by Sarah Loudin Thomas | Oct 3, 2019 | Appalachian, History
I love getting mail. Well, REAL mail. And there’s so little of it anymore. Email has become a nuisance (often a convenient one!) and even physical mail is diluted with catalogs, flyers, and other junk mail. But when I get a real package, card, or the oh-so-rare...
by Sarah Loudin Thomas | Sep 19, 2019 | Appalachian, History, Reading, Writing
My soon-to-release novel, When Silence Sings, is set in part in Thurmond, WV. While there’s plenty to make this southern WV town interesting, one of the main things is that in the early 1900s it was a rich boom town. Today, it’s essentially a ghost town...
by Sarah Loudin Thomas | Sep 16, 2019 | Family, History, Love
Last weekend I had the pleasure of meeting Sharon Robinson, baseball great Jackie Robinson’s daughter. I HOPE you already know what a huge impact Jackie Robinson had on the civil rights movement by breaking the color barrier in sports when he played for the...
by Sarah Loudin Thomas | Aug 15, 2019 | Appalachian, Family, History, Poetry
If you’ve followed my blog very long, you’ve probably seen mention of the fact that I grew up on a farm that’s been in my family for seven generations. It’s a big part of why I write about Appalachia and have such strong nostalgia for the past....
by Sarah Loudin Thomas | Jul 22, 2019 | Appalachian, History, Reading, Waiting, Writing
It was 89 years ago today. The notorious Dunglen Hotel in Thurmond, WV, burned in what was then reported to be faulty wiring, but is generally believed to be an act of arson. Although–to this day–the arsonist has never been named. The popularity of the...
by Sarah Loudin Thomas | Jun 20, 2019 | Appalachian, History, holidays, Uncategorized
Today is WV Day. But you probably already knew that. My home state is turning 156 and in honor of the day I thought I’d share some unusual facts about the Mountain State. The largest diamond ever found in North America was discovered in Peterson, WV, by the...
