Day 35

Our morning started with a visit to the City of Pineville, home of the Mountain Laurel Festival, where we were joined by alums Gwen Barton, ’68 and Barbara Asher, ’68. Two beautiful mountain laurels themselves, Gwen and Barbara actually went to high school and college together and have remained close ever since. Both were elementary education majors at Berea and both went on to be teachers in Bell County. Now that they’re both retired they participate in many local community service projects together and remain teachers in the continual learning sense.



Speaking of teachers, Mayor Bruce Hendrickson of Pineville is a high school teacher himself at Pineville City High in the science department. He informed us that many students from Bell County find Berea College. Crystal Baldwin encouraged him to continue to consider students who might be a match for a Berea education.

For lunch we went to the historic, and delicious, Flocoe Drug Store serving hearty soup beans and corn bread in downtown Pineville. Directly across from the restaurant was the Bell County Courthouse with a fabulous clock that reminded us of the courthouse in the 1980’s film titled Back to the Future. Barbara Asher even said that she just knew that Michael J. Fox would come out of the courthouse any minute to greet us.

Following lunch we bid farewell to Gwen and Barbara and headed towards Pine Mountain Settlement School in Harlan County. On the winding road we encountered several dozen coal trucks and even stopped to get some footage of a coal mine in operation.

Once on the grounds of Pine Mountain Settlement School we were greeted by Executive Director Nancy Adams. She shared some of the School's Berea connections, including our own President Larry Shinn's contributions on their Board.

Following our visit to Pine Mountain the rain came just as we were making our trek over a VERY big mountain on a VERY little road to Harlan. It was like driving up and down a lampshade and I have to admit that I liked the challenge. I felt like I was back in my home "holler" of Drip Rock, Kentucky located in Estill County. The strange familiarity of the unknown roads I was traveling reminded me that Berea had prepared me well for any challenge by first connecting me to my past.

Until tomorrow, signing off from Harlan, KY-

Amy Harmon, ‘99