"Memories" was written by Jacob “Junior” Ball and tells the story of his life from early childhood into adulthood. Ball was born in Haywood County, North Carolina and dedicates this book to the people who lived and grew up in the mountains of east Tennessee and western North Carolina.

• Creator
  • Ball, Junior, 1937-2015
• Format
  • Manuscripts (documents)
• Type
  • Text
• Date
  • Date original: 1995
• Extent
  • Dimension: 11" x 8.5"
  • Pages: 81
• Subject - Topic
  • Ball, Junior, 1937-2015
  • Ball, Junior, 1937-2015 -- Childhood and youth
  • Ball, Junior, 1937-2015 -- Family
  • North Carolina, Western -- Social life and customs
• Location
  • Haywood County (N.C.)
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Source Collection
  • Junior Ball Collection
• Identifier
  • HL_RI-2022-06_Ball_1995_Memories
• Repository
  • Community Contribution

Memories DEDICATION This book is dedicated to the people who lived•and grew up in the mountains of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina. It is also dedicated to the.memory of our ancestors and their strength and will to survive and overcome the hardest of times. This book is a true account of events that have happened in my life from early childhood to becoming an adult. Names of some of the .people and places have been changed in order to protect their privacy. I I 2 • ' Foreword I was born on De􀊀embe􀊁 3, 1937 on a cold winter day. I was brought into this wo-·ld without the aid of a doctor. I was deliv􀊂red by my Granny, Jennie Gunter. I can't begin to imagine how we ever survived back then. I was told that I wa.s born in this little one room sh1ack that had this little lean􀊃to built onto it. Part of the house had a dirt floor. As you read my stories I hope you will take the time to understand that the human race can survive even under the most extreme conditions. I'm glad to be a part of history and the lifestyle in which I grew up in. The way I grew up back then has made me appreciate the lifestyle I'm able to live today. These stories were written in the early months of 1995. Junior Ball I I 3 Chapter 1 I was bo􀊄n on a cold winter day on December 3, 1937 in a little one room house in Haywood Co. North Carolina. I was the youngest of 10 children born to Jacob "Jake" Ball and Anna Elizabeth "Annie" (Gunter) Ball. My brothers and sisters were: I I Olie, Martha; Belva, Scott, Dolla, Dan, Goldie, Dallas, and Bethena (Sue). Later we moved to a little three room-house. It had a living room with a rock fireplace, and we had a big long kitchen it was the length of the house which was probably 8 foot wide and 20 foot long. There was also one bedroom which had two beds in it. Mom and dad had one bed and the other bed all us children had to share. · Course being a baby I guess I got to sleep with mom and dad for a year or two. As I got older I had to move to. the other bed with the rest of the kids and I can remember our sleeping arrangement just like it was yesterday. I guess I was about 4 or 5 years old by now and the way we would lay in bed would be 1 person would lay one way in the bed then another would iay the opposite way back and forth till we was all in bed. Problem was no matter how you turned in that bed someone's feet was always sticking you in the face. When we had company we would make pallets in front of the fireplace for them to sleep on. In the winter time I can remember playing around the fireplace, I wbuld tell mom and dad what all I was going to do when I grew up and all the things I w􀊅s.going to have. I remember telling them I was going to have a car and a truck when I got big because we didn't have either one when I was a boy. Come to think of it my.father never did own a vehicle or a gun in his entire l􀊆f•time. My father might have been a poor man, but he was always honest. When summer came mom and dad would always plant corn, ' ' potatoes, and tobacco. I was small when they were plowing·this big £ield where there was a lot of apple trees growing and I can remember climbing up in the trees and eating apples while 4 they plowed and hoed the corn. When I got a little bigger my job was to carry water to them. I guess I was really lucky because being the youngest I. never really had to do any of this hard work like my brothers and sisters did. Life to me then was playing.with our dog, climbing trees, and doing my best to stay out of mischief which wasn't always 1 I easy. ' . . I also remember this one time while we were living in this little three room house-􀀔 that I got awful scared. It was late one night and someone had. to go outside to take a leak before going to bed, I don't remember who it was. Anyway they looked up on the mountain and saw that it was on fire and they started shouting to the rest of us. Well when I seen this big fire on the mountain let me tell you it was a scary thing to a 6 year old, I'd never really seen the mountains on fire before. I'm not sure, but I think the fire was caused by lightning. I can remember my older brothers and my dad helping put the fire out. The mountains on fire above your home can be awful scary. I still have fond memories of this little three room house way back in the mountains. There was this beautiful, clear stream of water called Laurel Creek that run down through our front yard. At one time we made a big pond out in front of the house and we got some ducks, I don't remember who we got the ducks from. Anyway we would go out to the pond real early in the morning and we could see where the ducks had laid eggs in the pond. ·we'd collect the eggs because they was part of our breakfast. We'd have gravy, biscuits,, and duck eggs. Those duck eggs tasted pretty good back then, but I haven't eaten any of them in -a long time. The biscuits my mom use to make would melt in your mouth, it's hard to find anyone who makes biscuits like that anymore. They were so good you could eat them by themselves without anything else on them. They would be about four inches in diameter and the bottom would be a real crusty brown while the top would be a golden brown. Makes my mouth water just thinking about them, sure wish I could have some of my mom's cooking r r f r l f [ I 5 again. I remember they• use .to call biscuits "cat heads" back then. Why they called them that I don't 􀄷now, _but they would say, · "Pass me the cat heads". They also called corn meal gravy "saw mill 􀄸ravy" seems they 􀄹ad a .different name for a lot of things back then. Growiqg up on our little farm was a great experience we had our gooq times as well as our bad times, but seems like the good times out weighted the bad. I can remember when we " ,o would sat aro􀄺n- d. . the fireplace at ri°i.ght, we'd rake up the fire ashes and pμt potatoes in them. $ure 􀄻a􀄼 some good ea􀄽ing. Another way I mom would fix p􀄾ta.tois was to clean_ t􀄿e to􀅀p of the cook stove teal good and slice the potatoes up then lay· them on the stove. When they got good and brown on one side you'd turn them over and let them brown on the other side. Talk about knowing how to cook my mom knew just how to fix everything just right and with our big family there never was any leftovers to worry about. Tim􀅁s 􀅂ere hard back then an6 we never wasted any􀅃hing, seems like 􀅄e was always coming·.u► with a use for some􀅅hing. For example I-can remember when we didn't have any coffee to drink we woulq parch or brown the rye seed then crush them up and make rye Eoffee. It wasn't very good, but it w·as better than nothing. I remember ·one year we grew a bunch of rye and it grew to about 4 or 5 feet tall. When it came time to harvest it we .:, would mow 'it with a cradle. A cradle is like a sc.ythe, it has a long blade about 3 foot long and the handle is crooked and h􀅆s two hand holds on it so that when you make a mowing swipe . . through the rye it would all fall in a straight line. This would keep the 􀅇eeds all turned one way so when you thrashed it all the seeds 􀅈ould be on the same end. Where we grew our rye there was this big farm house and we· used one room of .it to thrash out the. _seeds. When we got a lot done we-would sweep up the seeds to sell or replant again. Then·we would take the straw and make straw ticks to sleep on, I I 6 this sure made a great bed. We never had real toys to play with when I was a boy we kind of ihvented our own. I remembe􀊇-we use to take a old thread spool and cut notches in the outer edges· to make the spool have . traction, kirio of ·like 􀊈 bulld􀊉zer. The·n yo􀊊 would take a big· match stick and put a rubber band 􀊋hroug􀊌 it and the spbol. J • - .- Then you 􀊍ciuld take a shorter stick and put through the oth􀊎r end of the rubber band. ,Aft􀊏r doing this you would wind up the rubber band and set the spool on the floor and watch it go till it unwound itself, then_ you'd do it.all over again till you got tired of playing with 􀊐t. We also used corn· cobs to make a·pipe. We would take ;a I • • f stick aboui the size of :a pencil and split one end of it. 􀊑hen we'd put a laurel leaf in the split and put it up to our ·mouths ' and blow it. This would make a loud squalling kind of noise. I L IL .. , I I . I 7 Chapter ·2 Back around 1942 or 1943 when I was around 5 or 6 years old I can remember one of the things that was amazing to me in my life. At this time I don't think I'd ever seen a car let alone a airplane. I can remember hearing those big airplanes coming 􀌛vier the mountains_and 􀌜 would hurry up and run outside to watch them glide through the sky. This sure did amaze me I couldn't figure out how they kept them big airplanes up there in the sky. 􀀨 During that time I had two older brothers, Dan and Scott, and they both were in the army during World War II. Since then I've often' thought about my brothers going off to war and how strange everything must have been to them. You know they'd probably never seen a town before in their life and I can imagine just how much stress they had on them because they'd never really been out of these mountains. Makes you ki?d of stop and think about why some of the country boys might go AWOL. My two brothers were lucky they both survived the war and came back home. I sure did admire them because they looked so neat in their uniforms with all their stripes and badges they had received during the war. You know I don't understand something about our government. We get into a war with these other countries and get a lot of our boys killed, -then when the war is over our government goes back into the country we just fought and rebuilds it for them. This doesn't really make·a lot of sense to me. As time passed and I grew older I remember there was only two trucks in the country. One was a log truck owned by Thomas McGaha apd the other was a pick-up truck owned by Mack Caldwell. Mack own􀌝d a·country store and he would let us buy groceries all year on credit. We had a half acre tobacco crop and after we sold it the grocery bill was always _paid. I remember back in those days we would spend a week making a tobacco bed. Usually we would cut brush ·and let it dry out 8 for a couple of months before using it. Then we'd make the tobacco beds 6 foot wide and 100 foot long. rhen we'd take the dried brush and .turn all the limbs the same way pressing them real close together so they'd all burn up. It would take all day long just to burn a tobacco bed. The reason for burning a tobacco bed was to burn up all I I the weeds and grass seed so the tobacco seed would grow before the weeds started growing. This was also done because it helped loosen up the ground. Growing tobacco was a hard job back in the forties. Getting the ground ready for the tobacco plants was a big · job and we done all this with a horse or mule. We'd use a #6 or a #8 turning plow to plow up the ground. Then we'd take a triangle shaped piece of wood that had railroad spikes driven up th􀊒ough it about 6 inches long and drag this over the plowed ground to bust up the clods and level up the ground. After you've done all of this your ready to lay out a straight furrow to set the tobacco plants in. Now· you take a long stick and punch a hole down in the ground. While you was doing this someone else was corning along behind dropping a plant for each hole. Then someone else would have the back breaking job of sticking the plant down in the hole. Then someone would 1 have to carry water and pour it down in each hole while someone else came behind them and covered up each hole with dirt. I guess that's one reason why there was so many children in.the families back then. One person could never got all that work done by himself. Back in them days you earned your rnoney·for growing tobacco because it wasn't no easy thing to do. Usually toba􀊓co sold anywhere from 30¢ to 60¢ a pound back then. Now they do it the easy way and it bring􀊔 ,an average of $1. 80 a pound. Things 􀊕urie have changed. I guess while I'm on the·subject of farming I should add that my morn and dad told us how they would hoe corn from daylight till dark for 12¢ a day. Can you imagine just how many times you had to move your arms back and forth pulling that hoe handle t { I l I l I I 9 from daylight till dark. Mom said usually the only thing they would have for dinner was cold soup beans, corn bread and milk. They also said sometimes they'd walk 2-3 miles to get to the field of corn, then they'd hoe corn all day and after that they'd walk the 2-3 miles back home. As I said before I was lucky I didn't really get much of this hard work, only enough to make , I me appreciate just 􀌞hat my mom and dad went through to try to , give us kids a better life. '. ' A couple of times,, . a year I can remember we would cut cord wood to try an earn a··1ittle extra money. This was dead chestnut trees where the blight had . killed them all out in the early 1900 hundreds. We would cut saw logs for lumber and peel the bark off the trees then sell it. They called this tan bark. Can you imagine how long it took to pull enough bark off the trees to load up a log truck? Well let me tell you it took 2 weeks with my mom, dad and Dallas all working real hard. I was lucky on this to because for a small boy I .wasn't expected to do that much. The truck bed was 8 foot long, 4 foot wide and 6 foot high. This was usually 2 􀌟/2 to 3 cords of wood. A load of cord wood back then would usually bring about $22. 50 a cord. I can remember when we'd have a load of logs or cord wood to sell we'd get Thomas McGaha to haul it to Newport to the tannery for us to sell. Thomas couldn't drive the truck, but he ·had two sons who did drive the truck for him. They're names were Rufus and Bart McGaha and within a few years they married my two sisters Dolly and Goldie. If ,for some reason Rufus or Bart wasn't· iround my brother Dallas would drive the truck to town. It would take all day to drive to Newport and back and my mom was usually the one who always made the trip with them because she took care of the shopping. My dad stayed at home and done the farm work, cut logs, cord wood and any other thing that might need doing. I can remember this one particular time when mom went to town with a load of cord wood. Well you never really knew what 10 • time they'd be back, but Dallas and my sister Bethona was suppose to take the sled and horse and meet her when she got back. It was 2 miles from our house to the main road where they had to go to met her and haul the groceries back to the house. I can remember this one trip real well, we all three got into the sled and headed out towards the main road to meet mom. Well like I said you just had to guess on what time they'd 1be back from town and sometimes you had to wait a long time for them. Well Dallas didn't seem to be in such a great mood that day and I guess he just wasn't in the mood to sit and wait very long. Anyway he told Bethona and me to hold on tight because he was going back to the house. The sled had sideboards about a foot high on it so Bethona and me got a death hold on the sideboards and Dallas took off back down that road towards the house. There was a couple of big curves in the road and he was making the horse run as fast as he could back down that road. When we came to the curves the sled seemed to just glide.through the air, partly leaving the ground. Bethoria and me was holding on for dear life just as tight as we could hold. Sure never forgot that sled ride. I guess Dallas must have been a pretty good sled driver because he never did wreck that sled. I'm sure glad of that because we'd probably ended up hanging out of some of those trees along the roadbed somewhere. Dallas went back later to get mom and the grocerie$ because he knew mom would sure be mad if he wasn't there to meet her when she got there. I never made the second trip back with him because one sled ride was enough for me that day. I I r . . I l 11 '.'' [ { ( 1 Chapter ·3 You know I still have a hard time figuring out just how people survived back then. I can remember when a neighbor would walk 3 or 4 miles to our house just to borrow a cup of flour or a few tablespoons of hog lard to cook with. Mom would always let them have it even through sometimes we didn't have a half gallon of floor ourselves. I remember one winter when I