Ecology of a Cracker Childhood

In the memoir, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, Janisse Ray describes growing up amidst her family’s junkyard in rural south Georgia. She structures the book in a series of short chapters, each of which focuses on a different aspect of her family life. Between these chapters, Ray also writes descriptions of the longleaf pine forests–an ecosystem that once covered the south Georgia landscape and has been largely destroyed by logging.

Ray is born in Baxley, Georgia, the daughter of Franklin and Lee Ada (referred to as Daddy and Mama). Ray’s family lives on the outskirts of Baxley, where Daddy runs a junkyard business, fixing up and selling broken-down cars. As a child, Ray loves exploring the vast junkyard, playing pretend games with her brothers amidst the junk cars and appliances. Daddy first opens the junkyard with his father, Charlie, a difficult man who suffers from an undiagnosed mental illness. In Chapter 5, Ray describes Charlie’s teenage years as a runaway, when he lived along in the forest; though the experience gives Charlie excellent hunting and woodland skills, he also develops violent and antisocial behaviors. Charlie eventually abandons his wife, Clyo, to raise their eight children by herself, though Charlie occasionally returns to Georgia on visits.

Many chapters describe Daddy’s complicated personality; he suffers from the same mental illness as his father. Ray often describes Daddy in reverent terms, praising the “frugality, creativity, and mechanical ingenuity” (89) that lead to the junkyard’s success. However, Ray also describes being terrified of the moments when intense delusions overtake Daddy’s mind. Daddy forces Ray to follow a strict, Christian fundamentalist lifestyle, in which Ray is forbidden from partaking in most typical childhood activities. In spite of Daddy’s brusque character, Ray also describes him as a deeply empathetic man, caring for hurt animals or homeless individuals.

Ray also explores the lives of her other family members–in particular, her paternal grandmother, Clyo, and her mother. Both Clyo and Mama are intensely devoted to caring for their families, spending countless hours cooking and attending to housework. Though Ray admires both of these women, Ray also recognizes how their marriages limit their independence. Ray leaves home for college, seeking an alternative life for herself—one devoted to self-sufficiency and environmentalism.

Ray’s chapters about the longleaf pine forest focus argue for preservation of a dwindling ecosystem. The forests once covered much of the southern United States; now, logging has reduced the forests so that only a small percentage remain alive. Longleaf pine forests are particularly unique as the trees have evolved to survive ongoing fires caused by the region’s frequent thunderstorms. This characteristic has lent longleaf pine the nickname “the pine that fire built” (38). 

Ray explores the connection between her own history and the forests’ destruction. She traces her ancestry to the Crackers, a group of Scotch-British immigrants who settled in south Georgia in the early 1800s. Forced to eke out a living, the Crackers engaged in rampant logging of the longleaf pine forests to provide lumber for America’s expanding railway system. As a result, the majority of the forests are wiped out within 50 years. Ray views her family’s logging as her “legacy” and longs to atone for it by regenerating the pine forests.

Several chapters describe individual species that inhabit the forests, such as gopher tortoises, indigo snakes, and flatwood salamanders. Continued construction threatens the livelihood of these species, destroying the animal’s shelters and breeding grounds. As these species have evolved to live symbiotically with each other, any threat to one of these species could cause the entire ecosystem to collapse.

The final chapters of Ecology of a Cracker Childhood imagine the future of the longleaf pine forests. Ray remains hopeful that the forests can be regenerated, and she discusses ideas for preserving the forest while still allowing for logging. Ray imagines that the project of regenerating the forests will lead to a rejuvenated South, healing the deep racial and class divides that remain entrenched in the region.