Raffling off a rifle at the Cedar Grove
Community Club in McLemore Cove.
If you were to view Lookout Mountain in northwest Georgia from above, you would see that it looks like an alligator with open jaws lying on its side. With the tip of its nose in Tennessee, its body sprawls southwest for 80 miles across the northwest corner of Georgia and into Alabama, The lower jaw of the alligator is Pigeon Mountain, and between its jaws lies a deep valley called McLemore Cove.
The inhabitants of the Cove are a cross section of America's real people. The true salt of the earth. They are farmers. some retirees, factory workers, and people who just enjoy living in the Cove.
And me. The Cove was my world for 32 years.
I wish I had started a serious photo-documentation of the Cove and its people from the beginning. It would have made a great book. But at the time I didn't think of it. I just made photos hit or miss as the spirit moved me, and in 32 years I did manage to get some decent photos, but the coverage was nothing like it could have been. Nonetheless, here are a few photos that may give you a flavor of the people and the place.
Marvin cooking for the wild game dinner at the community club.
Although the Cedar Grove Community Club met every month, the highlight of the year was the wild game dinner each February, with hundreds attending and club members pitching in to help..
Serving it up at the wild game dinner.
One of our neighbors was George D. Queener, the biggest cattleman in the Cove, with 850 acres and about 350 purebred cattle.
George D. was still riding his horse in his 80s.
Killed by pine borers, a tree falls across Sourwood Lane.
Our little herd. Chickamauga Creek in the background.
Even a small herd of cattle is a lot of work. Eventually, we realized we were no longer able to keep up with things as well as we wanted to. We enjoy our life and travels in our RV, but we will always remember our life in McLemore Cove.
Winter in the Cove. Chickamauga Creek and Pigeon Mountain.
Photographs and text copyright 2022, David B.Jenkins.
I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday each week unless life gets in the way.
Soli Gloria Deo
For the glory of God alone
No comments:
Post a Comment