A Moment Captured

Share the family stories, wild tales and meaningful photos from the past that have shaped YOU

My great-grandparents (centered) w/ friends and family circa 1920s

What is the oldest or most meaningful photo in your family photo album? The picture that represents your history, your story, moments you're proud of, where you came from, those who shaped you, those YOU have shaped. I’ve been going through photo albums and old family tales that were passed along to me and that have inspired the songs from my new record Ozarker. You can read the story below that sprouted my family tree in the Missouri hills way back in the early 1900’s. It’s a great American tale about forbidden love, travel and the spirit of youth that was told to me as a young child. I know we ALL have these old stories passed down in our family history full of characters, dreamers, fighters, lovers, outsiders who have shaped our lives and the world around us. We also create new stories everyday. The old connects us to the present and WE connect it all to the future.

I’m curious about what family photos and life shaping stories you have. These can be from 100 years ago or just yesterday. I want to see those photos—moments in time— and hear the stories that they invoke.

Email these memorable moments and their meaning to your story by sending a photo or a video to me at israelnash@substack.com or share on your preferred social accounts with the hashtag #OzarkerPast.

I’ll select a few of my favorite submissions and send something special like an unreleased song, or limited album…something cool. Once we collect enough photos, we might put together a special Ozarker slideshow showcasing a human collective history of YOUR family photos and life moments — across time, countries, places, and people. There are stories, tales, big and small, that shape us all. Make sure you keep telling those stories and continue to make new ones.

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Ozarker

In the rolling hills and farmland of Marionville, Missouri, amidst endless tree lined canopies of red apples, suspended above and covering the ground below…There, at the Plowman family orchard, a young Susan Plowman fell deeply in love during a summer harvest season that forever changed her life.  

His name was James Christopher.  A young doctor, he had just moved to town intent on growing his new practice. He was a handsome and charming bachelor who soon attracted the attention of many…Susan’s father introduced the two and Susan, a free-spirited and beautiful young woman quickly captured the young doctor’s interest.  

But Susan refused his advances.  Her heart would soon belong to another.  Thomas Forester, from Tahlequah Oklahoma- he was a dreamer, a traveler, played the guitar, he enjoyed a drink and a late night with friends.  A young man finding his future, Thomas caught wind of long hours and good pay as a laborer for a crew heading down to southwest MO for the harvest season ahead.

And as fate would have it, he was assigned to the Plowman Orchard. And there Thomas first saw her in the distance as she gathered water from the well house.  He rushed across the field, in stride,  scooped up a handful of wild flowers and introduced himself confidently.  My grandmother, raised to avoid such bold advances, quickly turned away, but only after first accepting the flowers clutched in his hand.

Susan couldn’t sleep that night. Full of intrigue and excitement, she wanted to know more about Thomas from Tahlequah.  She soon visited him near his quarters -the tent encampment that sheltered the laborers- a place she was forbidden to frequent.  But there in the shadows of 1000 apple trees, the two fell in love over that warm Missouri summer.  Thomas, strumming his old and traveled, parlor guitar, sang love songs to Susan as the two shared stories and dreams of their future together.

As the summer harvest came to an end, the Plowmans hosted a Harvest Celebration, an evening of festivities, song, and dance, marking a celebratory end to a bountiful season. However, it was bittersweet for Susan, knowing Thomas would soon be leaving for California in search of new work. Despite her father's disapproval, Thomas approached Susan that night for a dance beneath the full Ozark moon and he whispered to her a promise that he would return in one year to marry her.

Early the next morning, Thomas departed, and Susan informed her parents of her intentions to marry the young man. They dismissed the idea, insisting on a more suitable match, suggesting again Dr. Christopher, really nearly, anyone other than the rough and tumble Okie from Tahlequah!  

Undeterred, Susan secretly sewed a wedding dress at night, believing in Thomas's return. But as time and distance tested their young love, Susan grew anxious, fearing her parents might be right. Nonetheless, she continued sewing her dress, trusting in his word, and quietly counting down the months ahead when they would be reunited.

Though not soon enough, another summer had finally arrived, a new group of workers swept across the orchard and within months had finished sorting, loading, and sending the bushels, pecks and baskets of ruby red apples , closing out yet another harvest season.  And once again,  the annual Harvest Celebration commenced.. But this year, Thomas wasn’t there to take her hand.  Night fell and the festivities began to wind down. She wandered from the party to sit on the front porch of her family home -There alone, waiting, hoping, surely doubting the future that she so dreamed of…Was she foolish to believe in a fleeting summer love?  And then, a sound from afar caught her attention… headlights appeared in the distance, and soon grew, beaming across the countryside–Approaching quickly, kicking up dust, an old model 48, barrelled down that winding dirt road right at the edge of Lawerence County.  And there, true to his word and under an Ozark moon, Thomas Forester had returned, Not to work the land or load baskets of apples, but to take the hand of his bride to be and begin their life together.  For Susan, the promise of Thomas was a promise kept, and the love they shared was a love that never faded, a truly bright and endless fire that continues to shine beyond their 57 years together -through their children, grandchildren, and great- grandchildren, including me, who, will always at heart be born from those lands and pastures  -Along those lost rivers, sheltered by apple trees, an Ozarker spirit still flows today, as generations continue to bloom , all from the story of two. Thomas and Susan Forester.  

Israel Nash 

Transcript—Ozarker, Beyond the Song.