When Carolyn visited the doc for her checkup last week, her blood pressure was extremely low so they took her completely off her hypertension med. Yesterday she became very weak, dizzy, and sweaty. Her cousin whom was a nurse, came over and checked her blood pressure and it was 161/98. I went and bought her meds and she is now back to near normal.
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A bit of continuation and clarification on yesterday's post. The separations between the three grand regions of Tennessee are to outward appearances a matter of geography. The western part of the state is much like the landscape of Mississippi or parts of Missouri. The central portion's main feature is the Nashville Basin which actually has more blue grass than the entire "Blue Grass" state of Kentucky. In the east, we were isolated by mountains on two sides, the Appalachians and the Cumberlands, so the rest of the state pretty well "forgot" about us. The political division came at the beginning of the Civil War when East Tennesse—especially the mountain people—did not want to secede from the US and join the Confederacy. People of the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina hills never recognized the Confederacy as a legitimate government, and most of them whom fought were in the Northern Army. My g.g.grandfather died in a Confederate prisoner of war camp in Virginia. I suppose that if we had not been surrounded by Confederate states, we would have done the same as did West Virginia and form a new state. Tennessee was the last state to join the Confederacy and the first allowed back into the Union, largely because Andrew Johnson from nearby Greeneville was vice-president of the US. Had it not been for him, the South would have suffered even more under "reconstruction".
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2 comments:
I am interested in how much research you have done to map out your family tree this way? Did you have good storytellers in the older folk passing down this information? Or did you have to search on your own?
My mother's brother lives in the Ozark Mountains of MO. He is a regular hillbilly and an amazing person. The kind of guy you'd feel safe getting lost in the middle of nowhere with. I like the kind of people who know exactly who they are no matter what! It is beautiful country as well, Missouri, not to mention the people are very interesting in that part of the country.
A lot of research, Tammy; a lot. I was fortunate that another family member began the project, and I am fortunate that there is so much info and so many people willing to help on the internet. I wasn't able to do personal research in courthouses and libraries, but found a bunch of stuff on the net, such as my g.g.grandpa's death in the Danville, Va. prison camp. I also found that he fought in the war with Mexico in 1848. I will write about one-or-two of my research adventures pretty soon.
I suppose hill people are much alike everywhere. Many of my ancestors were Scots-Irish, and originally from the highlands of Scotland. Centuries of troubles with the English crown made them naturally suspicious of anyone they did not know, and they carried the same trait to the new world. They took to these mountains like a squirrel takes to trees; it was a natural for them.
I've never seen Mo, except through the eyes of writers like Mark Twain, but it sounds like a down-home kinda place.
Thanks, Tammy.
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