitted woollen soeks for neplews in service overseas. Oin pegs over1 th'e dooi^s are slung mountain rifles and the sisters know how to use them. Once one of their. brothers came over ! for a visit with his two sons. The boys thought they were good shots, so they went out with Margaret and notched a mark on a tree. The i boys stepped off and did right well shooting their rifle. Then Margaret 'ook th'e gun and hit the mark right "n the middle. They are not bothered by un"elcome \ntruders, but bears and :xes which attempt to raid so'me •onntain barnyards are niuisances at Imes. Sometimes Wiley Oakley, the loamin' Man of the Mountains, "uides tourists to the cabin, over inding, uaivow dirt roads which ~ad off from the main highway, but or months the sisters would not alw any visitor to take their pictures. One of the sisters, Louisa, likes i write naive poems, which she will :how to a visitor or, with twinkling rown eyes, recite. Oue poem wa's in--pired hy the f taking over of land for the park, and the first verse went I;ke this: "For us poor mountain people "They don't have a care "Biut must have a home for "The wolf, the lion and the bear."