Memories From The Hills: The Life and Good Times of Tom J. Whitaker

Memories From The Hills <-*" The Life and Good Times of Tom J. Whitaker rU "Simplicity with the right touch is elegance, whether in New York City or the mountains of Kentucky. A slick customer, long, lanky Tom J. Whitaker of Puncheon Creek in Magoffin County, Kentucky, a slick customer to try to put a handle on. It's like trying to put a latch on to The Old Man of The Sea in that all the time you are trying to hold one form he is in the process of shifting to another. Give him the appropriate clothes and equipment and he could pass for the stereotype mountaineer of one of last century's novels. Change costumes and he could be a southern planter or Southwestern caballero. Hand him a guitar and he will entertain you with sad or comic songs of his own making, acting out the parts all the while. At other times he will teach, expatriate on art or philosophy or life, regale you with accounts of his up-and-down-hollow experiences, turn photographer, or work at his art (mainly water colors and ink drawings) with great intensity on location. And so it goes. Whitaker is proud of his mountain heritage and the subjects of his sketches and paintings as well as his written statements are proof of his recognition of the importance of the people and environment of Eastern Kentucky in shaping his thinking and personality. He remembers "having gone to a one room school for six years; being one of seven children; walking several miles to school or to catch a bus; milking and feeding the cows, the hogs; working on the farm for my Grandfather Ramey or Uncle Paul; gathering walnuts in the fall; digging mayapple or bloodroot in spring; being hugged and bragged on by many mountain neighbors; buying clothes from the missionary store on Puncheon; Grandma feeding me every time I was there; four of us riding one mule on a cold snowy night to watch a western TV show on the other fork." If you ask Tom Whitaker how he came to be an artist, he will likely give an answer that comes very close to meaning something like, "I was born that way, and I have not permitted the times of the cultural environment to vulgarize it. ' ' Tom Whitaker is known over the Commonwealth for his painting workshops and drawing classes as well as for his own water colors and pen and ink drawings, which are obviously his favorite media. He may be better known for his water colors, but he says he feels very close to his pen and ink drawings that often begin with an ink wash applied to achieve a "misty feeling" before the pen and ink work. "Pen and ink has a freshness, a simplicity, that can really capture people and places here in the hills where I have grown up," he says. Tom reserves summers for painting on location and exhibiting throughout Kentucky and neighboring states. His deep interest in both the remembered and changing aspects of life in the hills has prompted him to do a series of twelve limited edition prints of his ink drawings with the title Thine Eyes Can 36 See. These prints are accompanied by a written commentary relating the history, significance—the purpose of each drawing—all based on a considerable amount of research and study. So, in an effort to give a fair, small sampling of the art of Tom J. Whitaker, prints from Thine Eyes Can See along with their commentaries are reproduced here and the do-lolly of a water color on the front cover painted especially for this issue. You can find Tom Whitaker at Prestonsburg Community College where he teaches, or at his Parkway Gallery, Middle Creek Road, Prestonsburg, Kentucky 41653, or somewhere along there. Anyway you can find him. I did. Go take a look at his water colors and drawings and his limited edition prints of each. You'll have fun. You'll like it. "You never miss your water until the well runs dry" is a saying here in the hills that seems to fit. Many of us never thought of missing the hills until we left them. We went to Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Detroit, Columbus, Fairborn and Muncie. Many of us found work and many stayed on. The memories of the hills did, too. I am constantly looking for places, for things, for subjects and for anything that evokes feelings inside me. When this happens a drawing or painting is being born. This happened as I was driving up Bear Branch (a creek off Middle Fork in Magoffin County). I knew I must try to capture the old house, the rock chimney, the rail fence, the long forgotten hand pump, the delapidated barn, the terrain, that all seemed to be battling time to preserve so many memories. As I sat there for two days drawing, photographing and painting, I seemed so close to knowing the family that once lived there. People driving by blew their horns or waved. Several stopped and talked. I was even given cold beverages by people I did and didn't know. I realized that day that if we remember yesterday today we will also remember today, tomorrow. Thank you all on Bear Branch and Middle Fork for wonderful memories. 