Snake & Tree – Page 3 – The broke South and mean stories.

January 25, 2018

The Possum and the First Lady

George Jones and Tammy Wynette were both legacies. I think she got the short shrift.

January 18, 2018

Review: Steven Stoll’s Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia

Stoll’s book of Appalachian history was released in November of last year. The responses are wild, so here’s mine.

January 15, 2018June 23, 2018

Swallowing Us Whole: New Regulations on Predatory Lending Felt in Appalachia

Predatory lenders continue to invade rural landscapes. The CFPB tried to regulate them. Congress said no. Here’s why that’s awful.

January 9, 2018January 9, 2018

American Farm Bureau Speech

Thoughts after Trump’s American Farm Bureau Conference speech. Short and sweet? It was lame.

January 6, 2018January 6, 2018

No Pleasure but Meanness: The Untold History of the Kingpin of Organized Crime in Alabama

Willie Dewitt Dawson drove a black Lincoln Continental with “kingpin” on the front license plate. Don’t piss off the boys from Alabama.

January 3, 2018January 12, 2018

Check out this thing with my name on it in The Baffler!

Upon Senator Doug Jones’ seating, let’s talk about extant Southern progressives.

December 31, 2017December 31, 2017

A Very “White Trash” Christmas

Some families enjoy a Christmas ham and caroling. My family enjoys not having possums in the attic and a good mullet.

I’m Rachel, a jaded twenty-something English grad student looking to tell some stories. Currently based in Nashville, born and bred in rural Alabama. Here you’ll find liberal political tirades, stories, book reviews, and folklore focused in on these lower Southeastern thirteen states.

The title, Snake and Tree, comes from the Alabama proverb that if you hang a dead snake in a tree it’ll bring rain. These stories are the snake. The rain is making peace with this broke South.