Mountain Storytelling & Spontaneous Visual Art
DISCRIPTION
Life took my sister, brother and me away from our mountain home,
but the mountains kept calling us back. When Doreyl and I returned
home we wanted to reach as many rural children as possible with our
message that everyone is wonderful and creative in their own way.
We wanted to attempt to increase the self-worth of as many children
as possible, beginning with the mountain children - children
such as we were.
For 30 years, the "Ammons
Sisters "then performed for the general public and in
school settings. As I told the stories, Doreyl spontaneously
illustrated them on two large 4' x 6' easels, bringing the stories
alive before the eyes of the audience. All the stories were
based on true experiences of our family. My sister and I were
carriers of our heritage, hoping to instill in our audience the
knowledge that we are all different, yet wonderful in our own way;
that 'story' is a way to preserve and honor our past to help us
know we are each a link to the future of the family of
mankind!"
This book contains some of that
history, told in words and pictures, and also contains the complete
program we performed, entertaining millions of
children and adults.
EXCERPT
The sun would be going down when we would be finished fooling
around. Daddy would go in the house, and I would set out for my
last job of the day. How many of you have ever slopped a hog? Well,
that was my job. I would get all the leavings from the table scraps
and add it to the hog feed. My bucket would be filled to the top
when I would head off down the lane to the hogpen.
I could hear the squealings of
the hogs long before I reached the pen. Woohoo, I loved them hogs!
I named them Heckle and Jeckle. And they loved me! I would pour the
slop through the slats in the pen into their trough,
and while they ate, I would stick my hand through
the slats and feel their rough, scaley skin! Woodoo,
I loved them hogs!
But then I’d have an empty
bucket! What does a creative mountain kid do with an
empty bucket? Well, don’t tell my momma, but this is what I
did. I found a piece of old clothesline, a broom handle, and
a screw. Then, I used a hammer and nail to knock a hole in the
bottom of the bucket, ran the clothesline through the hole
and tied a knot in it to hold it. I put the screw almost to the top
of the broom handle so it stuck out some to hold the clothesline in
place, tied the other end of the clothesline into a circle, hooked
it on the screw, and tested the length to make sure it
would stretch tightly. Finally, I cut a small slot at
the bottom of the broom handle so it would fit in
the groove at the bottom of the turned up
bucket.
Wala! I had a bucket bass! Let’s see if it’s in
tune!
REVIEW
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but when the picture
and the words both unfold in real time, the story is complete. Amy
Ammons Garza and Doreyl Ammons Cain come together to prove this via
their unique multimedia show. Amy tells stories of a hardscrabble
life in mid-20th-century Appalachia while Doreyl spontaneously
illustrates the tales with her signature pastel art.
The sisters were born in rural Jackson County,
WNC, while the country was in the midst of World War II—Amy in
Tuckasegee, and, a year and some later, Doreyl, when the family was
living in Little Canada, near Horseshoe Rock. The two girls and a
younger brother, David, rarely ventured outside the Ammons family
homestead and helped their parents and granparents keep the family
afloat. The men cut timber, worked on the railroad, and found odd
jobs, while the children helped with gardening, picking berries and
tending to livestock. “With no
neighbors, no electricity, and no running water in the house, we
didn’t know we were poor,” says Amy. “Most children today don’t
know about clothes made from feed sacks or can’t believe that we
didn’t have electricity or a bathroom in the house....”
—Bold Life Magazine/February
018/Norm Powers
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