A Smoky Mountain Boyhood: Memories, Musings, and More by Jim Casada
University of Tennessee Press, 2020; 6×9 inches, paperback; ISBN 978-1621906094
The book cover is beautifully illustrated!
Cozy up on your comfy sofa, turn off the TV, settle in, and get ready to immerse yourself in this masterfully written book reflecting the days when time moved slowly and life was centered around memorable mountain traditions and living a sustainable lifestyle. Jim Casada brings to life the remembrances, folklore, and never-ending adventures he experienced living in the southern Appalachians. His magical boyhood journey through the majestic Smoky Mountains will take you down dusty country roads, along babbling brooks full of speckled trout, and hikes on backwoods trails to lush mountain forests brimming with wildflowers, dogwoods, rabbits, squirrels, and songbirds.
Jim shares his adventures during his growing-up days as a young boy and beyond through his college days, as he prepares for an incredible future as a professor of history at Winthrop University, a prolific outdoor writer, and conservationist. He also recounts downright hilarious shenanigans, capers, and pranks he shared with his college friends, born out of attending college when there was only one television with three channels on campus. These hijinks set the bar for future generations of college kids—and yes, they included panty raids!
Along with a colorful cast of friends and relatives, Jim brings to life tales, memories, and experiences that will make you feel like part of the family. You can almost smell the apple pie cooling on his mother’s windowsill and taste the sweet tea and fresh lemonade at their annual gatherings. I particularly loved reading about Jim’s pleasant memories of his home life, especially the amazing meals prepared by his mother’s loving hands, and the important life skills he learned from his father and his Grandpa Joe.
Grandpa Joe Casada
If you grew up in the country, you will surely feel right at home reading this book as you recall your very own experiences that parallel Jim’s adventures and the innocence that simple country living offers. I could imagine the snickering of the country folk when the city slickers showed up with their eyes wide with wonder with even the most mundane moments that make up mountain living. What the author brilliantly nails is that boredom fosters imagination, creativity, and happiness so much more than modern life, filled with technology and the distractions that come along with it.
Grandma Minnie Casada
There is something for everyone to enjoy in this book. I love the way the book is divided into four main sections covering Holiday Tales & Traditions, Seasons of the Smokies, Tools, Toys, and Boyhood Treasures, and Precious Memories, where Jim puts you through a challenge to see how many of nearly 100 experiences he has listed growing up in the mountains you have also experienced. He titled this Chapter, “Have you Ever?” These experiences include milking a cow, churning butter, drinking water from a mountain spring, participating in a cakewalk, gathering grapes for jelly, skating on leather-bottom shoes on a frozen pond, and smoking rabbit tobacco, just to name a few. I carefully checked the experiences I had and scored a 32, but I beamed knowing that I had a pretty good list of my own from my experiences growing up on a farm in rural Pennsylvania.
Four Casada Generations
Tempered with a longing look backward, Jim’s recollections of the Smoky Mountain way of life stir a sense of nostalgia in those who read his memoir. Surely, like a time capsule, or a vintage black and white photo, these olden days of mountain living will long be remembered, thanks to this exceptional book.
Looking for a wonderful gift for someone special on your Christmas list? I highly recommend this book! Jim will gladly sign and inscribe your copy.
The book is $29.95 + $5.00 shipping.
Jim Casada Outdoors, 1250 Yorkdale Drive, Rock Hill, SC 29730-7638 USA
Jim Casada
What a fantastic review, Maggie! I will definitely be adding this to my reading list!
Thank you, Kirstie! I know you would enjoy it and that you would find some common ground living in the beautiful Colorado Mountains!
This sounds like a really great read!! Will add to my list!
Thank you, Alex! I am sure you will love it!
Maggie–I’m honored and humbled by your gracious words. This book comes from the heart, and while I have written 17 other original works, for that reason and the subject matter I consider it my most important one. Thanks ever so much for the coverage.
Jim Casada
Jim, It was my pleasure!! I will tell you that for the first time ever, I brought a book to the deer stand. Once I started reading your words, I wanted to continue that warm and peaceful feeling I had turning the pages of your book. I never thought anything could enhance a sit in the quiet deer woods, but your book did that for me! Thank you for the honor of writing a review!
Now I have another book to add to my list. You nailed it when you said, “If you grew up in the country, you will surely feel right at home reading this book as you recall your very own experiences that parallel Jim’s adventures.”
Thank you, Mia! I smiled so much as I read this book for that very reason. I could relate so well, even though life in Pennsylvania was different. The country is the same, no matter where you are. I would not trade one moment of my childhood, and this book brought back so many wonderful memories.,