The House up the Holler

I am a country girl. Born and bred up a holler in Barboursville, WV. We had a dirt road until I was in the 8th grade and they black topped it so we could get a bus to run on our road to get to school.

That's our yard with the big hill. We played so much baseball, football and kick ball in that yard and saw many balls go over the hill and many times into the road or the creek. I loved our yard, especially in autumn when all the leaves starting falling and we would go to football games at the high school on Friday nights. 

My kids and nieces and nephews grew up loving to go to Mamaw & Papaw's house for Sunday dinners. They loved playing in that old yard as much as me and my siblings did.

One of the very rare photos of Mommy and Daddy with all us kids after we grew up. This was in '81 or '82 because Allen and I hadn't been married long and this was a sweater he got me our first Christmas. 

Daddy and Mommy didn't drive. So we walked everywhere. Daddy loved taking walks about the time the grandsons had a ball game or practice and he would always manage to stop by and watch them a while.

Town has changed and grown a lot since I was little. We never had a red light in town until several years ago. And the old buildings that held the Corner Grill and the Red Front Cafe got facelifts or as we called it "citified".

We grew up our whole life on well water. The well was only about 50 feet deep so Daddy ran electric to it and had a light that would come on.Whenever we would run bathwater or Mommy would run water to wash clothes, we had to watch the well house for the light to come on. That meant the pump was running to fill back up and we had to wait for the light to go off before we could resume running water. I remember after I got married, they got city water up the holler and Mom and Dad signed up for it. Once they got it, Daddy decided to tear down the well house. I begged him not to and cried when they sent me this picture. Just way too many memories tied up with that old well and I didn't want to see it go.

Growing up in that holler was some of the best times of my life. Catching lightning bugs at night, listening to the crickets and frogs through the window on summer nights. Waking up early to the smell of bacon frying ever day. I am so attached to my roots. We lived there from the time I was 9 months old till I moved out and got married. It will always be home to me. My brother still lives there. So yes, I get a little emotional about the old homeplace. I wish I could take you for a stroll back in time to my life back them up that old country road.