xt70cf9j6v42 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt70cf9j6v42/data/mets.xml Kentucky 1917 8 unnumbered pages, 31 cm. Call Number: PN6071.C6 C47 1917 books PN6071.C6 C47 1917 English Caney Creek Community Center, Inc Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection Christmas stories, American -- Kentucky -- 20th century Mountain life -- Kentucky -- Fiction Dialect literature, American -- Kentucky Pippa Passes (Ky.) -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction Christmas on the Creek of Caney, 1917 text Christmas on the Creek of Caney, 1917 1917 1917 2023 true xt70cf9j6v42 section xt70cf9j6v42 CHRESTMAS
IN THE
EMUUNTAENS OF KENTUCKY

In the Land
Where the Creeks

Run Through

Set into type, printed, folded and sewed by mountain men and girls
at the
Caney Creek Community Center, Inc
Pippapass, Knott Cmunty, Kentucky

Reprinted by Request

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CHRISTMAS ON THE CREEK OF CANEY

TIME ~ PLACE

Christmas Day N Caney Creek Community Center
1917 in the
Land Where the Creeks Run Through

PﬂRTI C’I PﬂJV' TS

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' ‘r ., ‘mrd Statwned at the " ‘ :_
Front Guard Stationed at the Christmas Tree
Outside Guard Patrolting the grounds
Manager of the Illitercwy Prizes . J . Com
District Name - In care of the babies and aged
“Santa Claus”

Big Sandy’s Sandy

Wolvery Withens

Fiddling Rufus '

Unele Eph’ ‘ ‘ ,

The Massive Woman

Aunt Selina ’

Leatheerod- Jumbo - Napoleon

Between five and six- hunidred ,-
' Kentucky Mountaineers

' SETTING

99}

THE CH RISTMAS TREE

The biggest greenest smellyest Christmas Tree that "never was."
Its top branches pressed against the ceiling. Glittering all over with big
gold stars and scarlet crinkly bells; shimmering with tinsel baubles and
crystal snow. Its pointed slender tips swaying with redwlemonmpink—purple—
green tarltan candywbags. Its branches weighted with blue~eyed dolls and
golden-brown Teddy—bears; and noisy whistles and rattles and slappers and
drums; and comfy mittens and mufflers and sweaters and hoods and caps and

socks.
ﬂﬁﬂ

And each side of the biggest greenest smellyest Christmas Tree
that "never was".... a Ladder wound with red and green and sparkling ropes
of silver and gold tinsel,packed to the height of each step with "s'prises"

— presents for most everybody, and you couldn’t tell the least little bit
WHAT they were ‘cause they were all done up in watery—red—white—and—blue
bulgy and some

paper and tied with the sparklingest cords and some were
wepsnﬁaal$é§wmaﬂéiﬁﬂﬁspxsmagknobby and some were level, and _eome were
great—Dig'presents and seme Were teeny—weeny oneSf”l* “” ’ ‘ “ ”“”"

@ﬂ?

And all around the biggest greenest smellyest
that "never was" and the shimmery Ladder (over in the corner of the
sembly Hall of the Caney Creek Community.Center) there was the most per—
fectly wonderful FENCE. It was a black—red~green—white—yellow—gray—crepe—
paper FENCE, streaming all down with gold and silver and scarlet shining
through and just splattered (seemed like) all over with the gleamingest

THE LADDERS

THE RAILING
Christmas Tree
As—

SHOW.

THE CEILING
AND‘ THE WALLS ‘ %%§F§

AND ’THE WINDOWS
And the ceiling AND the walls AND the windows of the GREAT—BIG

room were festooned with red and green and yellow and black and white
streamers. Curling and fluffy ropes of gold from corner to corner, clear
,way across, with flags every little while. And big Santa Clauses. And in
the middle of the GREAT—BIG room — just exactly where all the streamers
meet — the hughest, scarletest, sparklingest Christmas Bell that "ever
was" .... most as big as the biggest greenest smellyest Christmas Tree

that "never was."

