Mason Jars in the Flood and Other Stories

In 1940, when Gary Carden was six years old, a flash flood Struck the isolated mountain cove where he lived. Watching the flood rage through his grandparents' front yard, Gary got an idea. He hauled his Grandmother's canning jars out on the porch and proceeded to write notes which he stuffed in the jars. "Hello," the notes said, "Come and play with me!" He gave his name and address, signed each note, screwed the lids on and threw the Mason jars into the rushing stream. He watched them rush away amid the hog pens, outhouses and dead chickens, confident that he would find a playmate. He watched the little dirt trail into the cove for weeks, hoping that someone would arrive with one of those jars-someone to talk to.

Now, sixty years later, Gary has written a book that uses the '40s flood as an analogy. "My short stories are like those Mason jars," he says. "I'm still sending out messages out of this cove, hoping to communicate." Gary's cove has changed. There is now a paved road with a center line and lots of traffic. Now, Gary spends each summer telling stories at festivals, eldershostels and civic clubs. He talks about summer nights on the front porch listening to his Granny talk as she strings beans...vivid stories about drowned babies, mountain "painters," and Gary's father, "Happy," the mountain musician who was murdered when Gary was two years old. There are tales about eccentric uncles, Saturday westerns, Lash La Rue, Thomas Wolfe and Gary's imaginary playmate, Audie Murphy; there are bizarre neighbors, childhood sweethearts, unsolved murders, and much, much more.