was real small, probably or-6 years old. I had took the flu real bad and couldn't hardly breathe. Well it had come this big snow and a lot of places the snow was waist deep. Mom knew I needed something to help me breathe br I was going to get real bad sick. We lived about 4 miles from the itore, but my mom still sent one of my older brothers out in this snow to the store to get a bottle of Vicks salve t􀊖 rub on my chest. It took my brother most of the day to go to the store and back because the snow drifts were so deep in places he couldn't hardly walk. He went straight to the store and back to the house and I guess by that time he was nearly froze to death. It's a wonder he hadn't took pneumonia himself. Well I got better after mom started the treatment with the Vicks salve and it wasn 1 t·1ong till I was back to my old self. We didn't have a radio during this time and o􀂹 cold winter days we'd need something to pass the time so we'd set .around the fire place and mom and dad would tell us stories. My nephew Lester sure enjoyed it when my dad would tell us one of his tall tales. By the way my nephew was 8 months older th􀊗n I was, as a matter of fact I had several nieces and nephews older than me. Anyway getting back to my story every time Lester would spend the night with us he'd always ask my dad to tell him a good story. I ' Well this one particular time Lester said to my dad, "Tell me a good story Uncle Jake. " My dad said, "Have you ever heard the tale about the old bunny hen?" Well we hadn't and Lester and·me was all excited and ready to hear this big story my dad 12 . . ·-·•••• I · · . • l 13 I t r I L J 1 I I was about to tell. Well dad got out his pipe and lit it;while. Lester and me was all ears waiting in anticipation. Then dad said, "Well there wasn't any tail on the old bunny hen, she lost all her tail feathers. " Well we sat there and thought for a minute then we had a big laugh over the joke dad had pulled on us. , I I don't mean any harm to this next story and I wouldn't I mention any names. A long time ago, I guess I was about 6 to 7 y􀊘ars old, we were on our way back from church w􀊙en this 11ttle incident happened. Back then we would all stand up in the back of Thomas McGaha's log truck to ride to church and back. People would stand up and hold onto the sideboards of the truck because the roads were so rough it would beat you_ to death if you tried to set down. The old truck usually would run hot because of a leak in the radiator so they always kept this bucket of water in bnck of the truck. Anyway we were on our way home from church and there must have been 7 or 8 people in the back of the trucl􀊚. There was this one old lady who must have needed to use the bathroom awful bad because all at once we heard this splattering noise. I guess she was lucky that the bucket just happened to . be sitting right under where she was standing. Well no one said anything, everyone acted just as if nothing had ever happened􀊛 This happened over SO years ago, but I never did forget it. It's funny how a person can remember a little incident like that. Wel.l time went on and.gradually there was a few more vehicles on the road. They would blow.their horn every time they went around a curve that way 􀊜hey would be able to tell if someone else was also coming around the curve. Some of the first old cars I can remember was the A Model, B Model and T Model. Some of the early models didn't have batteries, they ran off a magneto. You would start them witha crank handle that was in front of the car. Talk about something exciting you wouldn't believe the enjoyment a young boy could 14 I I get just watching those old cars and trucks run up and down the roads blowing their horns. ANNIE BALL I I ' , . I 1 15 • Chapter 4 I want to tell you this story about the day I met the devil. Here I was 6 years old and every time I got into mischief or done something my parents told me not to I was told, "You better be a good boy or one of these times the devil is going to get I I you. " After hearing this all my youn'g life it was stuck in the back· of my mind. Oh sure, go ahead and laugh, but to a boy of 6 this was a mighty serious matter. Well one day my sister Bethona, my cousins J. C. and William, and myself decided to go play in the barn. We was all the time coming up with new ideas and games to play. Well the barn we had built had 2 stables, a feed room, and a room where dad kept the plow, gears for the horse and his other hand tools. The other side of the barn was for tobacco and it was full of tier poles to hang the tobacco on. These tier poles were spaced about 4 to 5 feet apart and you could stand on one then put your arms up and reach the second one. We would walk on them and swing on them and just have ourselves a big time. Well we had chickens and these chickens roosted in the tobacco barn where we were playing. When we would walk on the tier poles w􀌠 would slide our hands on the pole above our head and where the chickens had roosted the top of the poles .were covered with chicken mites. Well .we didn't know that chickens had chicken mites and that they would fall off on us. Well we sure was doing a lot of scratching not realizing that the chicken mites were crawling all over us. You see chicken mites are very small and you can't hardly see them. Evidentl¥ we had played here 3 or 4 times before and mom knew where, 􀌡e was getting· the mites on us. She was-also afraid one of us might fall and get hurt so she'd tell us to stay out of the barn or one of these days we'd meet the devil. Well being kids we· really didn't listen so one day she decided to get our attention. She got this idea to dress my older brother Dallas up to 16 look like the devil then she had him slip up to the barn and get above where we played so when we ran we'd have to run toward the house. Well here we go laughing and playing and just having a big time. We got in the barn and was just climbing up on the bottom tier poles when we heard this awful noise and all of a sudden something jumped out at us and let, out the most a􀊝ful hollow you'd ever heard. Well let me tell you I don't even know what it looked like and I doubt if any of the rest of them knew either because talk􀊞 about moving we was gone. Not one of us was willing to wait on the othe􀂺 one, it was every man for himself. We was so scared we was afraid to look back and see if it was following us. We was running toward the house and screaming at the top of our lungs. Well we had to run across this big field and as if that wasn't enough we had to cross a narrow foot log. Well I really can't explain how we got across the foot log, but we did. I do remember we all got to it at the same time. William and me being a little smaller was just a dab behind Bethena and J. C. but not much and not for long. I remember there was this post at.the end of the foot log, probably had been part of a handrail 􀊟t one time. Well anyway William and me was approaching this narrow bridge at the same time and I knew we both couldn't get on ·the bridge at the same time even if we was small. I grabbed the post and swung by William leaving him behind. I don't know how we all managed to make it back to the house in one piece, but we did. I'm sure glad mom knew what was happening b􀊠cause if sheJ hadn't our screaming would have scared her to death. I'm sure · she was probably peeping around the corner of the house tpe whole time just horse laughing at us. You know she probably didn't realize it, but she put us in more danger then we were in climbing. 􀊡•m here to tell you that as fast as we was going if our feet and legs had gotten tangled up with each other we'd probably done some bodily damage to each other. f 17 I • Chapter 5 I can remember this one story ·my dad told me about that happened back when they moved in the house where I was born at. My dad had a turn of corn (that was. what they called a bushel of shelled corn back then. ) Anyway he'd gotten up early one mornirlg and was going to take it to the corn mill to get it ground,up for corn meal. It was about 4 miles one .􀌢ay through the woods to the corn mill. He said he had about all he could carry on his back when he came around a turn in the trail and met this big long black animal. He told me he'd scared it just about as bad as it had scared him. Dad said there was this bank about 8 to 9 foot high and that the animal kind of stood up on it's hind legs and with one swift jump it went plumb to the top of that bank. He said he never seen it again after that, but it was a panther that he'd seen and he never wasted any time getting on down the trail and away from there. You know it would have· been great if we had realized just how important these stories and recollections that the older folks had told us about then. If we had knew this and wrote down what they'd told us just think of all the valuable history we'd had now. Think of all the history that is lost to us now. I know this elderly lady that lives way back in the mountains an􀌣 after I realized just how much history that she knew I started taking my video camera back to her little house and recording some of what she had to tell me. I ask her once what stood ou􀌤 in her mind the most that had 􀌥appened to her over the years and the following's what she told me. \She said back when she was a young girl her sister Millie . ' was -courting this guy and for some reason he became jealous of his younger brother. They got into a argument and Millie's boyfriend ended up shooting Millie in the chest with a shotgun then he ran out the door. A Grooms man who was also there grabbed his pistol and shot the boyfriend twice as he was running down 18 • through the field. There wasn't a doctor within 50 miles and there wasn't any roads because there wasn't any cars that far back. There was this narrow gorge railroad that had this pump car that run up and down the tracks once a day and it only came up so far and you hatll to walk about 2 miles. to get on up to their house. She told me that her sister moaned all night long from where she'd been shot in th. e chest. She said she knew her sister 􀀩 was in a lot of pain from the large hole in her chest. During the night her mom would make her go out every hour and check on the dead man to be sure the dogs and cats weren't eating on him. She told me that she'd never forget the way he looked. He was lying flat on his back with one leg kind of bent, and he had his eyes open looking up at the clear starlit night as though he were still alive. Beside him lay the shotgun he'd used to shoot her sister with. The next morning the doctor came and they took her sister and the man's body back to Newpor,t. Her sister died later that day. She said this sure stuck out in her memory and left a mark on her she'd never forget. I have this story on video and she called them all by names. There was several tragedies that happened in this part of the country, they called this place The Bend Of The River. There was a lot of killing and meanness in this ar􀌦a back years ago. It was so remote an area that everybody made their own laws and· there was many a person disappeared and never heard of again. Th􀌧re's a lot of old abandoned mines back in those mountains that hold the remains of many a poor unfortunate soul who had a run in with the wrong person. This one story I'm about to tell has a song wrote about it, the name of the song is Big Bend. There was these 2 guys who was making liquor and these 2 young women who was up at the liquor still with these men. Well the 2 women decided to take a walk along the trail and f I I I 19 1 they met 2 other men by the names of Scott and Mims who were on their way to the dam to meet Mims's wife. The 2 young women started hollowing rape and ran down the trail to warn:the 2 guys who were making liquor that someone was coming. The 2 guys making the liquor came running up the trail and they shot both of these men. Then they drug them out behind a big chestnut tree that had fallen over and left a p􀌨g sink hole. They shoved them off in this sink hole and just left I them there. The next morning they went back to where they had left the 2 bodies and they found 1 of them was still alive. He begged them to help him, but the 1 man said, "Dead men tell no tales."Then he took his gun and shot him again, it has also been totd that he took the butt of his gun and busted the other man's skull to make sure they was dead. , The two bodies were nearly decayed away before they were found and the 2 men were finally arrested for their crime. Afterwards they named this old chestnut The Rest Log. I could take you to this area and show you where this happened. I'd heard this story all my life from my parents and other people. The same lady who I'd taped and talked about earlier told me this story to and I also have it on tape. She also just_ ·happens to be the niece of 1 of the men who was involved in killing Scott and Mims􀌩 Another story she told me about was how her great grandfather accidentally shot and killed a· man near the Groom's place close to Delozier's mine. Her great grandfather was out bear hunting and he saw a bear climbing the rock cliff and he took ai􀌪 and fired at it. The bear fell and.he ran over to it. When he got there he seen it wasn't a bear he had .shot and killed, but a man in a bearskin coat. He buried the man there, on the same spot that he'd sh6t and killed him. There was no marker put up to mark the spot where he'd buried the man, only he knew. He told his family of the tragic episode and how it happened. They knew they could tell no one of this so it wasn't mentioned outside the family 20 for many years. This is another story she told to me and it is about a •12 year old boy who was out playing around in the woods and he had his daddy's boots on. Well there was this man who was said to be the meanness man who had ever lived. I know:the man's name, but can􀌫ot print it. He was said to be responsible for many a horrible act. Anyway this man came upon this little 12 y􀌬ar old boy and he plucked his eyes out. After plucking out the little boys eyes he took him over to this big hollow stump and s,,.t uck him head first down in it. The man went on down the trail to the little boys house and he just invited himself to dinner. After the little boys mother had; fed him he started laughing_ and told her about these big boots kicking in a stump up the trai􀌭 then h􀌮 left. The little boys mother ran up the trail and found her son stuck in the stump and screaming. When she got him out she found his eyes gone. She told me this same man is said to have been involved in the killings and torture of my 2 great uncles George and Henry Grooms along with their cousin Mitchell-Caldwell. She said the way she'd always been told was that after Henry had finished playing the fiddle this man took and split his fingers open with a knife then put a gun in his mouth and killed him. According to her he also killed the other 2 in the same manner., I'd been told that my great uncles had been tortured, but this was the first time I'd heard this story. Through my years of growing up it's always been said that The Bend of the River was a mean place. Our family probably lived closer to this place then any other family did back then and we lived about 6,or 7 miles away. As I said earlier this place holds many a secret grave nobody knows about. Just above The Bend of the River is a place known as Fines I I Creek. The reason it is known as Fines Creek is because it became the grave to Vinett Fine. This incident happened sometime around 1783 when the.Indians had begin to steal horses and cattle from the settlement. A l I l 21 1 ·group of men went after them and they caught up with-them 􀌯illing some of the Indians and getting their horses back. During the battle Vinett Fine was killed. There wasn't time to dig a grave because they had to get away from the rest of the Indians. They broke a hole in the ice in the creek and put him there, planning on returning latter for the body. Befor·e they could return the temper􀌰Tures changed and the creek flooded, washing the bod􀌱 away. The body was never foun􀌲 and' to this day it is still known as Fines Creek. There was another place in The 􀌳end of the River .