PROLOGUE

North and south winds the Creek of Caney. In the narrow valleys
through which it flows, are scores and scores and scores of
cabins of 10gs.

Off from the Creek of Caney, to the right and to the left,-
water—sheds come flowing. Laid into the mountain sides from which'
rise the water—sheds are "flats."On these "flats” of the mountain
sides are dozens and dozens of Cahins of logs.

ﬁﬁﬁ?

; From this winding Creek of Caney, North and South, from these
l i water—sheds descending, Christmas Day 1917, on horse—back, on mule—
back, in jolt—wagon, in sleds, on foot as rhythmically as the
muffled beat of a march for the dead, there slowly approached, in
the driving sleet, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Kentucky
mountaineers.

1 “JUN

,—

”i A solemn Cavalcade to be coming to the biggest greenest smellyest
Christmas Tree that ”never was."

see

Old men and women in homespun the women had sheared
and carded and Spun and woven and bunglingly cut into
crude garments; the old_manw in ,Eh9‘,“"1§ Lt - ul:
, "“hjjuplbéhino;~ , .l..l.,.. 7 ,

Young—old fathers, their cheeks‘painted with the doom
, of race—decay, coughing in the storm; thinned young
3 _mothers sadly smiling, from the family joltewagon, to
E greet once more their kin,the annual progeny squirming
and sprawling in the wagon bed.

Boys in their teens, "guns" in hip—pockets, to whom
3 nothing new is to happen in their experience.
E Girls, frustrated in opportunity, listless in ‘their
{ , "boughten clothes." ‘
G E Children, vaguely wistful, inarticulately hopeful that

their birthright just to he a child may be ONCE_ real-
ized at the biggest greenest smellyest Christmas
Tree that "never was." ‘

' RU

And...the BABIES: the hope of the regenerated and joy“
ful Creek of Caney.

iiﬁ

From\the North, from the South of the winding Creek of Caney, from

the water~sheds descending, in the driving sleet,over rocky trails,

through icy creek—beds, they slowly approached...hundrede and hun— .

dreds and hundreds of Kentucky mountaineers. e

mmnww-J: ,4. i ..i.. .

As solemn a cavalcade and as patient as a camel—train across the
desert: "The Desert of Waiting.", , -

CHRISTMAS ON THE CREEK OF CANEY
1917-

"If tuk a notion I could go in thar and smash that Christmas Tree UP," boasted Big
Sandy’s Sandy, the instant he entered the gate.

"Mebbe that IS so," said Leatherwood. ”But it Just happens that THAT Christmas Tree
haint going to be smashed UP. I reckon that me and you hed better be having a
stroll."

Leatherwood linked arms with Big Sandy‘s Sandy. Together they entered the barn. When
they came out, it was Sandy’s arm that was clinging to Leatherwood.

"Hit’s a sight tew find out," said Sandy addressing his fight—at—thev signal colleav
gues, "hit’s certainly a sight tew find out how mean a decent feller like me kin be
when he’s been a—drinking. All I hev tew say is this ~ ef airy one of you cusses hez
made any plans AGIN that thar Christmas Tree, you all hev me to reckon with. Let’s go
erlong in."

ﬁﬁﬁ .. ‘

Inside, the biggest smellyist Christmas Tree that "never was" was shedding its gleam—
ing HOPE over the incoming throngs.

Gray—haired men that had never seen a Christmas Tree, from between shoulders hunched

11-h 1-.1'1'H ‘ , M - ‘ g; 'I r in+n w+~~1~n+pn1wg hwcnnkqg tramwnna +r-nm'h ‘4
women, shaken by 1%? splendor Shivered steamingly near the big heater. Baby—laden
fathers, and mothers with tots clingling to their draggled skirts, wearily conscious
that it was to the Caney Greek Community Center that they must look for all the joy
and hope their children could expect to have. Boys nonchalantly oblivious to the
knives and the caps.Girls whose longing faces revealed their heart—breaking fear that
there were more girls than dolls. Babies sleeping in friendly arms — all unaware that
theirs is the fulfillment...theirs, the hope.

