In the evening we would listen to radio for entertainment. Some favorite programs were Grand Old Opry “Our Miss Brooks”, Bob Hope, Amos and Andy, Henry Aldrich and Edward R Murrow.

In ever family or community there is a person that we try to keep out of sight. We take care of this person, but we are sometimes embarrassed by their presence. We in Elkridge had such a person and everyone remembers him as the “peanut butter man”. His name was Herb, he lived at the head of the holler. Herb was a middle aged man who most likely had a mental disorder. He walked everywhere in the cold of winter or the heat of summer in an old army overcoat, he had a relative in the army who probably gave him this coat. Herb always had a jar of peanut butter and a loaf of bread with him. He was neither friendly nor unfriendly; he would just grunt something and go on his way. He was teased by us kids, but we never harmed him in any way. People would report seeing Herb walking the roads of other coal camps or the streets of Montgomery, but mostly he walked up and down the dirt road that was the main street of Elkridge.

Mother and Dad had 12 children. I am number 7. I grew to appreciate being in the middle, because sometimes I got the attention of my older sisters. Daddy started working in the coal mines when he was just a kid. When he was 10 or 11 his Dad died and all of the kids had to go to work and help support the family. Dad went to work as a breaker boy at the coal mines in Elkridge. Dad charmed my Mother so much that they eloped on Christmas Eve. I can’t imagine that my Mother had enough nerve to do that. I always smile when I think about it. Daddy’s job was dangerous. As a kid I didn’t realize or appreciate his hard work. Now, I wonder how he worked so long in the mines. Daddy was on the Safety Team for many years. Mother’s job was a hard one too, so many kids to feed, cloth and take care of. I can still almost taste the hot biscuits and gravy we had so many mornings. Mom always had breakfast on the table when we went got up. It is still a mystery to me how she knew the old coal stove was hot enough and would stay hot enough to bake. When she washed clothes in the winter, she had to hang them inside to dry. As a teen, I spent a lot of time attending youth meetings at our Church of God, Girl Scouts, and choir practice at church. Then once a year we had “Sadie Hawkins Day”, on this day the girls got to invite the boys to a party. I was on the Safety Team for a couple of years. Safety Day was a biggie. Teams would get together at Montgomery and compete for prizes. Each team was given a different situation where some was hurt. The team would have to figure out the treatment and see who could finish their treatment the quickest. With the Judges watching one of the things we had to do, that is so funny to me now, is: when we had a problem that required we apply heat to a patient, we would wrap a brick in a towel and we were supposed to say “first test” and touch the brick. Then we would say “second test” and touch the brick to out cheek. Then we would say “applying heat Judge”. Try saying that very fast and see what it sounds like. It’s funny. Good thing the judge knew what we were supposed to say.

I remember one day when my Mother was sick and my older sisters Margaret and Helen was in charge of the house and kids. I went home from school for lunch and my hair was giving me fits, it was in my eyes etc... While I was eating, I kept asking my sisters to plait my hair. The kept giving me excuses why they could not plait my hair, but finally they decided to plait my hair. I could not see what they were doing until they finished. They had braided my hair into tiny braids. I cried. Today, I might be in style with my hair do, but back then they had to take the braids out before I went back to school. The best part was they tied all of those braids with sewing thread….so it took them a long time to undo the mess.

We never went far from home. We went to grade school in Elkridge; we had 2 grades to a room. We rode the bus 11 miles to Montgomery for Jr. and Sr. High School. That was a big thrill, but I was so afraid that I would get lost in that big city. We bought about everything we had at the company store. The mining company saw to that by having their own money called “scrip”. We could spend scrip there but no where else for face value. Scrip was issued in advance of payday and was deducted from Daddy’s pay check. I remember one year the company gave Daddy a hundred dollars at vacation time; we could spend it wherever we wanted because it was in U S dollars. I thought we were rich. My brothers made some interesting toys to keep them busy. One was a “rubber gun”. They shot each other with rubber bands made from inner tubes. They also shot me and my backside still burns just thinking about their rubber bands hitting me. The boys would also take a stick the width of the rail road track, put small wheels on each end and roll their contraption on the rail road. We girls would play jack rocks, hide and seek and similar games.

As I grow older I realize how hard my parents worked for us. I have learned to appreciate all they did for us. I think we are better people for growing up the way we did. We were taught to respect our property as well as the property of others.

All your days started early each morning …getting up to start a fire in your coal stove to get breakfast for Dad and get him off to work at the Koppers Coal Company mine, and then maybe, have time for a cup of coffee before waking us kids up to get ready for school. You always had a hot breakfast ready and waiting for us. Sometimes it was Cream of Wheat and biscuits or oats. And all of us remember your biscuits and gravy. YUM, I can just taste them now. Your day was filled with so many things that you id for us. I can’t imagine how you washed our clothes in that old wringer washer after carrying the water and heating it on the stove or catching rain water. The boys carried the water and I am sure you did some of it. Another thing I have wondered about is how you knew when the old coal stove was hot enough to bake all those biscuits. I’ll bet you could make them with your eyes closed you made so many. Sometimes they didn’t rise like you wanted them to, and you always said. “That old baking powder was too old” we ate them anyway. Life was hard for you and Dad also. But I felt secure knowing you were always there. Each day after school, we’d come home and the first thing we would look for you. And when all was well with you there no matter if we had a bad day or what. I can remember one time I hid under the house from you. Don’t know if I was more afraid of you or the spiders and bugs or snakes. You had told me to watch one of the younger ones in our yard because you had something to do, but you said I was to stay in the yard and watch who ever it was. Well I heard some kids out playing up near the tipple in a space where sometimes they store coal and I took off. They wear all laughing and having fun and I ignored my baby sitting and pretty soon you were there and the little one was walking all over and I wasn’t watching him/her. You sent me home and I took off running and hid under the old house. You kept telling me to come out and I kept saying no, you will whip me. I finally did come out and don’t remember what my punishment was, but don’t think it was a whipping as I had learned a lesson. I am sure all of us have good memories. You were a great Mom. You gave us all you had every day. So it is with love and respect we wish you a HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY. It would be wonderful if we could all get together this day, to be together and enjoy once again your biscuits and gravy.

I WOKE UP REAL EARLY THIS MORNING, AND REMEMBERED THAT TODAY WAS YOUR BIRTHDAY. I COULDN’T GET BACK TO SLEEP, SO I THOUGHT I WOULD WRITE A FEW THINGS THAT I REMEMBERED WHEN GROWING UP IN A LARGE FAMILY LIKE OURS. I’LL BET WHEN YOU TALKED OUR MOTHER INTO ELOPING WITH YOU ON CHRISTMAS EVE, YOU NEVER THOUGHT OF HAVING SO MANY KIDS. IT ALWAYS AMAZES ME THAT MOTHER AGREED TO ELOPE, BUT I GUESS YOUR CHARM WON OUT.

I CAN’T BEGIN TO REALIZE HOW YOU FELT WHEN GOING INTO THE COAL MINES AT SUCH A YOUNG AGE. WERE YOU 10 OR 11? YOU MUST HAVE BEEN SCARED BEING DOWN IN THOSE MINES CRAWLING AROUND WORKING. I DON’T THINK I WOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO BREATH MUCH LESS WORK. BUT YOU DID WORK IN THE MINES TO MAKE A LIVING FOR ALL OF US. AS A KID I NEVER REALIZED HOW DANGEROUS IT WAS, OR HOW HARD YOU HAD TO WORK.

IT TOOK ME MANY YEARS TO FIGURE OUT THAT WHEN YOU DRANK ON THE WEEKENDS, THAT IT WAS A WAY OF RELEASE FROM ALL THE MANY HOURS YOU SPENT DOING THE WORK THAT PUT FOOD ON OUR TABLE. THOSE WEEKENDS WERE NOT FUN FOR MOTHER AND US KIDS, BUT I GUESS YOU NEEDED IT. MANY SATURDAY NIGHTS I REMEMBER IN BED, LISTENING TO THE “GRAND OLE OPRY” AND HEARING YOU PLAY YOUR FRENCH HARP. SOMETIMES YOU DID QUITE GOOD……..OTHER TIMES NAH……

I CAN STILL HEAR YOU WINDING THE OLD CLOCK, WHICH WAS ABOUT 9 O’CLOCK, AND KNEW THAT ALL OF US HAD TO GO TO BED, WEATHER WE WANTED TO OR NOT. BUT I NOW KNOW THAT YOU NEEDED SLEEP AND REST.

WHO COULD FORGET THE “BLUE BANISTERS” YOU PAINTED ON OUR HOUSE AT ELKRIDGE? BUT YOU WANTED TO PAINT THEM, AND THAT’S ALL THE PAINT WE HAD, SO THEY TURNED OUT BLUE. DON’T KNOW IF THE REST OF THE HOUSE WAS PAINTED OR NOT, DON’T THINK SO, BUT WE WERE THE FAMILY WITH THE BLUE BANISTERS…..

REMEMBER THE YEAR WE HAD THE TURKEY AND YOU AND MOTHER WAS GOING TO KILL IT AND HAVE IT FOR THANKSGIVING, AND THEN YOU DECIDED TO WAIT TILL CHRISTMAS. YOU SAID IT WOULD BE MUCH BIGGER BY THEN, SO BEFORE CHRISTMAS THAT CRAZY BIRD DIED.

DID WE EVER HAVE A CELEBRATION FOR YOU BIRTHDAY? DON’T REMEMBER A CAKE OR NOTHING.

I DON’T REMEMBER THAT YOU CALLED ME BY MY NAME, BUT YOU DID CALL ME “GIRL” AND WHEN YOU DID THAT I KNEW I’D BETTER LISTEN. DON’T REMEMBER YOU EVER SPANKING ME OR ANY THING LIKE THAT, BUT YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO, THAT WORD AND THE WAY YOU SAID IT, SHAPED ME UP.