􀌴'd heard about and had wondered how it got it's name of The Cotton Patch. Well she so􀌵ved my curiosity about this, she said it was because Pat Hicks had grown cotton there a long time ago. Leitha was born at a place called The Bend of The .River. Her parents were Joe and Marge Packett. Leitha married Oliver Hicks. She has lived in The Bend of The River all her life. Leitha has seen more t􀌶an her share of tragedy in her life . . time because the place where she was born, raised and still lives at today has a very dark and mysterious reputation. Many a person as gone in, but never came out of The Bend. Leitha Hicks and Junior Ball ( 1 987) 22 • Chapter 6 While we were living on Laurel Creek I can remember that we had some old time apple trees in our yard. I 'd set there with my dad and listen to the chat chows in these apple trees. I was around 5 or 6 years old at the time and my dad would say to me, "Bet you can't to19ch that apple tree with the chat chows in it before they stop singing." t Well I'd ease over to that tree being just as quiet as I could. Then just as I'd reach out to t􀅉uch that􀅊tree they'd stop singing instantly. Never could figure out how they knew I was there. My dad got a big kick out of watching me try to touch that tree before the chat chows stopped singing. I don't know how old I was before I finally accepted the fact that it couldn't be done. Someway or other those chat chows must have felt the vibrations just before you touched the tree. Don't ask me what a chat chow looks like because I've never seen one. I figure they must be kind of like a cricket though. There was another little "creature" we never did see, but it also amazed us. Up around the barn where th􀅋 dirt was loose and dry we'd find little holes in the dirt everywhere. They looked like little funnels. You could get down on your knees and lean over the hole real close and say, "doodle bug, doodle bug, come out of your hole. " You just kept saying doodle bug for several seconds and it wasn't long till you'd see the dirt start moving down in the little hole. Never did see anything, but the dirt move. Another pastime we had was playing with the scotch wheel. This was. a steel band about 1 inch wide and 12 inches in diameter and we'd take a wire about 4 to 5 feet long_and make a channel for the steel wheel to rμ􀊢 in and we'd push it around. We also liked to·play marbles, pitch horseshoes, and play hoopie hide. I think most everyone got in trouble playing hoopie hide. Another pastime that was a lot of fun was swinging on a grape vine. Recently Helen and I visited my cousin Goldie and 23 her daughter Beverly was visiting for a few days. Bever􀊣y liv􀊤s in Las Vegas, Nev. Well Beverly and me got to kicking around some of the good times we'd had back when we was children: We got on the subject of swinging on grape vines. Usually you could swing out across the hollow and sometimes you'd be anywhere from 5 feet to 25 feet off the ground. When you went out and came back you'd jump off and let someone else take a ride. You had to be carefbl because if you went back out instead of getting off you was in trouble. Gradually the grape vine would stop with you and it will stop. at the h.i,,ghest point off the ground. Then there you are left hanging way up off the ground. No one can help you and they probably wouldn't anyhow bec􀊥use you never let them take their turn like you was s􀊦ppose to.: There's only one thing left to do and that's let go, fall to the ground, and hope for the best. Here Beverly is, she's swung on grape vines all her life, but it's been 30 years since those carefree childhood days. She decided though that she was going to show her 2 nephews Scott and Jeff how she use to do it. She said they started off across the creek and her mother kept telling them they'd better not go over there swinging around on that grape vine. She told them that they'd mess around acting silly and one of them would end up getting hurt. Well here's Beverly a grown woman, she says she knows what she's doing and no one will get hurt so off they went. Well she showed her nephews how it was done, but she ended up falling off and hurting her arm. She said a knot came up on her wrist and her mother told her it was broken, but again she didn't listen. Well Beverly's visit is soon over and she fly's back home to Vegas. She said her arm kept bothering her and finally she did go to the doctor with it. He x-rayed it and told her it ' . was broken and ask how she'd done it. She said she wasn't about to tell him she done it swinging from a grape vine, he wouldn't know what a grape vine was anyway she figured, so she just told him she fell. 24 When we was little we'd also go to the woods wher􀌷 the hills were steep and slide down the hill on a board or piece of tin. This was our sliding board and sometimes we'd get in the pine needles and it would make the slide go that much faster down the mountain. Sometimes we'd ,get 2 or 3 on 1 tlhe slide together and . lock our legs around each other to hold on and down the mountain we􀌸d go. This was a lot of fun when there was more then one ._,. on the slide because the slide would go a lot faster. You had to be careful because sometimes you'd head toward a tree and:when this happened you just had to let go and roll off the side of the slide. There is probably several trees in them mountains where we knocked the side of the bark off of them. You also had to be very careful if you was sliding down the hill towards a fence because that was dangerous. You'd always roll over and fall off the sled before you got to close to the fence. Sometimes we was lucky enough to get a old car tire to play with. One of us would get inside the tire and let someone roll us down the hill. You sure better know what you'll doing when you do this. One thing you did was make sure there wasn't / a tree or fence near the bottom of the hill. I I After the tire had rolled 2 or 3 turns you didn't know if you were going or corning you just hung on for dear life and waited till the ride ended. After you got to the bottom and the tire falls over with you, well take my word for it you don't want to try to get up. You better just lay there· on the ground for awhile because if you.try to get up believe me your end up flat of your back on the ground 􀌹nyway. Another fun thing we use to 􀌺o was riding a see-saw. Usually ' · we'd always have a big log in the back yard that we used for firewood and we'd hunt us a good pole to lay across the log to set on. We'd always try to find a pole without many knots on it because the pole was rough enough without having a big kno·t gouging you somewhere. Sometimes you and whoever was on the other end could really 25 . l I get it'going good and fast. Then all of a sudden the pole would roll off the log. I don't know which one of us would make the worse face. Neither one of us could look to see if we'd rolled the hide off our backsides or not. We'd just kind of: wobble off the best we could to another situation hoping we hadn't hurt or destroyed anything vitally important. We never had store bought toys and games, but I bet we had just as much fun as the kids do today and I know we ap...p reciated what we did have more then the kids today do. I never owned a bicycle and my little wagon was a homemade one, but it meant a lot to me. I remember one of my first Christmas I got a coloring book and some ciayons. Boy was I pleased to death with this because this was the first time I'd ever gotten anything this nice. We were lucky each year if we got a apple or orange and that was a lot to us. One year my older brother. Scott did get me a ceramic dog and I st􀅌ll have it. It's probably 50 years old now. I remember another highlight to us kid? was when we'd go 􀅍 over to the Ed White house. Well from his house you could see for miles and miles and every night this light would flash across the sky. We would set there and watch this light for the longest. I don't remember who it was that told us what it was, but they I said it was a strobe light for airplanes so they could see the. airport. I I 26 • Goldie E. Leatherwood Goldie is the daughter of Noah Baxter and Cassie Anne Ball. She was born on Sept. 6, 1912 at Ravens Branch. She married Clarence "Chuck" Leatherwood. Together they raised 9 children I I (Chuck's first wife had died) . Goldie is a retired schoolteacher. She is well loved and respected by everyone who knows her. I feel very fortunate to call her my friend, has well as my cousin. 27 I I Chapter 7 I remember back when r· first started to school we didn't have pencils to write with. There was this little hole in the corner of your desk with a little ink jar in it. You would have to take the pen and stick it down in the ink then write. You was probably able to write one word then you'd have to stick 'the pen back down in the ink again before you could write another word. I can remember u􀌻ing poke berries to make ink out of sometimes. As you know back then when you first started to school you was autpmatically in the first grade. We didn't have a head start or kindergarden program. Well here I was in my first year of school. We had 3 grades in 1 room and 1 teacher for all 3 grades. This teacher must have been. the biggest, meanest, and strictest teacher any kid could ever have. She was really to hard a teacher for such young students. She always kept this big, long hickory switch laying on her desk and she loved to use it every chance;she got. If you wanted to go to the bathroom you had to hold up your hand. I remember this one particular time right after I started school my first year. I was needing to go to the bathroom so bad I had to cross my legs. I was afraid to raise my hand though because seemed like that teacher was just hunting for excuses to reach out and swat someone with that big old hickory switch. I didn't want it tq be me that got swatted so I thought maybe I can make it till recess. Wrong. I must nave been squirming around-in my seat because I looked up and she was looking right back at me. I felt this warm water running down my leg about now. Let me tell you she looked just like a bulldog that was getting ready to attack. I knew from the look on her face I was about to be her next victim. Well here she comes. The closer she_got the more frightened I become. The more frightened I became the wetter I got. 28 • Well now she's here standing over me and all of a sudden she grabbed me up by my arm and off we went to the bathroom. Well its to late now all the waters done run out. All I can do now is try to dry my pants􀊧 She never whipped me for wetting my pants, but she sure , I give me a ch􀊨wing.out and warned me it better never happen again. She told me next time I had to go to the bathroom that I'd better raise my hand or she'd raise my butt. '." Well time went on and now I'm finally in the third grade. I remember as if it were yesterday how she would take a class up to her desk and have us sit in these straight back chairs while she taught us our lessons. We'd sit in this half circle in front of her. She'd be facing us so she could look us right in the eye. If we misspelled a word or got our lesson wrong she'd grab her hickory switch and give us a good swat across• the shoulder. Boy she was constantly swatting someone with that switch. Well now that I'm a third grader and almost grown up I decided its time to get even with her. So one day at lunch time when everyone was outside playing I said to myself, "Now it's pay back time." She was outside watching over everybody and not really paying close attention to the school so I slipped around without her noticing me and went back in the schoolroom. She had this chair that had a hickory strip bottom in it. I had this safety pin. I opened up my safety pin and stuck it up in her chair about 1/2•inch through the stripping. She. had this cow bell that she rang twice. The first rang was for you to go to your seat so when she rung the bell everyone was hurrying to their seats. By the second rang you'd better be in your seat or you got blistered with the switch. Everyone was lucky this time and got into their seats before the second rang. Well no one knows whats about to happen. You can't tell even your best friend about a deal like this, because he or she will tell on you before its over. r 29 • Well time for some action. This woman must have weighed about 300 pounds, well to a small boy she was huge. She grabbed her chair: up close to her desk and flopped down like she hadn't ever sat down before. Just about the time she bottoms out she lets out a scream and almost turned her desk over getting out of that chair. By now everyone except me is wondering 􀊩qat is happening while she grabs her behind and shakes the whole floor I running to the bathroom. It wasn't long before she came back looking like that bulldog fixing to attack again. She said, "I'm only going to ask this one time. Who done me this way and if someone doesn't tell I'm gotng to wear everyone of you out. " Well no one knows, but ' me and I'm sure not about to tell because I'd get whipped either way. At least this way by the ·time she got to me she'd . be tired I wouldn't stand a chance one on one with her. You know I've often wondered if she'd came around to each one of our desk and looked us in the eyes would she been able to tell who · was guilty. Could I have sat there under that attack look of hers and still look completely innocent, I think I could knowing I'd finally got my revenge. Well I survived my first 3 years with her as my teacher and passed on to the fourth grade. The teacher I now had taught grades 4 through 8 and she was real nice. Some of the kids that lived close to the school would go home for lunch sometimes. I remember this one time some of my friends ask me if I'd like to go with them so I did. Their names were Zeb, Carl, Ruby, and Carolyn Phillips and they_ lived about a mile from the school. We only had a hour for dinner so we'd jump the rocks across Big Creek and then go up Laurel Creek to their house and eat dinner. Then we'd hurry and get back before our hour was up. They never done this very often because it took a lot out of you having to go a mile home and then a mile back to school plus eat your dinner all in a hours time. I can't tell about my school years without mentioning the school nurse Miss Bryson. I never really . knew what a doctor 30 was until I was probably 1 2 years old, but I knew all· about the school nurse and I really dreaded it when she visited our school . I was a nervous wreck knowing I was going to have to take a shot, boy did I dread those shots. The nurse would always tell us to brush our teeth. Well we didn't have a toothbrush and we certainly didn't have any toothpaste so we did the next best thing. We'd find a birch , I limb and break off a piece about the size of a pencil and then we'd chew one end of it until it became a brush. Now that we had our brush we had to have sotfiething for our toothpaste so we'd use baking soda when we had it. I can remember ho􀌼 the older people would use snuff with this birch brush to clean their teeth. I know this probably sounds impossible to clean your teeth with snuff, but it really did work. We hardly ever went to the dentist because when you had a loose tooth all you had to do was tie a string around it and jerk it out. Sometimes we'd tie the string to a door and slam the door shut. You ' d better make sure the tooth was ready to come out before you done this because if it wasn't you was sure in for a lot of pain. I've sure had my share of toothaches in my life . Seemed like every evening about sundown my tooth would start hurting and it would hurt me all night. Sometimes my mom would sat up most of the night wi th me I was hurting so bad . Do you know by the next morning that tooth would quit hurting, that is till sundown came again. We was lucky to have a school nur􀌽e come to our school because if she hadn't we probably wouldn't have learnt just how important personal hygiene really was to us. I know we all hated those shots she gave even though they was for our own good. Back then shots . hurt a lot more than they do now. I've got to admit Miss Bryson was a real nice lady and she was kind to all of us. I I I I l I l 31 [ f r Chapter 8 Looking back over the years now I'm glad I grew up the way I. did. It was a hard life most of the time, but it wasn't as hard on me as it was on my parents and my brothers and sisters. I grew up learning how to survive and live off the land when I had to. I wonder just how many people 􀌾?day could survive if they had to spend a week back in no man's land far away from civilization . I bet there wouldn't be a lot of them . I can remember 1 about 3 months out of the year it was really hard on us. We had this milk cow and as long as she gave milk we done ok􀌿y because we could always eat milk and bread. Every once in aw􀍀ile we'd turn the cow dry for about 3 months so she · could have plenty of milk for her calf because her milk would become richer and richer. We sure was glad when the new calf was born and we could go back to using the milk again because during this time we had to use water to make our bread and gravy. Believe me water gravy isn't really good and the bread is pretty flat tasting to. When we had milk we had gravy, biscuits, and butter. We hardly ever had any meat or eggs and we sure didn't know what cereal was. I can remember my dad would make him some mush, I couldn't eat it though I didn't like it. He would take boiling water and pour corn meal in it. Then he'd add a little salt to it and eat it. I can remember back when we ' d have a hog to kill dad would cure our meat. Nowadays people don't know how to cure good meat and half the time what you buy in the stores doesn't even taste like meat. When dad had meat curing out I use to take and slice off a piece of ,fiat back meat and eat it raw, I guess. it· was because we seldom ever had any meat. When we was fortunate enough to have a hog to kill we was hungry for the . taste of a good piece of meat ; Mom would buy pinto beans and some of them would be brown and some white. She ' d mix them together and cook them 32 " f• . . . . · . . •.