MOUNTAIN MEMORIES OF WEST VIRGINIA

By

Barbara Sims

As I reflect back on my childhood days in the mountains of West Virginia, I realize that it was a wonderful time in my life. I'm reminded of a slower pace and how much happier people seemed to be. Yes, times were certainly different then. Children could just be kids and do the things that bring joy to childhood and leave happy memories. Of course we were taught values, manners and what close family relationships and respect for our elders meant. Learning responsibility started very early. And for that I am truly thankful.

Our playgrounds was the coal dirt road that was in front of our house on coke row in Pageton, the railroad tracks, the Coke Ovens and in the mountains at the back of our house, I remember my Sister Nancy and I, and our friends, we loved to play on the slate dump and pick blackberries all over the mountains. Our mother would tell us to be careful of Miners Cracks and snake holes, we used to swing on the grapevines in the mountains, and never even thought of being afraid, and we always had plenty of friends. And everyone knew everybody; we made up our own games Tin can alley. Go Sheepy Go, Hot tail, Bunny Hop, Hop Scotch, Red Rover, Paper dolls, Jack rocks, and many more.

 How I wish that children today could experience some of the simple joys we knew then. Mothers stayed home and took care of the home and the kids, and Fathers was the only one to work. Everyone had the same Mommy and Daddy, no divorces, I never heard the word until I married and left home.

I remember only Good Times in the 50’s with my friends, There was June, Connie, Betty, Gloria, Frances, Dickie Joe, Danny, Paul, Carl, Fred, I can’t even begin to name them all, it would take more than the pages here. But these were special friends.  I remember my sister Nancy and I  going to June Lovelace’s and Betty Helmandollars house and  dancing, which wasn’t allowed at our house., our Dad was really strict when it came to anything that he thought was a sin. No dancing, playing cards were allowed. On the weekends there were times when I’d go to Chilhowie, VA with June and Connie Lovelace to their Grandmothers house, and we’d go Roller skating, and to Hungry Mothers Park and being teenagers in the 50s was a great time. I loved going with June and Connie to Chilhowie, which was a special time.  Of course we liked looking at the cute boys too, one in particular was Ambers Haga, and he could roller skate, and that’s what I liked to do.

I remember the summer of 1956, when it was so hot, when a bunch of us wanted to go swimming, and there was a special swimming hole that we used to go to on Elkhorn Mountain,  It was where the Pageton Methodist Church used to baptize their members and that’s where we were suppose to go, it was called the Baptizing hole, however one of the boys, Fred Boggs or Danny Dillon mentioned, lets go to the Dam, so we walked to the Crosier Dam, and  the walk from Pageton may have been 3-4 miles.  When we got there I had noticed not too far from the area we were at, was a Man and boy fishing, and I thought at the time, we were going to make too much noise for him to catch any fish. But as kids, we jumped in the water, and was playing around, and Danny said lets go to the other side, we all started to the other side. I realized that I couldn’t move my legs, and the rest of them were already there. I panicked, and called out HELP, but they thought I was playing and started laughing and telling me to come on, I remember Danny started to come out there, but Fred said she’s going to dunk you when you get there and he turned and went back    it seemed to me I had gone down  and up more than 3 times, I kept hollering HELP, and the next thing I knew, Someone grabbed me, and I was fighting him, and he slapped me to calm me down. I remember seeing his face, and it looked like my Grandpa, who was blind. And my Grandpa was already dead. He carried me out of the water onto the side, and He told me “Don’t you go back into the water”, I realized then that the Man who pulled me out of Crosier Dam, a Dam that had no bottom to it, that’s what we had always heard. Was Tom Lovelace, He was the man fishing there with his son Tommy and June and Connie’s Dad. He said to me you’re Steve Sims’ girl aren’t’ you?  I  shook my head yes,  He said you kids have no business being up here without an Adult, this is a dangerous place to swim, and I’ll bet your Mom and Dad don’t know that you’re here.. I remember telling him “Mr. Lovelace, please don’t tell Daddy”. He said you kids should go home.

The Kids started playing in the water again, and I wanted to go back in, and my sister Nancy, was almost in tears telling me not to go back in, so I didn’t go back in, and probably if I had gone in, I could swim today, but I can’t, and of course Mr. Lovelace and Tommy stopped by the Pump House on their way home, where my Daddy worked, and told Daddy he had to pull his daughter out of Crosier Dam,.  When Daddy come home from work, I wasn’t home, and Mr. Lovelace didn’t say which kid it was so I don’t know why Daddy thought it was my sister Patty., but he bawled Patty out and Patty told him it wasn’t her it was me, He didn’t say anything else until I got home, and he said, I don’t want to catch you in any water over a cup full. He said if Tom Lovelace hadn’t taken his son Tommy fishing, you would have drowned. Everyone in the family from that day forward never let me forget that. And I always thought of Mr. Lovelace as MY HERO. And that’s a memory that will always be with me

I can see and remember all the good times back home in West Virginia. Walking the country roads, riding up the hollers,  sitting on the front porch in the swing, breaking green beans with our Mother, watching  trees fall when lightning struck them,  hearing the tipple running all day and listening to the whistle blow in the morning, lunch and time to get off work, waiting for the mail truck to pass the house so we could walk to the Post Office. 

Thank God for all those memories, because no one can ever take those from me and whenever I am lonely and homesick for the Mountains,. I can go back, if only for a little while on the West Virginia Websites and the memories come back.

"I've come to realize, after many years, If you're born in McDowell County it seems as if it becomes part of you and you're never the same living anywhere else. You can take the girl out of the Country, but you can’t take the Country out of the girl.  It’s always there with you.

I have lived in several States and different Countries, and I still think the country roads of West Virginia are beautiful.

I realized how fortunate I am. Truly blessed by God growing up where you could hear the sound of whippoorwills and crickets. And catching Lightning bugs and taking the light out and putting on our fingers for rings. And to tie a string on a June Bug and  let it fly around making a buzzing noise. The Coal camp children knew how to have fun the W.VA. Way..

 In my senior yearbook, beside my picture says “This little Kitty plans to move to a big city” Well that I have done, and my heart still belongs to the hills of West Virginia. I have a lot of wonderful memories of Southern West Virginia, and especially McDowell County.

West Virginia, maybe it was the original Garden of Eden."

Barbara Sims