EEG

It was the Rear Guard who spoke:

"Welcome! That is the spirit of the day. Welcome to every one. We are working
with you on the Creek of Caney because we have friends and helpers who want you
American people (Lincoln’s people) to have the opportunities that have hitherto been
denied you, but that you deserve. Every one of the hundreds here today will receive a
gift from these friends and helpers of the Caney Greek Community Center. Let us not
only take away with us a gift, and each a poke of candy, but also the desire to work
together HOPEFULLY for a happy and healthful and educated Creek."

"Now if those at the door will quietly move over to the other side of the room, those
who are standing outside in the storm can enter. We must make room for the men and
women and children...out in the storm."

As one person, the great crowd moved.

"The illiteracy prizes will now be given out,"said the Rear Guard.

.. *5 . .
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1; ”31115135111 tew ma

ELLRTERAQE’ CQNTEET PREZES

”I :93 born :iozg you I am i Caiey boy." were the f‘fSE uo.d3 they 5 Com stoke to his

gainerlig nil-[Elk :4 ill bloomes me to east refleotion upon my own leople, but when

I ftund that but two out of every ten men and women of the Creek of Caney could read a

word .. I was tempted to disown the Creek of my birth. Due ioniying the matter {hired

L ~ («Route i‘literaoy by the Caney Greek Community Center and the Kentucky Ill-ie*':v

Commission,) I have >ome to uhoers;and that '05 base no: bush to “lane For 200 years,
.1.

Q J; .,
the odds have been avainst the mountaineer. It is time aha we took into our own hands,
ye, We could never have entered the fighi alone.

...

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eel cattle to sarVi

weapon we need into our hands...OPPGRTUNITY.

”We have entered the fight now because the Carey Creek Commtnity Center has put the only

"Forty— he of as, in this contest, have learnd to read and write. Forty one of us who,
three months ago, could not read one word nor write one letter of the alphabet. The

Judges have awarded the prizes as follows.“

J mom Calling the names, long blue envelopes were passed about in the crowd ~ everyone
4- ‘ ~

"Now I aim tew make MYSELF heard," announced Wolvery Withens,

thar ten dollar cer~

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"My old woman, Serilly here, she' .3
tif~i-Cates. That’s justiee Ere e worked and earnt hits

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ke my own statement about that mule”I air erbout tew acquirei“ Until It
tuk up with this learning, I couldnt hev done what I hev done. I acquired me a- mule
and she s on her way tew me partly by train and partly by mail from the U~nited States.
And T set my own fist to the paper that’ll bring her ... me, that hashad tew make my

...,

inark tew my vote for forty years.

"I haint no prize winner yet, but I hev set my fist tow a paper that’ll bring Serilly
and me a mule that gar~en—teenned not tew be mean or onery in none of her antiks w a
mule that air bound tew be a comfort tew me and my old woman ez our hair is turning tew

he grave."

"I never aimed fer the prize," stammered Cephy. “But I dont say ez I cant use the
money, being plumb bareifooted w act’lly , but ef I hed tow choose between them, I‘d
sooner have my eddication than the stiffereate. I treasure that I kin read outern the

Bible for myself.

"Haint you remembering J Com, when my little Vestal died? How I could n’t take no com~
fort nowhar, ’cept when you Cams and read tew me the Same outern the Bible?

"How ef Kanzali wuz tew die tOWnight, I‘d be a heap more confortabler reading the Same
myself because I could read on the Bible anytime, and I wouldnt hev tew wait on anybody

like you, with the larning, tow come tew me in my mis’ry. But I dont aim in this plaCe,
at this time, tow speak of dying; but I do treasure my eddication.And I do thank youW

all.

