Our Road: Then — EP 43 That Latest Yankee Invasion: Our Move from North to South

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Above Photo: “Making Music,” Left: Sylvia Davis Bumgardner, Robert Ferruccio, Ken Ferruccio, Robert Macon Davis (harmonica), Deborah Ferruccio (harmonica), Charlie Davis (guitar), Laura Bennie Davis, pregnant with daughter, Mariah, born the next day, July 4, 1977. (Photo by Stan Bumgardner)                               

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In this episode, Deborah and Ken share with their listeners the answer to questions folks often ask them: “What bought you to Warren County, and what has kept you?”

They share chance encounters that seem more than accidental . . . . a family camping tradition carried on at Ocracoke Island . . . .  a convergence of North Carolina teachers with the same tradition . . . . an introduction to Warren County friends, Laura Bennie and Charlie Davis . . . . an   unforgettable day riding horses in the surf . . . . a powerful Atlantic storm that demolishes their tents and directs the Ferruccio course inland to Warren County, a place they would have never, ever thought of on their own to call home.

There, in a log cabin at the end of a mile-long farm road, Deborah and Ken see the opportunity to live the simple, back-to-the-land, rural life they have been looking for. They get to know people from all walks of life who take them in with a neighborly welcome, homegrown garden meals, seasoned Southern story-telling, and back porch music.

Ocracoke is not only a mystical starting point for Deborah and Ken. The island is where they return because it’s the place that helps them assess and reassess the direction of their lives. As Ken puts it in a 1980 preface, "Ocracoke is a navigational center from which to guide our course through the dangerous shoals ahead.” 

Ken is, of course, obliquely referring to the dangers posed by the PCB landfill that threatens Warren County.