· · . . . .. . . . . 33 • and if we had a piece of pork meat she'd put that in for seasoning. Talk about something good now that was lip smacking good. I remember my morn use to talk about dutch oven bread, she talked about how good it was and wanting to fix her some. You had to have this big pan with a lid on it and, the pan was rn1alcie out of cast iron. Problem was we didn't own a pan like this, , but one day morn borrowed th􀅎s pan from someone to make her some bread. She made her corn meal batter then poured it in the pan and put the lid on it. She then raked out a hole in the chimney I fireplace where the coals were red hot and covered up the whole pan. This would bake the bread. I don't really remember what the bread tasted like, but I 􀅏now she only fixed this the one time because we never was able to get a dutch oven pan. I know corn was an important thing to us to. We ' d plow the ground up and get it ready to plant the corn. Dad would plow and turn the ground then level it off. He'd do this pretty much the same way he would when he was fixing the ground for tobacco. After we'd plant :the corn and beans and they started coming up we'd usually hoe them a couple of times to loosen the soil up and get the weeds out. The second time we hoed them we'd usually drop some pumpkin seeds in with them and cover them up. After that we usually hoed the corn 1 more time. This was what we usually called "laid by, " this meant we was through with it ·until the fall of the year. Then in the fall the first thing we did was cut the top out of the stalk just above the ears of corn. Then we'd geti l I \ . 2 or 3 long leaves from the corn and wrap it around in a 'bundle and tie it to the stalk, this was called fodder. After it had cured out some w􀅐'd take the sled and haul it to one place and make a fodder stack. This was used for horse and cow feed during the winter months. We'd put all our corn in a corn crib and feed it to the 34 horse and co􀍁. We'& s a v e big nice ears of corn and u􀍂e that for seed 􀍃orn tpe next year. We ' d also shell the corn off the cobs and have it ground for corn meal to make bread. Mom would use some of the shelled corn to make hominy and this was good to. The cobs were never wasted either they were used for horse and cow feed also. So r · guess corn played a pretty important role in our lives. I remember when the bottoms of our chairs would wear out dad would cut a long straight hickory pole or a small tree. Then 'he'd tak􀍄r and strip off the inner side from the bark and use this to re-bottom our chairs. Most of the time we only had 2 or 3 chaius and we'd have to use a big wooden block to sit on. Our eattng table was about 8 feet long and we had benches on each side of it to sit on. We had another table which was about 2 feet by 3 feet and we'd set our water buckets and wash pan on it. After w• e'd wash our face and hands we had to carry our pan of water to the door and sling it outside. A person sure had to be careful around this door because if you were outside the door at that time you might gJt a pan of water thrown on you. Later on we got modern. We had us a sink with a drain in it , but we never had no running water in the house while I was growing up. Can you imagine going to the outhouse when it was 10 or 15 degrees or colder. You sure didn't go very much and when you did go you was ready and you didn't tarry for long either. There wasn't any charmin toilet paper either. When you got through you had to use the Sears catalog and sometimes it had , snow all over it. Another thing we always had when I was gr􀍅wing up was breakfast that was our biggest meal and probably my most favorite meal. Because I sure did like those homemade biscuits my mom made with gravy. Sometimes we'd have jelly because my mom would make homemade apple butter, peach butter, and blackberry jelly and jam. She also smoked apples for us. I can remember we ' d walk about 10 miles to pick our blackberries. We ' d walk from Laurel Creek to Dogwood Flats and I ' I 35 this would usually take us all. day. We'd use these 50 pound lard cans to put our blackberries in when we picked them and this was the way we'd carry them home. We sure did get a lot of chiggers on us when we picked berries. I can rem􀃰mber mom dipped snuff back then so she'd take and wet the snuff and put it on our chigger bites. I guess the wet snuff would dry up sealing the chiggers under the skin and cause them to die. ' I Another home product we made was hair oil. We didn't have such a luxury as hair oil so , we would cut grape vines off and let them drip oil in a jar. Then we'd use this oil for hair oil. Can yoy imagine what it was like for us to have to get up early in t the morning when the temperature was around 10 to 20 degrees. Well I ' ll tell you, first we had to break the ice in the water bucket so we could wash our face. Then we'd build the ' fire for mom to cook breakfast. While she was fixing breakfast we ' d do our morning chores up. I think back then people lived a hard life, but I think they were a lot healthier then people are today. People today are living to fast a life and as for their eating habits half the people today don't really know what a good home cooked meal is. They eat all this fast food and you know with all these preservatives they use 1 today there's no telling how old some of this food is. So if you have a little trouble with your modern day appliance don't get mad just stop and think how your ancestors had to live. Sure would be hard on a lot of people if they had to go back to what it use to be. I know I've gotten use to this modern day living and I wouldn't want to give it up. Would you? I I ' · 36 • Chapter 9 When I was around 8 or 9 years old I remember standing by the chimney . fire and getting as hot as. I could then I'd run into the bedroom and jump in bed real quick. The bedroom would usqally be around 30 degrees and you'd snuggle down while you was warm and fall off to sleep. We usually knew when it was time to get up because the rooster would start crowing. ,.,, The old timers could usually read the weather by watching the animals. You'd know it was going to snow if the yard was full of sno􀊪 birds feeding. If it was raining when you got up in the morning you'd watch the chickens. If they were standing out in the rain you'd know it was going to rain ali day, but if they were standing under something you knew the rain would stop shortly. If you see a lot of animals out , at night you can bet there's bad weather on . the way. I use to enjoy siting around the fireplace years ago listening to mom and dad tell stories and we enjoyed every .minute of , it. Sometimes the fire would crack and sparkle and out would come these little sparks. Mom or dad would say, "Well it's gonna snow, see the fire popping snow." I wonder how poor you can really be. When I was growing up we never had a gun so if we wanted to eat a chicken we couldn't shot it. So we'd run it down and catch it then we'd take an chop it's head off on a chopping block. Sometimes we'd get it by the neck and sling it's body around until it's head would come off. Then that chicken would flop around on the ground for a few minutes. This probably seems awful cruel , but it was a way of survival and that's the way most everybody killed their chickens. Once a month people throughout the country would try to get together and cook chicken. They'd call this a "chicken wobble" and we'd usually have music and square dancing. You know they must have had these dances on the full moon because I I I don't ever remember us using a lantern to walk by and we sure didn't own a flashlight either. I guess this probably gave the r { l r [ [ l l 37 • young people a chance to flirt with one another, back then they called it "sparking. " When I was growing up we had some ducks and I remember mom would pick the down off them in the spring of the year . She would take the down and make pillows out of it . Then every summer we'd replace all the old straw in our beds with new. Sometimes we didn't always have straw so we'd have to use corn shucks instead. , l We was glad when the spring of the year came because we always went and dug ramps, picked poke salad, crows foot and had us a feast. I still enjoy going to the mountains and picking mushrooms, poke salad, and digging ramps. Then I come home and have a feast. We fix our ramps and poke in scrambled eggs then we fry our /mushrooms out real crispy brown . We fix us a pan of fried corn bread then talk about eating we pig out. This is what I call a good home cooked meal. I can remember one time when I was just young probably somewhere between the age of 10 or 11. Anyway mom and dad sent me to the store to buy a half gallon of ice cream . This was som􀊫thing we rarely ever had, because there was other things we needed more than the ice cream . When mom and dad would break down and buy some we thought we was living high off the hog, we was eating like rich people now. Anyway getting ba' ck to my story I had to walk about 3 1/2 miles to the store and it was a hot day . I remember on the way home I must have eat a quart of the ice cream. I was pretty fast back then and I eat it faster than it could melt . I could have eaten the whole ' half gallon, but I had to save some for mom and dad . They enjoyed getting a treat like this just as much as . I did. I can remember one time that I had a real bad toothache and during that week every night something would jump up o􀊬 top of our house . You could hear it walking around on the roof. My mom said it was a panther and we didn't have a gun or a dog at this time. Sure was scary hearing something on top of the house and no gun in the house . We was afraid it would jump 38 • through ,the window and we didn't have any . light then except the oil lamp. Sur8 made a fel low forget his toothache for awhile. I don't know what ever happened to that panther, but after that one week it never did come back. Must have fina􀍆ly realized there wasn't any meat in the house. I just 􀍇appened to think of something else. You know people can real ly be pretty cruel sometimes. There was some cats that came around our house every night and they'd meow and squal l and go on til l a person couldn't get any sleep. 􀍈 Wel l mom finally got tired of this and she said she was going to fix those cats up. She put out some feed for them so she could catch them. I don't know how she did it, but she caught them and tnen she tied their tails together and threw them across a pole. Ta1k about a cat fight they sure went a􀍉 it. They final ly came untied though and took off down the trail. Wel l we never seen or heard from those cats again . You know I was probably around 1 0 years old when this happened so that would have made my mom around 5 6 years old when she done this. I can remember my mom was always a spunky person, I think sometimes she'd took on the devil himself and 'not backed down. I was always so close to mom and dad as I grew up and I probably spent more time with them than any of my other brothers and sisters. Being so much older than me they had al l married'. and started families of their own so they wasn't around as much. We shared a lot of good times together and we also had our bad times as wel l. I spent a lot of days in the woods helping mom and dad dig ginseng. This was one way we had of making a few extra dol lars. It would bring around $ 1 7 . 0 0 a pound after it was dried out. I guess this was in the late forties. One of the ways we had of communicating in the woods was by taking a stick and beating it against a tree or log 3 or 4 , times . Then you would listen for one of the others to do the same. That way you could keep in touch with each other and if the pecking got farther away then you'd change your direction and go _toward each other. r 39 I • You know back when your young you take a lot for g,ranted and I guess you just assume your parents will , always be there ' . for you, but that's not always the case. As I grew older I worried about losing my· mom and dad and I thought about it a lot wondering how I could handle loosing them. Well the day come that my mom and dad passed away, I lost my dad first then later my mom . , 1 I'm thankful I never had to face this when ' r was a young boy and grateful that I had my parents for as many years as I did . Even though I was a grown man wherr I lost 􀀄t parents it never made it any easier for me. I shared a lot of wonderful years with 􀊭y parents and I cherish all the wonderful memories I shared with them. ' . My mom was 97 years old when she passed away and my dad was 8 4. I still have the old Bible we bought when we went to the Mt. Sterling Baptist Church, this is also known as the White Church. This little church is located at Waterville , North Carolina. Both my mom and my dad are buried there in the little church cemetery, there in the mountains they loved so well and called their home. Annie Ball holding Scott , and daughters Martha & Belva 40 Chapter 10 I know we've all had disappointments in our lives, but seems like when your a kid it hurts worse. I know this one time when I was around 8 to 10 years old . I had a big disappointment and I hurt for a long time over it. ' I Some of the people .got together after church one Sunday and talked about setting the next Sunday aside for a trip. Well it was agreed that. they'd -u􀀕s e Thomas McGaha's log truck and one of the White boys would drive it. They decided to make the day of it and go up through Gatlinburg, Newfound Gap, Cherokee, Maggie Vall: ey, then back down through Johnson's Creek, Cove . Creek, Cataloochee, and on back to Mt. Sterling. They decided they'd just load up the back of the log truck with everyone that wanted to go. It was agreed everyone going would pack a big picnic lunch, enough to last them all day. Everyone that was going was real excited about this because for most of us we hadn't been no where and this was a once in a lifetime thing. Well they was only 􀊮one catch to this, it was going to cost each person who went a dollar. This was to help pay ior gas and the use of the truck. There was only 10 or 12 people who got to take the trip because most p :ople didn't have the money for such foolishness even if it was a once in a lifetime event. You guessed right my parents dldn't have the money for us to go • . They couldn't even scrape together a dollar to let me go. Talk about disappointed. I w􀊯s one unhappy little boy. Well in 194 6 my sister Gold ie narried Rufus McGaha and they lived in this little 3 room house wh i9h had a front porch on _it. I stayed with my sister some then and I can remember the bedroom floor had cracks in it and you could look through . . the cracks down to the ground. Under here you could see where it had been dug out for a basement so you could store canned food there for the winter. Sometimes you could see a copperhead snake laying on the ground all coiled up. I remember there was a lot of snakes around 41 l l • that house and I think they came fiom this big rock fence just below the house. The snakes probably came up under the house to hibernate for the winter. I know Rufus was all the time killing snakes down around that rock fence during the summer. You know I can't remember anyone qetting snake bit back when I was growing up. In my growing up years I've walked over a few rattlesnakes and copperheads, but usually seen them just , I about the time I got to them and would jump out of the way. Boy, you wouldn ' t believe just how fast I could move when a snake was near. I was glad when Rufus and Goldie finally moved away from that snake : den. They now lived in this big two story house. It was reat nice and it had 4 rooms downstairs with 3 fireplaces in it. Then there was 4 rooms upstairs with fireplaces in them to . M y sister was living in style. I never will forget how they got their water from down in the hollow, which was about 7 or 8 hundred feet away from the house. On the back porch there was this post and on the post was a car rim. The car rim had a hand hold on it where you could turn the rim around and around. Above the car rim was this wire cable that stretched all the way down to the running water. There was a spout for the water to run out of. Well this car rim had a rope wound up on it and a hook to hang the bucket on. You'd unwind the rope on the rim by the hand hold so the bucket w.ould go down the hill to the running water spout • . It was designed to where the bucket would stop just under the water spout: It took the bucket about 2 or 3 minutes to get full then you'd turn the car rim around and around to wind the rope back up. The rope would pull the water bucket back up the steep hill. Usually you'd have a couple of buckets to fill up one for cooking and one for washi ng your face and hands with. It sure · was a job when it come washday and you had to pull up all those buckets of water to do the wash. It would have been even harder though if we'd had to walk up and down that steep hill all those tri·ps. 42 • I can remember a few times when we'd get the full bucket