ETSU's "Now & Then" Magazine Honors the Appalachian Family
06.19.2006JOHNSON CITY-The spring 2006 issue of "Now & Then" magazine has just been published, and it examines how "family matters" in the Appalachian region.
The magazine has been produced by East Tennessee State University's Center for Appalachian Studies and Services since 1984. Under the direction of newly appointed editor Fred Sauceman and managing editor Randy Sanders, the magazine has been redesigned and refocused.
"As natives of Southern Appalachia, Randy and I were strongly reminded, in putting together this 64-page issue, that, in Appalachia, family does matter," Sauceman says.
"We recruited a chorus of insiders and outsiders to write about family connections. Amid lamb bleats, Sarah Thomas recounts a Western North Carolina family's devotion to a farm that will soon be passed down to its fifth generation of caretakers. Noted writer Ronni Lundy sketches the Spartan grit of a Southwest Virginia matron who kept her cabin porchless because she wanted to avoid the trappings of leisure.
"Camellia Maya shares the story of her father's three identities: as Issa Yousef Ma?yeh, who leaves his home in Jordan in 1948; as Chris Joseph Maya Sr., who settles in Southwest Virginia; and as Mr. Chris, beloved by the customers of his crowded clothing store in Gate City."
The magazine memorializes monumental Appalachians who died in early 2006-Janette Carter, the daughter of country music pioneers A.P. and Sara; and Don Knotts, who graces the magazine's back cover, setting off the alarms as Barney Fife at Heaven's Pearly Gates with his one bullet, in a cartoon by Charlie Daniel of "The Knoxville News-Sentinel."
The spring issue of "Now & Then" treks to Buckhannon, West Virginia, to share the sorrowful story of a family blasted apart in the Sago mine and reaches into dusty stacks of family records to trace the history of an early Maryland family.
Upcoming themes include "Celebrating Appalachian Institutions," "Digging in Appalachia," and "Wildness in Appalachia."
The magazine is available for purchase in Johnson City at The Shamrock Beverage and Tobacco Shop, 300 West Walnut Street, and on campus at the ETSU Bookstore; at the Historic Jonesborough Visitors Center; and at Wallace News on Broad Street in downtown Kingsport. To subscribe, call the Center for Appalachian Studies and Services at (423) 439-7994.
