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The Jerry Watson House & At Home With Annie & Lane
“The house was crowded, the times were hard (the Great Depression era), but the fun and games unlimited, at least we children thought so. Tag, hide-and-seek, stilt-walking, London Bridge Is Falling Down, Farmer’s…
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Selling Ancestral Property in Deep Gap, North Carolina
“Without being effusive or sentimental (difficult!), I now wish to share what those Blue Ridge acres mean to me . . . and to Bob. First of all, they represent rootedness, a place…
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An Overview of Deep Gap, NC & US Hwy 421
“Located as they are on the Eastern Continental Divide, Deep Gap and other areas of eastern Watauga County find themselves a melting point of weather patterns, and the melting pot frequently boils over…
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The Devil, You Say! Musings on a Persistent Supernatural Character
Out to Pastoral by John Idol “The devil, in fiction and drama, presents a subject worthy of close study, and that has indeed been the case with Dante’s Satan, Marlowe and Goethe’s Mephistopheles,…
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Balking at Rendering Unto Caesar: The American Way
Out to Pastoral John L. Idol BURLINGTON North Carolina—(Weekly Hubris) —3/19/12—Most of us begrudgingly render unto Caesar what Caesar needs to run town, state, or nation. Tax-dodgers live amongst us, but enough of…
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Let’s Hear It for a Singable, Ideal-Imbued National Anthem
Out to Pastoral by John Idol BURLINGTON North Carolina—(Weekly Hubris)—3/12/12—The melody of our national anthem climbs above the range of most untrained singers—that is, most of us—when we come to, “And the rocket’s…
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Fisherman’s Luck? Why, It’s Elementary
Out to Pastoral by John Idol BURLINGTON North Carolina—(Weekly Hubris)—2/27/12—Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote/The droghte of Marche [hadde] perced to the roote/And bathed every veyne in swich licour . . .…
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An Equine Odd Couple: Joe and Dan
Out to Pastoral by John Idol BURLINGTON North Carolina—(Weekly Hubris)—2/13/12—The team of horses my Grandad, Rufus Idol, used on his small farm in Deep Gap, North Carolina, brought together a heavyweight, Joe, mostly…
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Growing Up with the “Jack Tales”
Out to Pastoral by John Idol BURLINGTON North Carolina—(Weekly Hubris)—2/6/12—If an aging memory isn’t too rusty, I first heard my older brother, Jack (short for Jackson), read the story of “Jack and the…
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Fox Hunting, Blue Ridge & Ozark Mountain Style
Out to Pastoral by John Idol BURLINGTON North Carolina—(Weekly Hubris)—1/30/12—No fancy riding habit, no well-groomed steeds, no blast on a hunting horn, no cry of “Tally-Ho” and the sound of galloping hoofs. Barking,…