I REMEMBER OUR FIRST TELEPHONE. HAROLD, JIM, AND BUCKIE HAD THAT GAS STATION ON FAYETTE PIKE, AND YOU WAS ON YOUR WAY TO WORK ONE DAY AND STOPPED BY THERE. YOU SAID “WE GOT A PHONE TODAY” AND JIM SAID, “GREAT, WHAT IS YOUR PHONE NUMBER, I’LL CALL MOM”. YOU SAID, “DON’T KNOW BUT IT’S A LONG AND A SHORT”. WE ALL LAUGHED, THINK YOU DID TOO.

IF I AM RIGHT, YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN 111 YEARS OLD TODAY. WOW!! YOU WAS QUITE A MAN. TAUGHT US TO BE HONEST, AND BY EXAMPLE WORK HARD AND THOUGH YOU NEVER TOLD ME, I KNOW YOU LOVED ALL OF US.

I REMEMBER GOING INTO YOUR HOSPITAL ROOM AT MONTGOMERY, AND YOU SAID, “I DID SOMETHING TODAY THAT ALL YOU KIDS SHOULD DO” AND I SAID WHAT, AND YOU SAID, “THE PREACHER CAME DOWN AND BAPTIZED ME”. I AM SO THANKFUL FOR THAT, AND KNOW THAT WE WILL ALL BE TOGETHER AGAIN, AND WHEN THAT HAPPENS, WE WILL ALL SING, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY.

Raymond Bobbitt; I grew up in the coal fields at Elkridge. I never worked in the coal mines but I did taste the coal dust. I grew up as one 1 of 11 children and sometimes things were tight, but my parents William and Grace Bobbitt gave me life and always their love. My parents gave their all for their children to go to school and become an upstanding person, and we all became upstanding people. We did not have much money, but we always had each other.

In 1983 we built a house on the Kanawha River in Winfield, WV. I retired (31 years) from Union Carbide. We enjoy our life on the river. Our hobbies are walking and painting landscapes and spoiling our grandson Josh.

We were all in the same boat. We had some rough times but we always had each other and we all came threw it OK.

For more information contact Raymond Bobbitt

I was born and raised in Elkridge, WVA. I was the daughter of John Thomas (Tom) Barnhouse and Nina Angus Barnhouse. They had 5 children, John William (Jimmy), me, George Thomas (Dickie), Lawrence Martin (Penny), and Helen. My father worked in the coal mine and was killed in a coal mine accident in 1929. He was killed when a kettlebottom fell on top of him. He was 39. He was working that day with Johnny Lowe. Johnny heard the falling debris and hollered at Tom to run. Johnny ran and got under the coal cutting machine that my dad worked on, but my father did not have time to react. They brought his body to our home and later he was buried on a hilltop next to my baby brother, 'Penny' who had died at age 3 from food poisoning. Johnny Lowe had told his wife that if anything ever happened to him, he wanted to be buried by Tom. Johnny Lowe died in a train explosion in Powellton. He is buried on the hillside next to my Dad.

We moved to Elkridge in winter of 1936. We were a poor family, like most. Dad had been a soldier in WW1 and jobs were hard to find, especially for one with no education, He went to work for Koppers Coal Company. The pay was low and work hard. Most houses were built with rough lumber and they were cold in winter. No insulation. Only house available was at the end left hand fork of Equal Forks. A three room house, no yard, no electricity or water. It was hard times with 9 people in a small house. Mom, Dad, Grandma, Aunt, and 5 kids. Getting food and necessities it was closer for dad to catch the man-trip to McDunn company store than the one in Elkridge. (For ones who don't know, man-trip is a motor with cars for hauling workers and since #7 mine dumped in McDunn a lot of workers were from there. Shaft went through two mountains before entry on Elkridge side where coal was extracted.) Going to school was very difficult since there were no roads, just a path through the woods. It was almost impossible to attend during the winter. We had to cross the creek several times, since it meandered. No foot logs wade or step on rocks. If frozen not bad if we'd had proper clothes, but that we didn't have. I remember first day at Equal Forks School. I was scared to death of the teacher. She looked very stern with her black bobbed hair and black long skirt and no smile, but as I soon learned she was so very kind. She may have been just as scared as I. The school building wasn't built much better than the houses. A large room with cloak room, a large pot-bellied stove in a back corner. Four rows of desk for 8 grades. We were allowed to warm our feet before going to our desk. Koppers built a large swimming pool just below school house. We thought it was great, but you didn't stay in the water very long. It was so cold. The water was from an abandoned mine shaft. Over all I will have to say Elkridge was not a bad place to live.

I do not remember very much before my teen years. Virginia Lee, Uncle Tom’s daughter, and I became very close. She is 2 years younger than me. We used to play on the mountain in front of and back of the home. There was a creek between the house and mountain and we played in it when we were not on the hill. I am surprised we did not get bitten by snakes of which I am deathly afraid of now. I remember my mother ironing in the dining room and one appeared in front of her. I don’t know why I am so afraid of them now. I was at Cypress Gardens a few years ago and a man had one around his neck and I walked up close before I realized it. I went to the office and told them if I had a heart attack by that kind of exhibition my husband would sue them!!

Virginia Lee and I used to play in the snow until we were nearly frozen. They lived on the hill and had a nice place to sleigh ride. I came down one time and hit the side of a little bridge and told them I did not want to die with my boots on!!

Virginia Lee and I helped Aunt Emogene at the boarding house across from the company store and we thought we were real grown up, flirting with the boarders. We used to sneak up to the church building that was built up off the ground and go under it and smoke cigarettes. In 1941, one of the boarders and Louise had been dating awhile and got married. Jim Sleboda was one of the sweetest men I had known and he immediately stole my and Louise’s hearts. They got married and moved in to the home place. He was drafted into the army. While he was in Watertown, N.Y. Louise took Virginia and I to see him. Watertown was an army town; Virginia and I were not allowed to even go to the hotel lobby without them. Jim was discharged after the war. He was wonderful to me and later to the grandchildren. They loved him. Louise died in 1976 and Jim died in 1982. They left a big void in our lives.

We walked to the movie theater in Powellton. Coming home we saw what we thought was a ghost several times and no one would believe us. Some boys may have been trying to scare us.

When our children complained about walking we told them about us having to walk to school about a mile in the snow. The only school bus was to Montgomery Junior and High schools. One thing that stands out about going to High school was going to a drug store and getting soup for lunch. Bernice (Peto) Nutter made the remark” every time I eat hot soup, my nose starts running”. She and I used to lie on the bed by a window and make figures out of the clouds. In high school a group of us hung out together; 2 of the boys access to a car. One of the girls, Hilda McClung’s mother always had a coffee pot going and we learned to drink coffee. We thought we were something running around with a coffee cup in our hands.

After graduating from high school in 1945, I went to Blytheville, Arkansas, to my live with my Aunts, Carrie and Lola. I went to work for the Army Air Corps at the Army air base in Blytheville. When the war was about over, they told us if we heard sirens going off, we would not have to come into work the next day. The next day the siren sounded and World War two WW2 was over. I quit my job and went to beauty school. Next door to the beauty school a Marine, Charles Vickers, was visiting his foster father. He found out who I was and asked a friend to introduce us. We had a blind date at a steak house and that was the beginning of the rest of my life. My mother owned a beauty shop in Montgomery and when I finished my beauty school I went back to WV and started working with her. Charles was stationed at Cherry Point, NC and he started coming to WV on weekends. We got married August 3, 1947, and took a month honeymooning, mostly in Michigan. We made the Marines our career. Charles served in Korea; we retired from the Marines in 1961. We had 4 children and live in Arlington VA.

For more information contact Betty Vickers

My name is Helen Farthing Lilly. I was the eighth child of the Farthing Family. Here are the things I remember most. Riding down the slate dump on cardboard boxes. Being quarantined when we had the Whooping Cough and the Doctor coming to the house to give us shots. Playing ball under the one and only street light that there was with Tommy, Ray, and Gary Wayne Redman. I always enjoyed going to the ball field on May 1st and wrapping the May Pole. Swimming in the creek. Playing dolls in the woods. Eating Paws Paws and Beechnuts. Picking up coal along the railroad tracks after the train went out of the hollow. One room school houses. Outside toilets, the people. I could go on and on. All I know is that is was a good life and I loved it.

For more information contact Helen Farthing

Memories Rosemary Farthing

I remember Mom and Dad's love for each other. I remember how excited they were with their first Grandchild. I remember Daddy’s love for his Mother and his Mother living with us until she died. I remember my brother Woodie going away to service during World War 2. In the early 30’s I remember the big flood, and after the water went down, we had to scrub everything with lye soap. I remember a big snow storm and the snow came up to my waist. My best memory was the delicious evening meals that Mom would have ready when Dad came home from work. We lived close to the mine and Daddy walked home after work. He was as black as coal. When he came into the yard our family cat would be on the roof of our coal house, Daddy would put him on his shoulder and carry him to the porch. I remember washing clothes by hand and then hanging the clothes on the clothes lines. Mom made all of our clothes. We always got new shoes when school started. We walked home from school and sometimes the train would be sitting so we could not cross the tracks to get to the house, the men in the engine would blow out steam from the engine and scare us. On some Saturday nights at the Boy Scout house they would have a dance, all the boys and girls would gather, we had a real good time. We were allowed to stay out past 9:00. In the summer it would be so hot and humid, we would walk to the big coal company swimming pool, the water came directly from the mine into the swimming pool and it was always cold water. Sometimes we would go swimming in the Churn Hole which was in the creek and the water was not cold, the churn hole was closer to home. We would walk home in time for supper, boy it was double good because we were so hungry.

My saddest memory was my Daddy’s death and how broken hearted my Mother was. We were living in company housing and we had to move because Daddy no longer for the company. We moved back to Crab Orchard where we lived before coming to Elkridge and life went on. Quindora and I were working in Ohio when we got the word that Daddy was very ill, we came home that evening. Doctor Davis, the company Doctor, and the Pastor of our church Tom Kincaid were there. We were all there except Woodie, who was in service and we sent word to him. We would all sit around the fireplace in the room next to the room where Daddy was. Doctor Davis came the next morning and went in to see Daddy. Doctor Davis came out and shut the door. We knew it was bad. It was about 10:10 when Doctor Davis told us that Daddy was dead. Everything after that is a blur. Woodie was very upset when he arrived home later that morning and Daddy was already dead. Pastor Kincaid came in the evening after work to see if all were okay. After the funeral we returned to our daily lives and life went on, each with our own thoughts.

