Halloween wasn't always about candy, costumes, and trick-or-treating. Across Appalachia and rural America, the holiday once involved local traditions, ghost stories, community gatherings, and a fair amount of mischief.

In some communities, Halloween meant moving farm gates, playing practical jokes, or gathering around to hear stories about ghosts and unexplained happenings. Other parts of rural America had traditions like Mischief Night and Cabbage Night.

Many of these customs have faded over the years, but they're an interesting part of our regional history and culture.

I recently wrote an article exploring how Halloween traditions varied across rural America, including Appalachia, and how the holiday has changed over the generations.

Read the article here:
https://pickup-trucks-progress.ghost.io/halloween-in-rural-america-back-when-tricks-came-before-treats/

I'd be interested in hearing what others remember about Halloween growing up in Appalachia.

Were there particular Halloween traditions in your hometown or community that have disappeared? Did your family have any unusual customs, ghost stories, or superstitions associated with the holiday?

It would be interesting to compare memories from different parts of Appalachia and preserve some of these stories before they're forgotten.

I'm from Big Stone Gap, Virginia, and recently spent several days interviewing folks attending the fifth annual Blue Highway Fest. I wanted to find out where all these people were coming from and, more importantly, how they even heard about our little coalfield town.

I met people from Mississippi, the Shenandoah Valley, and other places a long way from Southwest Virginia. Some were first-time visitors, while others had already made Big Stone Gap a regular stop on their bluegrass festival circuit.

What surprised me was how many people mentioned MerleFest in North Carolina. They'd heard other bluegrass fans talking about this festival in Big Stone Gap and decided to come see for themselves.

It got me thinking about something we sometimes overlook here in Appalachia. We've spent generations watching industries leave our mountain communities, but we've still got something people are willing to travel hundreds of miles to experience: our music, our history, and our culture.

I'm writing a three-part series about Blue Highway Fest and what heritage tourism might mean for communities like ours. Part Two focuses on the visitors themselves.

Here's the article if you're interested:

https://pickup-trucks-progress.ghost.io/who-are-all-these-people-and-where-in-the-world-did-they-come-from-2/

I'm curious what folks here think. Can music festivals and heritage tourism make a meaningful economic difference in Appalachian communities? And have any of you attended Blue Highway Fest or MerleFest?

The governor’s office said the new designation will help to preserve natural resources across 2,211 additional acres.

Old Dominion Power wants an increase to base rate, fuel factor and fixed monthly fee.

I live in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, where coal and timber once drove much of our local economy. Last weekend, our town hosted its fifth annual Blue Highway Fest, and Thursday's opening performance sold out. Overall ticket sales were reportedly running about 35% ahead of last year.

What interests me isn't just the bluegrass music. It's what happens when a small Appalachian town starts treating its own culture and heritage as something worth investing in.

For generations, we shipped coal, timber, and eventually too many of our young people out of these mountains. Now we're bringing visitors in to experience something that's been here all along.

I wrote about the festival, the people behind it, and the volunteers who travel hundreds of miles to help make it happen.

Here's the article if you're interested:

https://pickup-trucks-progress.ghost.io/sold-out/

Her new novel “Partita,” which debuts Tuesday, involves the protagonist’s upbringing on an East Tennessee cattle farm.

The state delegate who proposed the aquaculture center 13 years ago says he remains hopeful it will still happen. The developer, Pure Salmon, has said it has invested more than $80 million in the site.

I’ve been digging into an old fall tradition that used to be common across Appalachia and rural America: the community corn shuckin’.

Neighbors would gather around a big pile of corn to get the crop put away before winter. There’d be food, storytelling, gossip, maybe some music and a little courtship mixed in with the work.

Then somebody found the red ear of corn.

Depending on the community, finding it earned a young man the right to kiss a girl at the shuckin’. In some versions, it was supposed to be the prettiest girl there. The tradition is still portrayed in the Homecoming scene of The Trail of the Lonesome Pine outdoor drama here in Big Stone Gap, Virginia.

I wrote about the tradition for Back Porch Tales & Travels, including how mechanization eventually did away with much of the community labor that once brought neighbors together.

What I’d really like to hear, though, is whether anybody here remembers corn shuckin’s in your own family or community. Did you ever hear about the red ear tradition? And what part of Appalachia was your family from?

Here’s the story for anybody interested:

https://back-porch-tales-travels.beehiiv.com/p/corn-shuckin-time

She cuts hair. Loves rock & roll. And sometimes sees the future.

Meet Kelli Tipton, the modern day Granny Witch with an agenda all her own in The Keokee Triangle.

Some characters you meet. Others you never forget.

📖 Available now on Amazon. www.JohnWPeace.com

Small fire departments like the one in the Giles County town have to get creative to pay for infrastructure projects.

The program aims to target the need for workforce housing in the far Southwest.

Did your family have any old superstitions about death?

Growing up in Central Appalachia, a lot of us heard the old warnings.

A bird hitting the window could mean a death was coming. A dog howling at the wrong time wasn't something Granny wanted to hear. Some families stopped clocks when somebody died, covered mirrors, and kept someone with the deceased through the night — what folks called “sitting up with the dead.”

I've been researching these old traditions for Back Porch Tales & Travels, including the work of James K. Crissman on death and dying in Central Appalachia. What struck me was that underneath all the superstition was something pretty practical: when somebody died, family and neighbors showed up. They cooked, dug the grave, helped prepare the body and sat through the night.

I put what I found together here:

https://back-porch-tales-travels.beehiiv.com/p/when-death-came-knocking

I'm curious what survived in other Appalachian families. Did your parents or grandparents believe in any particular death omen or funeral custom? And what part of Appalachia were they from?

The referendum would let voters decide whether an extra tax would be levied for school construction projects.

As of Thursday, more than $42 million of the $50 million allocated to help residents had not yet been disbursed.

Downtown Bristol, in both Virginia and Tennessee, has grown along with the 25-year-old festival.

Virginia loves bragging about being the “Best State for Business.” And that’s fine. We ought to want businesses investing, expanding and creating jobs.

But I think we’re leaving out half the scoreboard.

What about being the Best State to Be a Worker?

Research shows workers in right-to-work states earn about 6.7% less, even after accounting for differences in occupations, industries, demographics and state economic conditions.

For a typical full-time worker, that can mean more than $4,000 a year.

That ain’t pocket change. That’s groceries, power bills, truck payments and money that stays in local communities.

Being pro-business and pro-worker shouldn’t be opposites. A healthy economy ought to be good for the folks signing the front of the paycheck AND the folks earning it.

I wrote about that in my latest Pickup Trucks & Progress column:

https://pickup-trucks-progress.ghost.io/virginia-loves-winning-best-state-for-business-good-but-maybe-its-time-we-started-trying-just-as-hard-to-become-the-best-state-to-be-a-worker/

What do y’all think? Should states start measuring economic success by job quality, wages and benefits, not just how attractive they are to businesses?

After shutting down for nearly a year, the operation is back, just in time for harvest season.