My Love for the Foxfire Books

FOXFIRE

I discover the foxfire books in the 80s, and fell in love them then, and that love relationship has grown through the years.  The books are a flash back to my folks (def. folk (plural noun) people, especially people of the same type); most of whom have gone on to heaven now, and those books continue to bring back that past world to me. 


I was told once, by an in-law, “don’t be telling people who your family is.”  He was embarrassed by them I guess, he being rich and they being poor, and being a naive young adult I hung by head.  Now I raise my head in satisfaction, not being prideful mind you, but having a deeper understanding of who they were and say, “My folks were real people, scratching out a real life, and had real joy in doing it!”  For that very reason I wanted to start a blog to record more of that way of life and why I titled my blog “foxfirehands”.  You know it’s our hands that define us…what they do and how they do it.

The foxfire books actually came about as an after thought by a “green-horn teacher and a room full of rebellious teenagers” in 1966.  The name foxfire reflected the bio-luminescent fungi (foxfire) that would glow on decaying wood along damp creek banks.  Often thought of as magical, these fungi brought into the lives of the people many myths and legends that have intrigue many a folk.

For someone like me who wants to gain as much of that “old way determination” as possible, or someone who likes the study of culture, or even someone who wants to learn how to live off the land, the foxfire series is a treasure map showing the way to cabin building, hog butchering, music making, butter churning, quilt sewing, garden hoeing, and detailing of an culture long gone but not forgotten.  The foxfire books are loaded with information, and will open your eyes to the deep rooted traditions and folk ways of the Appalachian people.   

FOXFIRE

I discover the foxfire books in the 80s, and fell in love them then, and that love relationship has grown through the years.  The books are a flash back to my folks (def. folk (plural noun) people, especially people of the same type); most of whom have gone on to heaven now, and those books continue to bring back that past world to me. 


I was told once, by an in-law, “don’t be telling people who your family is.”  He was embarrassed by them I guess, he being rich and they being poor, and being a naive young adult I hung by head.  Now I raise my head in satisfaction, not being prideful mind you, but having a deeper understanding of who they were and say, “My folks were real people, scratching out a real life, and had real joy in doing it!”  For that very reason I wanted to start a blog to record more of that way of life and why I titled my blog “foxfirehands”.  You know it’s our hands that define us…what they do and how they do it.

The foxfire books actually came about as an after thought by a “green-horn teacher and a room full of rebellious teenagers” in 1966.  The name foxfire reflected the bio-luminescent fungi (foxfire) that would glow on decaying wood along damp creek banks.  Often thought of as magical, these fungi brought into the lives of the people many myths and legends that have intrigue many a folk.

For someone like me who wants to gain as much of that “old way determination” as possible, or someone who likes the study of culture, or even someone who wants to learn how to live off the land, the foxfire series is a treasure map showing the way to cabin building, hog butchering, music making, butter churning, quilt sewing, garden hoeing, and detailing of an culture long gone but not forgotten.  The foxfire books are loaded with information, and will open your eyes to the deep rooted traditions and folk ways of the Appalachian people.