Collections

Reel Time Appalachia

Michael Ramsburg
Aug 22, 2017 · 2 min read

At this very moment, somewhere in this big world, a little girl has just learned to ride her first bike, a little boy has just been tucked into bed, a mother has just passed a story on to her daughter, and a father has just read his son a book. Although these everyday, seemingly mundane events may seem anticlimactic, if we could just look at them from a fresh, new perspective, we could very well learn something about our shared humanity.

Though I personally can’t be elsewhere on Earth — not right now, anyway — I can be fully present in my little corner of the world. And that’s where this series of creative nonfiction comes into play.

Reel Time Appalachia is about the little, everyday moments, universally recognizable, but uniquely seen through my eyes. It’s about two lovers having a merry time at the local county fair. It’s about baking freshly-kneaded challah bread on a lazy fall afternoon. It’s about back-porch haircuts, Friday night football games, or watching the fog roll off the river on a sleepy Saturday morning.

It’s short, true stories with time stamps.

It’s life’s everyday poetry, written in prose, and set in the region I love.

But Reel Time Appalachia is more than just words. It’s also stories that you can see. It’s brief, moving visuals — videos with no set story line, but which tell a story nonetheless. Sometimes the videos will be created by me. Sometimes they’ll be created by someone else. But each recording will be forged by someone with a connection to the Appalachian region.

Though Appalachia serves as the backdrop from which this series is set, its message and intent is universal. May these stories serve as a reminder of life’s everyday moments, and may they help each of us to understand that we may not be all that different after all.


)

Michael Ramsburg

Written by

8th generation Appalachian. Proud West-by-G-d Virginian. Word writer. Code creator. Faith. Food. Folk. Facts. More: http://www.ramsburgwrites.com

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade