It Was Real Life Then: Growing Up on Coon Branch Mountain

Creator: Mullins, Jessica

: Mullins, Burley

In this project, Jessica Mullins interviewed her father, Burley White Mullins Jr, about living and growing up on Coon Branch Mountain, near Iager, West Virginia. Topics included in the interview include moonshine, homemade toys, growing and preserving food religion, and folk cures. This interview is among projects created by students enrolled in English 446 (initially English 452), “Appalachian Folklore,” 1981-2019, and in graduate level counterparts English 548 and 648 “Appalachian Folk Culture(s)” offered 17 fall semesters between 1987 and 2009. Minimally contain collector’s introduction and analysis, transcribed informant interviews, and excerpted and labeled examples of oral, customary, and/or material folklore/folklife collected primarily within the Appalachian region. Most include also tables of contents, informant information, indexes (outlines) of interviews, photographs, miscellaneous paper items, and indexes of informants, genres, and geographic locations. Accompanying audio recordings (several minutes to 2+ hours). Transferred to McConnell Library Archives & Special Collections from Appalachian Regional and Rural Studies Center, Fall 2013.