Appalachia Seminar

Submitted by Katie Warner on March 7, 2019 – 10:10am

Johnny is the son-in-law of a woman whose house we were repairing during my immersion trip. Johnny is a very extroverted and hardworking man who was more than happy to get down in the mud and help us with the work on his mother-in-law’s wheelchair ramp. Johnny was a good teacher and a great story teller, especially when you got him talking about his prized possession, a custom-made Harley Davidson that used to belong to his best friend, a man he had met in the Army. A little bit before lunch, Johnny asked me why I would ever want to come to Appalachia, and I told him this area was the most beautiful place I had ever been to. I told him my visit to the Cumberland Gap the year before had been the first time I had really seen mountains, to which he joked that those weren’t real mountains–, he could show me real mountains. He took a few of us through his “back yard” during our lunch break– up the road to his favorite overlook. It was a beautiful view, but I think it was made all the more special in knowing how much the view meant to Johnny and how thrilled he was to be able to share it with us.