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Fred First

America's Appalachian Territory

The Wisdom of One Place, Understood

The Wisdom of One Place, Understood

Out of 120 on field trips near campus along Virginia’s New River that semester, only one student could call one of some 50 observed living things by name: poison ivy. Everything else — birds and bushes, wildflowers and vines, insects and fungi — were anonymous strangers.

Will today’s youth be only passengers on Spaceship Earth?

Will today’s youth be only passengers on Spaceship Earth?

Earth Day didn’t start as a celebration. It started as a reckoning. Have we forgotten why?

Fragments from Floyd: 'In or Out of the Game after 70?'

Fragments from Floyd: 'In or Out of the Game after 70?'

I was watching "The Crown" yesterday while eating my usual and customary lunch apple. A line from the script grabbed my attention. It was spoken by the frail and apparently dying sister of Admiral Mountbatten as she languished in her bed. She and her brother were commiserating their

Fragments from Floyd: 'If Power is Out on a Three Dog Night'

Fragments from Floyd: 'If Power is Out on a Three Dog Night'

"If Power is Out on a Three Dog Night" was originally published on Jan. 14, 2021.

Fragments from Floyd: 'Doodling as a Brain Booster'

Fragments from Floyd: 'Doodling as a Brain Booster'

FACT: I was something of a class hero there for a while, and my friends would queue up after class to see what I had etched out whilst we were clumsily reciting Chaucer in middle English with ah-wah thick Alabama accents.

Fragments from Floyd: 'Walking the Talk in the New Year'

Fragments from Floyd: 'Walking the Talk in the New Year'

Like you, I vacillate between the urge to scream and flail and rant and the urge to assume fetal position and be passively overtaken by the tsunami of unreason, injustice, indifference, and arrogant triumphalism that confronts us with each days' news.

Fragments from Floyd: 'Be It Ever So Jumbled'

Fragments from Floyd: 'Be It Ever So Jumbled'

Fred First is a published writer and former Floyd County resident who documented local happenings and musings on "Fragments from Floyd." He holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession.