{"product_id":"the-cedar-choppers-life-on-the-edge-of-nothing","title":"The Cedar Choppers: Life On the Edge of Nothing","description":"At the low-water bridge below Tom Miller Dam  west of downtown Austin  during the summer of his tenth or eleventh year  Ken Roberts had his first encounter with cedar choppers. On his way to the bridge for a leisurely afternoon of fishing  he suddenly found himself facing a group of boys who clearly came from a different place and culture than the middle-class  suburban community he was accustomed to. Rather  . . . they looked hardtanned  skinny  dirty. These were not kids you would see in Austin. When Robertss fishing companion curtly refused the strangers offer to sell them a stringer of bluegills  the three boys went away  only to reappear moments later  one of them carrying a club. Roberts and his friend made a hasty retreat.  This encounter provoked in the author the question  Who are these people? The Cedar Choppers: Life on the Edge of Nothing is his thoughtful  entertaining  and informative answer. Based on oral history interviews with several generations of cedar choppers and those who knew them  this book weaves together the lively  gritty story of these largely Scots-Irish migrants with roots in Appalachia who settled on the west side of the Balcones Fault during the mid-nineteenth century  subsisting mainly on hunting  trapping  moonshining  and  by the early twentieth century  cutting  transporting  and selling cedar fence posts and charcoal.  The emergence of Austin as a major metropolitan area  especially after the 1950s  soon brought the cedar choppers and their hillbilly lifestyle into direct confrontation with the gentrified urban population east of the Balcones Fault. This clash of cultures  which provided the setting for Robertss encounter as a young boy  propels this first book-length treatment of the cedar choppers  their clans  their culture and mores  and their longing for a way of life that is rapidly disappearing.","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44847130509365,"sku":"ByrdShop_1623496071","price":318.58,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/ByrdShop_1623496071.jpg?v=1765537955","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-cedar-choppers-life-on-the-edge-of-nothing","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}