This is a repeat of a lot of things, but I want it all in one place.
In 1951 my parents decided to take a summer vacation to Maine, so they built a wood frame in the back of our '49 GMC pickup, and fastened an Army surplus tarp over it to make a camper. They dropped me off to stay with my grandmother in West Virginia and went on from there. I was about 4 years old. This picture must have been taken in the fall, after we all returned to Ohio, because you can still see the edge of the "camper" on the back of the truck. (neighbor's house in back)
My grandmother lived in a very small town, with I'd guess no more than twenty families at that time. It was on a county road running alongside a river called Sugar Creek. There was one small business---Hadley's General Store/Post Office. I don't think it even offered gasoline. The store burned down many years ago, and I've not been able to find a picture of it. There was one paved side road, called Hog Run, that crossed the river at the store, and went up the "driver's side" of a valley. My grandmother lived on this side road... well...sort of.
Hog Run - Bridge over Sugar Creek (2007)
This part of West Virginia has a lot of hills. Large stretches of most roads were cut out of the sides of the hills, and it seemed impossible to build a house near the road on those stretches, but many did. It was only a 150 mile trip there from Ohio, but took 5 hours to drive, and the last 20 miles was the worst. It seemed like I got car sick as a kid as soon as we crossed the WV line due to winding roads. My mother said it was all in my mind, but regardless, not a good start for a family visit.
My grandmother had about an acre of land, which might be described as "vertically challenged" (U-shaped). It ran up a very steep hill to the road in the front, and up another steep hill, on the opposite side of the valley, in the back, bordering partly on an old cemetery that belonged to the Methodist church next door. The house sat at the bottom of the U. I'm not sure how long my grandmother lived in this house, I think not more than ten years. It was not the house my father and his siblings grew up in.
Between the front of the house and the main road, was a small creek that ran back down the valley toward the store. The only way to get to the house by car was across a little bridge, then across a field that belonged to the church. The cluster of white buildings in this picture is where her old house used to be.
The church was rather central to all stories about this place, because you couldn't go anywhere without passing it, and it is one of the few buildings that has basically never changed. One of my uncles from Ohio liked to drink beer, and when his family would visit my grandmother for a weekend, he would always bring a case of beer in the trunk of his car. Members of the church found out about this and objected to his driving across their property. I never heard how that finally turned out, but it was a big topic of discussion on a later visit.
Between the creek and the main road was a narrow driveway cut out of the side of the hill, leading to an old garage. If you drove in that way, you had to walk a narrow board across the creek to get to the house, and when you left you had to back the car out. It's a good thing folks didn't do a lot of grocery shopping back then, especially for beer.
There were at least 3 smaller houses, all with U-shaped lots, on up the creek, and there was NO way to get to them by car, so a walking path was made alongside the creek, that went across everyone's property ending near the church. It was made of large flat stones likely pried up from the bottom of the creek in the dry season. Strangers (to me) would occasionally walk by in front of the house. I wish I had asked someone where those folks kept their cars. Maybe they didn't have any.
This little valley ran North/South, so the sun didn't appear until very late morning, and disappeared early. The dew hardly got a chance to dry off the grass, and there was rarely any air moving at the bottom of the U. In the summer it was always hot, humid, and damp. It seemed like the whole place had a smell of natural gas from old rusty outdoor gas lines.
There was no way to control the weeds and brush because of the lay of the land. All but a little area around the house, and the garden, was overgrown. They needed some goats, but that would have required a fence. Most of my time on this visit in 1951 was spent wandering around the small yard, or inside the house, by myself.
More later....
