The Old Place

Welcome to Grassy Creek North Carolina. The year is 1919, a pandemic is sweeping through this small, Appalachian farming town, and Florence Porter refuses to let them bury her eleven-year-old daughter.

Publisher Marketing: The Old Place , by David Patteson reminds me of how people used to live at a farming community in the Appalachian region. Simple and straightforward descriptions of the characters bring out the rustic nature of their lives in the early 20 th Century. The human elements, such as birth, death, respect, meanness, wisdom and love in this story apply to all of us beyond the mountains. The story has universal appeal, and the characters are so charming. Shuko Nielsen, author of An Elegy for Three Stars http: //possumeggs.com/shuko/ShukoGhostWriting.htm I love the tone of this story. It contains a healthy mix of humor, melancholy, pathos and tension but never veers into an extreme area with any of them. It simply blends from one emotion to the next, lending it an atmosphere as dream-like, simple, and nostalgic as the setting. It does not wander into stereotypes (Hillbilly Elegy comes to mind) but is a forthright and honest peek at a life in a remote area. Dale M. Brumfield Award winning journalist and author of "Railroaded" https: //www.dalebrumfield.net/ A poignant and heartwarming memoir in miniature, even as it wades boldly into the disturbing waters of a time when prejudice was an assumed fact-of-life, and the racial divide haunted everyday experience. An odd, bittersweet taste of how things used to be, and in some ways, still are. Ceci Black, Richmond Author Publisher Marketing : Welcome to Grassy Creek, North Carolina. The year is 1919 and a pandemic is sweeping through this small Appalachian farming town. Doc Waddell rides horseback from sickbed to sickbed while the townspeople crowd into church for a revival. Dread Cox seeks the aid of a midwife because he "cain't afford a real doctor". Crystal befriends Georgia, a "colored" girl, despite the prejudices of her dad. The deputy sheriff makes a prisoner give his word that he won't run off, and Florence Porter refuses to let her eleven-year-old deceased daughter be buried. While often "stranger than fiction", these are the true accounts of the author's grandparents who abided by the eighth commandment; "You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another", as well as the other nine.

Format: Paperback | Pages: 70 | Publication Date: 2020-11-23