Memories of how things used to be in rural America
My earliest memories are rooted in the Appalachian Mountains — a place that still feels like home despite living several hours eastward. My maternal grandparents’ dairy farm was located along a narrow dirt road, on top of a high ridge between Big Savage Mountain and Little Allegheny Mountain. Until 1956, my parents and I lived in a 35-foot trailer parked in one of their pasture fields.
In the highlands on the far side of Big Savage Mountain, my paternal grandparents’ “Early Harvest Farm” was located along the rippling headwaters of Wills Creek. Like most mountain farms back then, the barn was located below the fields so the horse teams didn’t have an uphill pull at harvest time.
When I was three years old, we moved 156 miles away, to live along another dirt road in rural northwestern Pennsylvania. Despite the distance, our ties to the Appalachian Mountains remained strong. Frequent visits to my grandparents’ isolated mountain farms were an important part of my childhood, and profoundly influenced my formative years — including my dialect. I also worked as a hired hand on one of the farms in 1969, and came back to the county to live and do my student teaching in 1973, shortly after turning 20 years old.
Coming-of-age stories of a country boy
Knowing how drastically the digital age has altered childhood activities, I wrote a memoir to capture my experiences growing up in the Appalachian Mountains and northwestern Pennsylvania. In recognition of how much things have changed since I was a boy, the book is titled “In the Land of Used to Be.” It uses a collection of vignettes to tell the story of this country kid’s journey from early childhood to adulthood. I think you will find them interesting, and often comical, whether or not you are from the Appalachian Mountains.
Like a typical Baby Boomer raised in the country, my childhood was largely unsupervised by adults, outside of school and church. My friends and I generated our own entertainment, which led to a variety of boyhood escapades that grew more audacious (and sometimes dangerous) as we advanced into our teenage years, and then on to early adulthood. In the book, you will read about things like tree houses, campouts, grapevine swings, sled riding, home-made coaster cars, work as farm laborers, hunting and trapping, Appalachian culture, technological changes, key historical events, church and church camps, teenage angst, chasing the fairer sex, fixing, racing, and wrecking cars, fisticuffs, overnight beer parties, working at gas stations, near-death-experiences, the draft, etc. In other words, the full gamut of the rural mid-20th century male coming-of-age experience.
For fellow Baby Boomers, I hope my boyhood stories evoke memories of their own youthful adventures. I also hope the stories transport members of more recent generations back to a time when young Boomers roamed the land, used their imagination to invent their own entertainment, and learned from their mistakes. In my opinion, the stories also help to highlight the sharp contrast between rural life then and suburban life today.
Order your copy now!
You can have “In the Land of Used to Be” delivered right to your doorstep via Amazon books. Alternately, you can pick up a copy at the main museum of the MCHS. All sales proceeds benefit the MCHS.
Lannie Dietle, August 11, 2024
P.S. Will “In the Land of Used to Be” ever be a best-selling autobiography? Nope, not a chance. Nevertheless, I don’t think you'll go wrong ordering it for your Boomer parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends — or for yourself. I might be a wee bit biased, but I think it does a great job of taking the reader back to the halcyon days just before digital technology, along with too many scheduled activities, began to suppress childhood imagination and initiative.
