Country roads, take me home

I haven't posted anything in a while. I feel like I've been neglecting the Roach Family Blog's faithful readers! Cathy, Parker and I have had a busy few weeks, starting with our trip to Harlan County Kentucky to my Grandma Parker's funeral. Harlan County is in far southeast Kentucky in the Appalachian Mountains. We were just a few miles from the state line with Virginia and Black Mountain, the highest point in Kentucky.

We stayed in Benham, Kentucky, which along with nearby Lynch, was founded as a company town for the coal companies. Benham was founded by International Harvester, a farm equipotent manufacturer, in the early 20th century. They owned the lots that the houses were built on and controlled almost every aspect of the miners' life. The hired and fired the school teachers and ministers, banned alcohol and limited free speach. My mom and grandparents never lived in Benham, but my Grandmother graduated from Benham High school and worked at the company store in town. While in Kentucky we stayed at the High School she graduated from which has been converted into a hotel, the Benham Schoolhouse Inn. The old company store is now a coal mining museum. The museum even has a replica of a working mine shaft.

It had been years since I'd been to Harlan County. My mom actually grew up just outside of Dione, Kentucky, a slow spot in the road that doesn't even show up on the maps. That was where the church was that the family attended and where my Grandmother's funeral took place. The scenery is breathtakingly beautiful with the mountains, shear rock cliffs along the roads, pine forests and kudzu. But the poverty is crushing. Most of the deep coal mines have closed and those that are open are strip mines that are much less labor intensive. We saw some remnants of the industry, including overhead conveyors from the mines to the railroad and stacks of coal on the side of the road, but not much.

It was great seeing all of my aunts, uncles and cousins that I don't get to see often. It's too bad it took my Grandmother's death to bring so much of the family together. It's not likely that the whole family will be together like this again. George and I, along with 7 of our cousins, were asked to be pall bearers, which was something I had never done before. At the cemetery, the gravesite services to place along the road because the grave site was at the top of a large hill. After the service, we saw that the cemetery employees were going to carry Grandma's casket to the grave in the back of a 4-wheel drive "gator." We all decided that this was an undignified last ride so we carried the casket up the steep 50 yards or so to her final resting place. I almost tripped into the open grave, but that's another story for another time.

It's unlikely I'll ever go back to Harlan County, but a part of our family will always be there.