For more information contact Rosemary Farthing

Some of the special memories I have of my home and the Elkridge community. Koppers Coal Company always delivered Christmas treats of nuts, tangerines, apples, hard and ribbon candy. On July the 4^th they delivered ice cream cones and ice cream packed in dry ice. As an on going project each year they gave prizes for the best yard. Mom won first place several years. We had a water pump near our house that was maintained by the coal company. We kept rain barrels to catch the water that drained from the roof after a rain. We used the rain water for bathing and washing clothes. We had a vegetable garden. Canning was a big part of summer work. Berries were picked and jelly was made. We canned jelly and vegetables to last the winter. We always had a pig. When the first cold spell came we killed and butchered the pig. Bacon and tenderloin was plentiful. We grounded the meat and made sausage patties that were fried and canned. I still don’t care for sausage. We salted down the ham; Mom cooked the head and made a pudding that was sliced and fixed for breakfast. Mom rendered the fat and made lye soap. We used the soap in chunks, added rain water from the rain barrel and had shampoo. The boys made a football out of the bladder. Mom did a lot of sewing-she made most of our clothes, made curtains and quilts. She did a lot of sewing for the community. We played a lot in the woods above our house. We would collect walnuts, butternuts and beechnuts, and put them on the roof of our house to dry.

Papaws are a fruit sometimes called the West Virginia banana. They grew wild and were popular with the wild life. Deer would not eat papaws from the tree but they were OK on the ground. When you beat the wild life to the growth you had plenty free fruit.

I was in the Girl Scouts. I still have my uniform and sash. We had mini camp outs with the Girl Scouts. On Memorial Day the American Legion would make crosses and place them on the lot near Shadids Mercantile. My family would take roses from our garden and the Girl Scouts would use them to decorate the crosses. Someone would always make a patriotic speech. The bugler would play TAPS and many would get goose bumps on their arms. I was a member of the First Aid Team and we won first place on Safety Day at Montgomery. In the summer we went to a Camp Thomas E Lightfoot sponsored by the coal company. Going to the company swimming pool was lots of fun in the summer. The football coach at Montgomery High School was the life guard.

I loved going to church and singing. I always wanted to be happy in the Lord like Grandma Mitchell. She could shout “Glory”, “Glory”, “Glory”, and I felt God was near our church because of her. One summer we had Bible School at Equal Forks, a little past the company swimming pool. We would walk up and back each morning. In high school I wanted to go to the parties and ball games. I delivered the Charleston Daily Mail newspaper after school daily, and the Montgomery Herald weekly newspaper on Thursday and the “Grit” on Saturdays to earn money. I would spend the night with my sister Jeanette in Montgomery after the games. Sometimes the boys from Smithers would take me and my friend Charlotte Lundy home after the game.

I remember well the sap sucker trucks that came and cleaned out the outhouses. There was a swimming hole about half way between the company store and the company swimming pool, called the churn hole. One year they dumped the sap sucker in the churn hole and we could not swim in it all summer.

I lived in the orchard between 1938 and 1940. An art company sent pictures for you draw and send back to see if you were good enough to sign up for an art course. Charley Farley was good at drawing pictures. Charlie drew some of the pictures from the art school on the coal cars. During the summer we had to go to the woods to find trees to make kindling wood to start fires in the cook stove and grate in the winter. We slid dead popular, oak, chestnut trees off the mountain to use for winter wood. Also we had to carry water from the pump for Mom to wash clothes. I remember a beer joint further down the road from where Hubert Dawson lived. A lot of guys from Elkridge went there. One of the Redman boys got into a fight about every time he went there. Almost every Saturday Night a few of the boys and girls from Elkridge would walk to the movies in Powellton and then walk back. Sometimes we walked the railroad track; it was hard to see the ties in the dark.

I remember the coal lot below the company store. They stored coal there to fill their orders in case there was a strike.

Our division's first attack was on June 21, 1944. I was wounded that evening. We were to knock out a pill box that was sitting on high ground. We were in a grove of trees. From there we had to cross a tank pit and then through a barbwire entanglement. We made that alright and then shooting started and everybody hit the ground. While I was lying there facing the pill box, my arms were above my head and my left arm jerked. I tried to move it but the pain wouldn't let me. I just lay there. It was not until after dark that I heard someone walking around. A combat medic came up to me and touched my back. I did not move because I did not know who it was. As he started to walk away, I raised my head and saw the Red Cross on his left arm. I called to him; he came back and cut the shirt sleeve. I learned I had a hole through my arm about two inches from my elbow. The medic put a bandage on my arm and told me to lay still while he checked the area for more soldiers. In a short time he came back and took me over to a hedgerow where another soldier was on a stretcher. The soldier had been hit three times. We stayed at the hedgerow the rest of the night. While I was there I reached for my canteen to get a drink of water and found a hole through the middle of my canteen. We were there until daylight when the medic to find a jeep to take the wounded soldier on the stretcher to the field hospital. My arm was fixed and I was sent to England to a general hospital. I was there until September when I returned my outfit. We were sent to Germany. We were in a house in Germany one night; two of us were standing in a hallway talking when a shell exploded outside. A piece of shrapnel came through the door and hit the other soldier in the right thigh. Another time we were attacking a town and some of us were in a building where floor tile was manufactured. One soldier standing beside me said “ouch”! I asked him what the matter was. He said he had been hit. I didn't see any blood so I said where. He showed me a dark spot on his left wrist, a spent bullet was just under the skin. The bullet had hit the bone but there was not enough power to go through so it was sticking in the bone just under the skin.

I returned to the states and was released from the Army in June of 46. In January 1948 I re-enlisted in the Army and I went to Columbus, Ohio for nine months and served as escort for American Dead that was sent home for reburial. During this time Dad died and was buried at the End of the Trail Cemetery. In 1950 I joined the Air Force; I retired from the Air Force in 1969. After retiring from the Air Force I moved to John's Island in South Carolina and went to work at the Medical University in security. I retired again in 1984. Since then I just enjoyed being retired.

For more information contact: Woodrow Farthing, 1004 Leonard Dr, Johns Island SC 29455

Memories Willie Farthing

My family moved to Elkridge in the fall of 1935 when I was 6 weeks old. We moved away from Elkridge in the fall of 1948 following the untimely death of my father. For me, Elkridge, in the 1940s, was the ideal place and the ideal time to be a boy. My most vivid memories are of three other boys with whom I shared some memorable times. Our domain was the Elkridge hollow. From the ‘chug hole’ for swimming to the south, to Shiddid’s Grocery Store for caps for our toy pistols in the north was one limit. Mountains on the left and mountains on the right of our only road set the east – west limits. In between these limits, the world was ours. Sherman Bobbitt, Ray Redman, Darryl Townsend and I did all of the following things and lots more I wish I could remember. Playing marbles for ‘keeps’, with ‘steelies’, but we always ‘evened up’ when we were through. Making whistles and sling shots from Poplar tree branches. Making kites from cattail reeds, string, flour paste, newspapers and an old nylon stocking for the tail. Collecting hickory nuts and black walnuts; picking huckle berries and black berries; finding paw-paws trees in the woods and apples trees in people’s yards. Busting tar bubbles on the hard road with our bare feet in the heat of summer and listening to the Grand Old Opera on cold Saturday nights in the dead of winter. Walking three miles to Powellton to see a movie and telling ghost stories while walking back home in the dark. Using the area under the church for our secret meeting place and to hide stuff from the ‘grown-ups.’ Swiping signal torpedoes from the empty cab of the coal train engine while it was parked behind the company store and the crew was at lunch. We would place a torpedo on a rock and from the roof of an out-house or a coal-house we would drop another rock on to it. The resulting ‘boom’ would arouse the neighborhood and we got to practice our high speed running. Grabbing the dangling chains on trucks delivering timbers to the mine to get a long sled ride in the winter. Dreading every day of school but rejoicing when the old school house burned down one winter. They built a new one for the next year. In the creek we used our hands to catch ‘crawdads’ and Moms canning jars to catch minnows for the ‘grown-ups’ to fish with. Some times it paid off. Then the agony of deciding to buy some candy or an ice cream or a coke at the company store when we had a nickel. Helping move freshly delivered stuff off the company store loading dock to get a free sample. Being overjoyed to get a piece of a ‘powder box’ from the mine so we could whittle something. We stayed away from the boarding house, the doctor’s house and the tipple. Trouble at these places would bring a whipping. As would forgetting to bring in the coal, wood and water. Our world was small but we knew where all the good things were and what we should and shouldn’t do. The activities of the ‘grown-ups’ around us was a blur and of little concern. Any of the girls were far more interesting than the war being fought somewhere overseas. I lost track of Sherman, Ray and Darryl when we moved but I believe, if it were possible, they would join me to go back and do it all again.

MOTHER: Eva Jane Turley Hoffman. “Loving,kind,good Christian Mother: Proverbs 31:10.
FATHER: Jesse David Hoffman. “Old time GOD fearing gospel preacher”. Romans 10:14-15.
BROTHERS AND SISTERS, Garnett, Jesse (J.R.), Carlos, Rachel and James Browning.
ELKRIDGE, WEST VIRGINIA: My Birthplace and where I spent the first ten years of my life.

I know most of you have heard of a holler; well that’s where I lived. Just a creek, a railroad track and a narrow vehicle road, between two mountains, with all the houses on either side of the creek. The houses were just frame houses with vertical boards and a narrow board covering the cracks. They were not much but they were liveable, with open fireplaces in the larger rooms. The kitchen was always the warmest room in the house because Mom was always cooking. Behind the stove on the wall was where Mom dried the green beans to make “leather britches”. Mom also hung her onions there to dry, and strung up the peppers also to dry there. This is where the Root Beer crock was kept. Boy, that was really good Root Beer. Mom also kept the churn in the kitchen and I loved to make fresh butter. Mom made cottage cheese and hung it out on the back porch in a cheese cloth so it would drain real good. We had a cow, so we didn’t have any problem getting milk to make butter.

