Ruth Eaton

Partial Transcript: When I read—I've read several of her books, but she refers to places that I know that I've been to. Just like the spring out here. And she referred to this as the place. And there's just a number of things in those books that I recognize as the place I've actually been. And that makes it even more meaningful to me.

Partial Transcript: There was a span of about 19 years between our ages, so I remember a conversation about how much her father used to read to her, and I think that probably was some of the foundation of her writing and everything else, yeah.

Partial Transcript: My name is Ruth Eaton and I'm a first cousin to Wilma. And I spent a lot of time here on this special place with her and my childhood especially—fond memories there. And we've kept in touch over the years, yeah.

Partial Transcript: Well, I live in the place—in the house—now, that where I was born, just a hop and a jump up the road. And we came —we—I say we—when I say we, I mean my brother, David, and myself. We were just inseparable. So we would come down here any time we got a chance or got permission, and sometimes when we didn't get permission. And we paid the price for it, but it was worth it. We would come down and do the things that kids do—wade in the pond and go up to the spring and try to count how many little critters were fluttering around in the spring. And Wilma would come out and tell us how the water— the water would just come down in the mountain and bubble up in the spring, and just any number of things. And that little bridge out there, going from the back of the house over into the woods, that were always a fascination to me. It just made me feel like I was going into my own little fairyland. And we would go into woods often. And especially when it got into the holidays, we would go up there with Aunt Wilma and Aunt Bonnie and pick Galax leaves and she would do Christmas arrangements with that. And there was one thing she did down at the other bridge that comes over the driveway. She said, "Come let me show you what I used to do when I was your age." And it was autumn then, and the leaves hadn't begun to fall and she picked up a leaf and got down really close to the floor of the bridge and she would drop the leaf between the boards and watch it flutter down to the water and then sail on out of sight and down the creek. And she said, "Those were my boats." She said, "I made boats." And she said, "I did a lot of those." Made boats and, uh, all of those things. There was just very few of some—just memorable things. And I think what made it so memorable to me was she was able to make an adventure out of every little thing and that was just—that was just magic to us. And so—and then there were times when we would come down the road— it was a dirt road then—and we were barefooted in the summertime and our feet were just like leather. We couldn't even feel anything by the end of the summer. But she had raspberries out in the field there. And we would wait around under the pine tree for her car to go out so we would know she wasn't here. And we would help ourselves to the raspberries. Just little things like that, but they were very memorable times to me and happy times.

Partial Transcript: Well, most of what I remember are just—are just the stories about what we did and what we—and the things we did when we would come here and it's just —just—there wasn't exactly a story to it. It was just events that were so memorable. So—
David Weintraub
What was a favorite thing you used to do together?
Ruth Eaton
Favorite thing I used to do?
David Weintraub
With Wilma.
Ruth Eaton
I think just being around her. Just being with her because she always made you feel welcome and she always made you feel special. And as I say—anything we did—you know—just simple things that kids do, but she made a big deal out of it, and made it real. Yeah and those were good times. Yeah.

Partial Transcript: I believe that. I believe that. And she said when she was talking about writing one time, she said— I don't remember how she put it—but she said when you don't really try to describe somebody literally, like long hair, and all of the rest, she said, you provide what they look like by what you write about them. And you form your own picture in your mind about what this person is like. And that's one of the things I remember, yeah.

Partial Transcript: Well, it just—I didn't discuss it with her that much, but I had read parts of the book and it made me more aware of what—when I would see the rivers and the waters and all of the natural things around it, uhm, it made me understand what she was saying.
I know she did a lot of research and a lot of traveling. Probably more than I realize because in some ways, I guess, I might have been so young I didn't realize all she did. But I know that she traveled a lot and talked to a lot of people, yeah.
I've heard people from my work comment on it and they thought it was very interesting. And they just really liked it, yeah. But anything that has to do with nature or trees or environment, surroundings is always—is always good to know and good to read about.

Partial Transcript: Well, I know that—I know that I've heard people who are old-timers here and live here, they definitely have their opinions about things. I don't know how often they express them, and it can be kind of a hot topic—
In some ways. But I don't know how that compares with the people that come here. I'm pretty more familiar with the people and families who have lived in this area and how they feel about things.

