Nine years (and over 40 posts) ago, at the outset of my work on this blog, I hoped to show how the history of a city (Asheville) and of ordinary …
Read moreMaking It at Asheville Junction, 1900-1960
Every 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)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 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 moreCotton Mill Colic vs. the Land of the Sky: From Gastonia to Asheville
The nearly two dozen posts I have published so far have focused on the Whisnant family, the first of whom entered the North Carolina Piedmont in the 1750s. My Whisnant grandparents,…
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