The kitchen stove had two small “warming ovens” above the cookin surface. That ole stove also had a water tank on the side and when the fire was burning in the stove you automatically had warm water, so the kitchen was where everyone took their bath. In a number three washing tub of course! That was in the winter time. In the summer time we washed in the creek, the same place we fished and did our swimming. The drinking water was carried from the communal pumps which were spaced ever half mile or so apart all the way up the holler. Us boys would carry two buckets of water each, every evening, to be used for drinking and cooking.

I can remember walking to school and we passed right through “colored town”. That was where the black folks lived. They had their own school and own church and they lived within certain boundaries. The men-folk worked in the mines along side the white men. Everyone seems to get along very well living this kind of separated life. I remember some very fine folks living in colored town. Mr. Charley Joyce ran a garage and repair shop and used to work on Dads car and JR was a good friend of Junior Joyce. I also remember Cassie Nichols. Dad would give Cassie the “lights” from the hogs he butchered every year. Cassie also made “chitlins” even tho I have never eaten any of them.

We used to do so many .thing a children, like making stickweed throwers, whistles from the bottoms of snuff cans and whistles from the tender branches of trees. We would “notch” our whistles and by sliding the bark across the “notch” we could vary the tone of the whistle.

Sometimes we would take a long piece of stiff wire and form it on the end to fit a small hoop, and we would just roll that ole hoop all over the place. That was one of the ways of amusing ourselves without store bought toys. We could hardly wait for “Hog Killing” time; this was the time for the football or volleyball to come alive. That’s where the hog bladder comes into play. We would take a hollow stickweed and blow the bladder up, over a period of days, until it was good and dry and as large as we could get it. Then we would play with it as long as we could without “busting” it. We had a lot of fun with those ole hog bladders.

Sometimes we would make a slingshot out of a nice “Y” branch, a couple pieces of old inner tube, and a small piece of leather shoe tongue. We got to be pretty good with them, after plenty of practice, shooting marbles, ball bearings and small pebbles. We set fish traps and when we went to check them sometimes we would find snakes in them. Now the easy way to catch the fish was to watch them swim under a large rock, and then whack the rock with a sledge hammer, the fish would pop right to the top. They weren’t very big. We called them “Hog Suckers”, I don’t know why tho.

We were always fighting with the Farley boys, Jackie and Charlie, when we went to the pump in the evening to get water. They would throw rocks at us until one time Dad came up there and told us boys that if we didn’t give them boys a good “whupping” we were going to get a “whupping” from him when we got home. So J.R. and Carlos just lit in on them and “whupped” the tar out of them and run them home. We got our water and went home and that was the last time we had to fight them when we went to the pump.

The ole house we lived in was surely cold in the winter. The wind and snow would blow through the cracks and we would use every cover we had, including the feather ticks, to keep warm. Now out of bed was a different story. Stand in front of the fire, get one side warm, then turn around and warm the other side. Sometimes we might bake a potato in the ashes of the fire underneath the grate. And if there was a good clean snow on the ground Mom might be in the kitchen making a big pan of “snow ice cream”.

Now us boys would gather walnuts and butternuts and hull them and lay them on the roof of the shed to dry. Later when they were good and dry we would crack them open and take the kernels out. Mom would use the nuts in the chocolate fudge she made. Boy was that ever good! We would also go across the holler and tap a few sugar maple trees. We cut a “vee” partly around the tree, drove a “vee” shaped spout into the tree and the sap would run down the spout into the small lard bucket we had hung under the spout. Sometimes we would drink a little of the sap before going home. It was real good, nice and cool and sweet. Mom would boil the sap down and make syrup out of it. It was mighty good on hot pancakes.

Since we didn’t have any running water, we had an outside “Johnny”, and it was a pretty nice one, with two holes, a Sears and Roebuck catalog, and a wooden latch on the door! Mom used to do a lot of her praying out there. And looking back now, over more than 77 years I can understand what her prayers were all about. You see, I used to eavesdrop on Mom sometimes.

Mom did an awful lot of canning. She made Jams, Jellies and canned all kinds of fruits and vegetables. And the two big wooden barrels were always there in the spring house. One was full of pickled corn, on the cob, and the other was full of salt brine pickles. Just reach in a barrel and get yourself a pickle or an ear of corn, wash it off in the spring water, and you had some mighty good eating! Mom never wasted anything, not even the watermelon rinds; she made preserves out of them. Mom washed our clothes outside in an iron kettle heated by a fire underneath. She used an ole timey wash board and a hand turned wringer. The water for the wash was either carried from the creek or dipped from the rain barrel. I remember one time I cut my finger pretty bad. Mom took me to the rain barrel, dipped water, and poured it on the cut to stop the bleeding. Then she poured turpentine on the cut, and boy that would really set you on fire! Turpentine was about the only thing we used for cuts back then. Sometime Mom would use Cloverine salve on a cut or scrape. Now the remedies that Mom made for colds and minor ailments were made from herbs and other things. I remember the cough syrup she made from the Mullen plant. That’s a fuzzy ole plant that

grew just about everywhere, especially along the railroad track. Mom would take the leaves, boil them, add some coloring and sugar and maybe something else, and that was our cough syrup. Now if we had a bad chest cold that was a different story. Mom would make a Mustard Plaster, from mustard and other ingredients, put it on a clean cloth and put it on our chest. But sometimes Mom would get a little too much of the hot stuff in and it would turn your chest red and literally burn you up. It really got rid of your chest cold. Sometimes we would wear “Asefetida” around our neck on a string. It was supposed to ward off illnesses. It was rare that we went to see the Company Doctor.

Getting back to Mom’s talents about canning, making preserves, and all the other good stuff. Of course we boys had a hand in causing those fruits and vegetables to be available. Garnett also had a big hand in the canning. Plus she also helped do the washing and ironing and took care of us little ones, just to keep us out from under Mom’s feet. Dad had two gardens, upper and lower. The lower one was for corn, ‘taters’, ‘pumpkins’ and pole beans. The upper garden, nearest the house was for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, ‘muskmelons’, lettuce and green onions. We boys, J.R., Carlos and myself, were the ones who always hoed and weeded the corn and all the other vegetables. And we certainly enjoyed the eating later. The Huckleberries and the Blackberries, we would pick until our buckets were full, and if the berries were plentiful, we would make a few bark buckets and get more berries. It might save us another day of picking, then we could spend some time at the “Churn Hole”, which was our favorite place to swim. We called it the “Churn Hole” because of a round hole in the rock formation that was just about the diameter of a churn.

Our closest neighbors were the Lopez family. I had some wonderful times with them, like pulling taffy with the girls, and eating the delicious bread that Mama Lopez baked in the huge outside domed brick and clay oven. You could tell when Mama Lopez was baking bread because the air was filled with such sweet smells. Mama Lopez would always give us a fresh warm loaf, and we would high tail it home to get some fresh cow butter, and my goodness there isn’t anything today that compares to that warm delicious taste. Mama Lopez would pinch me on the cheek and say “you “sucha nica” little boy. Papa and Mama Lopez have a Grandson, Joseph, son of Pete Lopez, who became a Four Star Admiral in the U.S. Navy and had the new Chelyan Bridge named in his honor

We walked to school, since there wasn’t any school busses that run up the holler. It was probably a mile or more to the school. There was no such thing as a hot lunch program. A hot lunch consisted of putting my sandwich, a “biskit” with brown beans and mustard, on a piece of metal on top of the “Pot Belly” stove and getting it warm. Sometimes we would have a piece of homemade sausage with our “biskit”, and sometimes we were fortunate to have a slice of “baloney” between two pieces of white bread, and maybe a homemade cookie. And if we were really fortunate, we would have three pennies to buy a little bottle of juice or chocolate milk. Most of the time we just drank water.

There was lots of aunts, uncles and cousins that lived up the holler. Aunt “Neve”, Dads sister lived across the creek from the Elkridge Church. Had to walk across a foot log to get their house.

Grandmother Hoffman Lived with Aunt “Neve and Uncle “Les”. Their children were “Boots, “Bibby, Clarabell, Lucille, Tom, Don and “Jug. Aunt Florence and Uncle Bob Hoffman lived down below the company store near Doctor Davis’s office. Their Children were, Gordon, Delores, Nancy, C.W., Bobby and Fred.

I remember one time a colored man came to our house, told Mom he was up there looking for a job and he was hungry. Mom gave him a big bowl of pinto beans and a big piece of corn bread. He took them over to the edge of the bank, away from the house, and ate them, then he went to the holler and washed the bowl and spoon before returning them. Folks back then were more thankful and more appreciative of each other.

My mother died on October 30^th 1939 when I was just ten years old. I don’t know if it was the traumatic experience or what, but I have little memory of my Mothers death. I can remember her casket sitting in the room that was on the end of the house nearest the road. I have no memory of seeing my mother in the casket. I do not remember anyone there. I do not remember going to the funeral or the cemetery. I have no further memories of living at Elkridge as a child.

I am grateful and thankful for the lessons of life that I learned from the wonderful people who lived at Elkridge and took the time and expended the energy to help mold us children. We later became adults who used the experiences learned, and the love given, to become successful in life. We respect our neighbors, love our country and love our God.

I am the oldest son of Reverend Jesse Hoffman and Eva Turley Hoffman and am one of six children; four boys, Carlos, Dennie, and James (Brownie); and two girls, Garnett and Rachel. Garnett quite school to help raise the family when our mother died in childbirth (October, 1939). Garnett was just 16 the following November and I was 15 that December; Carlos was 13, Dennie 10, Rachel 5 and Brownie just 3. We attended school at the Elkridge School for several years. Dad worked in the mines during the week, and preached on the weekends. He was pastor at the Elkridge Church and was also Choir Leader. My grandmother, Carolina Hoffman was one of the founding members of the Elkridge Church.

