A Sweet Spot Called Home: Oakvale, WV: How We Lived and Why It Matters

Carl Boggess Honaker's thoughtful, playful, and at times transcendent memoir gives readers a delightfully vivid and nostalgic picture of life growing up in the lively Honaker family in Oakvale, West Virginia, during the 1930s. He includes tidbits of natural history, old-fashioned farming, one-room school days, character-shaping religion, fun recreation, the devastating impact of the depression, and so much more. Learn about the natural history of the deepest cave in West Virginia, and tales Uncle Bernard and Uncle Oscar in the general store, Mr. Dodrill's pedicure in class, and a handful of Southern one-liners to help you decode your next family gathering with Uncle Randolph.

Author: Carl Boggess Honaker
Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
Published: 05/05/2021
Pages: 202
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.61lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.43d
ISBN: 9781649908575

About the Author
Honaker, Carl Boggess: - Carl Boggess Honaker was a professor at Tennessee Wesleyan, chemist with the Hanford Nuclear Project, Boeing, and Oakridge TN. He was a reader, traveler, musician, an Episcopalian lay reader, and a loving husband and father. He wrote this memoir originally for his only daughter Susie to affectionately capture the many vivid tales of life in Oakvale, West Virginia, where he was raised during the 1930s. Carl's brother Randolph also grew up in Oakvale, and, while he has traveled round the globe, he returned to West Virginia as a millwright, a cattle and timber farmer, jack of all trades and teller of more tall tales than could ever be written down. It is a grand thing to leave this life with few regrets. Susie Honaker Wirzbicki's dad, Carl, passed in 2000 with only two. He asked that his book be published and felt such regret that he was leaving before his taxes were done. Susie assured him she had it covered. His taxes were easily handled. But she has spent the last 20 busy years working as a high school counselor and raising daughters with her husband. Then the COVID 19 pandemic hit, the kids moved out, and this book finally found its way to the top of her to-do list. Fulfilling her promise has taken far longer than she would have liked, but publishing her father's work, gathering photos from her uncle, writing the prologue, and sharing the simplicity they have taught her was nothing short of a sweet spot called home. Susie hopes others will also find meaning in this reflection and thoroughly enjoy this nostalgic journey into the past.