Foxfire 10: Railroad Lore, Boardinghouses, Depression-Era Appalachia, Chairmaking, Whirligigs, Snake Canes, Gourd Art

I have been collecting and reading the Foxfire series for several years now and I consider them as some of the best reading that I have found.I think that they are a direct link to our mountain heritage as well as American history. I have learned many skills and lost arts from these books and I would highly recommend them to anyone who has such interests.

It's a great deal of fun to read about the historical needs and solutions of the Appalachian people that applies as well to my own history. There are great reminders of a simpler and maybe happier life.

The Foxfire books are a wonderful thing and we are so lucky to have them. Many of the ways, crafts, planting lore, animal lore, and as the book says "affairs of plain living" are preserved here. This particular volume includes oral histories of the Great Depression, CCC Camps and their impact on the local areaa and ecomomy, folk art, chair makeing, and of special interest to me, gourd art. This is a wonderful recording of life the way it was and probably never will be again. The book is quite well written and has faithfully recorded even the dialect of these wonderful people, from which so many of us sprung. That is a big part of the charm of these works. This book includes actual interviews with folks from that region of the country which I am sure are long dead now. Their knowledge would be completely lost without works such as this. Another generation or two and it will all be completely gone. This book will cetainly be of great interest to those, like me, who are interested in the depression era and in the CCC in particular. Thank goodness we have recordings such as this. Recommend this one highly.

Both my husband and I enjoyed this book. He is from W.N.C. and enjoyed reading about areas near where he grew up. I liked it also, having lived there for four years.