Partial Transcript: She canned peaches. I remember peaches in the half gallons, and she made it so they would have a syrup in there, make them really sweet and not very healthful. But they tasted good, and when we would come home in the winter time from school and get off the school bus, David would eat a half of one of those half gallons and I would eat the other half, and we just thought it was wonderful.
And daddy would bring home peaches in a—he'd see them somewhere for sale—and might be Saturday— and he would come home on a Saturday afternoon or maybe down towards suppertime and he says, "Boy, I got some good peaches." He said, "They're dead ripe." That meant everybody had to stay up all night and peel them and do the thing with them, but—and somebody would start— be mumbling and complaining and he said, "Well, you'll see, they'll taste good when the snow is flying." And they did.
We had everything. We had—I remember potatoes. That was one thing. They were kind of out to themselves because there was a patch of potatoes and they planted those and we wanted to go—the kids—we wanted to go somewhere one day and my mother said, well, she said, it's your job to go down there and whack the weeds away from the potatoes. And we made quick work—said you do that and you can go. And we made quick work of that. We went down and cut the whole thing down. And we didn't know. I mean, the potatoes, they're a root vegetable, and they hadn't even developed yet and we just went down there and went to whack the whole patch of potatoes down. We had potatoes and we had tomatoes and we had— just beans and corn and all of the things, I guess we needed to be healthy because we—we all seemed to be reasonably healthy. It was kind of the same thing all of the time. It was good when you were hungry.
They would salt the pork sometimes. Salt the pork, yeah. There was no freezer. I knew some of the relatives of my mother, who used to can pork sausage, and I don't know—my mother never did do it, but it tasted pretty good. I was a little leery of it. I don't know, but most of the pork was salted, yeah.

Partial Transcript: It's all about nature. If I have a choice, I'm going to be outside. I don't care if it's picking up sticks, limbs, mowing the grass— I got to have that fresh air and natural stuff. House looked like a bomb hit it, but I'll do that tonight and when tonight comes, I'm too tired. But I think we both kind of appreciated the same thing. When I come over here now, I can feel things and smell things that still seem the same. The creek—and I know it's—you know—that was then and this is now, but there's something about it, that—especially if it's rained, I remember how the wet pine needles smell when it rained on them, and I have never forgotten that. But—and I'm looking at the window now where the azaleas and rhododendrons are and that's just really a show in the spring. She was so proud of that. And they're natural. They just came there, yeah.

Partial Transcript: Well, I went to Junior college. That's when Mars Hill College was a Junior college. And then I went to work and went around in my circle here and there and moved around. And I came back in later years and moved back to the place—the house where I was born—and did a few things to it. I wasn't trying to make it bigger and better and keep up with the Jones', I just did some things to make it safe and livable, and I'm very contented there now. But I don't know of anything exciting that I did other than the usual circle people go in, but that's where I am now. And I'm pretty contented there.

Partial Transcript: She lived in Tennessee a good portion of the time in later years, and I saw her occasionally, but not as often as when we were young, but she did lectures. I don't know of all of the places, but I know she was very busy with lecture assignments and she traveled a lot.

Partial Transcript: Well, Explorations, I enjoyed that. And it's been a while, but I know that when—in later years—we would walk a lot and talk a lot about things and stop on the way and observe things and maybe run into neighbors. But she would—after I moved up—just a hop and a jump up the road—she would come—she would come up and there we would go up for a walk up into the cove and she—I remember one walk we took up there and it was winter and it was really cold. It was just freezing cold and it was just blowing snow sideways. Those little goose feathers—snowflakes. Just blowing it sideways. Just howling wind. And when we bundled up and we went and got up there part of the way and she stopped and she says, "Oh," she says, "Isn't this air refreshing?" She says, "It's so invigorating." And I couldn't even feel my nose, but she was attuned to everything around her. I'm not familiar with all the places she went or what she saw, but anyway, we went up there, and on the way back, the conversation kind of waned and we were walking along with our thoughts and she stopped and she said something that I haven't ever forgotten, and she stopped and she says, "I want to make every minute count. Every minute." And that kind of stuck with me, and I thought about that and it kind of—sort of etched its way into my psyche and it kind of is—they're words to live by, as far as I'm concerned, and I was really impressed with that. And that's something I've never forgotten, yeah.