I went to school at Elkridge through the sixth grade. Our teacher, Miss Hoover, got sick one day and they had to call an ambulance to take her to the hospital. Two brothers in our class, Robert and Donald Thompson, were in a real big fight in the yard when the ambulance started to leave. Miss Hoover stopped the ambulance and made the boys stop fighting. She took them into the school house and paddled both boys before she let them take her to the hospital. She had to have her appendix removed when to got to the hospital.

My family lived up Elkridge Hollow, above the Tipple. The Lopez family lived next to us. Several families lived above us they were; the Theodore Turley family, Robert Woods family, Fred Farley family, the Belcastro family, the Christh family, the Tom Ward family, the Hurley family, and the Copeland family. The Copeland’s lived across from the Company swimming pool. I remember Mrs. Lopez had a big brick oven in her yard. She used to make homemade bread and bake it in the oven. We could always smell the bread baking, and we would wander over to their yard so we could have a piece, fresh from the oven. Boy, it was good. Howard Cadle lived up the left-hand fork and ran a Sawmill. I worked for him for a short while cutting wooden posts for use in the mines.

My family raised ferrets to help hunt rabbits. We would put the ferret down a rabbit hole and it would chase the rabbet out. When ferrets were outlawed, we had still eight of them left. We took them to the mine and turned them loose in the post yard.

In 1941 Johnny Peters and I joined the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC’s). We stayed in the CCC’s until they were disbanded July 13, 1942. During this time, Dad and the family had moved to Poca, WV, where Dad was pastor of the Rock Branch Church. When I came home from the CCC’s, I returned to Elkridge and stayed with Uncle Les and Neva Redman. I stayed with them until I went into the service, (U.S. Army) in June of 1943. I was trained as a dental technician and medic. I served as a Medic in the 30^th Infantry Division with a rank of PFC during WWII and landed at Omaha Beach, 6 days after D Day (June 6, 1944). I was wounded two times and spent 9 ½ month in the hospital in England. I was awarded 2 Purple Hearts and the Bronze Star.

I was discharged on October 16, 1945 and returned to Elkridge. I stayed with Uncle Les and Aunt Neva (Hoffman) Redman until January of 1947. When I came back from the service I went to work for Koppers Coal Company. I ran the service station at the Company Store.

My three brothers all made careers in the service, Carlos (Chief Master Sgt., US Army), Dennie (MP, & Signal Corps, US Army), and Brownie (Chief Petty Officer, US Navy). Out of all of the men in my family, I was the only one to see live action during a war.

Garnett married James Yates (now deceased) and lives in Poca, WV. Carlos married Iris Waybright. Carlos passed away in 1996 and Iris now lives in Reva, VA. Dennie married Helen Walls and lives in Eleanor, WV. Rachel married Don Gnatt (now diseased) and lives in NC. Brownie married Donna Null and lives in FL. I married the love of my life, Lavania L. Workman. We have been married 58 years and have had 2 children. Our son, David was killed in Vietnam on November 4, 1970. Our Daughter, Mary Alderson has 2 sons, Matthew and John. Matthew married Nancy Savilla and has a daughter, Shelby (8 yrs. Old) and a son, David, 2 yrs. old, whom they named after my son who was killed in Vietnam.

My Uncle, Robert Hoffman married Florence Williams and they had 6 children; Delores, Gordon, Nancy, C.W., Robert and Fred. All are now deceased.

Ardith HUBBARD Ferrell Memories

The Hubbard family moved to Elkridge in 1937. Our Dad Joseph Fletcher Hubbard was the electrician for Koppers Coal Company. Our Mother had passed away in December 1934. There were 9 children in our family. I was age 7; I had a younger sister Ella Jean - Age 5. Other family members were Alma Faye, Frances Virginia, Margaret Ruth, Joetta, and Donald Keith. Edwin, the oldest, was in the Army but joined us at Elkridge when he was discharged from the Army. Raymond stayed at Milburn where he was working for Milburn Mining & By-Products. Each member of our family had tasks/chores that we performed to keep a smooth operating household. Alma Faye the oldest daughter took on the responsibility of taskmaster. The younger children attended the school at Elkridge. The teachers were Mrs. Cavendish, Mrs. Wiseman Pash and Mr. McMillan. They were excellent teachers, and yes we all had our spoon full of Cod Liver Oil each day!! Later we attended Montgomery Jr. High and graduated from Montgomery High School; Margaret Ruth 1940, Joetta 1942, Donald 1944, Ardith 1948 and Ella Jean in 1950. My high school class mates were Midge Bobbitt, June Manley, Juanita Miller, and Juanita Redden.

We attended Church as a family on a regular basis, Reverend Fuller was our Pastor. A couple members of our family taught Sunday school. Attendance pins were awarded in 3 month increments for perfect attendance. A couple family members received 3 year perfect attendance pins. We were active members of the Scouts, 4-H Club, etc. Ella Jean and I attended and enjoyed very much – the Koppers Camp in the summer.

Dad built our first radio which we enjoyed; we had special programs that we listened to- Jack Benny, etc. We also had a Victrola and a great selection of records. We enjoyed singing along with Andrew Sisters & Others. Dad built a sled for us that we enjoyed very much. We enjoyed Halloween and the taffy pulling parties, playing jacks, hop scotch, jump rope, and hide and seek with the neighbor kids. We walked to the movie theatre now and then, especially a big hit movie like Gone With The Wind! In the evenings, after chores were completed some of the girls would embroidery, crochet or sew on the sewing machine. We girls like to bake goodies and making our own candy.

I recall vividly the Announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor Attack - We were getting ready to rehearse the Church Christmas Program. Little did I know then that 30 years later in 1971 - I would be living in Hawaii and employed with the Navy Department. Small World!

We are familiar with the Peanut Butter Man; we lived near the store where he would make his purchase.

Mr. Wiseman delivered the mail to the Post Office daily. We knew the time of day by seeing him drive by our house. Our neighbors Juanita Miller, Betty Totten, my sister Ella Jean and I would set up lemonade/Kool-Aid stands in the yard in the summer. Our customers were mostly family and neighbors.

Bottom Line - I really enjoyed living at Elkridge - As I look back on those days - Compared to Today - WOW not a bad place to grow up in! I have often thought over the years - After Marriage, three sons, etc. - So many times I think of how much young people miss in this day and time - Not experiencing an Elkridge - I call growing up in Elkridge a life adventure!

No Regrets - No Complaints! I simply loved and enjoyed Elkridge!
I have returned to Elkridge on occasion – the last time was in the mid 1990's with my sister Margaret Ruth Hubbard Bass and her husband Albert to visit his sister’s family.

For more information contact: Ardith Hubbard Ferrell

My family moved to Elkridge from Milburn in 1937. My father was an electrician. I was in the sixth grade. We lived in the house across the creek from the Company Store for a short time then moved next door to Mr. Miller, the superintendent. My sisters Faye and Ruth worked at the Koppers Company Store and my sister Virginia worked at Shadids. (near where the branches of the Elkridge and Powellton Armstrong Creek met). The first year we were there my sister Joetta and I were given the job of janitor for the two school buildings. Later, I was the janitor for the community building when it served as a church. I even worked at the boarding house for a while as a cleaner upper and gofer, delivering lunches to miners, etc. I followed Ronald Miller as the lifeguard at the coal company swimming pool one summer and I can vouch for how cold the water was fresh from the mountain. Ronald got a severe sun burn his year at lifeguard and we all learned something from that experience. My last two years in high school I worked at the Koppers Company store in Kimberly. They used to plead for me to work more than was good for me so I just about didn't graduate because of excessive absences at school. We left Elkridge on June 6, 44, and kept the radio plugged in to the last minute as it covered the D-Day landings. I always thought it was sorta funny that after busing to school to Montgomery for six years the minute I graduated we moved to Montgomery. It was great for my two younger sisters, Ardith and Ella Jean to miss the great bus experience. I worked very briefly after graduation in 44 at the mine picking slate at the headhouse. I have nothing but fond memories of the people of Elkridge and the lifestyle we shared. I remember it as a very pleasant experience.

We left West Virginia when I was twelve so I don't have a lot of memories growing up in Elkridge. Daddy left to find work in the steel mills and Mother and I joined him after school was out that year. She drove all the way from West Virginia to Indiana and when Daddy met us, she handed him the car keys and wouldn't drive again for a long time. I went to school in Elkridge for the first six years. Mrs. Moore was the teacher at that time. When I was in seventh grade, I rode the bus to Montgomery Jr. High. Mother used to give me a quarter for lunch and we would go to the dime store lunch counter and get two hot dogs and a cherry coke for a quarter. We use to play on the side of the mountain. We would find a vine to hold on to and swing out over the side of the mountain. Thinking back, we could have been seriously hurt if the vine broke. One Christmas there was snow on the ground and it was very cold outside. My cousin Nancy lived about 2 miles from us. My brother, Tom, tied a Zink wash tub to my sled took me to visit my cousin Nancy so we could play with our dolls that Santa brought. The company store was about half way to Nancy's. We stopped at the store and went into the soda fountain to warm up. Lillian Peters was working in the fountain and the story goes that I was half frozen and made my brother take me back home. On Christmas Eve the children put on a play at Church and sometimes Santa would come to my house while we were at the play. After Sunday school on Sundays, I always wanted to go home with one of my friends or have a friend come home with me until Church Sunday night. I remember going to the summer camp for the coal miner's children at Hinton, WV. The year before I was old enough to go, I remember standing on our front porch watching the bus take the other children and wishing I could go too. I learned to swim at camp and had a wonderful time. I remember we had to shuck corn (lots of it) and that was our dinner that night. We loved it. We got to eat as much of it as we wanted. They would line us up and divide us into tribes. My cousin Nancy and I always wanted to be in the same tribe but we always ended up in separate tribes. I married Steve Zurga in 1970. In 1986, we moved to Arizona where we currently live. I retired from Arizona State University in December 2005. We have one son, Steven Paul Zurga. He is married to Monique and they have a daughter, Madeleine. I have two children from a previous marriage, Jack Dwayne Cook and Susan Elaine Teague. Jack has four children, Jeremy, Heather, Ashley and Rachel. Sue is married to Gary and they have two children, Kyle and Kelly. Steve has a daughter from a previous marriage, Mary Kathleen Zurga.

