OT: Where is Friendsville? Sorta Longish

[Guest guest]

Hi Eva,

 

> Butch,

> I was a Marylander for several years...finished high school in

> Frederick (Fredneck), and went to UMCP. I think I vaguely know where

> Friendsville is, but exactly where is it? Eva

 

I can believe they'd call Frederick Fredneck .. that Allegheny Range of

the Appalachians is really Redneck country even though not in the South.

But there's good folks in them thar hills y'all. Gonna tell you about

one'a them and pretty soon, I expect to have his photo somewhere on my

website .. feller's name was Pappy Ross .. one of the last of a special

breed of feller .. the REAL Eastern Mountain Men.

 

Also gonna bore you with how a Suth'ran Redneck feller living in Ankara,

Turkey come to be operating a business outa Friendsville, Maryland in

the first place .. ;-p

 

I found Friendsville by accident on 13 September 1997 while running down

the road heading east, coming from Buffalo Grove, IL after dealing with

a " difficult " customer who had ordered a few thousands of kilos of EO

from me here in Turkey. I noticed I needed gas .. and there was only

green hills all around me. Finally came to a sign said Gas so I whipped

off into this little town and immediately, I liked the place.

 

While the guy was pumping gas I looked around and saw the whole town.

Two streets behind, I saw a sign said, " Natural Foods " so I decided to

mosey over and see what they had in that store. When I walked in, it

was like stepping back a century or so as the danged store was ancient.

 

Feller behind the counter was talking to a whisker face who looked like

he'd just come out of the hills. I started shopping around the isles

and I looked at the counter and saw Cass Igram's Oil of Oregano - that's

North American Herb and Spice Company, he calls himself " Dr. Oregano " on

his website. I was his supplier at the time - had a contrct and was

sending a minimum of 1,000 kilograms a month of oregano and 200 or 300

of rosemary .. and he was the feller I had been to see in IL.

 

Got into conversation with the feller behind the counter (who was Jim)

and Mr. Whisker Face and determined that Mr. Whisker Face had a real bad

sinus problem plus some other medical problems - some of which he said

didn't bother him much anymore since he had been taking Doc's (meaning

Jim) natural products (Jim's a herbalist and massage therapist.)

 

I picked up a bottle of Igram's Oil of Oregano and asked Jim if he knew

exactly what was in it and Jim said twas Oregano and Olive Oil. I told

him he was right but it was like 5% Oregano Oil and 95% Olive Oil and

the price of $29.95 for (I think) 1/2 ounce was kind of high. Then I

went out to the car and brought back a bottle of 100% oregano and let

them smell it, and I put some 50/50 oregano and olive oil on Mr. Whisker

Face's palm and told him to sniff it a few times - and he did! Within a

few minutes, that feller was dancing a fair jig and saying his sinuses

already felt better than they had in years.

 

Anyway, I talked with Jim and Mr. Whisker Face a while then hit the road

as I had to be in D.C. a'fore dark as I had a meeting next morning in

Crystal City.

 

Five months later, in February 1998, I received an e-mail from Jim and

he wanted to buy some oregano - so, I sold him 100 each 30 ml bottles.

Pretty soon, he e-mails me again saying it's almost gone and he needs

some more. So I figured this feller done got a good thing going there

and I would go back to see him next time I was in the USA.

 

I made another trip to the USA in late December 1998 and decided to go

by Friendsville - it was the time of big ice-storms and snow up to an

elephant's butt. I got into Friendsville and first thing I knew, I was

snowed in. Jim offered to let me stay with him but I needed privacy as

I had picked up tons of work along the way from my office and from folks

I dealt with, so I politely refused and Jim arranged for a super-fine

apart-motel (Sunrise Inn) on the hill above the town. Three rooms with

everything one needed and you just bring in your own chow and cook.

 

I had it in mind to let Jim be a small distributor in Maryland and sell

a few bottles of oregano oil for a retail side line to my bulk business.

I'd been planning a retail operation for two years but it just wasn't

coming together the way I wanted it to. There were too many obstacles

to operating a company in the USA while I was living in Turkey .. but I

needed to operate in the USA.

 

On that New Year's Eve (31 Dec 98) I was snowed under in the motel on

the mountain there above Friendsville - which is near to a Shawnee

Medicine Lodge, a place they hold ceremonies and seek spiritual

guidance. I was alone and it was the first New Year's Eve in 30 some

odd years that I didn't drink a drop of alcohol - I had some beer and

bourbon with me but I just didn't feel like popping a cork.

 

I was staring out the window at snow pouring down .. all of a sudden, I

felt like I was dreaming while standing there. And I saw something that

might have scared hell out of me under different conditions .. but I was

not afraid. I was being visited!! Everything started coming at me in

rapid-fire but it was like a vision - I'm serious! Answers were popping

up clear as crystal .. answers to some questions I hadn't even thought

to ask yet!! And the feeling was good - overpowering but not tiring. I

heard messages but I didn't hear a sound! Messages were coming to me

like flashes of light - and I could CLEARLY see the source of those

messages. I've seen that source since then too .. three times!!!!

 

I had always believed deeply in the American Indian's innate ability to

communicate with higher powers .. but I didn't know that it could happen

to me .. and I think that at that time I didn't really fully realize

just what had happened to me .. not entirely!

 

Anyway, next morning I turned a Lincoln Town Car I had rented into a

snow plow as I headed down the mountian to Wihinepe Natural Foods to

tell Jim about the ideas that had come to me. He listened but Jim is

not a feller to change the way he does things .. turtles been known to

pass Jim while he was taking a walk ... good ol' boy fer'shur but he

doesn't get excited. Bottom line .. Jim couldn't see his way clear to

go into anything like that .. he was satisfied with 2-3 customers a day.

I was excited and Jim thought I was a bit crazy 'cause the proposal I

laid on him was based on a strange tale. Jim gave me that old, " lemme

think about it, " business and I took myself on back to Turkey.

 

Soon as I got back, I wrote what happened to me to a Dakota Shaman, and

I got back five pages of explanation. But I didn't tell Jim.

 

Around mid-February 99, I got an email from Jim said while he was being

interviewed by a local paper (his store is around 115 years old) and it

was snowing so hard he was thinking the reporter might have to spend the

night, he heard this awful crash and the first thing come to mind was

somebody done crashed into his pickumup. He ran to the door and there

laid a giant Cooper Hawk .. done crashed into the door and he's laying

out on the porch knocked silly. Now Jim's old store has one'a them long

sloping porch roofs that you can walk under and touch with your hand ..

its low. And hawks and other birds (even raptors) do NOT fly in snow

storms - nor do they get caught in them. But this hawk had. All of a

sudden, the hawk jumps up .. walks into Jim's store .. turns back around

and walks out .. and then flies back out into the snow heading straight

in the direction of the Shawnee Medicine Lodge. To say Jim and the

reporter were surprised would be an understatement .. ;-p

 

Next day or two (not exactly sure) an old Shawnee comes in and Jim tells

him this tale. Old feller tells Jim that hawks, owls, and EAGLES are

messengers .. and that leads Jim to tell him of my visions on the hill

that New Year Eve. To make it short, old feller convinces Jim that it

appears I've been able to be contacted, and that all folks were able at

one time but most lost the ability to understand. Old feller tells Jim

he oughta listen to what I want and so Jim sends me an email and tells

me this stuff. I send one back and tell him what the Dakota told me.

After me sending this to Jim, and him talking to another of the local

Shamans, we decided to make the dream a reality and my retail operation

was born. Twas the beginning of Appalachian Valley Natural Products

and its also the origin of the Eagle on my website.

 

Whether or not folks wanna believe in visions, Spririt Guides or Helpers

is their choice .. and afore this event, I had not given much thought to

it beyond the fact that most American Indians had no word for LIE till

they were taught it by the white man .. and most tribes had a history of

Vision Quests where one didn't fib if they didn't have their vision

while on the quest. I also like to think that what happened to me had

something to do with my flow of thinking, cause I've been a student of

American Indian history for many, many years and if I could be reborn

and had a choice - it would be as an American Indian in the 1700s or

early 1800s. Also, the fact of me being quiet and isolated and having

the time to be with myself and nothing to do .. not be reactive as I

normally am - might have had something to do with what went down. I'll

never know. But, it all came together and I realized then that I had

been given, in a matter of seconds, the answers to all the problems I'd

been fighting with and I knew I had been shown a path. That path led to

the beginning of a successful retail and wholesale business ... right

there in Friendsville!

 

I also think that there's far more to Native American Spiritualism than

many modern Western minds are willing to accept - it's sort'a like we

forgot what we once knew. If we open our minds it might bring some real

surprises. In many ways, the American Indians of the past were wiser

and more tolerant than we are today. They accepted that there was but

one Great Spirit and didn't care what other tribes or people called him

or how they approached him. The Comanche practiced differently than did

the Cheyenne, Dakota, Apache or Shawnee, but they honored each other's

practices and believed they were all valid as they were approaching the

one Great Spirit. Then the white man came and taught them differently.

 

On 03 March 99, I became legal .. though we didn't offer anything for

sale until six months later, on 13 September 99. Took that long from

the word to move it to getting all the necessaries in line to make it a

GO. But I had forgotten that it was EXACTLY two years to the day since

I'd walked into that store .. till I got this email from Jim:

 

> One more piece of data: on Saturday 13 Sep 97, two years ago is when

> you first walked into this store and met me and that guy from Terra

> Alta, WV.

>

> You put some 50/50 oregano on his palm and his sinuses cleared up

> right there on the spot; remember that? Jim

 

Jim worked with me till this past November (2001) and then, he found a

different path .. one that had a purty little gal on it and purty gals

have a way of distracting some folks .. Jim was one of them folks. ;-p

But without Jim, I would not have been able to get Appalachian Valley

Natural Products up and running .. and I've shown my appreciation for

that in more substantial ways than mere words .. ;-p

 

I went back in Dec 2001/Jan 2002, and opened in a much larger place ..

on the same street and next door to where we had been. Only difference

besides the size is that we are a bit closer to the Post Office now.

