“This is about a stretch of mountain country that started out as just a place. It is only an uncivilized piece of country, but something is there that can touch a person. Those summer days somehow brought me closer to an earth that was real and good. I began to discover a few simple goods that satisfied more than all the entertaining gadgets and conveniences a factory could turn out. I discovered self-dependence and time that flowed without calibrations, and a kind of beauty that appeared in the absence of invented things. I met people. The days were not loaded in advance, but the sun would come up and there would be, and by dusk it had proved its worth.”