Coal miners and their families joined together to build the community of Elkridge. They came from different backgrounds and for the most part they were good and decent people who were honest and worked hard; they trusted themselves and they trusted each other. I do not believe any home in Elkridge had locks on the doors.

We lived a simple but happy life. We learned respect and the value of following rules at home and from other adults in the community. Our values were shared community values and for the most part were enforced by all adults. Adults had the proxy and blessing of parents to make disciplinary corrections as necessary.

Most boys and girls learned the importance of values by participating in scouting actives. The scout oath and law provided the basics of our core values, they were simple and to the point. The values I learned in scouting helped me immensely in my military career. Rewards in life, as in scouting, come when you work hard and play by the rules. To become an Eagle Scout was the dream of many a boy including me-few ever achieve this honor. The to become a Tenderfoot, Second Class, and First Class scout required there and memorizing the scout oath, learning the salute and hand shake. However to earn the rank of Star, Life or Eagle you must earn merit badges. Merit badges encourage kids to explore areas of interest and teach them valuable skills. There was a merit badge for every topic you could imagine. The merit badge requirement taught scouts to get involved in causes beyond my own narrow interest. To become an Eagle Scout more than half of your merit badges were set by higher headquarters. A required merit badge might be Life Saving, most of us could easily pass the swimming test but few of us were able to demonstrate proficiency in saving a life. Few earned the required merit badges to become an Eagle Scout. To become an “Eagle Scout”, you had to stay the course. Less than 2 percent of all scouts become an Eagle Scout. One of the regrets of my life is that I lacked the courage to attain the coveted Eagle Scout rank. I did learn that to succeed you must work hard and play by the rules. The basic life lessons I learned in scouting helped me advance in the military. I started as a private and retired as a bird Colonel.

First in importance we learned that if we gave respect we earned respect. We learned that if we did not follow the rules we were punished. Ernie Peters put it this way. “Probably the number one reason for a whipping was talking back to your parents or any other adult for that matter. When we talked to adults we always used “sir” or “mam”. "Sass" was not tolerated”. Obedience was important. In school we learned that if we did not follow the rules, corporal punishment would follow either on our person or watching others receive it. News of this sort traveled fast. If we received the punishment we probably would get it again from our parents when we got home.

Most miners lived from pay check to pay check and taking an annual vacation was not a choice. Most families bought their clothes from the Sears Roebuck catalog. Sears would ship the items COD (cash on delivery) and we would have to pay for the items at the Post Office. The catalog would rank the quality of their items for sale by; Good, Better, Best.

Some of the kids got to go to the Koppers Coal Camp or Scout camp during the summer. Some of got to visit relatives to help on the farm for a week or so during the summer. Some kids did not go anywhere; they continued their regular routine during the summer. I do not remember ever going on a family vacation. I usually got to visit my Uncle or Grandfather during the summer to help on the farm usually with my sister or cousin. My grandpa and Uncle did not have electricity on their small farm. In the winter they would break ice cycles from the mountain cliffs, bury them in the ground; in the summer they would dig up the buried ice and have ice for the summer. I remember during the war, my grandfather had a battery radio and every day at 5 o'clock PM he would hook the radio up to the battery and listen to the war news. Grandpa's dad had been in the Civil War, his oldest son was in World War 1 and his youngest son was killed in World War 2.

A big deal for me was to go to Montgomery on Saturday. The college would open their gymnasium to kids from surrounding communities and we could play basketball all day. Most of us would be in stocking feet. I usually had a ride to Montgomery. To get home I would stand where the highway departed from Montgomery and headed east toward Deep Water. Someone usually would stop and pick me up and take me as far as they were going. Strangers would sometimes pick me up;this method of travel was completely safe back then. We had bus fare and would catch the last bus home if we did not get a ride.

Life has been good to me, maybe better than I deserve. The basic core values I learned growing up in Elkridge served me well during my military career and as an elected member of the Tempe, Arizona City Council. I entered the military as a private and retired as a Colonel. I was a master navigator. My navigator duties took me to many non-communist countries of the world. My military awards include the Legion of Merit. As an elected member of the Tempe City Council I was instrumental in bringing the paramedic program to our community of about 150,000. I received the George Washington Medal from the Freedom Foundation at Valley Forge for “outstanding achievement in bringing about a better understanding of the American way of life”.

I remember listening to WW2 on the radio. I have a post card a jewelry store in Montgomery gave out in 1943, it showed a soldier boy saying “last night I reached across 10,000 miles and kissed you”.

Betty, my 1^st cousin, and I would walk around on Sunday and take pictures to have something to do. Betty and I had a play house in the middle of the creek on a flat rock where there wasn’t much water. In the winter we would sleigh ride down a steep hill, our path took us across the road and up a small hill on the other side. I don’t remember us ever checking for cars on the road before we rode down the hill. One time Betty tore her coat and was so happy because she knew our Grandmother would buy her a new one. Instead Grandmother patched the coat and made her wear it.

There was a roller skating rink at Deep Water, about 5 miles away and a movie house at Powellton about 2 miles. One lady that lived up the holler walked to the movie every Friday night, any kid on the route who wanted to go would join her. There was always a crowd. We walked past a grave yard on the hill and the boys always tried to scare the girls. It was a big deal to go to the movies with this lady. The coal company built a swimming pool up at the head of the holler and the water come right from the mines and it was very cold. We would ride our bike and stay all day. One day I went down the slippery slide and wore a hole in my bathing suit. The coal company had a camp for the kids during the summer.

We had about a mile to walk to school. The school had two buildings, one building had the first 2 grades, and the other building had 2 rooms, 3^rd and 4^th grades in one room and 5^th and 6^th grades in the other room. I don't remember any play ground equipment. The school had 3 teachers, Mr. MacMillion was the principle and taught 5^th and 6^th grade, Mrs. Cavendish taught 1^st and 2^nd grade and Mrs. Wiseman taught 3^rd and 4^th grade. We were bussed to Montgomery, 10 miles each way for Jr. High and High school. Some kids on the bus were not very nice; they would sit on the long side seat and push against other kids till they were out of their seats. In the winter we would catch the school bus before day light. When it was cold we would watch the school bus go by our house going up the holler to pick up other kids. We could judge when it was time to go outside to catch the bus and we would not have to wait outside where it was cold. We would wear slacks till we got to school and change. A private company operated a bus that ran up the holler, 2 or 3 times a day, from Montgomery. The last departure was before the Friday night football game ended. We couldn't go to football games on Friday night, because if we missed the 10PM bus we were in a jam.

There was a big coal company store, it had 3 sections. The fountain had drinks and toiletries, the main store had groceries, dry goods and furniture, and the post office part. Next to the Post Office was the payroll office, miners could draw scrip against their earnings.

The boarding house was across the road from the company store. Miners lived at the boarding house, some during the week while they were working and for others it was their home. My Uncle was a permanent boarder until he married my Aunt. During World War 2, my Uncle was in the Army stationed at New York. My Aunt took my cousin and me, on the train, to visit him, I remember sitting on our suitcase part of the way. Another Aunt, Emogene, managed the boarding house. The boarding house had about 20 rooms. Betty and I worked for my Aunt full time during the summer and on the week-ends during school. We cleaned the rooms and other duties associated with running a big home. During the summer we earned $5.00 a week and we thought we were rich. There was a big kitchen stove and it was very hot during the summer.

Just past the store was the Church of God. Aunt Florence (no kin) would walk the floor and testify and just made every body feel better. The church was practically on the railroad tracks.

There was a walk bridge too get to the company houses located across the creek. If you wanted to drive over you had to go thru the creek.

Before World War two Dad worked in the mines and we lived near the tipple. Mom was always looking for a better house; she said the quality got better as you moved down the holler away from the tipple. We moved several times before Dad bought the old Humphrey store. Dad always kidded that he never knew which house to enter when he got off work, they all looked the same. During the war Dad bought the old Humphrey store and opened a grocery store and beer garden. We moved into the three rooms connected to the store. This was a good place to live except on Friday and Saturday nights. Dad continued to work in the coal mine to help pay for the store. As business got better Dad was able to quit working in the mines and soon we were able buy a house near the store.

Friday and Saturday night was the time for miners to let off steam. And they surely did. On the week-end there was a lot of activity at the beer garden. There was seldom a weekend without a fight. Sometimes the fight was over nothing. Just wanted to see who the better man was. Other times it was over something that happened at work or one guy was paying to much attention to the other guy's wife. The one good thing about the fight was they would go outside to do battle. Dad would order them out and they usually went. If not he and others would escort them. It was particularly necessary in winter, because there was a big potbelly coal stove sitting in middle of room and if the stove were knocked over the building would probably catch fire.

In school the thing I liked best was recess. We played corner-up in good weather and snowballs in bad weather. What I didn't like was that old wooden paddle (with holes) and having to take a spoon full of cod liver oil every day. Paddle wasn't bad if you didn't have to bend over and tighten your britches, but the cod liver oil never got better.

I enjoyed being a Boy Scout. We scouts went to summer camp and we were required to furnish our own supplies. We would work together and gathered scrap metal to help pay for our summer camp. We would take hiking trips to Payne’s farm located past the swimming pool. Our activities gave us a chance to see how others lived. During our pre teen years we played marbles, hide and seek, and digging tunnels in the coal company’s sand house, and a favorite pastime was playing cowboys and Indians. As we aged (12-16) we found other things to do. Some good, some were questionable. Halloween for example. I seemed to be with the group that didn't look for treats. We were for tricks only. Don't know why we weren't shot. We would turn a family's toilet over, block the road, soap windows, and these were the mild things. Most families were wise to having their outhouse turned over and they nailed the outhouse to the base. Probably the worse thing we did was daubing something unmentionable on the handle of a fuse box then turn peoples power off.

