Sharon, maybe your old mountain tree was a yellow transparent. That old variety has early apples that ripen yellow and don't last long. They aren't keepers, but are great for cooking while they last. We have several old apple trees on our place, including a crabapple with yellowish blush skin, and another crabapple with pinker skin and stripes of red. I have no idea what varieties any of them are, but I suspect that they are very old because the trees look ancient. I can't reach my arms around the trunk of the largest one. A neighboring property has an old tree with tasty apples, growing in the fence line. We planted 3 young trees a few years ago, MacIntosh, Gravenstein, and Honeycrisp.
I might just have to make the Apple Pan Dowdy.