Verna Mae Slone - What My Heart Wants to Tell

WHAT MY HEART
WANTS TO TELL

Verna Mae Slone

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY

Publication of this volume was made possible in part by a grant
from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Copyright 1979 by Verna Mae Slone
This edition published by The University Press of Kentucky

Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved.

Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky
663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008
www.kentuckypress.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Slone, Verna Mae, 1914
What my heart wants to tell.
Reprint. Originally published: Washington: New Republic Books, 1979.
Includes index.

1. Slone, Verna Mae, 1914 2. Knott County (Ky.)Biography.

3. Sloan family. 4. Knott County (Ky.)Social life and customs. I. Title.

[F457.K5S58 1987] 976.9165040924 [B] 87-23046
ISBN-10: 0-8131-1634-1
ISBN-10: 0-8131-0174-3 (pbk.)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-0174-3 (pbk.)

This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

For Sarah Jane Owens Slone and Isom B. (Kitteneye) Slone
My father and mother

This book was written to honor my father. I loved him so much that I was not willing to let the memory of him die. I would have loved him even if he had not been my father. He is only one of many mountain peopleproud, brave, sturdy, hard-working, god-fearing, and sensitiveliving in a place and time so unique and different that its very simplicity is too profound to be fully understood and explained.

Also, I hope to dispel some of the myths and misunderstandings of these people soon to be forgotten.

Without Gods help, I could never have written these things of my heart.

I am writing you this letter to be read later when you are older and can understand.

If you are the kind of folks who honor money and prestige, then I have very little to leave you: just a few handmade quilts and a few old silver coins, made and collected over my sixty years of lifenot much to show for a lifetime of hard work. But I hope by writing this book, I can pass on to you the heritage my father left me.

Materialwise, he only gave me an acre of land, half of a house (the other half had been torn down), a few handmade chairs, a basket, and less than two hundred dollars in money. But, believe me, I would not exchange the memories I have of him for all the gold in Fort Knox. And the truths and wisdom of life he taught me, have been a staff and a rod to comfort me all the days of my life.

In this book I will try to pass on to you, all my memories of him.

He was a very wonderful man, wise beyond his own place and time, with a spontaneous wit and humor that was meractious for his limited education. He was always ready to give his neighbors a helping hand, whether it be to lay the worm of a stake and rider fence, square up the foundation of a building, help a sick cow, or prepare the dead for burial.

These stories will probably be like a large ball of string: made up of many small strings too short to use and too long to throw away.

Grandpa Kitteneye had so many sayingslittle nuggets of wisdom and philosophythat contain so much truth and basic principles of life. I shall try to remember and pass them on as I manage to work them into my story. I think his best was prepare for the worst, expect the best, and then take whatever comes. He not only said this, but he believed it and used it to live by, and taught me to do the same. I have been influenced so much by his thoughts and truths that I sometimes wonder where his thinking leaves off and my own begins.

Grandchildren, this letter is not to be a sermon. In writing this, I will write as I remember it. I may make a few small changes, but basically its all true.

So many lies and half-truths have been written about us, the mountain people, that folks from other states have formed an image of a gun-totin, baccer- spitting, whiskey-drinking, barefooted, foolish hillbilly, who never existed, but was conceived and born in the minds of the people who have written such things as Stay on Stranger and the Beverly Hillbillies. And as lies seem to be more easily believed than truths, no matter what we do, we cant make folks believe we are any different. These lies and half-truths have done our children more damage than anything else. They have taken more from us than the large coal and gas companies did by cheating our forefathers out of their minerals, for that was just money. These writers have taken our pride and dignity and have disgraced us in the eyes of the outside world. When our children go into the cities for work or are drafted into the army, they are forced to deny their heritage, change their way of talking, and pretend to be someone else, or be made to feel ashamed, when they really have something to be proud of.