The Cherokee called the mountains of southern Appalachia “the land of the blue smoke.” It is a place that has always been shrouded in mystery and secrecy, like the mountain peaks hidden in the fog. The people of Appalachia are well known for both their hospitality and suspicion of “strangers.” Even the state song, “Rocky Top,” opens with a tale of two strangers who climbed into the mountains and disappeared forever.

The old mountain people and their ways are quickly fading. One of the foundational principles of the Appalachian people is a fierce respect for their elders. Old people are the patriarchs and matriarchs of their families, and their words carry the weight of generations. In “The Old Men,” you will be given a glimpse of what it was like for a boy, born in 1970, to be influenced by the thinking and words of the old men of Appalachia and a few others, as he later wandered outside the “blue smoke.” The importance of sharing and receiving generational wisdom is paramount to mountain people.

The eighty-four essays contained in this book represent the conversations that help boys become men. Although this book has an Appalachian flavor, the principle of passing wisdom from old men to boys is universal and timeless. You will find adventures and wisdom within these pages, relating to: Faith in God, Equipment Maintenance, Bar Fights, Murder, Church, Respecting Elders, Bear Hunting, Trout Fishing, Poverty, Hard Work, Grace, and Salvation.

T.L. Jones was born in 1970 in East Tennessee. Much of his boyhood was spent in the company of old men — farming, hunting, fishing and “loafering” in the mountains of Appalachia. He became a Christian at the age of eighteen and was called to the ministry in 1990. He has been married to his wife Martha since 1992. Together they have three children and four grandchildren. T.L.has planted and pastored two churches — one in Whitehall, MT; and the other in Greeneville, TN.