Granny is a part of me and a part of many others who lived in the Deep South some 50 years ago or more. Her ancestors were of Scottish & English Descent. She is "overindulged" with superstitions and folktales. This book is a compilation of 'sayings' and tales I have heard over the years. Most of them actually came from my Mother and my Grandmother; and are now being retold through Granny. Many of these sayings are commonly known, but may vary with their phrases or even their meanings.
Cliche´, a trite expression or idea. "The Traveler´s Book of Inspirations" is the Author´s ingenuity and a compilation of personal and others´ metaphors, expressions of thought, values and beliefs. The idea to write the book came forth, from the Author´s extensive dialoging in conversation over various topics, during her life´s travel. She discovered that many of the same cliches were expressed in diverse places, from north to south and east to west. Cliches were also a means of communication in her family home, growing up. Each of these warm, subtle cliches being shared are to provide a wide arena for thought and problem solving, as a conversation piece or just as a relaxing read. Like traditional foods and attire, dialects, religious practices; folklores, old wives tales, superstitions and cultural celebrations are passed down through generations, the same applies to cliches. But, for whatever reason you are reading this book, the Author is humbly grateful, and wishes you Devine blessings of peace and harmony.
Meet Ben Southard, the blacksmith who could shoe anything that wears a tail; Fighting Bob Misner, the Great Bully of the Hills of Judea; and the Brocks Gap Angel of Mercy, who was, in fact, a witch doctor.
Appalachia is full of ghosts. I ought to know; I am one of them. My story was already written before I ever drew breath one cold Kentucky morning in the Emerita Coal Mining Camp on the eve of the Great Depression. How come I was in my grave by my 10th birthday takes some telling. The hills and hollers of Appalachia can swallow a man, let alone a girl like Bud Grace. Born the daughter of coal miner and funeralizing preacher Mournful Grace, her life is her father's story. The Bloody Harlan County Coal Wars are just getting cranked up. Appalachia's natural world is under assault by industrialists who are after its minerals at any cost. Mournful, the seventh son of a seventh son cursed with second sight, can see trouble coming and struggles to change the future, all the while knowing he has no power over it. Everything that's coming is already in the past. In a desperate battle to save his beloved Evangeline and their daughter Bud, he must wage his own war against enemies bent on his personal destruction. Bud lays bare the mysterious beauty and intricate customs of a forgotten land, as she unravels Mournful's tragic tale-one of haunting poverty and unimaginable violence as two worlds collide.
As the healthcare debate rages on with the growth of the HMO industry, nurses quietly continue to provide the day-to-day grit and deeply-felt passion that hold the healing profession together. Within these remarkable women and men are poignant, outrageous stories drawn from the edge of life. But fear of career backlash and reprisals have made them reluctant to talk to outsiders about their experience. Now Echo Heron, New York Times bestselling author of Intensive Care, draws truths far stranger than fiction out of her colleagues--and allows the nurses to speak to us in their own words. Ranging from inspiring to tragic to outrageously funny, these narratives are real life medical dramas as experienced by nurses across the country--each practicing in a variety of specialties, including cardiac care, labor and delivery, burns, the ER--even a nurse who works in dolphin care. Tending Lives portrays a penitentiary nurse responsible for orchestrating a murderer's execution; a stroke victim who rose out of his depression when his nurses began telling him jokes; and, perhaps the most riveting testimony, the moment-by-moment memories of several nurses who served in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing--gripping accounts that give us new perspectives on the horror and heroism of that nightmare day. Pediatric nurses, psychiatric nurses, home-care nurses, intensive care nurses--all with distinct voices and unique stories to tell. Filled with both tears and laughter, and charged with the issues that afflict nursing care today, Tending Lives is a gripping, moving, inspiring book, a fitting tribute to a noble profession.
In the first comprehensive exploration of the history and practice of folk medicine in the Appalachian region, Anthony Cavender melds folklore, medical anthropology, and Appalachian history and draws extensively on oral histories and archival sources from the nineteenth century to the present. He provides a complete tour of ailments and folk treatments organized by body systems, as well as information on medicinal plants, patent medicines, and magico-religious beliefs and practices. He investigates folk healers and their methods, profiling three living practitioners: an herbalist, a faith healer, and a Native American healer. The book also includes an appendix of botanicals and a glossary of folk medical terms. Demonstrating the ongoing interplay between mainstream scientific medicine and folk medicine, Cavender challenges the conventional view of southern Appalachia as an exceptional region isolated from outside contact. His thorough and accessible study reveals how Appalachian folk medicine encompasses such diverse and important influences as European and Native American culture and America's changing medical and health-care environment. In doing so, he offers a compelling representation of the cultural history of the region as seen through its health practices.
