Back from one of his summer explorations, Adrian yelled, “Leland, get the bucket!” At nine I still aspired to be my brother’s side kick–Robin to his Batman–but at sixteen he didn’t play Batman anymore. He seemed most interested in bossing me around. “Leland, get the bucket! Come on!” “Where’s the bucket?” “In the basement, get it and wait,…
This past weekend, I had the rare opportunity to visit the Smokey Mountains in North Carolina with my adult son, Sam. It was idyllic. We walked mountain trails, watched birds, rested on sunny rocks beside tumbling water, and took lots of photographs. Some photos I’ve shared on FaceBook, others I wanted to share more today. However, the murders of…
4/25/2020 My first summer (1969) at Town Creek Indian Mound in North Carolina was an exciting beginning of responsibility for me as an archaeologist. We had completed the UNC Cherokee Project the year before; and my mentor, Dr. Joffre Coe, had promoted me from crew member, to field director, with an unexpected new responsibility: Before our crew…
4/2020: Stanley South, my mentor in historical archaeology, at work at the Gaston Site, Roanoke River, northeastern NC. Stan wrote his master’s thesis at UNC-Chapel Hill on this prehistoric project. Archaeologist Lewis Binford helped Stan in the field and ended up writing his dissertation at University of Michigan on another aspect of the project—Nottoway and Meherrin…
Posted April 5, 2020 This is a piece I posted on Face Book, December 14, 2016, a little more than four years ago. I hope it may bring a little smile to your face: As of today, I have been living 75 years, and this is a good time for telling a story. When I…
Posted April 3, 2020 With dark, cowlicked hair and big brown eyes, Charles Wesley Watkins was a lively 5 ½ year old, almost six. I was a little beyond seven, and we were fast friends. John Wesley specialized in talking, especially in telling colorful stories of how he would avoid catastrophic events. The tale I remember most…
Posted March 26, 2020 There’s a joking bargain that farriers often offer to novice horse owners: They’ll shoe all four feet starting at one penny for the first nail and simply doubling the cost for the next nail at 2 cents, the next at four cents, and so on. Total the fee for each nail and that’s…
Posted March 20, 2020 When I was quite young, about first-grade age, I remember our family having dessert every evening after supper. It seemed one night we would have lemon meringue pie–my very favorite–next chocolate, then my father’s favorite, apple pie, and so on. And, Jello, we had it with supper as part of a…
Posted March 1, 2020 Thinking about Culture Change: Frontiersman Daniel Boone once lived in the Yadkin River Valley of North Carolina not far from my boyhood home, and I began reading Boone biographies in middle school. At the time, I was also finding Native American “arrowheads” and “spearheads.” And, I imagined them having been left…
Posted February 17, 2020 Esther Mae Brigman Ferguson May 16, 1909 – February 17, 1995 My mother was largely responsible for my becoming an archaeologist. When I was a child, she encouraged my roaming the woods and fields by paying attention to all the things I brought back—from arrowheads to dead crows. In response to my…