"It’s good to sit on a growling tractor when
leaves are beginning to turn and distant
ridges are etchings in purple. Sun warm on
arms and face as you cut one swath, then
warm on neck and back during your return.
Grasshoppers jump and flutter, and
thistledown floats in the air like an
invading army of ants had just made a
parachute jump.
"I like the patterns it leaves on the bosom of a field, the
contours that follow the fence lines. My last bush hogging in the
fall is the long field dropping away below the house. That way,
its contours will please the eye until green-up in the spring."
~ Jack Kestner,
October 10, 1988 |
|
Paperback, 6" x 9", 256 pages
Illustrated with black and white photos by the author and others
ISBN 978-0-9724765-3-9
Clinch Mountain Press 2006
$16.00
Print Order Form
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Stray dogs, hummingbirds, and seasonal cycles at Hayters Gap:
These were trademark topics for the late Jack Kestner, beloved and
respected columnist for nearly 18 years for the
Bristol Herald Courier.
Now 108 of Jack’s best
columns have been compiled by his three
children.
Jack
was born in Hayters Gap on the south side of
Clinch Mountain in Washington County,
Virginia, in 1921. His family moved to
Bristol, Tennessee, for his public school
years, and he eventually pursued a
distinguished career in
military journalism for the Norfolk
Ledger-Star which took him around the
globe. After his wife died unexpectedly, he retired early and returned to
Hayters Gap in 1977, built a rustic home on
the side of Clinch Mountain, and introduced
his city-raised children to full-time
country living.
From
this vantage point, Jack began writing his
column for the local paper in 1987. His
topics were wide-ranging, from his extensive
foreign travels to the tiny hummingbirds
that visited his feeders, and from the
antics of his many beloved dogs to the
antics of politicians. Jack also wrote
several columns about his Kestner and Sisk
ancestors who lived at Hayters Gap, which
will be of particular interest to
historians. The pieces are accompanied by
old photos from Jack’s collection.
According
to Bristol Herald Courier Editor
Steven Kaylor, Jack wrote with “an
unsurpassed eye for detail and, always, with
a sense of humor. . . Jack invited everyone
into his mountaintop retreat as if they were
family. He ushered us into his world. And
what an amazing, entertaining, and
thought-provoking world it was.” |
