Clinch Mountain Press
P.O. Box 117
Emory, Virginia 24327
(276) 944-5355
clinchmtn@gmail.com
"It’s good to sit on a growling tractor when leaves are beginning to
turn and distant ridges are etchings in purple. Sun warm on arms and
face as you cut one swath, then warm on neck and back during your
return. Grasshoppers jump and flutter, and thistledown floats in the
air like an invading army of ants had just made a parachute jump.
"I like the patterns it leaves on the bosom of a field, the
contours that follow the fence lines. My last bush hogging in the fall
is the long field dropping away below the house. That way, its
contours will please the eye until green-up in the spring."
~ Jack Kestner,
October 10, 1988
Also by Jack Kestner:
Fire Tower
An adventure story by Jack Kestner set in
and around the fire tower on Clinch Mountain where he served as a
look-out.
$12.00
Read
more...
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View from the Mountain
by Jack Kestner
Paperback, 6" x 9", 256 pages
Illustrated with black and white photos by the author and others
ISBN 978-0-9724765-3-9
Clinch Mountain Press 2006
$8.00
To buy this
book, print the Order Form
or use PayPal:
Stray dogs, hummingbirds, and seasonal cycles at Hayters Gap:
These were trademark topics for the late Jack Kestner, beloved and
respected columnist for nearly 18 years for the
Bristol Herald Courier.
Now 108 of Jack’s best
columns have been compiled by his three
children.
Jack
was born in Hayters Gap on the south side of
Clinch Mountain in Washington County,
Virginia, in 1921. His family moved to
Bristol, Tennessee, for his public school
years, and he eventually pursued a
distinguished career in
military journalism for the Norfolk
Ledger-Star which took him around the
globe. After his wife died unexpectedly, he retired early and
returned to Hayters Gap in 1977, moving with his city-raised
children into an old house with no electricity for thirteen
months while building their new rustic home on the south side of
Clinch Mountain.
From
this vantage point, Jack began writing his
column for the local paper in 1987. His
topics were wide-ranging, from his extensive
foreign travels to the tiny hummingbirds
that visited his feeders, and from the
antics of his many beloved dogs to the
antics of politicians. Jack also wrote
several columns about his Kestner and Sisk
ancestors who lived at Hayters Gap, which
will be of particular interest to
historians. The pieces are accompanied by
old photos from Jack’s collection.
According
to Bristol Herald Courier Editor
Steven Kaylor, Jack wrote with “an
unsurpassed eye for detail and, always, with
a sense of humor. . . Jack invited everyone
into his mountaintop retreat as if they were
family. He ushered us into his world. And
what an amazing, entertaining, and
thought-provoking world it was.”
Jack Kestner plowing
on his Sisk grandparents' farm at Hayters Gap about 1940
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The Hayters Knob fire tower lookout cabin
where
Jack spent his nights when serving at the
tower |
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