A M Garner: Talking in Accents

The South is a big region in a big country.That's the main thing. We're "so deep into that landscape we did not realize/ we'd been talking in accents all our lives" --Pierce Pettis, "Little River Canyon"

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Posted by Anita Miller Garner at 9:26 AM
Labels: advice for beginning writers, Berry College, Jill McCorkle

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me

me

Website: www.amgarner.com

Website: www.amgarner.com
Undeniable Truths

Video of Co. Rd 14 Tour

View the new video with me narrating a tour of County Rd. 14 at www.amgarner.com and click on HEAR ANITA.

Frank's Peas

Frank's Peas

Talking in Accents: Diversity in Southern Fiction

It is easy to make up characters who live in double-wide mobile homes, wear beehive hairdos and feed caps, never put a 'g' on the end of a participle...; who aspire only to own a bass boat, eat something fried, speak in tongues. What is difficult is to take the poor, the uneducated, the superstitious, the backward, the redneck...and make them real human beings, with hopes and dreams and aspirations. Tony Earley

Other places to visit (and don't forget to take the County Road 14 Photo Tour, right after POSTS)

  • Fiction Attic, Volume 20
  • www.athicket.com
  • http://www.southernartistry.org/Anita_Miller_Garner
  • http://www.storysouth.com
  • http://www.writersforum.org

About Me

Anita Miller Garner
I'm a reading/writing overenthusiast who teaches on a university campus. My collection of short stories UNDENIABLE TRUTHS from Rank Stranger Press is set to be released November 1, 2009.
View my complete profile

UNDENIABLE TRUTHS

UNDENIABLE TRUTHS
Short Story Collection Release November 1, 2009

The Southland with Blue Sky

The Southland with Blue Sky
not on Gunwaleford Road, but nearby

County Road 2 Tour

County Road 2 Tour
When you turn onto County Rd. 2 in early September, look for the Dove Hunt signs, which mean that on the following Saturday, a dove hunt will be organized in one of the fields.

Dove Hunt Here

Dove Hunt Here
Drive through five or so miles of rolling fields and suddenly you find you have arrived at the scene of the Dove Hunt. A truck is parked near the main road (Co. Rd. 2) and a man sits at a table, signing in participants and spelling out the rules. The hunt takes place in the large fields where corn has been harvested. (You can see the stubble around the Dove Hunt Here sign.) The doves love to scavenge the fields for spilled grain.

Cotton on Gunwaleford Road

Cotton on Gunwaleford Road
The view from the front doors of the church.

Sunrise: Picking Peas off County Rd. 2

Sunrise: Picking Peas off County Rd. 2
Drive five or six more miles through County Rd. 2's fields and you'll come to a crossroads.I got this shot just as the sun was peaking over the horizon in one of the big fields off Gunwaleford Rd. ( County Rd. 2 is also called Gunwaleford Road.) Frank Johnson's ancestors lived on this land while it was still a reservation. He plants a large field every year in corn and another in the best purple-hulled peas you've ever eaten. When the corn and, later, peas are ready to harvest, he starts calling all the neighbors. The best thing to do is to get up before dawn to pick peas. The fields are cool and the only sound is the breeze. It took my husband and me two hours to pick plenty of peas to eat now and freeze for later. The morning glories climb the stalks of the pea plants.

Morning glory

Morning glory
The peas in the fields are covered in morning glories that are open for sun rise.

Pea Sheller

Pea Sheller
Spending two hours picking peas is one thing. Spending eight hours shelling them is another. My suggestion: take them to the pea shelling machine. Other cool stuff at this store: sticky paper spider traps, local honey, good waterproof duck hunting boots. The proprietor is a friendly guy who will give you helpful hints about pea picking and how to store the peas spread out to dry overnight for the best results from the pea shelling machine.

Coldwater Seed and Supply

Coldwater Seed and Supply
Home of the pea sheller. OK, technically you have to drive back into town for this, but if you've picked several bushels of peas, believe me, it's worth it.

The Lake Winks Silver

The Lake Winks Silver
Further out Gunwaleford Road is Sunset Beach on the Tennessee River, within sight of the Natchez Trace bridge. This part of the Tennessee is Pickwick Lake, smallmouth bass heaven. The large hybrid striped bass also have seasonal runs. Catfish up to 100 lbs. have been caught in the locks at Pickwick Dam. Windsurfing days are best in spring and early fall when the seasonal changes bring wind warnings for area lakes.

Coon Dog Cemetery

Coon Dog Cemetery
Continuing the tour, bring a camera, a cooler, and some tick spray. It's a short ride to the Coon Dog Cemetery.

Head stone at the Coon Dog Cemetery

Head stone at the Coon Dog Cemetery
If you take Co. Rd. 2 all the way to the Natchez Trace Bridge and then follow the Trace across the Tennessee River, you will enter Colbert County where the Coon Dog Cemetery is found.

Head stone at the Coon Dog Cemetery

Head stone at the Coon Dog Cemetery
I can't imagine naming a dog High Pocket. When I'm naming a dog, I always try to envision what I would feel like calling the name loudly if the dog became lost. "Here, High Pocket." No, I don't think so. Too impersonal. But I love High Pocket's stone, love the way the dog is waiting on his/her master, or maybe just stretched out in the shade of the porch in an Alabama August. Someone really loved High Pocket.

November 1

November 1

They just couldn't leave

They just couldn't leave
Some of the white pelicans stayed through the summer.

January

January

Thanksgiving Morning, 2014.

Thanksgiving Morning, 2014.

START YOUR TOUR with Coosa County Road 14

START YOUR TOUR with Coosa County Road 14
This just about sums it up. Literally and figuratively.

A Rocky Ford

A Rocky Ford
Before there was a road, wagons forded the creek on these rocks. To the left just out of the frame is a large white sand bar. The bluff in the background climbs up a hundred feet or so and is covered in mountain laurel laced with wisps of Spanish moss. Where North Alabama meets South Alabama.

Geocaching. Sort of.

Geocaching. Sort of.
Locking in coordinates.

MORE COOSA. Geocaching, sort of.

MORE COOSA. Geocaching, sort of.
Dovetailed logs on corner of cabin.

Interior logs

Interior logs
The cabin has log walls inside.

one of the deer paths

one of the deer paths
Ammonium nitrate makes the grass green and sweet

No one agrees when I say we should use the hose to spray off the mud

No one agrees when I say we should use the hose to spray off the mud
...standing beside muddy Jeep tires

Moss grows on the flat rocks

Moss grows on the flat rocks

Waverly in Alabama

Waverly in Alabama
Waverly can play a reel fast and pure enough to make your heart spin.

Sears Chapel Church

Sears Chapel Church
Built right before the Civil War by my relatives who made furniture down the hill on Hatchett Creek, Sears Chapel held services only on the first Sunday of the Month. There was an outhouse, no air conditioning, plenty of wasps circling the light fixtures that hung from chains from the high ceilings. More often than not, we were late for services so we just drove on by and looked for somewhere to have Sunday lunch. Kowaliga was a favorite. Or barbecue at Cotton's. Growing up I kept my clothes in a pine wardrobe built by the same people who built the church. My daughter's dresses hang there today.

Coosa County Musicians

Coosa County Musicians
Think of this photo as you read "The Mayor of Nowhere" in UNDENIABLE TRUTHS.

Churchyard

Churchyard
This is where we're all buried. Except the ones who died before the church was built. They're buried out in the woods, and every twenty years or so, we visit the graves. To make sure they haven't just up and left.
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