My Artwork
The White Vase Original 14"x10" Oil Painting $295
Prints on Paper or Canvas and Greeting Cards Available at KENDALL KESSLER ART
Spring Roses Original 24"x 20" Oil Painting $980
Prints on Paper or Canvas and Greeting Cards Available at KENDALL KESSLER ART
Two of my favorite florals!
Blue Ridge Sunrise Original Painting has been Sold
Prints on Paper or Canvas and Greeting Cards Available KENDALL KESSLER ART
The Story of Boojum and Hootin' Annie
Eagle
Nest Mountain stands at the southern edge of the Balsam mountain range
and was once home to the luxurious Eagle Nest Hotel. Guests at the hotel
soon began to hear the story of a strange creature who lived in the
area. The thing was not quite a man and not quite an animal — it stood
about eight feet tall and every inch of its body was covered with shaggy
grey hair, except for its human face. The creature was named Boojum,
and he seemed to be harmless enough, but he did have two all-too human
habits.
The first of these was the Boojum was greedy and he loved
to hoard gems. Rubies and emeralds are found naturally throughout the
mountains of North Carolina, and Boojum loved to hunt for these pretty,
precious stones and hide them away in his own treasure hoards. He would
then bury them in one of the secret caves on the mountain
Boojum's
second habit was that he loved to look at pretty girls. Back in those
days, a young woman who wanted to have a bath might head off into the
woods to find a secluded pond at the base of a waterfall. There, safe
from human eyes, she could strip down and bathe. A young woman enjoying
herself in the water would often hear a rustle in the bushes and look up
to see his hairy face peering down at her.
Now, most of these
girls would quickly gather up their clothes and run off back home as
soon as they saw him. But one young woman named Annie was braver than
most, and one day when she was bathing in a stream deep in the balsam
groves on Eagle Nest, she looked up and saw Boojum staring down at her.
But Annie didn't run, in fact, she looked into Boojum's sorrowful eyes
and saw that above all else he was just another lonely soul living on
the mountain. Annie fell in love with those sad eyes, and she fell in
love with Boojum, and she left her home and her family to go and live
with Boojum deep in the mountain woods as his wife.
As much as
Boojum loved Annie, and as much as Annie loved Boojum, Boojum still hung
on to his love of jewels. On certain nights, he would leave his bride
alone and go searching for jewels on the mountain. Annie, growing
lonely, would go out in search of Boojum, and she developed a peculiar
holler, something that sounded like a cross between a monkey and a
hooting owl, that she would use to call out to Boojum. Boojum would use
the same cry to call back to her, and eventually the two calls would
come closer together until they came together on the hills.
Annie
and Boojum calling to each other was often heard by guests at the Eagle
Nest Hotel. Folklorist John Parris has said that Annie's owl-like holler
was the source of the term "Hootenanny," which appeared in the language
around the turn of the twentieth century and meant any kind of party or
get-together. In the 1960's the term was expanded by pop artists to
mean a gathering of folk musicians.
Life with The Word and Bird Man - Clyde Kessler
The Word Man really is tearing up the Publishing Turf these days! He was notified last night of four more accepted poems!
Editor
Vanessa Eccles accepted four poems for the Fall Issue of Belle Rêve
Literary Journal: A Southern Experience. That is scheduled for November
2014.
Poems are “Distances”, “Everything Is A Wager”, “Snow Frogs” and “Talking”.
The title of the magazine is from Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire. Belle Rêve is the name of the plantation home of Blanche & Stella.
Here is this magazine’s web page:
http://www.bellerevejournal.com/
