I grew up in a country home in the suburbs of America. What I mean is, my parents were both country people, mountain born and bred. However, when they met they were living in the city, and continued to live in urban or suburban environments for the rest of their lives. When they married they were both living in Richmond, Va. That’s where they stayed, and that’s where I grew up. We lived in a northside residential area known as Lakeside, average family dwellings, but with no lake. Our upbringing (by “our” I mean myself, my sister and my brother) was in many ways typically suburban and middle class. But there was a difference…

You see, though living near the city, my parents never became completely citified. Oh, they probably appeared that way to the kinfolk still living back in Bacon Hollow or near Buck Mountain. But the truth is they never lost their country ways, not really. That is the reason I grew up eating and acting and thinking “countrified” in a lot of ways. Continue reading →