almost to the house and just about ready to reach for it and the pulling rope would break. Boy , that bucket would go down that hillside 90 miles an 􀊰our bending that bucket up awful. When it got to the bottom it would make a heck of a "Bang". You could always tell this bu􀊱􀊲et because it was all bent up. Well now you have to walk down the steep hill arid get the bucket and kind of straighten it up some. Now you carry it back to the top of the hill and tie the rope back together where it broke. Now your in business again. I don \t know who thought up this idea for getting the water up to the 􀊳ouse , but it sure worked. I only knew of one other like it in the country. While they were living in this house I had a scary experience one morning while we were eating breakfast. From where I was setting you could look out the window an see for miles and miles. Well 5 miles away there was this fire tower they called White Rock. The mountain was so high they just built the fire tower right on the ground. As I was saying we were eating breakfast and I looked out the window and saw this big bright light shining on top of this mountain. It sure was a scary thing to see. What I didn't realize was that the sun was coming up behind me and shining on the glass windows of the fire tower causing the sun to reflect off the window. Another incident that happened while Goldie was living in this house was kind of funny. My sisters Bethena and Goldie and me was hoeing tobacco and we was almost to the edge of the woods when one of us. spotted a bi9 rattlesnake laying there. Well I know that's not funny , but it must have heard us because it headed up through the wood􀊴.and out of sight. Now I don't know where my sister Goldie heard this at , but she told me to run to the house and get the guitar. Well I didn't know what she wanted with the guitar , but off I went · after it. When I got back she said she was going to pick the guitar so the snake would hear the music and come back then I I 43 we could kill it. Well this never happened. I don't know how long we sat there and played that guitar. Anyway we never did see that snake again. ,I can also remember one time when Rufus's daddy Thomas had some mules at this place to farm with. I remember one of the mules got down and couldn't get back up, probably mi􀍊ht have been dying from old age. Rather than just let it suffer they decided to take a gq devil and knock it's brains out . We didn't have a gun and a go devil was a big hammer weighing about 20 pounds and it had a long wooden handle in it. They all just took turns about hitting that poor mule in the head. r : was 10 years old at the time and they even let me take a swing at it. They told me to hit it as hard as I could with that hammer. You know I bet they must have hit that poor mule 20 times before they finally killed it. Seems like that was a lot of 􀍋uffering to. After killing it they took another mule and used it to pull the dead one out in- the woods to a big sink hole. After getting it in the sink hole they covered it up. There was another time that we had to kill this dog. I don't really remember what the reason was, but the dog was suffering. Yea I knpw what your thinking. Anyway my brotherin- law Rufus and myself led this dog down into the woods to kill him. Rufus had a pistol and it seemed like every time he shot the dog it would knock it down, but it would get right back up again. I think he shot it 4 or 5 times before he finally killed it. You know back then kids sure 􀍌xperienced a lot while growing up. My dad told me that one time he was mowing this field off I I and he looked down and there was a copperhead hanging to his pants leg. He said he took off running around the side of the hill thinking . it would fall off. When he finally stopped and looked down it was still hanging there so he took the mowing blade he was mowing with and kind of hacked it in to. Sure would 44 I I have scared the pants off of me . I guess I was around 1 1 or 12 years old and I got after a black racer with a switch and I was just whipping it for all I was worth . Well it took off after me and there was this tree that had fallen across the hol low. I jumped upon that old fal len . tree and ran out about middle ways of it then I stopped and looked back to see if that snak􀊵 was still following me. This snake was standing up about 2 foot in the air looking • for me . Sure did scare me . What was I going to 􀊶o now? I􀊷 stood there and thought for a minute and then I slipped on across the old tree and got me the longest stick I could find . Then I went bac􀊸 and killed that snake . I was sure scared to go back and stand Jp to that snake , but I did and it taught me a good lesson . I never went around switching black racers again . Looking back over some of the things I did when I was a boy growing up I sometimes wonder how I survived it . . . 45 Chapter · 11 I wonder how many of you will remember the "Watkins Man" when you read this. I guess I was around 10 years old when he first came around to our part of the country. This was a country store on wheels and he would come around through the country in his 􀊹􀊺ttle panel truck once a month and see if anyone needed supplies. ' Some of his supplies consisted of Chocolate Ex-lax, Black Ointment Salve, Rose Bua Salve, v'anilla Extract and the list goes on and on. I remember these products because we were lucky to have enough money to buy some of these necessities. By looking in his true􀊻 you could see he had most everything. , · · · I remember this one particular time mom had bought these Chocolate Ex-lax and I was so hungry for chocolate candy that I ate some of them. They were pretty good and sure got my system cleaned out good. You could have took $5. 00 and bought just about anything you needed. Most of the items only cost 10 to 25 cents. So you can see $5. 00 went a long way .back then. Course back then $5. 00 was hard to come by to. At one time they sold these little 8 X 10 plaques which had Bible verses written on them and they had sparkling specks all over them. These was a big seller at one time and I think every family bought some of these. I think they cost around 50 cents. Over a period of 3 to 4 years we finally ended up with about 8 of these plaques . Mom would try to buy 'her 1 every 3 or 4 mo􀊼ths, she wasn't able to buy one every time he came around. She would hang 1 or 2 in every room . Ye.ars ago we would play baseball at school, you know I thought'· we was the only people in the world. Boy, did I get surprised one time. Our teachers Miss Caldwell and Miss tweed told us to practrice real good playing baseball because one day we was going to play a big game. Well I guess the teachers thought we were finally good 46 • enough so they told us we was going to play the Hartford School. I didn't know anything about this Hartford School. Talk about surprise, was I in for a surprise. So one day here comes so many kids. I hadn't never seen this many . kids before. I thought we was the only ones in the world. I guess their school and community being much bigger than ours had sure produced a lot of kids. I'l l always remember this day even though I don't , 1emember who won the game. Later on in the year we' got to go to their school. I had been raised i􀍍 the hil ls and val leys where you couldn't see anything except miles and miles of mountains. Then one day al 􀍎 this changed, our school brought us to Newport on a schoo] trip. , The farther we came down the Pigeon River the farther I could see. I remember this one place at Denton there was this big barn on top of this ridge. I thought to myself, boy I haven't ever seen this far before. This was sure a day to remember because the teachers had brought us to town to a walk-in movie. I was surprised I'd never walked in a house in daylight and it was dark. I don't remember the name of the movie, but I do remember it was a western movie. I was dodging the horses and wagons coming towards me most of the time and afraid I might get run over. Back in the late forties there was this man named Herbert McGaha and every time he'd visit us for a few days he'd always want to go pick crows foot. This is a ·three leaf plant that you could find in . the woods and you'd boil it then eat it. I always liked crows foot to so I didn't mind going with him to pick it. Anyway if you bet Herbert a nickel he couldn't eat red hot pepper he'd do it. He'd eat the red pepper without any bread or water and thera he'd take his finger and pick up the seeds and eat them. The sweat would be dripping off of him and his face would be al l red from eating the red pepper. I can't imagine anyone doing ' this j ust for a nickel, but he sure would. .. , I -·- l 47 I • I can remember when I first started smoking. I was around 12 or 13 years old . When I bought my first pack of cigarettes they cost 15 cents a pack and I bought a pack of , Lucky Strikes . I can remember they had this slogan with the letters L. S. M. F. T. I don't really know for sure what they meant . Anyway I was standing there with either my brother Dallas or my sister Bethena one day and they ask me if I knew what those letters stood for􀍏 I said no and ever which one it was said they'd tell me and I I they said it meant, "Little sweater makes fat· teatey. " I don't really think that's what it sfood for, but that's what everyone around there referred to it as meaning. I know a lot of people rolled their own tobacco back then and some of the tobacco names were : Prince Albert, Half & Half, and Bugle . 􀀪 remember this one man who couldn't say Bugle, or else he just couldn't remember the name of it . So he'd always say give me a pack of that tobacco with the man head on it. The tobacco like this only cost a nickel . Some of the old timers would chew tobacco and dip snuff mostly the women liked the snuff . They also had twist tobacco and Red Ox was pretty popular with a lot of the old timers . Bruton Sweet and Bru ton Strong was your snuff brand along with Red Apple Chewing Tobacco a popular favorite with 􀍐 lot of the men. Seems like back when I was growing up everybody young and old alike either smoked , dipped, or chewed tobacco. I think a lot of the old timers really got a kick out of seeing these young kids try it and get sick from it. I remember one day I was out with my dad in the woods and we was hunting bee trees to get the honey out of. Well we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and it was probably around two o'clock a·nd we was getting pretty hungry. We was quite a distance from the hous􀍑 so we couldn't just run back home and eat. My dad always carrie􀍒 a ) plug of Red Apple Chewing Tobacco in his pocket . Well he takes out his plug of tobacco and cuts him off a big chew and puts it in his mouth. I could smell the aroma of that Sweet Apple Tobacco and it sure smelled good. 48 • I I Like I said we was already hungry and I thought mayb􀊽 this will help me not be so hungry. So I said to my dad, "Th' at Sweet Apple sure smells good. Will you cut me off a piece?" t was so hungry I could have eat that whole plug of tobacco. So dad just grinned and cut me off a piece. Here I am chewing and I'm so hungry I swallow some of the juice. It didn't take long for it to take it's toil on me. Within minutes I was feeling the effects ' bf it. Boy, did I· get sick. I probably turned every color there ' was to turn. I had to lay down right there in the woods. Needless to say dad got a kick out of it. He never had to worry about me asking for any of his tobacco again. That was the fifst chew of tobacco I'd ever had in my life , that was also the last chew I've ever had. r l [ I l { 49 I r l Chap􀊾er 12 I was probably 13 or 1 4 years old before we ever got electricity. Our light bill was $2. 00 a month whether you turned on your lights or not. If you used over so many kilowatts you had to pay extra. The older folks would say you better not burn them lights to much or your run up the light bill. We didn ' t have any electric appliances, just 4 light bulbs and we hardly ever burnt them because they was afraid of running our light bill over. I was always amazed at how electricity worked when I was growing up. I guess that ' s why I decided to become an electrician when I got older. You know, it still amazes me how eleqtricity works. I grew up in a place called M􀊿. Sterling and never did know how it came about getting the name of Mt. Sterling. I know there was a creek called Sterling Creek to. Our little community had ' 1 blacksmith and his name was Sage Sutton. There was also a Miller who ground our corn for making corn bread and his name was Willie Sutton. Mack Caldwell owned the little country store. We had a Post Office and 1 preacher for our little country church. Most everyone else was poor mountain farmers. I always hated to have to go to the mill because we lived about 3 miles away from it. I was only able to carry 1/2 bushel of corn and by the time you ' d walked 3 miles you was pretty tired when you got there. The Miller didn ' t charge money for grinding the corn. He ' d take out 1/2 gallon of corn or corn meal for grinding 1/2 bushel. The corn meal sure smelled good when it was being ground up. After, having the corn ground it was time to start back home with the meal. Let me tell you something, even though the Miller had took out his 1/2 gallon for the grinding fee that corn meal I I was still heavy. By the time I ' d walked the 3 miles back home my arms were plum wore out. Sometimes on Saturday nights we'd have services at our little church. When we did the preacher would go home with one 50 • I l of the families in the community and spend the night . I noticed it always seemed to be with the family who ' s dad would say,, "The wife's got a big pot of chicken and dumplings cooking 'at the house. " Off the preacher would go with that family and spend the night. Then there would be services on Sundays and afterwards the preacher 􀍓ould go home. Back then we also use to have these parties that the young and old both enjoyed. They'd have thes􀍔 cake walks and pie suppers. They'd have country music and then afterwards they'd auction . off the cakes or pies. They'd cal l out the name of the woman or girl who baked the cake or pie and the men and boys would bid on the cake or . . 􀀫 pie . If you; was lucky enough to have the highest bid you got to set with! the girl or woman who baked it and eat it. Most of the pies and cakes would bring $2. 00 to $3. 00 each. Sure was hard for a poor boy to get a chance at buying a cake or pie and eating it with a girl back then . This would also give a boy a chance to walk the girl home if he was interested in her. Believe me no boy was going to spend his hard earned money on a girl back then unless he was interested. Back in the early forties we had stamps to buy some things with. I don't real ly know how we came about having them , but I , do know mom would use them to buy certain things. You was issued a certain amount of stamps and if you used up all your stamps then you had to do without until they was issued again. I know the Moore family had sheep and they'd buy cotton seed meal to feed them. Their boy told me that he'd get in with the sheep and help them eat the cotton seed meal. I remember it did smell awful good . My mom use to buy brown.sugar when she could afford it and back then they sold it loose. It w􀍕uld come in a big barrel and they would take and put it in brown paper bags then weight it out in 1 pound and 5 pound bags. It would have lumps in it and I'd slip and get the lumps out and eat them for candy. Sometimes in the winter when it snowed mom would make snow cream r l l 51 r l r if she had the sugar and milk. Seemed like I always loved the spring of the year most. I guess it was because during the winter it was just so cold. When springtime came everything was so fresh and green and they'd be a cool breeze blowing. People would be working .in the fields and gardens. Tq􀀃 old timers didn't have to worry about dust because most of the houses was so open with cracks that the dust would blow right away. Don't get me wrong they cleaned their homes and washed their floors back'"then. Most of these mountain people were proud and worked hard all their Lives to get what they had. Some were wealthier and had more t􀋀an most of us. We was poor and never really had a lot. What little we did have we worked hard all our lives to get. I can remember some of the old timers that lived on Big Creek or Mt. Sterling and I bet a lot of them never went more than 50 miles from where they were born and raised. Most of these old timers are deceased now. Almost all of them are buried in the little cemetery at Mt. Sterlin􀋁 at the White Church in the mountains they called home. 52 Chapter 13 One of the things we use to do in the summertime for fun was throw rocks in the creek. One time my nephew Glen and myself was playing in the water and he was on one side of the hole throwing rocks and I was on the othe􀍖. I I .We were throwing rocks in the water trying to splash one another. We wasn't 􀍗eally thinking about how the rocks might ricochet and maybe hit one of us. All we was thinking about was splashing and