Newspaper Page Text
Publisher gives up the fast lane
By Nancy Herndon
Th« Christian Science Monitor
COPPERHILL, Tenn.—Five years
ago Maryann Herbermann, then 54,
vice-president of an Atlanta advertis
ing agency and a pressure-driven ur
banite, bought a house in a quiet hol
low of the Appalachians.
Visiting on the weekends, she grew
close to the forests and farms, the
small towns, and the close-knit fam
ilies of the area. Bit by bit, she learned
the secrets and stories of the hills.
And her imagination was captured for
life.
“There is an endless folklore, an
endless heritage, an unbelieveable
number of people stashed in the hills
up here, full of stories,” the energetic
former executive says. She is explain
ing why she quit her well-paying city
job and moved year-round to her
mountain house, to start a small mag
azine called Mountaineer Times.
Originally intended as mainly a
guide to events, the magazine quickly
grew into a “sort of verbal patchwork
quilt,” as Ms. Haberann describes it,
that stitches together the history,
folklore, crafts and events of the
mountains from Alabama to Pennsyl
vania. A warm, casual read, its sto
ries wander comfortably from pro
files of mountain newcomers, to
profiles of families whose mountain
roots go back for centuries, to recipes
for cheese com bread and apple nut
cake.
In the fall-winter issue, an elderly
couple recall the early days of their
marriage, when Copperhill, now a
stark and denuded ghost town, was a
thriving mining camp and the hills
outside the town glowed with hot slag.
An earlier issue carries a history of a
local Cherokee Indian family whose
ancestors escaped relocation when
the Cherokee nation was forcibly
moved from the Appalachians in the
19th century.
Stories have profiled country singer
Jean Ritchie and 71-year-old world
hiker Jon Mackey, described how to
build a log cabin and repair antiques,
and reviewed local rafting and moun
tain climbing spots. Regular features
cover crafts, music, food, events, and
places. It is a homey-feeling publica
tion, printed on soft white paper, with
photos that look like (and sometimes
are) old family snapshots.
But like many dreams come to life,
publishing the Mountaineer Times
has been in some ways more of a chal
lenge than Herbermann expected
when she launched the first issue with
the help of her old friend, Eileen Kerr,
two years ago.
The magazine, which comes out
three times a year, is a labor of love
not only for Herbermann but for all
the editors and contributors; every
one who works on it is a volunteer.
Circulation has struggled up to 4,000,
but each issue is still published at a
net loss.
And as the primary writer and only
full-time staff member, Herbermann
has clocked some 30,000 miles on her
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‘There is an endless folklore, an endless heritage, an unbe
lieveable number of people stashed in the hills up here, full of
stories,’ says Maryann Herbermann. She is explaining why she
quit her well-paying Atlanta job and moved year-round to her
mountain house, to start a small magazine called Mountaineer
Times.
four-wheel-drive Isuzu in less than a
year, driving along down dirt roads,
no roads, through brush, and over
mountainsides in four states in search
of stories.
She works out of her cedar-shingled
house at the end of a twisting plung
ing, clay road that looks as if it sees
traffic no more than once a week. (In
fact, she says, it sees traffic at least
once a day she picks up her mail in
Copperhill that often.)
But with every new story and issue,
she has become more fascinated with
the people and past of the Appala
chians. “When you come to the moun
tains, something different happens,”
she says, looking beyond her porch at
the creek and serene forest. “It’s an
altogether different life. It overpow
ered me.”
Talking with local people and
watching the current issue of the mag
azine take shape “really lifts you
right out of your day-to-day exis
tence,” she says, adding that she had
always craved more of a creative out
let than offered by her former job of
managing a media buying group for
the advertising agency. “I enjoy put
ting something together that I think
people would enjoy reading,” she
says. ‘I enjoy watching something
grow.”
To help the magazine find an au
thentic mountain voice, Herbermann
has been working since last summer
with a writers’ group, Sassafras Lit
erary Exchange, of nearby Jasp'
Ga. “It’s their families that make up
the history of the area,” she notes,
saying that what the writers lack in
informal English grammar, they
make up for in telling.
She has spoken at Sassafras meet
ings, edited some of the writers’ poet
ry and nostalgia pieces, and printed
pieces in the magazine.
“She makes you feel good about
yourself and what you’re doing,” says
Linda Crider, a local writer who has
been published twice in the Mountain
eer Times. “That’s important to Ap
palachian people.”
The magazine has also published
stories by local schoolchildren. In
deed, it seems to provide a satisfying
creative outlet to all who work on it.
“It has been marvelous therapy for
me,” says managing editor Kerr, a
full-time textbook consultant in Atlan
ta who had lost her husband to illness
just before Herbermann started the
magazine.
