The Crags of Old Rag

The Third Book of the Serial Trilogy In the Land of Rob. . . The Crags of Old Rag picks up the story of mountain man Rob Nickerson facing life's uncertainties at the end of the second book, The Call of the Whip-poor-will. The story resumes in 1940 with Rob and Charlie Fisk sitting dejectedly on the store porch, wondering how to find paying work, and Rob yearning to be back with Sally, his paramour who works at Skyland, the mountaintop resort. There on the porch, Rob meets young Myron Parsten, who will later loom large in Rob's final two decades. Rob and Charlie, after a depressing hike up through abandoned homesteads in the new national park, find former Skyland owner, George Pollock, who recruits them to stage a thrilling moonshine & snake handling show for tourists. WWII shuts down the resort, reducing Rob and Sally's affair to one of letters, until a clever scheme by Rob's brother brings newly-widowed Sally to live with separated-but-still-married Rob. Eventually, the passing of everyone close to Rob leaves the old man alone with his dogs to confront the modern world that comes swirling in around his mountain home. Myron Parsten becomes Rob's neighbor, and the two men come to understand the deep truths of one another's very different natures. As the ancient mountain man sinks toward eternity, the story shifts to Myron's utopian new age pursuits, and revealing letters from son Jesse, who was drafted into the Vietnam war. Rob Nickerson, the Parsten family, and nearly all the characters, places and events were real and true.