37 Dear Person, I was sitting here thinking of you so I decided to write to you. Throughout the South the Country Post Office and General Store has enriched people's lives and has been an attractive landmark to the countryside. The Post Office serves as a place not only to send and receive mail, but as a meeting place to talk, to trade, to court, to laugh, to joke, to tell local as well as legendary stories. One such place was and is Fredville, Kentucky. Fredville was established November 20, 1916, by Irvin and Cynthia Ann Carpenter. He was a State Representative from the area. It stayed here at the mouth of Buck Creek until 1945. On the last day of December, 1944, Mae Shephard Arnett and her brother-in-law John T. Arnett took a springboard seat wagon pulled by two mules to Mrs. Carpenter's home. They loaded the Post Office equipment into the wagon and made the two mile trip to the present location. Mae became Postmistress New Year's Day 1945. Fredville is located fifteen miles south of Salyersville on Route 7, just off Licking River. The Post Office was first operated from the living room of the Arnett home, then moved into a small building beside her home, and later and presently into the corner of the Arvel W. and Mae Arnett Merchandise Store. Answer Soon, Bill and Kim Wireman (Grandchildren of Mae and Arvel Arnett) P.S. The Zip Code is 41430. 38 The drawing you now gaze upon was taken from a site just below the mouth of Rough and Tough on Middle Creek of Floyd County, Kentucky. Rheuben and Celia Whitaker Arnett moved from Puncheon Creek (Magoffin County) to this farm in about the year 1886. When she moved her steam boiler from Puncheon to Middle Creek, she rode behind and screamed and hollered at the workers all day. The second day of the journey was much quieter because all the hollering had caused her to lose her voice. The house seen in the background was built for her grandson, Boone Arnett, in the year 1915. It was built by Bill Stephens and his brother. The farm was sold in 1949 to Willard Stephens. He erected the store building but it soon sold at auction to Oscar and Josephine Richardson. Here for sixteen years Josephine sold gas, groceries, meats, general merchandise and anything and almost everything. Gasoline was 22c per gallon, pop a nickle a bottle, and one could expect to clear 10c on a hundred pound sack of feed. It was a place where farmers, miners, and working people of the Eastern Kentucky hills could meet, trade knives, chew tobacco, joke, tell stories that had been handed down by ancestors and just sit and relax. Texaco has recently been replaced in Kentucky by Boron, but the building, the sign, the gas pumps and the remembrance of other days all remain "ALONG THE OLD ROAD.' ' 39 "I, Lira K. Stephens, was born eighty some years ago on the Keathley Farm on Spurlock of Printer In Floyd County, Kentucky. Father died at the age of thirty because of the doctor giving him the wrong medicine. My mother was left to raise four children. WhHe she was working at a country store a Are burned up all of our clothing and everything we had. We lived in a shop built out of rough boards. We had a dirt floor and lived there until kind neighbors bum us back a house. I have lived here at Martin all my lite and run the Stephens Newstand. I have one daughter, Johnnie B. Stephens, and six grandchildren. George Barnette Jr., Stephen Barnette, Carmel Clinton Osborne, Roger Barnette, Lindy Coky Dingus, and Sue and Ronnie Wright In Michigan. I also sell lots of nice flowers and ceramics. I haven't really worked hard aH my life hut I have worked continually. I have always worked, lived a good life and done what I wanted to." — Lora K. Stephens 8/24/82 40 Nowhere in our country lias the tree been mort important than here in the hills. We build our homes, barns, smoke houses, plows, outhouses, shops, fences, bridges and tools from wood. Warmth and food are provided day after day. In addition to those physical needs, the tree has provided a mental warmth. Traes are used as landmarks. "Meet me down at the Sycamore" or "It happened by the Chinquapin" , are two places that we on Puncheon Creek knew well. Almost any old deed that was written has depended on the tree. "The line runs from the large elm due south for approximately two hundred feet to the red oak on the point.' ' We used the tree for shade in summer and as a wind breaker in winter. Last, but of major importance, the tree is used as a thing of beauty. Around our homes and family graveyards It has become a very prestigious and sacred thing. This Is certainly true of the white pine standing on the lower edge of the Reed Cemetery on the Right Fork of Cow Creek (approximately one mile from the Stella Post Office). As can be seen, The Tree has been and is very much a part ot all ot us. 41 ...