Blount and Beyond Online Magazine - Magazine - Page 130
living in the states during WWII. Here is her story: During WWII we lived in Darbyville Virginia. Times
were very hard then and we had to have a government stamp to buy lots of things, even if you had money
and no stamp you could not buy anything, most everything was rationed. Few people had cars.
The Cold Springs community did not have electricity until the early 1950s, no phones until years later. No
homes had inside bathrooms; toilets were out back of the homes. People washed their clothes with a
washboard and hung the clothes outside on a line to dry. Everyone walked to school, the kids brought sack
lunches to school. My husband, Doyle, said his dad gave them (5 in school at one time) a dime every
morning and they came by the Whitehead store at the bottom of Whitehead Hill and bought lunches for all.
Five lunches for a dime.
Things were cheap then, but money was scarce. Doyle went to work for Alcoa in 1953, his pay, for five days
work, after tax was thirteen dollars. When he retired, he was making over twenty-five dollars an hour.
As kids growing up in Cold Springs we played outdoors, ate berries off the vines and drank from the water
hose. We walked for miles to play with a friend. If we had an argument with our friends, we settled it
ourselves, never involved parents. If we got into a fight, we only used our fists, and no one was ever killed.
Our families all owned guns and we all knew how to use them.
When playing outside it was like having lots of parents because everyone looked after the kids in their yards
and the kids listened to them and respected them. We rode on cardboard down hills in the snow.
After I turned five, I never went to a doctor until I was grown. I never was sick that mom could not treat me. We
lived reckless playing, but I never had a broken bone. Kids dads pulled their teeth when they got loose.
We went to church and sat with mom. We knew not to make any noises. We did not have to worry about
someone coming to the school or church to shoot people. No one ever locked their doors, and nothing was
ever bothered. Moms canned food for winter and dads put meat in the smoke house. We rode the White Star
bus to Maryville to shop. My first cousin Lee Rathbone drove the bus from Maryville to Townsend in the
mid-40s I rode the bus nearly every Saturday with my cousin Wanda Frye to go to the capital theater to see a
movie that was before we had television in Walland.
If a neighbor needed help you helped them, we set up with the dead, there were no screen doors, so we had
to make sure to keep the animals run out of the house. When I was fourteen years old my friend Dellavee
and I sat up with Aunt Ella Farmer when she was dying. Martha and Austin Christopher sat with my mom
when my dad died on November 18, 194
We will be sharing more articles from past editions in the months to come.
East Tennessee’s Skunk Ape
You have most likely heard of bigfoot and some have claimed they have spotted him in the mountains of
East
Tennessee, and you might have heard about Southwest Tennessee9s jackalope but have you heard about East
Tennessee9s skunk ape? If you see him, you will never forget. It is said he is a large and hairy human like
creature, he has been spotted in the forests and swamps in southeastern United States. You might have heard
the skunk ape is the little cousin to Bigfoot.