you can support this channel by LIKING, COMMENTING and SUBSCRIBING or by clicking the JOIN or THANKS button or by visiting www.theappalachiachannel.com Thank y'all!
What a story! Wow! I thought for sure the governor was going to fess up & tell her the truth….but that would only have caused more grief. Thanks JD & Sara! The best storyteller ever! ❤️🙏😊
What an amazing story, JD! You are an inspired and quite outstanding weaver of words and stories! Love to listen to your comforting voice! Many thanks to you and sweet Sara for a poignant and beautiful story! ❤ from the hills of East Tennessee! Becca
What a heartbreaking story.😢 I can't help but wonder how many more similar stories there are. I work with homeless people and so many of them never knew their dad Thank you for sharing this story
Hi Jan! So, The Appalachian Storyteller has grown so much, that I had to split the content into two separate channels. All my historical documentaries are over on The Appalachian Storyteller, while all my down-home storytelling videos are on The Appalachia Channel (along with the music you love so much). Be sure to subscribe to both channels and have a great weekend! . BTW- There are always new videos on this channel each Sunday Morning.
WOW! WHAT A STORY!! IS THIS TRUE? I grew up in West Virginia. I'm 63 years old. Moved away when I was 23. Miss it dearly!!! Was blessed by a father, that I lost when I was 19, but taught me more than a gold's worth of lessons that I believe made my soul what it is today. 🥲💪❤️
The last line.... Epic. How do you pack so much into such a short little story? You have a real gift. Your Granny Tollette stories are always my favorite.
Thanks for sharing this story that caused me to blink back tears. Back in that era good man would go to fetch them moonshine and it would get a grip on them. So much abuse to their wives and even children.
Hey jd I think that's your name Last I wrote you I was in the hospital you might remember I mentioned I was watching one of your uploads. Paused it to go to the store. Stepped on the sidewalk slipped on frozen rain broke my leg on frozen rain. Emergency surgery woke up and finished the upload. Doing well after 3 months in a wheelchair. Love your channel. Impressed with your dedication research and effort and footage. Thank you for keeping this fascinating culture alive past and present. Moved from Washington to south Dakota. Will visit the smokies some day. The south the confederacy
I’m so glad to hear you’re doing better and I hate that that happened to you. We gotta be careful. Don’t we three months in a wheelchair? Wow that’s a long time. I’m glad you’re feeling better brother. Get well soon.
@@theappalachiachannel Hummmm, wonder if your J stands for John and you're named after your great... nah, can't be. Stay away from those DNA kits JD. 😉
@@theappalachiachannel ARRRRGH, I was going to ask the same question. Hmm, I believe I have solved the mystery. Not true because we are hanging on to each word knowing it's only a short video with a secret. But you and Sarah are experts in telling stories true or false. You both have a knack for storytelling and keeping your listeners hanging onto every word. Wish he told her who he was tho. Technically he opt out of years of responsibility even if he didn't know his own son.
I'd like to know what eventually became of his first son too. Did the break become permanent when he and his mom left WVA? If not, did the son eventually find his way back to WVA through his own and/or his dad's later efforts? If so, did the son eventually somehow discover who the governor actually was? Maybe after John's passing when it was really too late to patch things up? Or as a 'family friend' who of course would be attending the funeral? Maybe if his mom died first, John might even have revealed or let slip enough of the true history for his son to realize it. Like when at John's funeral someone reminded him how John loved the 'family friend' like his own and either that person or another remarked on a physical resemblance between the two. Pay close attention, JD! I'm trying to help you write this song now! Don't let me down. :)
Holy Cow.. sure was a powerful story there.. it's sad that he musta have felt she was beneath his standards after he left for the war and didn't return to her.. but everything has a reason I reckon..to her though, the greatest gift he could have ever done to made her happy wouldn't have been saying he's John but having the power to have her son released.. so that meant more to her than anything else he could have said.. beautiful story and so glad 😊 y'all shared it
The old saying it’s a small world could never be more evident !! You probably would be surprised if known the factual similarities of this story and real life scenarios. Thanks JD
This was a beautiful story, but the governor was an AH for not going back to her after the war. Edit - There are many reasons why he possibly didn't go back, of which I have been gently reminded. Thank you so much for your wonderful stories, I so love this channel and share it every chance I get. Thank you
@@theappalachiachannel Sorry I snapped a little, let's just say I was a single Mama, I crushed it tho lol. Having a good Saturday, hope you are as well. Shoulda just remembered what I was taught, caint say nuttin nice don't say nuttin at all lol I do love this channel, shared it on my FB page, think this is first time I ever got het up about anything tho lol Sorry again.
