I have just learned, through the wonders of the internet, that gasconade means braggery or puffed up words. But the Gasconade (GAS-kuh-NADE) River is the longest river completely contained within the state of Missouri. It runs through one of my native lands, Maries County--while I am Irish and German and English, I am American back 4 generations at the very nearest to Europe, and as many as, well, ridiculously long ago in many of my lines. Maries County, Perry County, North St. Louis City, Western Illinois: those are my native lands most recently, my grandparents and great-grandparents. Maries County is my Ozark roots, only one or two generations of that, quickly slipping back to Virginia or disappearing into the squalor of 1870s St. Louis. But my grandmother grew up there, 8th out of 8 children surviving birth, living in a cabin without heat that was added on to several times, up high on a hill above a creek where her brother drowned. After that, they moved north, after that, they left Maries County. But when I'm there, I can imagine it as something in my blood.
And if you've ever been, or ever plan to go, to this place specifically, near Dixon, near Hayden, you understand it even if you hail from Sacramento or Newark or Dublin. Rock Eddy is such a heart-filled place.
More to come, along with a snake story.
6 comments:
That looks like fun.
That's exactly what I was going to write, sounds like fun!
EW. GIANT HAIRY CATERPILLAR!!!!
And, that picture of you & Mike, TOTALLY Maeve & Sophia. I'm sure you hear that a lot.
Indeed, yes.
Maeve loved that caterpillar. That's her arm. She wanted to take it home, where I envisioned it morphing into a moth that would eat my garden...
When is that book coming about your Ozark roots?
yay rock eddy1 yay snake story!
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