Mr. Crabtree, You gave a good explanation of the King Arthur festivals in CA, and how we southerners acquired our love for telling stories. To go a step further regarding customs: My parents and grandparents lived on farms on very mountainous terrains in SW VA. I was a teenager when I saw where the farms were located. I couldn't understand why my ancestors would settle in territory that seemed to be nothing but hills. Yes, it was beautiful, but I thought so impractical. The only flat land was at the very top of the hill. It wasn't until four years ago that I came to realize why they chose the area of SW VA and SE TN to build their homes and raise their families. I had the privilege of touring the lands of my ancestors. Traveling thru Wales, my dad's family's homeland, then thru northern England and Scotland, probably where my mother's ancestors lived, I was in awe of the rolling hills, stone fences for miles and miles, and the winding rivers and valleys--so much like those in VA and TN. Although the hills of Britain were mostly grazing lands, whereas, the southern hills were wooded, they were very similar. That gave me a better understanding of why my gggrandparents settled in the rolling hills of VA/TN. Just a little bid of their homelands, or better said, "a little bit of heaven." And it truly was! All of us have seen movies with Errol Flynn portraying Robin Hood. You may call me a dummy, but considering the forests I have seen with so much undergrowth that a person could hardly walk, I never understood how Robin Hood and his Merry Men's horses could travel through the woods and forests with so much ease. Well, I saw Nottingham Forest and it had the tallest, straightest trees I'd ever seen. And sure enough, you could see thru the spacious trees, and there wasn't any undergrowth. A person could ride horseback thru those woods. Just another story! Pat -----Original Message----- From: Robert Crabtree <crabtree@speedlink.com> To: SW_VA-L@rootsweb.com <SW_VA-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Saturday, March 20, 1999 11:13 PM Subject: Celtic music and Bluegrass >Here where I now live in CA they have a Renaissance Fair each year. They sit up >a camp and dress and act the part of their character, a real person of King >Arthur's day. They are very serious about this. They also have jousting and >sward fighting. And you know what? One of their favorite past times is story >telling. Can you believe that? Now wonder where all these good people on this >list for the past few days got their desire to tell so many stories? Strolling >amongst these characters in their fancy or peasant dress and witness the bad >guys being put on public display in the stocks while listening to the dialect of >the time. It is easy to identify it all with our early hill folks back in SW >VA, TN, and KY and see where they were coming from. And their songs are not >unlike the ballads we have been discussing. Near San Francisco they had the >Blackwood Forest and a permanent village where these characters had their >festivals all summer long. Their serious research and accurate reenactment of >the times can easily put me back to Old Frederick Towne and Baltimore, MD where >my ancestors first lived in this country before moving on to Montgomery County >and then migrating to Wythe, Smyth, Washington and Russell Counties. >Robert Crabtree > > >==== SW_VA Mailing List ==== >#2 A large database of SURNAMES and the researcher's email address can be found at >http://www.fortunecity.com/millennium/quarrybank/194/swabc.htm >You may have your SURNAMES included by posting them and your address to the >LIST and NOT to the sysop/owner. > >