Partial Transcript: All of the memories. Just memories. Many memories. And of events and just coming over here and sitting down on the floor in the winter time when it's—she had a fire in the fireplace. Get the dominoes out and we would all line them up, all of the way across the room, and then we would get into—I won't say an argument—a discussion about who was going to tap the first one to make them all fall over. Just things like that that we would do. In the wintertime, we had things to do in the winter and just the outside things. I loved the summer and spring and all of that outside. That was—those were my favorite times.

Partial Transcript: Well, it's just—I guess in a nutshell—it's home. You know, because it's just like it was so many parts of it are just like they were when we were young. Been some changes, but most of the people who lived around here at one time were relatives because the—Hugh and Shasta and then Aunt Bonnie and Wilma and then Grandma Cole up the road and all of that— and it hasn't changed a whole lot since then. It's changed, but this spot here has stayed the same as far as the way it used to be. It just feels the same, and I just love coming over here because it just takes me back to happy times. And everybody knew everybody and then Fez Glenn down at end of the road. He's the only one that had a telephone and everybody decided they had to use the telephone. They would walk a mile down the road to use the telephone. And it was one of those wild things you crank up—however, you do that—and that was a big event to go to Fez Glenn's house and use the telephone.
Interviewer
Did you have any impressions in the mountains in closing the cove at all or did that make any difference to you?
Ruth Eaton
Oh, no, it's just a favorite spot. I mean, the only time I wasn't too fond of it, was when I couldn't get cell phone reception, but that's okay. I didn't need the phone I would rather have the mountains. And I think it was the phone I had too. But daddy used to talk about going up to the Rice Knob and he took some canned food and he put it in a hollow tree and he was going to see how long it stayed there. Well, I don't think he ever went back. I don't know. He was always doing something like that. I don't know, went out across the hill—what used to be the pasture through the woods one day. Oh, it's been—I think Wilma was with me that day—and you remember the cabin that use—used to be up—kind of directly across. There's not much left of it except part of the foundation. And the rays of sun were coming through the trees—kind of in streaks and there was a little daffodil that managed to stay there and it was growing there and blooming—just one. And that took me back to sometimes in the past when somebody was living in that cabin.

Partial Transcript: Yeah. I have had about ten goats. I had them to clean that field off. And then I decided that—I think I got carried away with the animals, but I had four peacocks, and I had two big—a pair of turkeys—great big ones, and then I had a big red rooster, and I had a bass—not a basset hound—a beagle, and some barn cats. And I miss them. I don't have them anymore, but I miss them. And they were kind of work, but I would go out there in the dark in the winter time, and it was dark as pitch. And I would go out there and gather up—take that hay and grain to those goats and anything could have just jumped me out there, but it didn't even enter my mind then.
David Weintraub
Did you milk the goats?
Ruth Eaton
No. They were just to clean that field off.
Interviewer
Did Ott have livestock?
Ruth Eaton
He did, and as time went on it kind of—not as much, but he had a couple of mules and some—mostly cows. It was not a big goat farm. It was just kind of a family farm. And we had our own milk and vegetables and all of the rest. So we all had our job to do. And it was—it was okay. We didn't think it was okay then, but it was okay. I guess that was teaching responsibility

Partial Transcript: Why is it important? Because it just takes me back to times when I just—I just really wanted to be around somebody who was—who I could talk to and who would listen and who would take the time to spend and talk about things—the same things I like.

Partial Transcript: Well, it goes way back, and it's part of life, and it's part of your life. It just is history.
That tranquility and the peacefulness and the—just the nature of the whole area. There's something consoling about it—just to be there. And that's why I—you know—I mentioned the little spot I have where I go in the mornings and early, and I guess that's what I'm doing, I'm getting in touch with myself and everything. So that's what it's about.