October 13, 1993
Tonite I am alone. Harry is in NC to play golf. I will go up to Blowing Rock to meet him. Out of boredom, I watched the Waltons on TV. The show was on the depresison years. Their decision was to sell their land for cash (which was hard to come by) but the problem was they would lose land that had been good to them for years and go into service to others.
My father [John Stevenson McKeown] who wanted to own land during the '30s would not compromise and take the hand outs from the government (surplus food, etc). Eventually he was able to borrow from the government to buy land (perhaps that was a compromise but it allowed him to buy--pay interest and have land (land of his own). It meant more to him than I could then imagine but now I understand. Harry and I bought a piece of that land many years later when he [my father] wanted to pay off his loan and own his land and no mortgage. I am ashamed that I didn't appreciate how important that was to him and Mama [Emmie Margaret Beam McKeown].