This week, I had the distinct pleasure to speak to the Fentress County Historical Society. We talked about losing community identity and I thought I would share my thoughts with you good blog readers.

In researching and writing Tennessee Mountain Stories, I have realized how different the focus on local community was in years past.

I love getting book reviews and feedback on stories. My favorite reviews indicate that the reader “felt like I was there”. Some readers have spent time on the Plateau and I love it when you tell me you remember the places I’ve written about. Sometimes I get letters thanking me for remembering your communities. You see, I find myself chronicling communities that are being erased.

Plans for Emma is set in Roslin – that’s one of our disappearing communities today and a reader appreciated that I got the location right.

Roslin was a thriving community with its own post office and schools. Roslin post office closed in 1961, changing residents’ mailing address to Clarkrange, Tennessee.

Roslin School absorbed other schools including Howe and Long Branch schools. The county school system rolled Banner Springs and Roslin schools together into Banner Roslin elementary in 1965. Then, in the early 1990’s, Banner-Roslin Elementary was closed and the students bussed to Clarkrange Elementary. Now, even Clarkrange Elementary School is gone and all the students attend South Fentress Elementary School.

Gracie’s Babies and Lottie’s Legacy highlight two communities. Sisters Gracie and Lottie both marry boys from Martha Washington and move there from Elmore.

Elmore is a forgotten community in north Cumberland County which had its own school and thriving neighborhood. Now, it’s just a short side road.

As highway 127 is re-built, I keep thinking about the trip from Elmore, across Clear Creek and into Clarkrange. I hear the bridge across Clear Creek will be the highest in the state when it is completed. Can you imagine the early road that forded Clear Creek or at best had a low, wooden bridge? You would have to drive all the way down below that high bridge!

I imagined that in Gracie’s Babies and I’d like to share the passage here.

In years past, folks were much more confined to a small geographical area. A lot of travel was done on foot, so you weren’t likely to venture out further than you could make it back before dark unless you were planning to stay for a while.

Over the past 70 or 80 years, our mobility has greatly increased There’s certainly a great blessing in that, however, I do think it has robbed us of our focus on the local community. Today, I can travel the 20 miles to town in half an hour – and I can drive it at any hour of the day and in most road conditions with the same ease. Based on the amount of traffic I see, we are all taking full advantage of this convenient transportation. I wonder, do we still know our next door neighbors? Do you know the history of your local community? Do you even know the name of the place you are living (and I don’t mean the postal address!)?

I challenge you to learn your community. Please come back to the comments below and tell me about it. And if you already know all about the neighborhood – make a friend down the road an tell her all about it.