"But I reckon I air keeping the children from their pretties...

"I reckon SO" assented J Com. "Santa Claus, it’s your turn now.“;

wireless ,

THE BIGGEST GREENEST SMELLYEST CHRISTMAS TREE

”Just one moment, Santa Claus," cautioned the Master of Ceremonies. ”This is a large é
crowd. There are hundreds of presents to be given out. If the names are to be heard,’
every person must be quiet."

"Ef airy a man hez a differeant notion than TEW be quiet, he hez me to reckon with,"
announced big Sandy’s Sandy, who had stationed himself as volunteer guard over the
District Nurse who had gathered into one of the corners, all the detached infants.

ﬁﬁﬁ

"The first present goes to Humpty Joab," decreed Santa Claus. Hardhanger spoke up:
"He’s a—coaling, but I’ll fetch it tew him." Here ye go, Hard;" Through willing hands
went the present.

ﬁﬁﬁ

"Son’s Jim’s twins," called the Front Guard. "Son’s Jim’s Sarah," echoed the Rear
Guard. "Sarah’s a—nursing them twins over thar by Melinda—Jane. Ketch them presents ,
for her Melinda," ordered Fiddling Rufus, head and shoulders above the crowd from his as

vantage point on the box. "Three pokes of candy air a—following."

ﬁﬁﬁ

"Sunny Alamanda," said Santa Claus. "Sunny Alamanda’s Marthy," echoed the Front Guard. %
"Sunny Alamanda’s Sambo," re—echoed Fiddling Rufus. _ i

“IF“
v”www“"""“$$ﬂefemﬁmyww“' ;«.-smsmatnerurHeurtnatrnarnt~uown—-WItnrthe "measrestrrrvprunteered ‘ .,7 -
wizened Uncle Eph. "I brought a wagon on purpose. I kin take their pretties to ’em. I ”'“m

reckon you—all hez their names: 'Tom—Boy,'..."

‘" Never mind about telling us the names of the whole fifteen, Uncle Eph, interupted
the Master of Ceremon1es."We have a present for each one."

"That’s what I allowed," agreed Uncle Eph. I allowed you~all wouldn’t forget none uv
them, seeing ez they WUZ down with the measles."

. aw", “WSLKC glam...” w. {‘75 «(v-”a. .2 buy... .

"The Ladders are emptied," called the Front Guard. "Napoleon and Noah will now out 5
the dolls from the Christmas Tree.Don’t cry, Ophelia,there is a doll for every little i

girl." ‘
QEE

ONE HUNDRED PRESENTS.1ww3 HUNDREDpTHREE HUNDRED ’
FOUR HUNDRED HVE HUNDRED -----

ONE HOUR,TWO HOURs,THREE HOURS ------- _

QUIET WAS THE CROWD ‘ ‘ 3

ﬁg!

"Now will each person who has received a present and a bag of candy leave the room,"
firmly requested the Rear Guard. "Each person who has not received a present and a
bag of candy, move toward the Christmas Tree." - 5
"And ef airy a man hez a different notion, he hez me to reckon WITH," announced Big
Sandy’s Sandy from the corner full of babies.

"I reckon I may ez well linger till I see ef airy another bread on Possum Fork haint
here on account of the measles. I hev fetched a wagon — a—purpose tew fetch their pretw
’_tiss tew ’em," said wizened Uncle Eph.

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LINGERERS

"What erbout hit! I haint hed no present?" Above the Front Guard there towered the
Massive Woman. There was only the tinsel FENCE between them.

_, I. _,

gr HAD nor BEEN iowu.ise FRONT GUARD KNEVL QNCE THE
Maamya.xyeMANu FOP Fwwv cents HAD AGREED TO GLHDE SOME
suavr—zvoss TO A DWISION LENE 533.! A MCIUNTAJN TOP - HALF WAY
Us THE mgumrawi THE MAswvs WOMAN HALTED"YONDER” SHE
POiNTED, WHAR THAT HICK'R’Y AIR A-BREEZING. IS \NHAT YOU—ALL
MR ALOOWNG FER”

H ‘, us

BUT YOU AGREED? 3MB A SURVEYOR. To TAKE us THEREF

Ié'iE MASSVE VJOMAN PULLED OUT FROM HER BELT. A 45—COLT.

