The House On Montgomery Creek, Knott County, Kentucky

           Pictures of my grandparents place - my mother's parents.  My grandpa's name was Noah (pronounced No-ee), my grandma's Lurainne (pronounced Lou-rainy).  Her friends called her "Rainy" sometimes.
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The b&w & color photo of the house were taken from slightly different positions, and perhaps 20 years apart.  I took the color pictures as a teenager, I don't know who took the b&w one.  The scene is very similar.  In the color pictures, the corn, the corn my grandparents grew, (among a thousand other things) is much higher.   I learned early that it didn't pay to run through a corn field on a hot day.  The stalks are sharp.  They cut.  The sweat stings.  It hurts.  Don't do it.
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In the third picture there is a road, a creek, and a bridge.   The road came down the hill from the main road, which was something less than a two lane county road which can seem pretty precarious at times, especially when you're used to modern roads.  This main road is located behind the 'photographer' (me).  The dirt road that went past my grandparents just went up into the hollow, back into the hills, to other houses.    The creek is the famous Montgomery Creek. The bridge was built by my grandfather.  During the spring rains, it floods, and I have seen water rushing down the creek lapping at the bottom of that bridge.  It's unbelievable.   The people on the bridges are part of my family.
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The last picture is the road heading by my grandparents place, going back into the hills.  There is also a footpath next to it - not everybody had a car.  I don't think my grandparents ever owned an automobile.  To the right is the house, then a little behind that is the coal house, and the smoke house.  When I was young, the house was heated with coal fire places - I still have a fondness for that smell.   And I was always amazed at how you could be very warm on the side facing the fire, and cold as ice on the side away from the fire.   Anyway, they literally kept tons of coal, very abundant back there in Eastern Kentucky.
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There was no indoor plumbing either, and I thought nothing of it.  I've been in my share of outhouses.  On hot summer days, I'd check the area to make sure there were no snakes curled up in a corner somewhere.  I just did my best to ignore the flying stinging insects, hoping what the older people said was true, if you don't bother them they won't bother you.  I had my doubts. In the winter I didnt worry so much, cause the snakes went away.
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The place was located in what was known as "bottom land" - land that was more or less level, near the creek.  It was the best type of land to have.   I spent a fair amount of time there as a child.

A great-grandfather

This is my mother's mother's father.   My grandmother's father, in other words.  One of my 4 great-grandfathers.  I just came across this picture and thought it was interesting.
His name was Fayette Bishop, from Southwestern, Virginia.  I think Wise County, or maybe Big Stone Gap.   He died before I was born.
The picture I remember of him most was a picture that was taken when he was sick in bed.  He had white hair and a thick white mustache, and they put an old cain type chair upside down at the head of the bed, and put pillows on the back of the chair so he could prop himself up.
This picture is completely different - he's young & strong here, and just a little tough looking. This picture has to be from the 1880s or 1890s.   I'm a direct decendent.  As are multitudes of others.  So.  Got that going for me. Me and the multitudes.