@@susanmj1160 - On the other hand, I think it was Harry S. Truman's daughter who said if you can't say something nice about somebody, come sit right here next to me. Or maybe it was one of the Roosevelts. I don't quite remember at the moment. But anyway, civil discourse allows for reasonable differences of opinion .... I've heard that's what makes a horse race too.
I still have secrets from when I was a kid and I recently heard some and was thinking, not how I heard it it was from the original source so I just shrugged it off and laughed to myself about it and said okay 😉
Beautiful story and lesson. So many people have sorrowful stories like this. Please Be kind to others. Accept them. Encourage others now and not judge please.
I don’t believe in favoritism or nepotism because I have seen what it can do it’s not pretty either, I’ve refused to use discounts from family and friends because it wasn’t my discount to begin with. I was raised by a humble and honest dad and I still miss him so much 😢
As I posited earlier: Consider extenuating circumstances. John might've been told a falsehood that his beloved had died or ditched him, so he never went back to find her bu t instead tried to start his life anew elsewhere. Maybe it could've been a misdirection by the bum she eventually married. Too many possibilities to just guess about. By the time of the story he'd obviously have started another family. At this point what was he supposed to do? Take everybody down with him or shoulder the grief of his error alone in a sacrificial effort to limit casualties? No really happy endings to such a story.
BTW, JD, you do realize this story MUST have a ballad to go along with it??? Something along the lines of the Tweedy/Bragg version of 'When the Roses Bloom Again' from Ken Burns' Civil War PBS series that I'll keep trying til my own dying day to get you to sing for us! Ha - betcha thought I'd given up on that, didn't you? Since I'm determined to 'help' you as much as possible with a new song for John and Molly, you might consider writing and performing it from his viewpoint and the moment in time when he first realized the tragedy that had occurred. I lean toward the possibility that when he realized how star crossed they'd been, he might not have been in a position to fix it any better than he did. In his position he would've had so many people to consider that he might not have been able to offer more. Let's not forget too that if the secret got out, his career and ability to support everyone he felt he owed would've been destroyed. Those who leap to condemn him w/o considering all this are not showing us their own best either.
@@theappalachiachannel - If I still had any show biz connections, I'd be trying to turn this story into the next blockbuster movie. But everyone I ever knew back in the day is either dead or in jail where they belong. So no chance for me. But you write the right song for this and if it charts well, somebody else might be able to take it farther.
J.D., That was a POWERFUL Good story 👏! I might say, as someone else commented, perhaps the inclusion of some gentle strings in the background would really set this off. (my opinion, Everything is Better W/Bluegrass)😊
@theappalachiachannel After watching this a second time 😊and turning down my music, I realized you DO have background music 🎶. I stand corrected! I meant no offense by my previous comment. 😮
JD and Sarah: How do you manage to break and uplift the heart both at the same time? The world wants to know. BTW, do we have any idea why the governor might've wanted to hide his identity when he was a young man just home from the war? A change of heart depending on which side he fought for, perhaps? given that WVA seceded from the rest of the state to remain union? I know sentiment was still very much divided. He might've had a serious case of PTSD too. Trying to find a way to cut him a little slack here, since he was clearly a self-tortured person of various aspects like most of us. Or .... maybe someone had told the young John that his beloved had either died or ditched him and so knowing no different, he eventually picked up the pieces and went on with life? By the time of this part of the story, he would probably have a wife and family. Did he maybe not reveal himself in order to reduce collateral damage to others for their sake and/or his own? Either way he'd be faced with a Hobbes' (or Sophie's) choice. Maybe in the end that was the best that could be made of it.