Hitching rides with sleds on back of cars during winter. Sometime there would be more than the car could handle. You'd have 3 or 4 holding the bumper and the rest would be hanging onto their legs. Might be 8-10 strung out behind. I can’t forget the joy of the swimming pool, but there is no way the coldness of water in that pool can be described in nice terms. Purification was no problem. Constant flow of COLD water from the mine. We would dare each other to ride a sheet of tin down the slate pile. Once you stated from the top, the only way to stop was reach the bottom or roll off. We would play tag on top of the empty coal cars.

Pitching horseshoes was not my forte, but I liked to try. "Shotgun" Tucker had a nice place for horseshoes. Shotgun helped with the baseball team, we didn't have a ball field and we played at the coal yard. I was the pitcher. Sometimes we got to play on the ball field at Powellton which was used mainly for softball and right field was in the creek.

Once a year the miner received his vacation pay of 100 bucks in cold hard cash. The miner became instantly rich, but this money was usually used to pay off debts. The fate of the calendar sometimes caused the miners to be paid ever three weeks instead of the normal two week payday. This would cause the miners to use their script card to sustain life. Makes me think scrip cards were the granddaddies of credit cards. When the miner spent script with a non Koppers merchant they only get 75 cents cash for one dollar scrip. Sounds like credit card interest. The merchant would have someone working for Koppers, or pay someone, to purchase items at Koppers company store. This became easier when Koppers opened a store in Montgomery.

Going to the movies was a big deal and required a lot of walking, if you lived near the company store it might be two miles, but if you lived near the swimming pool it would be closer to 4 miles. Seems like Elkridge's night was Friday or all who was going went on Friday. The main reason I went on Fridays was because there was more to see. There was a double feature western, a serial, a newsreel, and a cartoon. One night I'll never forget. A non western movie was playing. A love scene, the guy was getting ready to kiss the girl, the theater was quiet and some joker said “uh oh she's got his scrip card now ". The place erupted in laughter.

I learned how to play 5 card stud poker at an early age. I was pretty good and never had to worry about the 17 cents for the movie. There was always a game on payday, usually on the side track behind the company store, but best and biggest game was across the railroad trestle behind the company store. Bad weather didn't bother games if there was an empty boxcar on the siding.

I delivered groceries during 40's when gas was available. After the war gas became more plentiful and rationing was eliminated. Delivering and picking up items was as bad as a mailman faces today. There were a couple yards I wouldn't enter unless someone came to escort me. One had a Chow dog. I'd stay in my truck and toot horn until someone tied the dog up. At another house the dog wouldn't bite while you were going in, but would nail your ankle when you left. I learned how to walk backwards on the way out. The dog would not bite when I was looking him in the eye. I learned to back all the way out the gate. Another place was unbelievable. Probably nobody will. They had 2 pet groundhogs. They were better than any watch dog a person could have. I always had to have someone they knew escort me. I didn't deliver many groceries to that house, mostly cow and hog feed. One of the better places was about a mile above the tipple; they had good garden area and were good and decent people. Most families raised a little garden. Some had enough room for corn and potatoes, but most was onions, lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes. Some had cows for milk and butter, hogs for meat, chickens for eggs or Sunday dinner. One thing I never learned was how to ring a chicken’s neck cleanly. I could wring the neck, but not like it should have been done, wring the neck and snap it off in one twist.

Jobs I didn't like to do: Fighting forest fires, you could be compelled to fight them if you were asked (told to) by rangers. Pay was great also. $0.25 per hour; gathering scraps for hogs. Most neighbors would save leftovers, if any; gather empty bottles. Most items were in glass containers. Milk came in quart bottles and people didn't have extra water to waste cleaning the bottle and they had a rotten odor. I didn't enjoy churning, but milking wasn't bad. Butchering was a hard job, but necessary. There was one job I don't think I would have done, even if I was hungry and that is cleaning septic tanks. Koppers hired people to clean your outhouse. The equipment they used was a long handle ladle and bucket. The truck was hauled up the holler and dumped in a pit. Those guys use to get angry when us kids would yell and call them Honey Dippers.

I enjoyed playing ball, swimming if I could stop at the churn hole to get warm after being in big pool, marbles, movies, and Boy Scouts. I enjoyed riding horses. I remember going on a horse trading trip with Tommy Downey in 1948. We were gone 16 days and after the first day I didn't see a paved road. I visited places I didn't know were in WV. We went on trails through mountains I wouldn't have believed. We came off the mountain on one trail and I stopped to watch a man using oxen to plow. This was a first and last for me.

I lived in Elkridge in the 1940's. I remember a lot of us kids would practically live on the creek. We would spend hours catching snakes, frogs, minnows and crawdads. My Dad Ross worked on the Tipple loading Coal Rail Cars. My mother Mabel, my sister Ann, my Dad and I would go to Montgomery every Friday night to shop. Our favorite store was the dime store. My Dad was originally from St. Albans WV. My family moved to Michigan in 1951 to find work after the mines shut down. My Dad passed away in 1959, My Mother in 1974.

My fondest memories living in Elkridge was how simple life was. An occasional trip to the movies and to the Roller skating ring at Deep Water, visiting family friends after church on Sunday, and walking to the post office and company store for mail and candy.

Memories Donald Nutter

We were poor—very poor, but we had as much as anyone else and we survived. I played under the house in the dirt. We made our own toys and play things; boys whittled them out using our Barlow pocket knife. I made may own train with empty thread spools and blocks of wood and broom handle wheel and parts tied together with string. I made a train with broom handles or long sticks with discarded with wheels that came off conveyers at number 3 tipple. I took a stick and wheeled them on the railroad track in front of our house.

I went to school in Elkridge. I remember when the 1^st and 2^nd grade school burned down. I was there and watched the building burn. Uncle George and the old C & O Steam Engine #1355 kept a heavy volley of steam between the two buildings saved the second building. Mrs. Elam was my Primer Teacher-later Mrs. Cavendish in the 2^nd grade-then Mrs. Pash (Wiseman) in 3^rd and 4^th grades. Then Mr. McMillion the 5^th and 6^th grades, I can still see things clearly after 65-70 years. We memorized poems and I can still quote some of them. We had spelling matches-debates etc. I usually came out 2^nd Gene Burgess always beat me. I remember well the Cod Live Oil and still take my daily spool full for my arthritis.

At age 18 I went work in the coal mine as a Motorman on a small section motor- my dad ran a large main line motor. The vehicle we called Motors were electric locomotives, they were built on large frames with wheels and trolley poles to connect to trolley wires overhead 240 volt DC.

I was drafted into the Army in 1951. I was discharged from the Army as Sergeant in 1953 and settled in Huron County Ohio where my parents were living. I went to work for the Nickel Plate Rail Road and became an engineer on the steam engine. The Steam Engine was replaced with the Diesel Engine. I followed my boyhood dream and became an Engineer on the Diesel. I retired after 33 years service on the Rail Road.

In 1994 I was ordained a Gospel Minister of our Lord. My wife Barbara and I serve as full time Missionaries with Amazing Grace Mission. We are Independent Baptist, King James only. Our main office is in Dayton, TN. We work at Fairs, Festivals and Street Shows across America passing out thousands of Smiley Bibles and winning souls.

For more information contact Don Nutter
3 Rosedale Blvd
Norwalk, OH 44857-2217

Most of the housing conditions and so forth have been covered elsewhere on this site so I would just like to make a list of the things we did as kids and anyone reading this can make the comparison with today.

1. Played games outside with neighbor kids. No such thing as TV or computers. Cowboys and Indians, Indian trapper, etc, as little kids and then as we got older, baseball, softball and even basketball if some kid was lucky enough to own a basketball. A basket was made out of anything we could find nailed to a tree or the side of the house.

2. Did chores around the house to earn money for the Friday night movie at Powellton. Cost seventeen cents and you had to walk about two miles to get there. The worst part was coming back in the dark so we usually traveled in groups.

3. In many cases we made our own toys. You were lucky if you got one store bought toy at Christmas. One of my prized possessions was a Barlow Pocket Knife which I kept for years. Made a lot of things with it such as whistles from small tree limbs, poplar seemed to work best. We made whistles in the early spring when the sap was coming up, made it easy to break the bark loose.

4. Climbed the mountains. I probably climbed to the top of Elkridge's Mountains hundreds of times as a kid and later squirrel hunting.

5. One of our favorite spots of course was the swimming pool at the head of the hollow. On hot summer days you could cool off in a hurry in this pool because the water came directly out of an old coal mine and was cold as ice. One of the nicer things the coal company ever did was build this pool.

6. In the winter we went slay riding. Everyone would gather close to the old company store and build a huge fire. There was a place on the side of the mountain we could climb up and then ride our sleds back down. We would also try to hitch a ride on the back of a car if we could. Of course this was not often because not many people even owned a car.

7. Of course a lot of our activity centered around school. As far as I can remember we went to school regardless of the weather. Walking of course. I remember one particular morning when the snow was close to two feet deep and we didn't figure the teachers would make it but they did. Another little memory about our school at Elkridge.

There was the famous painting of George Washington hanging on the wall above the blackboard behind the teacher's desk and a painting called "Song of the Lark" hanging on the wall to our right opposite the windows. This was in the 5th & 6th grade classroom.

8. Probably the best memory of Elkridge I have is the boy scouts. We did a lot of things to help the war effort such as gather scrap iron and old newspapers but the best part was getting to go to camp for two weeks every summer. And then there was the first aid team. We practiced a lot so we could go to Montgomery on safety day and compete against other scout teams. Getting to go to Montgomery was quite a treat since we didn't get out of the hollow often until we started riding the school bus to Montgomery.

9. Yes, we were poor growing up in Elkridge but we didn't know that. Everybody was in the same boat so nobody could look down on somebody else. As long as we had clothes to wear, a house to live in and something to eat, we figured thats all we needed. I don't look back on any of this with regret but with fondness.

