Criders, Va.
By: Carol Maureen DeHart
From: Fulks Run, VA
By: Carol Maureen DeHart
From: Fulks Run, VA
“Come on in. I ain’t got much, but what I’ve got, you’re welcome to it.” Delie Crider opened her door to every stranger with those words. The first time I knocked on this neighbor’s door, her table and the blazing heat blasting from the wood cook stove were a welcome sight to this lonely suburban transplant. Homemade pickles, jams, breads, beans and platters of meat covered the tables in her simple kitchen.
In 1979 when I first visited Virginia’s mountains, with its jumbling creeks and views that quiet a troubled heart, they embraced me like a cloak and I knew that I had come home. A community enfolded in the Allegheny Mountains, homes and poultry houses stand within breathtaking scenery. The road beyond the Criders General Store snakes its way up to the Virginia/West Virginia state line on the top of Shenandoah Mountain and it feels like I would drive to the top of the earth if I followed the road to the sky.
It was the people, who opened their hearts to me, who grounded me to these ridges and valleys. Delie, with barely a sixth grade education, became my mountain mama and taught me about life and generosity and showed me every edible plant, mushroom and animal in that vicinity. She, who had left Virginia only several times in her eighty-seven years, could trace her family’s history into the 1800s when they had settled these mountain tops. The very same families who still butcher their hogs and raise food in their gardens. Dependent on one another for their very survival, they lived a self-sufficient lifestyle for centuries before our generation even coined the term. It has been said that more is known about Appalachia that’s untrue, than about any other place in the U.S. Many years after that first visit, I gathered up the courage to record, for the James Madison University Library, Delie’s oral history interview. I called to confirm our appointment and she laughed, “I have nothing but saw dirt for brains and that would fit in my big toe.” I knew better than that. It was her heart that took up all the room in her big toe.
When the interview was complete and Delie had fed me lunch, she followed me outside and pulled up 20 tiny seedlings, “posies,” for me to take along for my flower bed. She tore off a plantain leaf growing wild in the grass and wrapped it around their roots. I never went away from her simple weather beaten home without a belly full of food and an armful of fruits, bread, or a couple gallons of water when my well had gone dry. I kissed and thanked her and drove down the mountain to my new old home along the North Fork of the Shenandoah River.
My kind of town, Criders, Virginia, where you still hear people call out, “Y’all be good now, you hear?”
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Comments (14)
You did it again.
GREAT WORK
mike and joan
Posted by M & J McCormick on March 27,2010 | 03:03 PM
does anyone have any information on fulks run... I am a descendant of David Fulks born there in 1780 fredacruse@yahoo.com
Posted by freda cruse phillips on February 2,2010 | 12:39 AM
Hi Carol,
This was a wonderful story and I appreciate that you thought to let me know about it, congratulations! I also discovered the wonders of Virginia when I moved here (from a northern state) in 1979. I'll pass the link along to others so they can enjoy it too.
Posted by Bonnie Barr on November 30,2009 | 01:04 PM
Dear Carol,
Although we've never met, you captured my feelings exactly about the love we share for the places and people between these two mountain ranges. Since 1979, I've called the Valley my own "promised land". How fortunate we are to be alive in this time and place. Thank you for your loving words of contentment. Can't wait to read the rest of the interview.
Posted by Marlene Chandler on November 18,2009 | 11:21 AM
Carol
Congratulations that was a wonderful story and I am sure she was a wonderful woman and you certainly are that kind and gracious when we come to visit. I think you have found your roots down in the valley and am glad we have been able to come down and visit with you and your family. Keep up the stories they are delightful
Love Theda
Posted by Theda Raaffauf on November 15,2009 | 03:30 PM
Gosh, if that's not the truth of it - we are so lucky to live where this spirit still exists,and Carol's short intro to her interview captures it.
Posted by Nancy Carr on November 15,2009 | 10:16 AM
Wonderful story....congratulations, Carol.
Posted by Karen Hosaflook on November 12,2009 | 07:25 AM
"My lands a livin' here's a visitor a knocking', one might hear as ya would open a squeaky oak door. Good light and a true feeling of a visit with the Delie, in those days. Been a visitor myself of it's nature and goodness. And thanks for bringing it to us via this descriptive essay!
Posted by Suzanne Hajdu on November 11,2009 | 09:35 PM
can't wait to read this interview in the next issue. Carol DeHart's interview with the late John L. Heatwole in "The Word Gatherer" was wonderful and I truly expect Delie's story to equal that.
Posted by Chris Brown on November 10,2009 | 08:54 PM
I fell in love with all the same things, especially Carol Maureen.
Posted by Chuck DeHart on November 10,2009 | 12:54 PM
Great tale old friend - and took me back to the wonderful days of Autumn in '81 when my pal Drew and I,visitng from across the Ocean, chanced on you and your great friends in Criders and felt that wonderful welcome and hospitality that you had felt afore.
Posted by John Corrigan on November 10,2009 | 12:23 PM
Carol tells it like it is. She, herself, lived alone in a small, totally off grid cabin up in the mountains behind Criders, VA for many, many years. She's also a storyteller; Look her up!
Posted by Sue Rippy on November 10,2009 | 08:13 AM
Carol, what a great article! Thanks for sharing Criders with the world.
Posted by Pat Ritchie on November 9,2009 | 10:34 PM
Great story! I'd love to see the interview in the next issue.
Posted by Rick Bowman on November 9,2009 | 10:20 PM