Ms. Kerr spends weekends at her
mountain house or with Herbermann,
writing, rewriting, researching sto
ries, and proofreading the copy they
produce on a computer desktop pub
lisher, which sits on a Victorian desk
in Herbermann’s small office. “It’s a
real getaway,” says Kerr. “I get paid
in satisfaction and happiness.” Other
editors are creative director Linda
Mitchell, an Atlanta graphic arts de
signer, and photography editor Bill
Kautz, a local photojoumalist. The
board of directors is composed of six
local people, who monitor the maga
zine’s accurate and sensitive portray
al of the region.
Readers are as varied as the moun
tains’ rich cultural life. Some are lo
cal people, interested in profiles of
their neighbors and friends. Others
are retired people who have moved to
the Appalachians from other areas
and are looking for insights and
information.
Herbermann says letters show that
subscribers from places as distant as
Michigan, Minnesota, Florida, and
California are mostly vacationers
who have passed through the area, be
come smitten with it, and want to stay
in touch.
Distribution of the magazine is han
dled through bookstores, craft shops,
antique centers and restaurants in 21
towns in Georgia, North Carolina, and
Tennessee.
rhe magazine has also recently ex
panded into a mail order department
for regional books, linking up with a
local distributor of backpacking and
wilderness guides, books of Indian
folklore, and the like.
Despite the financial pressure, the
magazine carries only a few simple,
medium-type ads. “I hate advertis
ing,” Herbermann confides, in the
tone of one who has made a clean
break with the past. Mountaineer
Times advertisers are mostly folksy
and compatible businesses, such a
craft centers and wilderness outfit
ters. The fall-winter issue for the first
time carries real estate ads, but they
are modestly drawn, even whimsical
things; one has a logo of a duck in a
top hat.
Work and money concerns aside,
Herbermann is as conspicuously
proud of the magazine as anyone who
ever left behind a successful career to
risk a dram. She is committed to pub
lishing it three to five years, she says,
even at a loss if necessary, to give it a
chance to build circulation. If it fails,
she says stoically, she’ll go on to other
things. But for now, it is her compul
sion and fascination.
“People here have so much locked
in their heads, especially the older
people,” she says, “I could go on for 50
years and not run out of stories.”
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Dear Dr. Purpura,
After suffering with a bad back
for the past year I finally decided
to try and see if a chiropractor can
help me. My medical doctor's
treatment consisted of giving me
drugs to take which killed my pain
but made me feel drunk. And as
soon as I ran out of the drugs, my
back was hurting just as bad.
My question to you is how do I go
about choosing a competent doc
tor of Chiropractic? I have read
the ads in the paper where free
services are offered by chiroprac
tors, but I worry about a doctor
who has to give his services away.
Could you help?
Concerned
Dear Concerned,
Your situation is one that we are
very familiar with. Most patients
who come to our office often
come after first going to their
medical doctor or orthopedist
surgeon. A medical doctor or or
thopdist are trained to treat il
lness with drugs. While I agree
that for certain situations drugs
are necessary and vital, in my opi
nion drugs are vastly over
prescribed by the medical profes
sion. Very often these drugs
cause serious and harmful side
effects.
Pain is your body's way of telling
you that something is wrong.
Drugs simply mask the pain
without getting to the cause.
Chiropractic gets to the cause and
corrects it without harmful drugs
or surgery.
I, too, am also very concerned
about doctors who advertise
"free'' services. Most of those doc
tors are newly licensed physicians
using "free" services as o practice
building gimmick.
Very often these "free" services
end up costing the patient as
much or more than if they went to
a competent physician in the first
place. Your health is too impor
tant to trust to a doctor who runs
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FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS-SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1987-
Health Views
Mon thru Fri 7:20 9:30
Sat & Sun 2:50 5:10 7:20 9:30
Mon thru Fri 7:05 9:10
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Mon thru Fri 7:10 9:20
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Wmm, H I— m
Dr. Mike Purpura BS DC.
A Public Service
from;
BROWN CHIROPRACTIC
CLINIC
887-7234
Hwy. 9-South
Cumming, Ga.
his practice like a fast food chain.
Remember "you get what you pay
for." When you pay nothing you
usually get just that. Nothing.
The best way to choose your doc
tor of Chiropractic is to find a doc
tor in your community who enjoys
a good reputation and who has o
long history of caring service in
your community.
Often these are the doctors who
care most about your health and
do not use "gimmicks" to attract
patients. Patients come to them
because they know they will
receive quality, caring service.
Sincerely,
Dr. M.A. Purpura
Do you have a question
for Dr. Purpura?
Send your question to:
BROWN CHIROPRACTIC
fLINIf 1330 Atlanta Hwy.
vsiriiv. Cumming GA 30130
Your name will not be used.
CUMMING CINEMA
Tri-County Plaza. Highway 19, 889-2038
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