Elkridge was and is Home Sweet Home. I have lived in Elkridge for some 80 years; I currently live in a home at the mouth of the holler built by my father in the 1930’s. The thing I like most about living in Elkridge is you never have to worry abut any one trying to harm you. It was like a big happy family; you could visit your neighbor for coffee and cake and they would come to your house. We didn’t worry about keeping up with the Joneses as the saying goes. Your neighbor did not have any more than you did. You could go to the Company Store and buy groceries, clothes and furniture; they even had a filling station to get gasoline for your car. You could let your children go out and play or go to the soda fountain at the store to get an ice cream cone, and you didn’t have to worry about them, they would always come home with being harmed. For at least 50 years friends have been writing to ask about Elkridge, they usually tell me how good things were in Elkridge and how they would like to come back for a visit. We had our own Doctor and Nurse they made house calls. Every miner made a monthly pay roll deduction for the Doctor and hospital and when your family went to the Doctor or hospital there was not an additional charge.

In the summer of 1932 we had two or three flash floods. I remember one Sunday night in July, it had been raining for days and the ground was saturated. It was after midnight when some knocked on our door and told my Dad that he had better hurry and get the car out of the garage as the water was ready to come over the bank. Before Dad could put his clothes on the water came over the bank. Dad had to knock out the back of the garage and the water flooded the garden behind the garage. Dad had to anchor the car to the rail road with rope to keep it from washing away. The water kept rising and soon the rail road was flooded. In some places the creek touched the mountains on both sides. My Uncle had just moved into a new house where the Armstrong and the Powellton branch of the Armstrong met several houses were washed away. My Uncle lost everything he owned. The coal company let him build a new house next to my Grandfather and let him live there rent free for several years. I had an Aunt whose house was washed away, were many cars were washed away along with the houses. Several segments of the rail road were washed out.

Back in those days it didn’t take much to make us happy. I don’t remember any toys. Maybe some times for Christmas we would get an apple or orange in our stockings. When I started school in the 1920’s we had two buildings, grades 1 thru 5 was in one building, grades 6 thru 8 were in the other building. We went to Montgomery for High School. We always had chores to do when we got home from school, we could not play until they were done. Mom always washed clothes on Friday. We had to fill two wash tubs with water and have the coal and wood under the tubs ready to light the fire early in the morning. Mom had a wringer type washer so we had to fill the rinse tub with water. Then we could go play. We had a big swimming pool at the head of Elkridge holler. The water came from the mines and it was ice cold. We loved to go to the woods and hunt for nuts, paw paws and grapes.

We especially liked to find a big birch tree limb and whittle the bark off and chew it. To us it was better than candy.

We had a big kitchen stove with a water tank on the end; this is where we heated the water for my Dad and three brothers to take a bath. They took their bath in a Zink wash tub. We did not have a bath room. We had an outside toilet.

When the 1932 flood happened at Elkridge it washed out about every house. Daddy got worried when it rained so long and so hard that he moved the furniture across the rail road tracks and covered it with a tarpaulin. We had to leave the house because the water was coming inside. We went to the colored church up on the hill below our house, most families went up there. Back then the colored and white lived in the same community and we were all good friends. We visited each other and if someone needed help or something to eat we always helped out. We could see out the window and we watched the houses wash away. There were four houses in the row we lived and we watched all of them go. The next day when we went down from the hill everything was gone, even the rail road track. The furniture that Daddy carried across the track was gone. The only thing left was Grandma’s rocking chair, but a rail had broken one of the rockers. This broken rocking chair was the only thing we saved. We stayed with my Uncle for about a week until we found a house. We went up and down the creek and found a few pieces of our furniture. We went to the Company store and got the things we needed. Several years later, after the kids were married, Dad bought a house in Kimberly.

Before we were married my husband Scott was on the Elkridge base ball team, they traveled a lot. I was on the women’s soft ball team, we also traveled a lot. We were married in May of 1942 and my husband was drafted in July of 1942. He was gone for four years. When he returned from the war we rented a room in my Uncle’s house until we found a house in Elkridge. My husband worked in the coal mines for ten years then went to work in the Marathon machine shop.

A black mining family from Elkridge was fishing a well known fishing hole. They had several fish in their ice chest. Seemingly out of no where the game warden appeared and asks if they have their fishing license. "Naw, sir, I ain't got none of them there licenses, no. You must understand these here are my pet fish." "Pet fish?" said the Game Warden. "Ya. Every night I take these here fish down to da lake and let them swim 'round for a while. Then I whistle and they jump rat back into this here ice chest and I take them home." "That's a bunch of hooey! Fish can't do that!" says the warden. The man looked at the game warden for a moment and then said, "It's the truth Mr. Government man, and I’ll show you. It really works. ”Okay," said the Game Warden, “I’ve GOT to see this!" The man poured the fish into the lake and stood and waited. After several minutes, the Game Warden turned to him and said, "Well?" "Well, what?" said the hillbilly. The warden said, "When are you going to call them back?" The miner asked, "Call who back?" "The FISH!" replied the warden. "What fish?" answered the miner? The Elkridge miners may not be as smart as some city slickers, but we were not as dumb as some thought.

Elkridge had one person the kids would always listen to. To kids he was known simply as “Red”. He was called “Red” in part because he had red hair, and in part after Red Skelton, a radio personality during the depression and War 2, who created the happy hobo character. Red had been a hobo and had traveled the rails across America. Red liked to tell tales about his days on the rail: stories about the hobo stew cooked in the hobo jungle that consisted of potatoes and ear corn from a farmer's field, dandelions and edible greens gathered from the wild, and bits and pieces of meat (maybe road kill). Red said you were usually so hungry it tasted real good. Red told stories about friends he made along the way and how to shave in the hobo jungle. Red excited the sense of wonder in some boys; others realized that Elkridge was a pretty good place. In either case his stories told us there was something different beyond the coal mines. When Red tired of the hunger, the cold, the danger of train hopping, and the rail road detectives his memories of the mountains and Elkridge lured him home. When he came home Red went to work in the coal mine.

One of the contributors relates this story. My mom used to tell me a story about one of her brothers during the depression. He was hoboing around the country with a friend of his looking for work. When hunger got the best of them they would take turns going to someone's house asking for food. When my uncle's turn came he went up to the back of a house and as he was about to knock he noticed two pies sitting on the kitchen window sill. The lady of the house had obviously set them there to cool. Not seeing anyone around, my uncle grabbed one of the pies and took off. After he and his friend had eaten the pie, my uncle told him it was his turn to take the plate back and thank the lady. I'm sure he was quite surprised when the lady whacked him with a broom handle.

We dressed up in Halloween costumes. A few costumes were store-bought but most were homemade. Our costumes were mostly a sheet draped over our body or a pillow case over our head. All dressed up in our costumes we went out trick-or-treating in groups on Halloween night. We would carry grocery sacks, in hopes of collecting candy and gum, fruit, and homemade treats such as cookies, cakes, and popcorn balls. We would go from house to house, when we arrived at a home we would chant “trick or treat”. We did not always get a treat, candy and sugar to make home made candy was not always available and most people could not afford the extra money to buy treats. We would get popcorn balls and apples. When we got home our grocery sack was usually full. If we did not get a treat we would re-visit that home later in the night and soap their windows.

A myth about Halloween in Elkridge was turning over out houses on Halloween night. The day after Halloween stories were rampant about seeing an out house turned over. There were stories, probably exaggerated, by saying that some one was in them. Rarely did anyone admit they had turned over an out house, most kids had been warned by their parents of severe punishment if they were caught. Can you imagine turning over an out house at night and falling in the hole?

An anecdotal story from “Buck” Darlington when he lived at Kingston; on Halloween Night, we took the town apart. Most gates ended up in the creek that ran through the middle of town. Bridges that crossed that creek were most likely thrown down into the creek bed. Some outhouses were overturned but the big two holers were just too heavy for most of us to handle. Hardly anyone got upset. The company that owned the town would send work crews around to put things right and that was the end of it. If you were a boy between the ages of 8 and 15, you were expected to get into all the mischief that your imagination could cook up every Halloween Night. Nobody was harmed. No homes were damaged. Nobody endangered. And it only happened that one night each year. The coal company allowed us that and we obeyed the rules. I can remember only two exceptions to these rules. One night, several of us were coming from the schoolyard, headed toward the store. Junior Sprouse I think it was, picked up a dead cat, fairly well advanced into decay, and threw it on a porch. That was, at least, his intention. Someone opened the front door just as he released the cat and it flew through the door and ended up all the way in the back of the house, in the kitchen. We ran away so fast that I don’t even remember hearing the screams of rage and indignation. Another time, some boys (not me, honest) leaned a heavy timber against a man’s door and then knocked on the door. As soon as he turned the doorknob and unlatched the door, the weight of the timber drove the door back into his face and knocked him across the room. It must have scared him half to death but he wasn’t seriously hurt.

In the Elkridge hills there were several small streams that fed into Armstrong Creek. Some in Elkridge would go deep into the hills and make their own liquor called “Moonshine”. Making moonshine was risky; guards were posted to spot police in search of stills, and were usually made at night to avoid detection. “Shine” as it was called was for medicinal purpose, personal use, and as a cash crop to buy consumer goods. The mark of good moonshine is when “you can feel it tingle all across your chest, and down your arms. Some may remember when curiosity would get the best of them and they’d try some of the family’s hidden cache. They would end up as drunken little kids falling all over the yard.

The snipe hunt was a pre-scout tradition. Before becoming a Boy Scout in Elkridge the young boy would have to prove his skill as a snipe hunter. The snipe hunt by tradition is a rather simple affair. The snipe is nocturnal and is best hunted at night when it leaves its snipe nest. You never shoot a snipe; not with a gun or a slingshot. You must catch snipe in a gunnysack.

To hunt snipe you need beaters to drive the snipe into the gunnysack held by the prospective scout. The prospective scout must demonstrate the “snipe call” which is similar to calling a kitty cat, here snipe, here snipe and is supposed to draw the snipes to you. Everyone proceeds to a pre determined area in the hills. The prospective scout is stationed somewhere in the middle of nowhere; the beaters move off into the distance where, the prospective scout is told, they will drive the snipe towards him. Then the beaters quietly go home and wait for the prospective scout to catch on.

Once we were going to initiate a visiting city relative to our tradition of snipe hunting. We explained the rules of snipe hunting and found a suitable site in the hills. He demonstrated his snipe call and promised to do his very best as catcher.