getting wet and just having a lot of fun. I thre􀍘 one rock real hard and it ricocheted back out the other side and hit Glen in the head. Sure did bring the blood so we hurried back to the house. He was all right and no serious damage was done . After this incident though we realized just how dangerous it was . We never did throw rocks toward one another again when we played in the creek. As I grew older I remember my brother-in-law Rufus McGaha gave me my first gun. I was 1 3 at the time and it was a single shot 22 rifle made by Ranger. You know I never did see another gun like it. When I w􀍙s walking to school I'd take my gun and hide it in the woods . Then when I got out of school I ' d squirrel hunt on my way back home . This sure was a lot of fun to a young boy. This one particular time I was near some big beech trees listening for a squirrel and I heard someone coming down through the hollow. Well I didn't know if . I had to have a hunting license back then or not so I ran up the side of the hill and hid behind the big beech tree. I saw this man coming down the hollow and he pad all he I I . . could carry on his back . Then I realized he had a load of moonshine. He never did know I was around and I sat there until I was sure he was long gone. I knew where he had his still and I was always careful to stay away from the area . He had walked 4 miles to get to the still and then 4 miles out carrying his load of moonshine • . . , r l [ { I l 53 One time I went wit􀍚 my _dad to hun t ginseng and I took my trusty single shot 22 rifle along. We was going up this hollow when I heard this squirrel barking up the side of the mountain. I told my dad that I was going to slip up on this squirrel and kill him so we could have squirrel gravy that night . I finally got up to where the squirrel was at and it wasn't easy because the brush and trees were grown up so bad you couldn't hardly see 6 to 8 feet away. While I was watching for the squirrel I heard some dogs barking somewhere around the mountain. I could tell they were getting closer, but I wasn ' t really concerned about it long as they didn't scare the squirrel I was after .. I was bitting watchirig for the squirrel and I could tell those dogs were pretty close now so 􀍛 decided I'd better stand up. Just about this time I heard something coming through the bushes and I could hear the limb􀍜 breaking awful. So I pointed my gun in the direction I was hearing the awful noise from. I just kept looking and trying to see what it was. Finally out comes this big black bear, I could have punched it in the side with the end of my gun barrel . Here was my big chance to kill me my first bear. Well I was afraid to shoot it because it would have fell at my feet and if I hadn't killed it and only wounded it I ' d really been in serious trouble. Because like I said before, that brush was so thic􀍝 and rough I couldn ' t have run through it to get away and a 1 3 year old boy wouldn't have had a chance one on one with that bear. You know it's funny that bear never did know that I was there, ' r guess he was to busy getting away from the dogs to pay much attention. So it wasn't but a few minutes till the dogs was ' right there almost on us and off went the bear, then off went the dogs, and off I went hurrying to catch up with · my dad forgetting all about the squirrel I was after. I caught up with dad and told him all about my little adventure and he laughed and said, "Yea, I heard the dogs and thought they might be after a bear. " . I was probably 1 6 years old when I did kill my first bear . ;?i􀀉?r.􀀊!f::􀀋 . . , 54 and I killed it with a 12 gauge shotgun . I went hunting with this guy named L . P . which I'll not give his full name . Anyway he had some good dogs and we'd went out to the flag stand when his dogs struck a bear and they ran through Stinkin' Camp Branch . Then they treed the 'bear in a big hemlock tree· just below the tunnel about a hundred yards on the right hand side of the creek . We 'finally got to the dogs and I had my trusty old 12 gauge and L . P . had a 357 magnum pistol . He took aim and when the gun cracked the· bear kind of spun around out of the tree . Sure wasn't anything under him but a pile of rocks. You'd think the bear falling 50 ,feet into a pile of rocks would kill him, but it didn't . Wh􀅑n he hit the ground he went running right down to the creek dnd we took off right behind him. When we got to the bottom there was this big rock we ran out on and you could see the dogs barking back under the rock that we was standing on . All at once the bear ran out from under the rock and grabbed one of the dogs in his mouth . I had a 2 cell flashlight in my left hand and the 12 gauge in my right hand and as the dog screamed out I pointed my gun, which had a slug in it, and pulled the trigger . Well it struck the bear right behind the front leg blowing a hole right through that bear . There was a hole almost a foot around on the left hand side of that bear. The bear just dropped the dog and fell over. I guess I saved the dogs life because it wasn't hurt bad . When we got to checking out the bear we found that the 3 5 7 had knocked the bear 'out of the tree when it hit him in the foot . Well we drug the bear down to where the jeep was parked and headed home . Being my first bear I was pretty excited and couldn't hardly wait to get home and tell mom and dad . There was another time that I was hunting in this same place and my dog treed a coon in this same tree . This tree was probably a hundred feet high and being a hemlock you couldn't see all the way through the tree . Knowing my dog had something treed I decided to climb this tree and see what it was. Well I only had a 22 pistol and a 2 cell flashlight so I I . l { 55 1 r off I started up the tree. this was a big tree and I'm about halfway up and I still can't see anything. So on I went up towards the top. Well I'm almost there when I decided to look back down towards the ground. That was a 1mistake because it looks like its a mile back down to the ground from here. Well now there's just about enough tree left to make a good Christmas tree so I kept climbing. I'm about 3 feet from the top trying to hold the flashlight in one hand and hanging on to that tree with the other. I started pulling the limbs back to se􀋂 if I could see anything when all at once I heard this awful :growling noise. · Then I looked and saw two big red eyes lookiJg at me and teeth a shining. I don't know how I did it, but I got a hold of my pistol and shot it right between the eyes. Well here it comes rolling right down over me and I was hanging on for dear life because I knew there was no way I could survive a fall that far. I thought to myself if I ever get back on the ground in one piece, I'll never climb again. I made it back down to the ground safely, but I soon forgot the promise I'd made myself about climbing and was right back at it again before long. I I 56 • Chapter 14 Back in the old days when we had chimneys we'd always have what we called a back log and a front log. We'd try to put enough sticks of wood or logs in the back to burn maybe 2 4 hours. The ones in the front would last about 12 hours. Then we'd always ke􀍞p smaller wood I in the middle of the ,fire. This way you could always keep plenty . of red hot coals in between the logs. Your front log would keep the fire from rolling out in the floor. • ,_,1 Most all fireplaces had a steel hook in the fireplace to hang a cast iron pot on to cook a pot of soup beans. Sometimes we'd even have a roast to cook. When we'd come in that evening I for our supper the house would smell so good from where those beans or roast had been cooking all day long. Most all fireplaces had a shovel, poker , and a rake and usually everyday you ' d clean out all the ashes in the fireplace. Sometimes they'd save the coals for tanning hides. The way this was done was you'd dig a hole and then take the hide and lay it hairy side up in the hole. Then you'd put the good hickory or oak fire coals on the hide. After doing this you'd take and pour water on the fire coals everyday for about a week. This would make the hair come off the skin. After doing this you'd scrape all the loose hair and fat off the skin. Then if you had a banj o that needed a new head put on it you would use the skin to redo it. This was the way they did it back in the early days. The reason I know this is because my dad and mom had this old banj o with no skin over whe􀍟e you _pick the banj o. My dad used thi s technique and made us a head for our l:;>anj o. Both my mom and my dad could pick the banj o real good and they picked the qld time way. They'd pick like String Bean and ' . Grandpa Jones picked and everyone loved to listen to them. I don't know where my family got it's music ability, but a lot of us could play the banj o, guitar, mandolin, and fiddle. The neighbors would get together sometimes j ust to listen to a good hoe down and watch my mom and dad dance. My dad was the I I l l 57 1 l 1 best dancer around and everyone who had seen him dance could tell you they'd never seen anyone any better. My brother Scott is the only other person I've seen who could dance as graceful as our dad could. I guess we got our musical abilities from both sides of the family because my mom and dad were both gifted. I know my mom told me about her uncle Henry Grooms who was killed during the Civil War. She said that she'd- been told how he was a fiddle player and loved to play the fiddle. Toward the end of the Civil War there was a lot of fighting and bushwhacking that went on in the Big Creek, Mt. Sterling, and Cataloo;chee areas. These were all past off as war crimes and Teague'􀍠 scouts, of the qonfederate side, and Kirk's men with the Union side were responsible for the majority of these crimes. My great uncles George and Henry Grooms, and their brotherin- law Mitchell Caldwell were all killed by Teague's scouts. They were captured and marched to the Little Cataloochee side of the mountain. It has been told that before they killed them that they were all tortured. They made Henry play a last tune on the fiddle before they killed him. He chose "Bonaparte's Retreat", which forever after throughout the mountains became known as "The Grooms Tune". This is a sad tune and runs much to the minor key when played. Dogs often howl whenever it is played. All three bodies were left lying by the roadside. Later my great aunt Eliza Grooms and a few others took a ox hitched sled and went across the mountains and hauled the three bodies ,back across the mountains to their homes. All three men were buried in the Sutton graveyard on Big Creek. All three men are buried in the same single grave. Their I I headstone has the words "murdered" on it. I've been to this little cemetery and seen the grave and headstone for myself. The cemetery lies back in the woods in a quiet little spot surrounded by trees. Henry's wife Eliza was left with a small son and she 58 remarried. George ' s wife Sarah Jane was left with 6 children to raise, Sarah never remarried. Mitchell Caldwell was said to be a simple-minded man. I've been told by my mom that the Grooms had intermarried with the Cherokee Indians of N.C. and TN. and according to information given to me by other relatives this w􀍡􀍢 true. According to census reports and marriage licenses in' the mid to 1800's both male and female Grooms intermarried with the Cherokee Indians. George Grooms Sr. was born around 1800 in South Carolina and he married around 18 19/20. He married Anera and she is said to have beep a Cherokee Indian. Children born to this union were : John, George Jr., Solomon, Sallie, Henry, Anderson, Dorcas, Ernaline, and Ernestine. It would seem that George Jr. and Henry weren ' t the only two in this family to meet with tragic deaths. Solomom Grooms was arraigned at Waynesville, N.C. for the ax murder of his hired man, Oscar Townsend on May 12, 1 8 62. He was tried in Superior Court, Asheville, N.C. on October 20, 18 62 and he was convicted and sentenced to hang. He was hung on Friday, January 15, 1 8 63 in Waynesville, N.C. at what later became known as "Cobb Hill" (above Dellroad Road, Band Mill section) . He was buried in Waynesville, N.C. It was brought out in the trail that the trouble was caused by the "relation" or conduct of Grooms daughter with Townsend. I I l 59 I I ' Chapter 15 My great grandfather was born .around 18 17 and his name was Thomas "Tom" Barnes. He was a noted hunter and a quick - skillful marksman according to articles I''ve read in such books as, "Over The Misty Blue Hills", "Cataloochee, Lost Settlement ' I Of The Smokies", and "sm·oky Mountain Folks and Their Folklore". Tom' lived in Cataloochee, Walnut Bottoms, Barnes Valley (named for his family, • lies in the shadow of White Rock), and Cosby, Tn. during his lifetime. He married Frances "Fanny" Caldwell o􀋃 Oct. 18, 18 4 2. I'm not sure how many children Tom and Fanny h􀋄d, but the 1 8 6 0 N. C. census list 7 children at that time. Around Highway 32 there's this mountain called Barnes Mt. which was named after Tom Barnes. Not long ago I was visiting a cousin of mine in Barnes Valley by the name of Bernard Barnes and he told me the following story. When Tom was growing up he found this deer trail around the side of this mountain, now known as Barnes Mt. Tom wanted to catch this deer alive so he found this log where the deer had been jumping over and going around the side of the hill. Well Tom laid down beside the log waiting for the deer to come through. I don't know just how long he laid there waiting for the deer, but it finally came through. When it jumped the log he caught it. The deer kicked and carried on something awful almost killing Tom. Tom held on to t:tiat deer, he wasn't about· to let it go. He brought it off the mountain alive and put it in the barn. Seems no one knew just what he did with the deer after that. I remember this story my dad told me about Tom and him. My d􀋅d : was just a young boy at the time and he said that Tom had set a bear trap and that one day they went to the trap and it was gone. These traps usually had big hooks· on them that they called grabs. This would keep the bear from pulling off his leg when he first gets caught. When the bear goes through the woods these 60 grabs would usually ge t hung up every few minutes and slow the bear down. Well they started tracking the bear. Finally they heard the bear dragging the trap still on his leg. Dad said when the bear heard them that it tore loose and started down the mountain and through a big laurel patch. They took off aft er it. The grabs got hung under a laurel stump and turned ' tI he bear a flip. Tom ran up to the bear and stuck his pistol 􀍣o the bears head and pulled' the trigger. After shooting the bear dad said Tom jumped on the bears back and grabbed it by the ears and said, " Hey, I got you". At about this time dad said the bear g􀍤ve a dieing surge throwing Tom's body down through the li3-urel .1 Dad said he thought the bear had killed him because he hollowed and hollowed for him. Finally Tom came crawling back up through the laurel . Each section of mountains seems to have it ' s noted character and my great grandfather seems to have been one of these legendary figures. No doubt a lot of the stories told about him have been fabricated and blown comple tely out of proportion, but often strange and unusual incidents actually did happen to him. Thomas Barnes died on March 2 6, 1 901 . He and Fanny are both buried at the Fowler Cemetery at the Cocke-Sevier County line. I guess I inh􀍥rited my love for hunting from my great grandfather. I've probably killed more than my share of· bears in the past and I've killed around 2 5 of those bears with only a 22 pis.tol. Looking back over the years I don ' t know how I ' ve kept from get ting hur􀍦 , or killed from some of the run ins I ' ve had with some of these bears. Some times I'd be right in the fight with the dogs and bear because the action would be so close you'd have to ·stick the gun to the bear so you wouldn ' t shoot a d9g. My son Michael and me was in a bear fight one time and l I I l l 61 l 1 { I was filming it on video. You could see how close we was to the dogs and bear and when Michael shot the bear you could see the steam come out of the bears head . I admit I've had some good times and bad times during my years of hunting, but the go􀍧9 times out weight the bad. I was lucky to grow up like I did because I felt like I was another Davy Crocket or Daniel Boone back when I was young. I guess I learned a lot about nature by growing up the way I dfd and I've experienced a lot of things people find hard to believe. After 􀍨 5 years of hunting with guns I finally quit and started usiIh g my video camera instead . I find this is a good hobby and enj oy filming wildlife and their surroundings . 