Virginia, I’m a few years older than you and grew up a few miles to the west in the mountains of WNC in the 1940’s and ‘50’s. Graduated high school in Asheville in 1960. We were the only Jewish family in small paper mill town of canton west of Asheville. Your story rings a lot of bells. I’ve written a memoir about what being a Jewish hillbilly was like.
Really well written. I’d love to read more about how your time at Princeton went. To me, Princeton is a mythical place, like Hogwarts, and I can imagine it was a wildly different place from where you grew up
Grew up in Augusta, GA, my father the forager during our woodland and riverside walks, year round, plums and persimmons included. We shelled out butter beans, pinkeye peas and pecans while listening to Braves Radio. Church camp in Toccoa, college in Rome. My mother loved canning and sewing; wedding dresses and smocked dresses for grandkids. My wife spent H.S. in Asheville. She taught herself to sew, passing that on to our kids, two boys included. High test scores can still get barefoot southern kids into Ivy League schools today; need-based help amply available.
Yeah, if they're barefoot because they can't afford shoes. But boring middle-class white kids with gaps in their curriculum probably need not apply. EIGHT South Carolinians got into Princeton last year, compared to 13 in 1978. Renorming the SAT so that all the scores at the top are squished together doesn't help people like me either.
I'm a few years older and and few hundred miles further south, but this rings so true to me. I am a Ga/Ala hybrid that grew up on the edge of Jacksonville and its environs. Thanks so much for this. What you had as a child is known in my part of the world as "Jiffy Feet."
Virginia, this is delightful. Thank you for sharing about your upbringing. It’s fascinating to consider how such formative experiences, whether as embraced or rejected, play into our lives as adults.
Wonderful, although of course many progressives now insist that the "culture wars" began with desegregation, all the better to completely delegitimize the conservative side of said wars.
Anthony Esolen (Princeton '81) was from a northern Catholic town (Archbald, PA) but despite the differences of geography and religion, I think Princeton appeared similarly remote and unknown to him.
Virginia, I’m a few years older than you and grew up a few miles to the west in the mountains of WNC in the 1940’s and ‘50’s. Graduated high school in Asheville in 1960. We were the only Jewish family in small paper mill town of canton west of Asheville. Your story rings a lot of bells. I’ve written a memoir about what being a Jewish hillbilly was like.
Really well written. I’d love to read more about how your time at Princeton went. To me, Princeton is a mythical place, like Hogwarts, and I can imagine it was a wildly different place from where you grew up
Grew up in Augusta, GA, my father the forager during our woodland and riverside walks, year round, plums and persimmons included. We shelled out butter beans, pinkeye peas and pecans while listening to Braves Radio. Church camp in Toccoa, college in Rome. My mother loved canning and sewing; wedding dresses and smocked dresses for grandkids. My wife spent H.S. in Asheville. She taught herself to sew, passing that on to our kids, two boys included. High test scores can still get barefoot southern kids into Ivy League schools today; need-based help amply available.
Yeah, if they're barefoot because they can't afford shoes. But boring middle-class white kids with gaps in their curriculum probably need not apply. EIGHT South Carolinians got into Princeton last year, compared to 13 in 1978. Renorming the SAT so that all the scores at the top are squished together doesn't help people like me either.
I'm a few years older and and few hundred miles further south, but this rings so true to me. I am a Ga/Ala hybrid that grew up on the edge of Jacksonville and its environs. Thanks so much for this. What you had as a child is known in my part of the world as "Jiffy Feet."
<a href="https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/jaxlore-jiffy-feet-a-comprehensive-history/">Jiffy Feet – A comprehensive history</a>
Your conversion would be a good subject to write about, perhaps as part of a larger piece about how people change mental orientation.
Virginia, this is delightful. Thank you for sharing about your upbringing. It’s fascinating to consider how such formative experiences, whether as embraced or rejected, play into our lives as adults.
Fascinating look at your formative years. Thank you very much for this!
Wonderful, although of course many progressives now insist that the "culture wars" began with desegregation, all the better to completely delegitimize the conservative side of said wars.
Anthony Esolen (Princeton '81) was from a northern Catholic town (Archbald, PA) but despite the differences of geography and religion, I think Princeton appeared similarly remote and unknown to him.
Desegregation was part of it. Progressives didn't make that up.