In this brief post I am not telling anyone much that most Ashevillians (and those in numerous online networks) don’t already know. I just mean to urge that those who…
Read moreEvery Marriage Is Two Marriages: John Whisnant and Mary Neal Rudisill Whisnant’s Early Years Together, 1934-1940
Every marriage is two marriages: his and hers. Jessie Bernard, The Future of Marriage (1973)((See also Jessie Bernard.)) After a short train ride north from Asheville in late August 1934,…
Read moreMaybe Down the Road Somewhere: A Working-Class Valedictorian in Depression-era Asheville
I used to think that well, maybe, someday I could still go, you know. I thought well, maybe down the road somewhere I could still go. Mary Neal Rudisill Whisnant,…
Read more“Calling CQ”: An Amateur Radio Geek in the 1920s and Beyond
As the Titanic was sinking on the night of April 15, 1912, the distress signal its telegraph operators tapped out was not (as in popular myth) SOS, but its predecessor CQD (CQ=”stop…
Read moreMoving on Up to Pisgah Heights: The Whisnants in West Asheville
This is the story of a street railway operator and his family moving from a small rented house (their home for 16 years) on an in-town estate in downtown Asheville…
Read moreThe Down Side of the Land of the Sky: The Whisnants and Rudisills in Asheville and West Asheville, 1922-1951
This post is lovingly and admiringly dedicated to my father-in-law Frank Joseph Mitchell (February 12, 1927 – July 25, 2017). Lifelong student, prodigious reader, indefatigable writer, fearless preacher and unforgettable…
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