Today’s batch of burning questions, my smart-aleck answers and the real deal:
Question: I've heard that Jim Buchanan, the former editorial page editor and columnist at the Citizen Times, has a new book out. I always liked Jim's columns, and I'd like to know more about the book, and where I can find it. Can you help with this?
My answer: I don't want to spoil the read, but Buchanan writes a lot about bears and cows, and men wearing ties while interacting with them. You just need to read the book.
Real answer: As a matter of fact, Jim Buchanan has penned a delightful new book called, "Historic Tales of Sylva and Jackson County." It's appropriate, as "Buc," as we always call him, is a Jackson County native.
He gave me a copy of the 125-page tome, published by History Press, and I'm here to tell you it's a darn good read and well worth the $22 price tag.
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It's not one of those, "Here's how Jackson County was settled" books, with laborious chapters on how the founders decided where to locate the courthouse. Rather, it's a collection of Buc's personal reminiscences about growing up in Jackson County, bear hunting with his legendary father, Howard Buchanan, and occasionally chasing cattle while wearing a suit. (That last one is a laugh-out-loud story, but you'll have to read the book for the details.)
Buc, who graduated from Sylva-Webster High School and Western Carolina University, has spent four decades working for mountain newspapers, including a 30-year stint here at the Citizen Times. He's won a truckload of awards over the years and currently works as special projects editor at the Sylva Herald.
I asked him about his motivation for writing the book.
"I love a good story, and I feel history is best related through stories — tales of people, not dissertations on the Smoot–Hawley Tariff (though admittedly, Smoot-Hawley is fun to say)," Buchanan said via email. "So, despite the book’s title, it isn’t a straight-up history book; the history sort of rubs off via the stories, tales of ordinary mountain folk in Western North Carolina."
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Honestly, that's what I loved about it. It's full of what former Citizen Times columnist Bob Terrell used to call "good yarns" — colorful tales that really convey what it's like to grow up and live in a place. And these tales usually make you smile, if not outright bust a gut.
I did the latter at least five times while reading the book. If it's any indication, right before reading Buc's book, I finished Bill Bryson's, "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid," his memoir about growing up in Iowa in the 1950s and '60s. I chuckled out loud two or three times with Bryson's tome.
So, it's official: Buc is funnier than Bill Bryson.
A flaming steer?
One example of Buchanan's humor is from a vignette titled, "A Bovine with Death on his Mind," about the same steer, Jake, that Buc previously had to chase while wearing a three-piece suit. In this episode, Buc's Daddy decided to clear an area for a pasture by burning it, which naturally sent a handful of rabbits scrambling for their lives.
The problem was, Jake hated rabbits, and when he spotted one trying to emerge from the flaming brush pile, he "immediately set phasers to kill, only Jake didn't bother to go around the bonfire," as Buchanan tells it.
"Figuring a straight line was the most direct path to bunny mayhem, he walked right into the blaze," Buchanan writes. "Pretty soon, it was evident that Jake was on fire. Just as evident was the fact that Jake flat out did not care. He was dialed in on Thumper with murder in his eyes."
The young Jim Buchanan shoveled some snow on Jake to douse the flames, but the bovine kept up the chase.
"It looked a lot like footage from World War II of a Japanese fighter pilot going down and trailing smoke," Buchanan writes. "But this one had a bunny in front of it."
Seriously, would you rather read that or multiple pages about deed books and who headed the county's first Board of Commissioners?
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'Mayberry' sort of feel
Buc grew up in a big family on the East Fork in Jackson County, and he's absorbed more mountain lore than just about anybody I know. He's also a board member of the Western North Carolina Historical Association.
Geoff Cantrell, another Jackson County native and friend of Buc, offered a better summary of "Historic Tales" than I can give.
"This is a time when many of us in Western North Carolina would enjoy an evening on the front porch, like a moment circa Mayberry in black and white, to laugh at a few yarns and hear some solid local history about the place we call home," Cantrell said via email. "For me, at least, such occasions seem to be rare, with or without a pandemic. But that's exactly the feeling you get when reading Jim Buchanan's 'Historic Tales of Sylva and Jackson County.'"
For you youngsters out there, and I mean anyone under about 80, "Mayberry" refers to the wondrous "Andy Griffith Show" of the 1960s and the fictional town based on Mount Airy, North Carolina.
Cantrell also notes that Buchanan's book is, "Illustrated with archival and contemporary photos and a few family snapshots," and "the pages are filled with excellent mountain storytelling in the finest tradition."
"Anyone who remembers the best of (late Citizen Times columnists) John Parris and Bob Terrell will know exactly what I mean," Cantrell said. "A Jackson County native and Citizen Times veteran just like those gentlemen, Jim Buchanan can weave words into laugh-out-loud funny, nostalgic and poignant tales, and put you firmly back on that front porch again, treasuring every word with a smile."
I'll note that Cantrell, who's known Buchanan for decades, makes a couple of appearances in the book, including one humorous vignette in which he's downing a plate of mashed potatoes Buc describes as the size of Devil's Tower. Hey, Buc's mom, Brittie, was a phenomenal cook, and the spuds were covered in gravy.
Buchanan said he's had the book in mind for a long time and felt the time was right because some of the tradition of mountain storytelling is fading away.
"A lot of these stories were gathered from front porches, fire pits and church pews," said Buchanan, 59. "I’d toyed with the idea of putting them down, and that idea took on an urgency when I noticed I was hearing more and more of these tales from places like nursing homes and hospices. They were getting away, told by a group of people who were headed off the stage. I felt a duty not to let their stories go with them."
You'll do yourself right by getting a copy.
The book is available at The History Press (based in Charleston, South Carolina. Find it here: www.historypress.com) and on Amazon, but Buc encourages folks to support their local bookstores, including City Lights in Sylva and Malaprop's in Asheville, to get a copy.
Clearly, I'm kind of partial, because Buc is as fine a human being as he is a writer, but you won't regret buying a copy. Enjoy!
And congratulations, Buc!
This is the opinion of John Boyle. To submit a question, contact him at 232-5847 or jboyle@citizen-times.com.
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