The Language of the Hills, Part 2: Mountain Wisdom and Porch Proverbs

If the vocabulary of Appalachia is its melody, then its proverbs are the rhythm. In the communities of St. Charles and Pennington Gap, life was often hard and the weather was unpredictable. To make sense of it all, our ancestors used "sayings"—short, punchy bits of wisdom that kept a person grounded when the coal seams ran thin or the creek rose high.

As a Keeper of Memory, I believe these proverbs are some of the most valuable "artifacts" in The Anonymous Archive. They don’t just tell us how people spoke; they tell us how they thought.

Proverbs of Work and Grit

In the mountains, your word and your work were your only true currency.

  • "Don't hunt with a man who doesn't have a dog." (Don't go into business with someone who hasn't put in the preparation.)

  • "Make hay while the sun shines." (A reminder that opportunity in the mountains is as fleeting as a break in the clouds.)

  • "Every tub must stand on its own bottom." (The ultimate Appalachian call for self-reliance. You are responsible for your own character and your own family.)

Proverbs of the Natural World

Our ancestors were master observers of the ridges and the skies. Their proverbs often doubled as a farmer’s almanac.

  • "The higher the clouds, the fairer the weather."

  • "A hoot-owl hollering in the daytime means a storm is brewing."

  • "If you lie down with dogs, you’ll get up with fleas." (A warning to the younger generation about the company they kept—a saying still heard in many Indiana households today.)

The "Granny" Sayings: Faith and Humility

There was a specific kind of "Granny wisdom" that focused on keeping a person’s ego in check.

  • "Don't get too big for your britches." (Perhaps the most famous mountain warning against pride.)

  • "Empty wagons make the most noise." (The people who talk the loudest usually have the least to say—a "quiet truth" I try to honor in my own writing.)

  • "Beauty is skin deep, but ugly goes clear to the bone." (Character matters more than appearance; a lesson taught on every Lee County porch.)

Why These Sayings Travelled North

When Lee Countians migrated to places like Noblesville and Bargersville, they didn't just bring their tools; they brought these "rules for living." You can still hear these phrases today in the breakrooms of Indiana factories or at Sunday dinners.

These proverbs are the "invisible threads" that connect a grandson in Hamilton County to a great-grandfather he never met who worked the mines in St. Charles. They are reminders that while the world changes, the truth doesn't.

"A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience. In the hills, we had experience in spades."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

“Ghosts of the Battlefield: Jonesville’s Final Echo”

Image
Shadows of the Old Dominion: Why Virginia Is America’s Most Haunted State Dickerson/Melbourne house in Jonesville where the Union Army moved to a defensive position but saw their situation was dire and eventually surrendered to the Confederate Army, with 12 dead and nearly 400 captured.   Virginia is often celebrated as The Mother of Presidents and the birthplace of American democracy. But beneath the monuments, battlefields, and colonial streets lies another identity—one whispered in the rustle of Jamestown’s woods and the stillness of Fredericksburg’s Sunken Road. Virginia is widely regarded as America’s most haunted state , and the reasons run far deeper than ghost stories. The Old Dominion holds an unparalleled concentration of human history—triumph, tragedy, conflict, ceremony, and survival—all layered across 11,000 years. The result is a landscape where the past never fully loosens its grip. 1. Ancient Echoes: 11,000 Years of Human Presence Long before English s...
Read more

Beer Joints, Bootleggers, Taxis and the Virginian Theater

Image
  Saturday Night in the "New York of the Hollows" By Jerry Buchanan If you looked at the census numbers for St. Charles in 1950, you’d see a modest count of 550 people. But if you stood on the sidewalk on a Saturday afternoon, those numbers lied. To us, St. Charles didn't feel like a small town; it felt like a mountain metropolis. The Saturday Swell Every Saturday, the sidewalks were so packed with miners and their families coming in from the camps—places like Bonny Blue, Kemmerer Gem, and Benedict —that you often had to step off the curb just to get around. The town was a transportation hub. We had a passenger bus running to Pennington Gap, but the real local "movers" were the taxis. The taxi stand usually had three or four cabs idling, manned by drivers like Carl Buchanan and George Gibson . Walt Gilley (related to "Blackie" Gilley) also drove for Carl from time to time. I’ll never forget the day Walt walked into the Cavalier Cafe looking for a co...
Read more

Memories of St. Charles Elementary School

Image
  From Lunch Pails to Free Plates: A St. Charles Journey Since 1956 By Jerry Buchanan The old brick walls of St. Charles: Where my journey began in 1956. The Heartbeat of St. Charles: A Journey Back to 1956 Looking at an old photo of the St. Charles school, I am instantly transported back to 1956, the year my journey began. While the finer details of those early years have faded like a sepia print, the rhythms of life in that building remain etched in my mind. The Midday Trek One of my most vivid memories isn’t of a lesson at a chalkboard, but of the midday bell. In those days, the cafeteria was tucked away behind the high school, but my siblings and I rarely saw the inside of it. There were no programs for free or reduced lunches then; if the cafeteria meal didn't fit the family budget, you simply went home. Rain or shine, we made the trek home for lunch. It was a testament to the times—our parents worked hard, but with multiple children, the budget was tight. I do remember one sm...
Read more