The Red Flannel Rag

bushel. Aunt Ethel told me that Uncle Shirley was a hard worker as a teenager.

Grandpa John Morris had made a living the same way. He walked across the rugged

mountain to work for a farmer until he worked long enough to pay for a cow that the

farmer had to sell. Mom told me, “Finally one day he came down the side of the

mountain leading the old cow.”

Apple Butter Boiling

At various times during mid to late summer, and into the fall months, apples and

peaches became the focus of a community effort. Again, in the earlier days in Hopkins

Gap, wagons were loaded with buckets, baskets, and children and pulled with mules to

the “high top patches” to pick apples. The “high top patches” were communal orchards

planted by the earliest settlers in Hopkins Gap. They would go to the top of a mountain

and clear a piece of land. Fruit trees were planted and tended by the community, and all

shared the bounty. Pears and peaches were peeled and canned in sugar syrup. It was

not uncommon for Mom to can two hundred quarts of peaches. Grandma Molly and

Aunt Lena canned even more because Grandpa Austin ate canned peaches for every

meal.

Apples were probably the most important fruit in Hopkins Gap because they

played a role far beyond simple nutrition. To most people an apple is a piece of fruit,

red, green, or yellow. Most people have heard “an apple a day keeps the doctor away,”

and beyond that, the apple is no big deal. It was different in Hopkins Gap. Apples were

very useful, meaningful, and connected to significant life events. First, apples had uses

and meanings based on their color. Red apples were good for frying, for pies, for

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