62 I I Chapter 16 I can recall one time we had this big rainstorm. I guess I was around 19 or 20 at this time and we lived on Flat Branch at Mount Sterling, N. C. This was when I owned my first Car and it was a 49 . Ford. This one particular night we had a big rainstorm. The next morning my dad, Ernest White, Tunny Phillips, and me decided we'd ride down and t􀋆ke a look at Laurel Creek. On the way we decided if we could get through Laurel Creek we ' d go on down and look a􀋇 Big Creek. We go􀋈 down to Laurel Creek and looked it over and then we decided 1to go on to Big Creek. We stood there and talked it over and decided if I drove through at a angle going with the flow of water we could get across. Well I guess everyone was like me they crossed their fi􀋉gers and tightened up every part of their body and hoped for the best. Course it was my car that we was in so I guess I was the one who was worried the most about whether we'd make it all right or not, but 'off we went anyhow. I got about halfway across when the car got hung on this big rock. Well the water was big and it was swift to and when I got hung on this rock in the middle of the creek it made it even worse. Where the car was blocking the water it made the water start to dam up even higher around the car. Here I am trying to keep the car running and I look out my side of the car and the water is just about to come in the window. I told everyone to jump out of the other side of the car and ·start pushing me off the rock we was hung on. No one wasted any t􀋊me jumping out into the swift water which was waist deep on them. Here I am trying to keep the motor running and the exhaust was just a gurgling under the water. They got the car to rocking and by luck we got on through the water to the other side. I loo􀋋ed out at them and saw they was wet all over and I was the only dry one in the crowd. I guess there are some advantages · l l r 63 to be the owner of the car, at - le􀍩st I didn't 􀍪ave to ·j 􀍫􀍬p- out in that ice cold 􀍭ater 􀍮aist deep: · __ Qff we went headid. for . Big Cfe􀍯􀍰 􀍱 We knew • {i . Laurel Creek was this big just imagine what Big Creek was going to be like . We knew this was really going to be something to see be.cause Big Creek was 1 0 tim􀍲r bigger than Laurel Creek was. We11 now we're up to Hickory Gap. Down the hill we go to the slick rocks just above the big turn. Whoa. Well to our surprise at the slick rocks the road 'was no more . It was completely gone and there was gullies nearly 5 foot deep where the road usa to be .· - Needlesf · to say we was kind of stunned at this and was really wondering by now just what this Big Creek was doing. We parked the car and decided to walk the rest of the way which was about a 􀍳ile more. As we walked along we talked about how high the water had gotten and the damage it had done to the road . We finally got there · and long before we got there we could hear these big rocks rolling under this monstrous creek. Talk about stunned we were. We knew this would be something to see , but we'd never expected to see the sight that was before us now . This creek was so big we was almost afraid to walk out on the bridge because the water was splashing up over the bridge in places . We stood there in amazement for a few minutes and then we starting di􀍴cussing amongst ·ours􀍵lves how we bet it had washed Newport away. We figured the way that· water was rus􀍶ing down through there that there just couldn't be anything left, tha􀍷 everything in it's path had been washed away. We had no way of knowing until much later, but everyone was safe and sound in Newport. , , We spent most of the day down at Big Creek hoping by the time we returned to Laurel Creek that it would have run down enough that we'd be able to drive back through. ·ay late evening we started back home and when I started across the water at Laurel Creek I dodged the big rock, but I I 64 I I · the 􀍸ater .·was still so strong that · it washed the car sideways and made . it hard to get through :. We got through though and headed safely home. Sure was a da·y to ·remember and we talked about our adventure for a long time afterwards. ,,. i . I I I I I l I I I I l I I ' 65 Chapter 1 7 I've hunted these hills and mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee since 1 94 7 and I 'guess I've · ex·perienced about everything you could im.agine that could happen to a person . Some things can be explained and otheri remain a mystery to I I us . When I was about 1 3 or 1 4· years old I remember this one incident that happened wh􀍹n I was out hunting by myself . I had my trusty old single shot 22 rifie and my dog Spot and it was a beautiful night . Everything was peaceful and quiet and the 1 only sound you could hear was the katydids and chat-chows (this was what the old timers called them) . You could hear them making their see-sawing noise which kind of sounds like two people pulling a cross cut saw back and forth through a tree . The night was clear and beautiful and the stars were twinkling bright and shiny a million miles away with the big blue sky in the background, sure was a sight to behold . As I was standing there enjoying the moment and taking in all this beauty something strange happened and I couldn't believe my own eyes . All at once it started pouring the rain just as hard as it could . I thought to myself there's not a cloud in the sky, how could this be? This was really scary and I even wondered if this could be the end of the world coming . I didn't stand there long because I didn't know what was fixing to happen and to a boy of 1 3 all I could think of was getting home t􀍺 my mom- and dad .· I sure got myself into high gear and towards the house 'as fast as I could, and believe me I do mean fast . I was never able to explain why this happened, but I've always heard of warning signs and that you can be warned of things before it happens . I know .it wasn't long after that my ' brother Dallas and me was· about to go hunting when something happened . Dallas was ready to go and was standing with his foot up on a straight back chair holding the same old 22 rifle by the 66 ' . barrel and the butt of it resting on the chair next to his foot. As I was putting on my coat I heard this thump and all at once the gun fell to the floor and Dallas grabbed his left hand. Somehow the gun that he was holding with his hand over the end of the barrel had slipped off the chair, striking the hammer and the gun had went off shooting Dallas through the hand. Well we sure was in a mess now because the dqctor was 25 miles away and we didn't have a car. Dallas was about to go into shock from the pain of the gun shot wound and the nearest vehicle was 5 miles away. We didn't have no other choice but walk the 5 miles. Well we finally got him to the doctor and that doctor didn't do anythin􀋌 for him ex􀋍ept give him something for the pain. I know for a long time after that the lead would work its way to the top of his hand and he would get about half drunk then have me take a knife and cut it out of the top of his hand. guess his hand gave him problems the rest of his life. Well as time went on and I got older I quit hunting small game and started hunting bigger game I wanted something more challenging so I went after the black bear. I think most all humans are scared of the bear and know that if it wanted to it could kill you within a few seconds. Bears are very strong and powerful and I've seen them grab :a tree with their mouth and jerk a hole in the side of it. I've also seen them grab dogs and 'kill them with one bite. I've been in so many bear and dog fights that I guess I'm lucky to still be alive and in one piece. A dog will give his life to protect you and I've always tried to protect my dogs even if it meant doing something stupid. A lot of times when bears and dogs are fighting there's no way to get a clear shot on the bear because you could end up killing your dog instead. I ' So I would run in on the bear and take my 22 pistol and stick it to the bears head and pull the trigger. This can sure get your adrenalin pumping. Well I reckon I've had the best and bravest of dogs through the years and they've never backeu down from a fight no matter f I 67 - I l 1 l f • how big and tough the bear was, but twice in my life my dogs and I have come upon something that still remains a mystery to me. I guess I was around 2 5 years old when the first incident happened. I'd took my dogs and gone hunting on top of a mountain that was no man's land. You couldn't see nothing for .􀍻iles and miles except the big woods and some of this land is so thick with trees, brush and laurel that man hasn't even stepped foot on it. As I was saying ' earlier when my dogs got into a bear fight they saw no fear they would be right on top of that bears back in a f/gh t and I always knew they would protect me at any cost, but t􀍼is one encounter we was about to have I was to find the tables turned. Here we was back in these big woods and my dogs tore out from under me like they was going to kill something , they ran out in front of me a couple of hundred yards and then all of a sudden they were making the strangest barks I'd ever heard in my life. They came running back to me with their tails between their legs and the hair standing straight up on their backs. I couldn't walk for them because they wouldn't get out from under my feet long enough. The dogs were so scared it was like they'd turned to me for help and was saying we can't do nothing with this one its your turn to protect us now. The barks coming from these brave _dogs mouths would make the hair stand up on your head and I knew there was something bad wrong. Here .I stood back in no man's land with a two cell flashlight, a 22 pistol, four scared to death dogs and not a human being within miles of me. It sure wouldn't do any good to scream for help because no one could hear me anyway. Well by this time I was pretty scared to and was . wondering what it could be that had my dogs so frightened. I st6od there for a few seconds wondering if I was going to be attack by some big hairy monster or what. I reckon we've all heard the tales of Bigfoot 􀍽nd it's never really been proven if this creature exists or not, but it sure got me to thinking if he does this is prime country for one. Let me tell you I didn't waste any 68 time getting down off that mountain and away from there. The second incident I had was way back on top of a big mountain not far from where I had my first encounter two years earlier. 􀅒hen I started out on this punting trip I was at the bottom of this big valley and I could see this big mountain five miles in the background. I thought to myself if I climb to the top of that mountain I'm sure to find the biggest bear 􀅓?at ever lived in these woods. So off I went ready to walk on this new ground. I'd walked about an hour when I heard my dogs barking, they ' d already treed something. Boy this sure got my adrenalin l pumping and [ I got into a faster gear hoping to see the biggest bear them woods could hold . Well the moon was shining just enough that I could see to walk without turning on my flashlight : The dogs were barking every breath and it was music to my ears. As I got closer to the dogs I started to slow down some so I could slip up on them because sometimes when the dogs are treed if they see you coming 􀅔 they're run back to you for a pat on the head for the good job they've done. When the dogs run back to you sometimes the bear will jump out of the tree and run off if this happens usually he won't tree again the rest of the night. I'd gotten close enough to start slipping into where the · dogs were treed and I looked around to where the dogs were barking and boy to my surprise I saw the biggest bear that had ever walked those mountains. It was sitting on the side of 􀅕his big oak tree and was about 30 foot from the ground. I was almost shaking in my sh􀅖es from the excitement and wondering if the little 22 pistol I had would kill this huge bear . Well my dogs had done their part so it was time for me to do mine so I kept slipping closer to the bear being ve'r'y careful not to let him see me. Finally I got within range for me to 􀅗ake a shot and I took a long deep breath because I didn't even want to breath when I took my shot. I aimed my 22 then turned on my flashlight so I could set my sights on his big red eyes, I like to shot them just above the two red eyes. Well ., 69 I had my light on him, but hey no eyes. Must have his back to me I thought and I started looking closer. Boy to my surprise this big black bear wasn't a bear at all, it was a bunion, a big knot on the side of the tree. Sure did a number on me, oh well I didn't want to fight this big monster anyway. I knew my dogs had something treed so I st.􀍾rted looking farther and I saw the red eyes shining towards me. I thought to myself those eyes are awful close together this couldn't be a bear. When i looked closer there set Mr. Coon looking down· at me. I patted my dogs on the head and told them they knew better then; to tree a coon and off we went again. I guess I'd walked another hour listening to my dogs bark every once and awhile and the hoot owls talking back and forth across the mountain tops. Seems like when the owls hear dogs barking they have to get in on the act trying to see which one can make the scariest sound. Sometimes those owls can sound pretty eerie and it will kind of make chills run up your back. Now I've walked up this mountain and it took me about two hours I guess and I'm kind of getting my second wind. About this time I heard one of my dogs bark, then in a few minutes another one started barking. I thought to myself they're going to jump up something. The moon was just giving off enough light I could s􀃰e _how to walk and I slowed my pace. All at once I heard something in the woods and I thought to myself is that one of my dogs, sure doesn't sound like a dog. All of a sudden a 300 pound bear jumped up on the side of a tree about 40 foot in front of me and was looking back down where the dogs were trailing him. A bear can tell whether dogs are after him or not that's why they jump on the side of a tree to $ee if the dogs are on his tracks. I stood real still, not moving a muscle .as: my dogs got closer and closer. The bear decided to climb higher in the tree, here comes my dogs barking every breath and went straight to the tree where the bear was. The dogs were so excited they didn't realize I was already there to. The bear climbed up the big tree to where it forked and stopped. His body was on the back 70 side of the tree and he stuck his head through the fork in the tree so I took a good aim and at 􀍿he c􀎀ack of the pistol the bear j ust rolled out of the tree. Sure got a good shot on him, there wasn't any fi ght left in him. There I a hankering to myself I I've got to stood wondering what to do because I still had to go to the top of this big mountain and I thought c, aI n't go back now ·after coming so close to the top go' on. I'll go to the top and have a look around then on my way back down I'll dress out about a hundred pounds of bear meat on my way home. So off I went me and my dogs to have a look around. About p half mile from the top of the mountain my dogs started j um1ping about in the trail and acting like they were going to kill something. They started barking and it was real scary, because I'd only heard them bark like this once before in my life. I knew by the sound of their voice we were in a heap of trouble. All at once something BIG tore around the mountain sounding like a bulldozer. The reason I say BIG is because you could hear the limbs breaking and the big rocks rolling and the ground was j arring from whatever this was running around the mountain. Here come my 􀎁ogs turning flips falling over each other to get back to me. They got right under my feet with they're tails between their legs and the hair sticking straight up on their backs. How far is a two cell flashlight going to shine with something that BIG tearing .down the side of the mountain. I decided there wasn't room for both of us up here and from the sound of whatever it was I knew it was bi gger than I was and I was going to move on. This was his home and I wasn't going to wait a􀎂ound and meet him so me and my dogs came down off that mountain faster than you can imagine. Like I said before I don't know if there's such a thing as Bigfoot, but if there is I've probably come close to meeting him. twice in my life and both times was back in no man's land where the forest is so big the sun can't hardly shine through. 71 l . t Chapter 18 Let me tell you this story about a good friend of mine. He grew up in the hills of Tennessee and North Carolina, but left them •when he w·as a young man and · moved to Akron, Ohio. He worked for ·one of the automotive factories there until he retired. His name is Leonard Phillips •and he always look􀅘d forward to visiting his brother Hardy Phillips. He liked to hunt and fish and he was a professional 0 when it came to telling a good hunting or fishing story. He wa9 raised mostly around Chestnut Branch at Mt. Sterling N. C. so he /knew his way around these mountains pretty well. I guess he got pretty wealthy while living in Ohio because he always bought the most expensive guns money could buy. I always had to have th􀅙 cheapest gun and a single shot at that. I always knew where there was plenty of squirrels so when he would come in to hunt we'd always go squirrel hunting. I use to get so ticked at him because when we got to where the squirrels were he'd always aim his gun and start shooting at them and they'd start running everywhere. I'd usually take my old cheap shotgun and kill a few squirrels and he'd miss. He would start cussing his gun something awful and threaten to wrap it around a tree. Then he'd come out with a few big cuss words and say, "When I get back to where I bought this __ __ gun I'm going to tell them __ __ something about their best - gun. They can shove it up their ___ . " He was awful upset for awhile, but he had a good time anyway. I'd try to explain to him how his gun was to good because his expensive gun shot such a good pattern he was missing the squirrels. My old cheap gun was , throwing such a pattern I could hit the squirrels by just aiming. He felt like my old $20. 