GWI‘SHE smn.
W

"What erbout hit! I haint had no present?" repeated the Massive Woman.

"You belong to the Rock Pit district " said the Master of Ceremonies, as he stepped
in front of the Front Guard. "Your present will be given to you next Saturday at the
Rock Pit Christmas Tree."

"what air Jest Per—FECTLY satisfactory tew me. But I haint the woman to be left‘out uv

1-—

nuthing a~purpose," said the Massive Woman, ameliorated.
I

ﬁﬁﬁ

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ac

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U&.a.' M+Uuel 2» Law. «1'9

_ , 4. :AOV DUF‘CHIB (my witd."'fﬁ§“tew yUl’l fUl‘
witches hez been plumb druve away by hit. I hev heered that
rem,the«Germanys is a pestering. Ef the Germanys is like my witches
and you send this yere witch ball tew YOUR kin in them furrign parts - thet the Ger—
manys will quit pestering too."

ﬁhh

Announced Jumbe: "When I hearn that Cephy had took to larning, I figgered that 92 she
were so nigh the grave with the CON—sump~tion,thet she better be having her thoughts
on her God.But seeing as by her larning,she kin read her Bible FUR herself, I allow
ez I might ez well hev tuk up with hit. I haint never favored this yere larning much,
because ef I hed been able téw write just when ever I tuk a notion,I’d hev been in the
PEN—i~ten—tiary for signing another feller’s name tew a check. But my nature is Calm-~
ing some and mebbe ef I could read my Bible, I might be a CALM~ing more. But hit‘s too
late now."

a ﬁﬁnv

> .4.
5'?" 2

"No, its not too late, Jumbo," reassured J Com. "We are starting another illiteracy
contest, With prizes to be given a year from today at our Christmas Tree. I’ll enter

your name for that."
Emit

"Cum erlong boys, let’s be a~travelling ” called Big Sandy’s Sandy. To the Rear Guard,
in passing, he announced.

"Me and the boys haint done celebrating Christmas yet. We aim tew shoot considerable
more But we haint going to harm noone: We jest hev’tew shoot. But 92 a weapon hit cer—
tainly AIR true (what J Com has said) we dont need nary another oept the one thet yous
all air a—giving the mountain people. J Com called hit 'OPPORTUNITY.‘ I calls hit ’A
CHANCE TEW ERMOUNT TEW SUMTHING.‘

"Cum erlong boys, boys. Let’s be a~travelling."

EPILOGUE

n; w my;

REST AGAINST OUR SHOULDERS FOR A LITTLE WHILE." SAID
THE CANEY CREEK COMMUNITY CENTER TO THE SOULS WITH
THE VEILS ACROSS THEIR FACES. ~ 1

AND THEY RESTED §

t s

‘ NOW LIFT YOUR HEADSEHHAND THE SOULS THAT WERE LOST _ _
IN THE|R OWN SHADOWS LIFTED THEIR HEADS- THE VEILS }
SLIPPED FROM THEIR FACES~ STRENGTHENED. THEY RE— '
SUMED THEIR JOURNEY-

THE CANEY CREEK COMMUNITY CENTER WATCHED THEM AS ‘ I
THEY TRAVELLEDo-o!-..-. ~
THROUGH THE ABATING STORM. NORTH"AI\ID SOUTH. . . . . . .

UP THE WATER-SHEDS' - - - - -- ASCENDING- ' - - - - . :

HUNDREDS AND» HUNDREDS AND~HUNDREDS OF KENTUCKY MOUNTAINEERS

UP THE WﬂTER SEEDS ASCENDING

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