Homesick

Abstract

knows what is right, but he doesn't have the guts to enforce what is right. William Nothstein's life-long advocacy of conservation came from an innate understanding of our environment. It was aided by Horace Kephert's own convincing crusade for protection and conservation. When I was a boy I read his first edition of Our Southern Highlanders. I figured if I ever got the chance I was coming to this country. And when I got the chance after I finished school I took it. When I was showing movies in Swain County in 1928 the county warden introduced me to Kephart in a drugstore. I previously met some of his characters in showing the movies and told him they are like just the way you say they are. He appreciated it. He was dressed like the mountain people and wouldn't stand out in a crowd of mountaineers. But he had a mind! HOMESICK Land flat as bowling lanes, And streets straight enough To play checkers on city maps. I remember familiar hills That stand around like Sentinels on guard. And wish for their shelter. Think of dusty roads That subways never travel; No need for signal light or "Exit Left." Every farmer passing Knows my name; Lifts a calloused handNot to curse But, bid "good-day." I speed over Golden Gate At fifty-five With hundreds of exhaust pipes Choking me, And remember that old swinging bridge On North Fork Where only white-tailed rabbits Compete for air. —Sylvia C. Wilson 61 ...