Where I'm From

Absence does make the heart grow fonder and although the mountains here in Savoie France are wonderful and big they are not the mountains that I call home. As a foreigner you get asked a lot where you are from. The exactness of my answer is always depending on how much the person knows about North Carolina geography. Sometimes for someone who does not know much I just say, "It's near Washington D.C." (8 hours drive away) And they will smile in full understanding. However, my home is in North Carolina. In the Western part...in the Appalachian Mountains. In a certain part of the Appalachians called The Blue Ridge. A little south of Asheville in a community called Hoopers Creek, but in a little corner of Hoopers Creek called Burrell Holler, on a little driveway off Huntley Road. My family has lived in the area for more than 5 generations (my dad knows the exact number) and I love where I lived. I took the picture above about 5 years ago on the Blue Ridge Parkway and you see clearly why its called the Blue Ridge.

To augment my own warm feelings of home and promote the public knowledge of it I'll also include a song from the concert at the 2009 Huntley Family Reunion (held on Huntley Road of course). This year my Uncle Mike arranged one of the top bluegrass groups around to come and play at our little gathering...The Kruger Brothers. Uncle Mike was also kind enough to send a recording of the concert to us here in France. Here is a song from that concert called "I've got those Blue Ridge Mountain Blues." It's true...some people get so lonesome that they just have to write a song when they are far away from....where I'm from.