The Red Flannel Rag

Part Two

MEMORABLE CHARACTERS

“The night is beautiful, So the faces of my people. The stars are beautiful, So the eyes of my people. Beautiful, also, is the sun. Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.” Langston Hughes (4)

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Over the years I have come to recognize how much the traditions Hopkins Gap

people used to survive on a day-to-day basis influenced their lives. The communal

spirit necessary for survival in the early days shaped their characters to care for other

people and to share their resources. Later, when moon shining became the major way of

surviving, some of those same characters took on a darker element that came out as

distrust and suspicion of strangers. Growing up in this setting had a major impact on

how I viewed the world. I have always been able to share all kinds of resources

including material things such as money and nonmaterial things such as ideas; but at

the same time, I am suspicious of strangers who want to get too close to me. I feel as if

they want some part of me such as information that can be used against me. I firmly

believe that growing up in Hopkins Gap in a culture that was rapidly changing during

my early life from an honest, caring, community surviving by cooperation to a

community that survived by the illegal activity of moon shining, that required secrecy

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