00 1 2 gauge single shot gun was better than his $ 400.00 pump Winchester and would have traded with me, but I couldn't take advantage of him like that. As I got older and started hunting black bear he would ' I 72 • come in and go with me some. He sure enjoyed the outdoors and was a _good sportsman when it came to hunting and fishing. He was visiting with my niece Kathleen and her husband Harold Miller in the fall of 1 983 during hunttng season. At the age of 80 he still loved to go out and listen to the dogs I I run and talk to the hunters . One · morning Harold a􀂹d Leqnard got up around 5 A. M. to drive _ the 3 0 mi ],_es to whe􀂺e . we was camping and hunting. They had left -Harold's house and only drove a couple of miles when Leonard suffered a fatal heart attack. I I f { 73 I Chapter 19 I'm about to write you a story that took place 19 years ago. My good friend Hal Price and myself had planned to go bear hunting one night. We'd found an area where there was a 500 pound bear feeding and we was anxious to turn loose on it. This story takes place on October 17, 197 6 and Hal's wife Ba􀋎bara just happen to be pregnant at the time and was due any day . Hal had to work that morning and Barbara had got up and fixed his breakfast . Well just before Hal got ready to leave Barbara's w􀋏ter broke. She told him to go to work anyway that she'd be okay because she wasn't really hurting and if she needed him she'd call. It wasn't long till BarbaEa did start to hurt and as the hours passed she started to hurt worse so she decided to call Hal to come home and take her on to the hospital. Well the Waynesville Hospital was about 30 miles away and during the drive Hal was thinking about how he hoped this was over with before our hunting trip that night. Well they finally reached the hospital around four o'clock and Hal let Barbara out at the front door. Barbara told Hal she'd go on up to the third floor and get checked in while he was parking the car. This was their second baby and.she told Hal that it wouldn't take long because she knew what to expect this . time and could help herself better. All the "time Hal's listening to her he's thinking to himself, boy I sure hope your right because Junior and me has an important date with a bear tonight. Well here Hal is pacing the hospital floors and all that's on his mind is getting this over with so he can 'get back to his house to meet me. You see Hal and me always stuck by our word and if we told each other something that's what we meant. If we agreed to meet at a certain time we was both on time, not · 10 minutes late. We relied on each other and knew we could depend on one another for anything. So · here Hal sits checking his watch every few minutes and 74 wondering just how much longer this is going to be, after all Barbara herself said it. wouldn't take long. Time is running out and Hal knows if he's going to meet me as· planned something better start happening soon. He's also thinking it would be a lot easier on him passing the time hunting than. standing here looking out hospital windows. He said to himself, "Hunting is & lot less stressful then having. a bapy. How do I tell Barbara I want to leave and go hunting? I wonder if she'd understand just how important hunting is?''. He looked over at Barbara already hurting with pain and decided it was best not to tell her what was on his mind, after all she wouidn't understand the ordeal he was going through. To think thAt her husband was going hunting and leave her all alone in the hospital at a time like this. No, there's no way that she's going to let him do this if he tells her so it's best not to say anything. By now Hal was really walking the floors thinking to himself, how can I do this? Well Barbara's watching him and thinking to herself, poor Hal he's worried sick about me this time. Finally the stress of the hosp􀎃tal and the stress of waiting got the better of him and he knew if he was going to meet me on time it· was now or never. He told Barbara he was going to get him something to eat and he'd be back later. Well this worked and Barbara thought he was going just down the hall or outside for awhile. When the hospital door closed behind Hal he took off across the parking lot in a jog and headed for his Volkswagon thinking I've got just enough time to 􀎄et home and get my hunting gear together · before Junior gets there. Barbara will never miss me and if she does she'll understand after I tell her we killed a 50 0 pound be􀎅r. She'll sure be proud of me. Hal got home and saw that I hadn ' t got there yet so he hurried on into the house to get ready. I arrived a few minutes later and went on in the house. Hal was putting on his hunting boo􀎆s, I can see him now bent over in the chair, tying up his boots. He looked over at me and . said, "Well I just got back l l l 75 ( . l I I ' ' from taking Barbara to the hospital, she went into labor and it's time for the baby. :• Then he said, "I sure hope we get that bear tonight so I can tel l her we got a big one. " Wel l being a man thing I could understand why Hal would rather be hunting than sitting around the hospital so I never gave it another thought. We laughed and talked while he finished tying his boots. Then 11e went out and I loaded the dogs .and o.f f we went towards Flat Branch. We parked and led our dogs out the trail a little piece to where the bear had been feeding, but to our surprise the bear wasn't there. We went back to the truck and loaded the dogs back u􀎇 then went on down the road a few miles to where we figured the bear was. The bear had already been here and gone so we hurried up and reloaded the dogs and drove up the road for about 30 minutes before deciding to check the trail again. We parked the truck and went through this little gap in the ridge then turned our dogs loose. Wel l it wasn't 5 minutes until the bear race was on and those dogs were barking at the tops of their voices. They went on around the mountain, crossed the ridge, and then went around another mountain before they treed. We could tel l by their barking that they had treed him. , Hal and me started laughing and slapping each other on the backs bragging about what fine dogs we had. We went on around the mountain to where the dogs were treed. Boy, was we happy when we kil led that 500 pound bear. That bear was so heavy that when it fel l to the ground it made a sink hole. Hal laughed and said, "Wait till I tel l Barbara about this, she's going to be real, proud of us. " I laughed and said, "She sure wil l, by the way .reckon she ' s · missed you yet?" To this he answered, "Nay, I doubt it. Heck, it's only been 6 hours ' · since I left her, besides she was so wore out when I left her she probably fel l asleep. " Wel l getting back to Barbara, Hal was wrong she hadn't fel l asleep because shortly after he'd left the pain had gotten worse . The nurse ask Barbara if she wanted her to get Hal for 76 her and naturally Barbara told her yes. Well the nurse went out to the waiting room to find Hal, but he wasn't there so she paged him to come to Barbara's room. She went back to Barbara's room and told her he wasn't in the waiting room and she'd paged him, but he still hadn't showed up. Barbara told th􀎈 􀎉urse that he'd probably went to get him something to eat and would be back in a little while. Expecting Hal to walk in at any minute Barbara didn't give • ,_H much thought to his being gone. As time passed and the minutes turned into hours she began to get upset. As the hours passed the pains g,ot worse and she said to herself, "Hal Price when I get my ha.nds on you I' 11 kill you. " Barbara was very much aware of the fact that Hal was missing. At 9 : 30 P. M. Barbara had the baby, a 7 pound girl. She got back to her room and still no Hal and she said to herself, "I'll fix you Mr. Price, I'll not lay up here and suffer while your out having yourself a merry old time. " So she told her doctor the next morning she wanted him to do a sterilization operation on her because she wasn't having anymore ·babies. He tried to talk her out of it because Hal wasn't there to sign the papers to have it done. Barbara wasn't about to listen to him, after all he was a man to and naturally he's going to defend Hal. She told them to bring her the papers and she'd sign them. Well that's exactly what she did to, she'd made up her mind that she wasn't going to go through this ordeal alone, no never again would this happen to . her. While Barbara was doing all of this we had got our bear back to ·the house and skinned it out. After we finished with the bear I went home to get some rest before going to work that da􀎊 and Hal said he was going to take a nap before going back ' · to the hospital. Well Hal slept most of the day and by the time he cleaned up and got to the hospital nearly 24 hours had passed. You talk about one mad person, Barbara was furious by the time he got there. Hal approached her room with caution and Barbara said when he peeped around the door all she could see was one eye f f l r 77 and the corner of his head. She told him that he'd better not even think about coming into her room if he knew what was good for him. She also told him that she had listed his brother's name as father of the baby on the birth certificate. Then she informed him about her sterilization and how she ' d never ever , I have another baby for him. After this she ·told him how she'd really take great pleasure in killing him. Hal knew after hearing all of this that it was much easier dealing with a wild bear then a furious woman. Needless to say she never k􀋐lled him and he talked her into forgiving him and promised her nothing like this would ever happen again , that he'd· never put bear hunting before her, never. He sweet talked her into believing he was through with bear hunting , that Junior Ball would never lead him astray like that again. Well 3 days later when Barbara was ready to come home from the hospital ·she tried to call Hal several times to come after her. She never did get a hold of him so she finally had to call someone else to come and get her and take her home. Barbara said it was raining that day and it was awful cold and when she got home she had to get herself and the baby in the house along with the things she'd taken to the hospital and things she'd gotten while she was at the hospital. She was pretty wet and cold by the time she'd done all this so she went into the living room to sit down and get warm. There laid Hal , piled up on the couch asleep. Well Barbara got that killing instinct again , she demanded to know what he was doing piled up on the couch asleep in the middle of the day. Hal looked at her and said , ''Honey , Junior and me went hunting again last night and killed a 300 pound bear. " To this Barbara replied , "Who gives a shit , Hal.'1 As I said this story took place on October 17 , 197 6 and the daughter born to Hal and Barbara has grown up into a very beautiful young woman. They named her Stephanie and she loves the- outdoors. She was riding a horse even before she could walk and needless to say she was also bear hunting at a very early age. At 19 she still loves horseback riding and bear hunting. 78 • • Chapter• 20 Most of my stories starts off back when I was young , but this one took place February 4 , 1995 no􀅚 so long ago . Well to start with my face was dried out kind of like your skin gets during the winter mont􀅛s. Y􀅜u know how women are constantly rubbing hand and face cream on them all the time. Well a man ' s noi really into all these loti􀅝ns and creams, but occasionally some men will use a little hand cream . Anyway Helen was going to turn this spare room into a room for antique􀅞 and her sister Kathy had come over to help her hang the wallpaper . I had been in bed most of the day because I hadn't felt very good, but I decided to get up and visit with them a little while. I went in the bathroom and washed my face and looked in the mirror and saw my face was dried out even worse . then the day before. I said to myself, "I believe I ' ll use some of Helen's face cream and maybe my face will be better in the morning after leaving it on overnight. " L looked around and saw this little push dispenser of cream sitting there at the bathroom sink and I thought here ' s some cream right here I ' ll use some of it. I pumped me about 4 good squirts of cream out in my left hand and then I rubbed my two hands together. Then I took my two hands and started rubbing my face real good. Well I ' m looking in the bathroom mirror and my face becomes white. I thought to myself gee , that cream must be concentrated, guess I used to much. Then I thought , well the more I use the better it will be for my face so I kept rubbing. It took 4 or 5 minutes to get all that cream rubbed into my face and I said to myself, "Now I know why it takes a woman so long to get ready , it takes forever j ust to put their face cream on." Now I've got my face cream finally rubbed in I ' ll go visit with Kathy and Helen awhile and see if there's anything I can do to help them. Kathy told me as a matter of fact she could use a little help getting a cabinet off the wall so I helped 79 her get · the cabinet down. All the time we was taking the cabinet down Helen was warning us that we'd better not tear the back off of it because her dad had made that cabinet for her. They finished papering the wall and then Kathy left and went on home. The next morning we got up and Helen kept looking at me and asking me if I felt all right. I told her I reckoned I did. Finally she said well your face is awful red, what have ypu done to" ' cause that? I told her I hadn't done anything. We looked at it and it was almost blistered all over and peeling off like a sunburn. I thought to myself, I must have chapped it from the wind or; something. We kept discussing it and how it could have happened. Finally I said, " I don't know why my face is like this, the only thing I did was rub some of your face cream on it last night. " Helen said, "Where did you get it?" I said, " I used yours that was on the bathroom sink. " Well she kind of hid her face from me and I knew she was wanting to laugh, but afraid to. She finally composed herself long enough to say, "That explains it, you didn't use face cream you used liquid soap. " I said, Well no wonder I couldn't get it rubbed in, I thought it was concentrated face cream. " She couldn't keep a straight face any longer and she busted out laughing. Then I started laughing. That night when we was watching television a commercial came on about skin bracer after shave. The man slaps a little after shave on his face and then says, " Confidence is sexy, don't you think?" I said to Helen, "Well he needs to try some of my face cream and see how sexy he feels.· " For a coupl􀋑 of weeks every time that commercial came on we'd have ourselves a good laugh. I ' 80 I I Chapter 2 1 Easter Sunday 50 years ago how times change. Well when I was a kid Easter Sunday was such a great day to us in more ways than one. I can remember we would be able to buy one pack of dye for Easter •. I believe the:ite were about 5 or 6 t?-blets in a pack. We would take a coffee ,cup with warm water and vinegar 􀎋nd drop a color tablet in the cup. Then we would stir i􀎌" up until the pill had melted. We would take a egg and put it in the cup and roll it around and around until it was colored. It would usually take us a month to save eggs for Easter. Sure did stbp us from having eggs for breakfast. Easter Sunday finally rolled around and we would hide the eggs. We didn't try to break the eggs, but we sure was glad when one would accidentally get broke because we could eat it. Now they don't -think about eating them, their plastic eggs now. They hide candy, toys, and even money in them. Boy, if we'd had eggs like that I don't know what we'd have done. We'd never even heard of plastic eggs. This Easter we hid 300 eggs for the kids to find and I didn't see a one of those kids eat a egg. We also had a pinata for the kids and it was stuffed full of candy and toys. Back when I was growing up we'd never even heard of such a thing. If mom had of had one of them I'm sure she'd never let us take a stick and break it up. She would have put it up on the shelf for a beautiful decoration. As I said before, my how times have changed.