Every marriage is two marriages: his and hers. Jessie Bernard, The Future of Marriage (1973)1 After a short train ride north from Asheville in late August 1934, John Whisnant and…
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…
Read moreThe Several Lives of West Asheville, Part III: Edwin Carrier in West Asheville
Quick Take on the Early Years: Incorporation, De-/Re-incorporation, Annexation, and Mini-Boom, 1889-1925 When West Asheville–already on the way toward development and modernization–was incorporated on February 9, 1889, the language of…
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