Larry | creativity-journal

Larry

I’m sitting here four years after being up at Kayford Mountain on his property. When I was there in August 2009 I picked up a piece of coal that was on the ground – a souvenir, even though I don’t usually collect such things, it somehow felt important to have this piece of coal – a talisman which I wrapped in a napkin to bring back to Brooklyn. I remember walking on the ridge, the border between his property and the mountain top removal site owned by a coal company. Larry in his lecture had told us that the mining company had security guards in trucks and that if we saw them coming we should scamper off the ridge ASAP. Larry was a nonviolent man and wanted no trouble and the security had caused trouble in the past. I was part of a group of Poverty Scholars on a Leadership School program in West Virginia to see first hand things that happen. We walked up to the ridge and were able to look down at the place where the mining company had torn off the top of a mountain to mine for coal. When the security trucks came after us we scampered down quickly!
I remember Larry as an incredibly nice man. No other way to put it. We were welcomed to land that has been in his family for many generations. Some of the ancestors are buried on the property – so there is a gentle feel of love emanating from the grandfathers and grandmothers. Larry and his wife spent time with us on their property and also came down and visited us at Camp Virgil Tate where we were staying. I remember them feeding us lunch – or maybe it was our soul they were feeding. I knew that I needed the talisman to remind me of something important. Of course I did not know at the time that Larry would pass on in the Summer of 2012, three years later. His work is carried on by others – I remember him fondly. More importantly I have a connection to the land he so dearly loved. Sacred land, Beloved Land.