Used to have to walk 20 seconds or so but now its like 20 steps from the

door of our shop .. ;-p Hired a new crew in December too .. started

from Ground Zero. The new manager was Margaret Collins .. one of the

daughters of the feller I was telling y'all about - Pappy Ross.

 

To go back a bit, in late Sep 1999, I traveled to Toronto, Canada to

give a talk at the IATA Conference .. then headed down to Friendsville.

While there, I had the good fortune to meet a gentleman who was at the

time 83 years old and still farmed in the old way, Pappy Ross.

 

We hit it off big time and quick time ... took a liking to each other

that was unusal. He grew his own buckwheat and ground it himself. He

was a smart feller and witty enough to have his own talk show. Pappy

said he grew 18 acres of buckwheat that year - two for his wild-turkeys,

one for his deer and fifteen for his family. I was raised on and around

farms in Kentucky and had eaten buckwheat cakes (from a commercial box)

but had never seen any first hand till this grand old gentleman took me

in his barn and proudly displayed his buckwheat harvest - and also his

organic 'taters - big'uns they wuz too.

 

Pappy owned considerable acreage on that particular Allegheny Mountain,

and he protected all of his wildlife. Ten years or so afore that, he

deeded some of his prime lands to the Shawnee Indians for $1 - it is

there they have the Medicine Lodge. I was able to visit the Shawnee

land around the lodge and it had a very special and personal meaning for

me - as you might guess. I noted that they had a garden with tobacco,

sage, sweetgrass and other herbs and plants. Of course, there were two

sweat lodges and a large central fire-pit in the center of the camp.

Pappy wanted to ensure they could continue the old lifestyle when they

wanted to - and they did .. and still do.

 

There were thousands of black walnut trees and as many squirrils and

other critters on Pappy's land. His deer were not afraid of him - his

wife said when she couldn't find him, she'd go in the woods and look for

deer .. they'd be hanging around Pappy and he'd be feeding them some

sugar or whatever. His wife also had every kind of varmint (groundhogs,

skunks, opossums, etc.) coming to the house for handouts and they fed

all the critters. His dogs and cats got along fine with the critters.

Seven of his eight children lived with their families on the mountian.

Only his daughter, Carole, left - she's a veterinarian in Virginia.

 

I said then that when folks like Pappy were gone, it'll be the end of an

era - like the Walton's Mountain - and it was obvious that Pappy was

already one of the last of his breed .. that's why I had to meet him and

it was one of the real treats of my trip.

 

Pappy died in the fall of 2000 .. folks around Friendsville miss him ..

and I'll betcha that the wild critters around there miss him too!!

 

Rest In Peace Pappy. A Hearty Salute to you and folks like you.

 

Back to Friendsville .. The bank was excited cause I was the first new

account from outside in memory. I joked that the town council would

probably make me an honorary citizen and hold a special meeting to plan

spending of the windfall taxes they'd get the first year. Figured they

could buy a new stop sign for 1st and Maple that was needed for 27 +

years or paint the population sign on the edge of town because if I

become a citizen it have to be changed to read, " Population 601. " Then

I learned there were no town taxes .. ;-p

 

Town is named after John Friend .. one of the early pioneers in the area

and one of the first who bought land from the Shawnee instead'a stealing

it. Lots of folks in the town have the name Friend or have Friend blood

and Pappy was one of them. There's a State Museum there for John Friend

and it is worth seeing .. volunteers man it.

 

The town is in the heart of nature .. in a forest - a beautiful nature

preserve. If you're bored, you go down to the river and soak your feet

and watch the deer and bear when they come down for a drink. Or watch

the wild turkeys heading to roost at night .. maybe catch a trout or two

for supper. Or walk the nature paths through the green forests that

totally surround the town. What do folks do nights for entertainment ..

they listen for a pin to drop. I LOVE IT THERE!!!

 

They have a grocery store, a gas station, a coffee shop, a restaurant,

two motels, one barber ship and 4-5 ladies hair dressers (whut does that

say?) ;-p etc. .. most everything is a single - no need for duplicates.

Also, they're big into crafts, soaps, therapeutic massage, herbalism,

etc. Nature lovers all! They don't have any police as they don't allow

crime. And they gonna have another store come July .. mine!

 

So Eva .. you ask a simple question and you get a danged book. ;-p That

is my style sometimes. If you wanna know exactly where we are .. check

out this URL: http://www.AV-AT.com/about.html

 

I figured it was about time I wrote this all down afore I forgot it.

 

Y'all keep smiling, Butch http://www.AV-AT.com

[Guest guest]

Thanks Butch-

 

Its nice to know a little more about you...

 

Beautiful...

 

Michelle