Every-Day Living

A book that shows a place that used to be, Blaine, North Carolina, through the eyes of a person who was there. Like the towns mentioned in Hillbilly Elegy, Blaine is gone. But memories remain.

Every-Day Living is a book about a family and about how things were in rural North Carolina. Specifically, in Blaine, North Carolina. Blaine is near Eldorado. Eldorado is in Montgomery County, NC. Neither Blaine nor Eldorado have official populations now. But once, they were thriving townships, with a tan yard, a post office, gold mines and a copper lead, a millinery shop, a drug store, a doctor, a shoe shop, their own school, and country stores.  “It all went down till there was just a wide place in the road,” said Ethel Harris Hilliard, the author Doug Russell’s great-aunt.

“Disappeared small town America” at its finest.

Bill Russell is the last surviving sibling of Cled and Lola Russell's nine kids. Through the course of the book, Bill takes the author on a talking riding tour of Blaine, North Carolina and talks (boy, can he talk!) about the people, places, and happenings from long ago. Other family members add their comments and stories.  

Doug Russell, the author, investigates the Russell Gold Mine, midwifes, presidential pardons, a land grant, the birthplace of a long lost millionaire, military service records, creeping land masses, and the mystery of suicide from the Russell family past. Who would have thought all this happened in such a small place!

Doug Russell lives in Virginia with his wife, one lazy dog, one cracked cat, and one sly and crafty cat. Three kids now in college are strewn about the United States.  Doug is a graduate of Duke University and Clemson University. He spent thirty years as an engineer and manager at places like Motorola and Intel. This is his second book.