Cabin Life

I grew up in Malden, WV. Born in 1956. My Daddy loved to go hunting with his friends from work. Kenneth Cross’s In-laws the Schrader’s in Pocahontas County would host Daddy’s group of friends for deer season. Daddy decided that he wanted to get his own cabin. So, on a trip he went to Merl’s gas station in Dunmore WV and asked if he knew of any land he could put a cabin. Merls told Daddy that there was a farmer on Sitlington Creek road that might. That farmer was Slim McCray. He and his wife Alie lived on a farm with their children, Marsha Sue and Harold. Slim was very cross-eyed, but one of the sweetest men ever. Slim told Daddy, sure I got an old tater patch I haven’t used in years. He took my Dad to the hillside and Daddy said it would work and asked how much it would cost. Slim told him $20. Daddy said “I don’t think I can afford $20 a month.” Slim laughed and said, “$20 a month? No, $20 a year.” They signed a contract of $20 a year for 99 years. So, from the age of 2 we had a cabin on Sitlington Creek Road in Dunmore. We were 6 miles from Cass Scenic Railroad as the crow flies. My Mother described it as 2 rooms and a path. We would go to the cabin almost every weekend and almost every vacation was there. We would close out the house for up to a month and have mail forwarded to the post office in Dunmore. Which was in Beverage’s General store.

The cabin had two rooms. The first room had two sets of bunk beds made from iron that my dad had fashioned at Carbide, where he worked. There was also a hide-a-bed couch and a table with a radio. Between the two rooms was a big open doorway with a big gas stove for heating the cabin.

The second room was the kitchen and wash area. Next to the stove was a fridge and back door to the deck. Along the back wall was a dresser with a mirror and a wash basin. Next was the kitchen cabinet with the sink. The sink drained through a hose that went out behind the cabin into the woods. The little four burner apartment-sized gas stove was next. In the corner was a metal cabinet. Next was another hide-a-bed couch. My mother used it as her bedroom and the boys slept in the bunkbeds. Last, but not least, was the 1950's aluminum table and chairs set. As I said, we had a path that led to the outhouse.

The cabin had no running water. We had electricity and used bottled gas for cooking and heat. We used two 5-gallon cans for water. We would put them in the back seat and go two miles past our cabin on Sitlington Creek rd. On the left someone had stuck a pipe in a spring that came out of the mountain side. We'd fill the cans up with the best water you ever tasted. No chemicals or mineral water. True Spring water. In cooking everything that used water tasted better. When Steven and I were older Mother and Daddy would let Steven, and I take the car to get water. I was around 13 and Steven was around 15. Steven would drive to the spring, and I would drive back with the cans full in the back seat. You must remember that Sitlington Creek Rd. was a winding dirt one lane mountain road. With dog leg curves, or as my dad would say, “Kiss your ass” curves. On one of those curves, one of the cans fell over and being such an inexperienced driver turned and looked. Well, needless to say, I drove the car off the road, down a 30ft. hillside. The car landed at a 70-degree angle; headlights were in the mud. After the initial shock wore off, we both jumped out of the car and climbed up the hill to the road. We could smell gas. Once we both were ok, we tried to figure out what to do. We knew we were in trouble. As we walked back to the cabin, we began to concoct our story. “I know, when going around the curve the steering locked up.” That’s just what we told our Mother. After she was sure we weren’t hurt, she said to walk a mile to the Grimes’s farm and ask for help. Dave took Steven and I back to the cabin to pick up Mother. Dave had brought his backhoe with him. When we got to the car, he looked it over. He started laughing. “It will be easy to get out. I can take this old road that led to a homestead that is no longer there.” Dave took the backhoe past the spring and came up to the bottom of where we went down. He hooked on the front of the car and pulled it right out. Upon inspection he said the only issue he could see was the gas tank had a small pinhole. He said if we were a foot to either side, we would have hit a tree and could have been killed. He towed the car to Merl’s garage/gas station, and they took the gas tank off and fixed the hole and put it back on for $20. That included a full tank of gas. After we got back home irony struck. There was an issue with the steering in the model of Impala we had. Mother and Daddy didn’t know the truth until Steven, and I were both adults and on our own.

There was Sitlington Creek and Thomas Creek a 1/4 mile down the hill from the cabin. This is where I learned to swim. We only used the cabin in the spring, summer and fall. When we would go up to the cabin the first time of the year, my brother Steven and I would go down to scope out where the best swimming holes were for the year. You see, after the spring thaw the creeks would have changed due to the sediments shifting. Not to mention the beavers building their lodges. Before we headed down to the creek our mother would tell us not to get in the creek yet, it was too cold. We would promise we wouldn't. She knew that each time we went we would come back with blue lips. "Steven fell in and I tried to pull him out and I fell in too." You see there would still be ice on the edges of the creek.

I remember one time we took a TV and an antenna. Once we got the antenna up and tried for a while, we never got a signal. So Steven and I used the box the antenna came in to slide down the hill. Mother and Daddy were off fishing. On one trip down the hill, I heard a familiar sound. It was the rattle of a snake. Steven ran and got Daddy's worm pan he kept with dirt and worms for fishing. Steven threw it on the snake, but it just caught it. I threw a rock into the pan. It flipped and the snake raced away from us into the woods. When we told Mother what happened she said, "See, I told you, you boys are so mean, a snake won't even play with you."

When I tell people I played with a West Virginia Black Bear, they ask if I'm lying or just stupid. Pat Hall lived down by the Greenbrier River, off Sitlington Creek Rd. He worked for DOT. He was at work one day and 2 really young bear cubs came to where the men were working. You want to see a man run fast? That's just what the men did, ran to their trucks. If you saw bear cubs in the area there was a very protective mama bear close by. The men waited to see mama arrive. She never showed up. The men shared their lunches with the cubs. The crew supervisor got on the CB with the forest ranger and was told a female bear was killed by a farmer to protect his flock of sheep.

So, Pat took one and another guy took one. Pat's cub was a female, so he named her Patsy. She weighed around 80 pounds. We got to go to Pat's house and play with Patsy. She had a big cage that she stayed in. Pat had planned to raise her close to adulthood and release her back into the wild. But she got too used to people. She loved Nehi Orange or Grape. She would sit up and take the bottle and hold it between her paws and drink it down. All you had to do was to call "Patsy" and make kissing noises and she would come to the side of the cage and beg for scratches behind her ears.

The next year, when we went to visit Patsy, she had grown to 350 pounds. She was still just as sweet and silly as the year before. She would kick the ball she had towards you, and she wanted you to kick it back to her. Patsy didn't live her whole life in the cage. Pat or Mrs. Hall would take her out into a fenced in pasture to run and play with a kiddie pool. Whenever we came to visit her, Mrs. Hall would tell her “The boys are here, go to your cage if she want to play with them.” She would come bouncing over ready to play.

When we went back the following year Patsy was gone. One day Mrs. Hall was cleaning Patsy’s cage and playing with Patsy. Patsy’s claws had cut Mrs. Hall’s leg bad. That meant Pat had to figure something out rather quickly. There was a zoological park near where I lived. When we got back to Malden, the first thing I asked my mother was to go to the zoological park and visit Patsy.

Because Patsy was too familiar with humans she was kept in a special caged area. When we got there, mother told me to hold on and she was going to the park management to see if I could go play with Patsy. I couldn’t wait. I bought a Nehi Grape and ran to Patsy’s cage. I jumped over the barrier and went up to her cage and called “Patsy!” along with the kisses. She looked at me then came quickly over with a low growl of recognition. I stuck my hand in between the bars and started scratching her behind ear. All of a sudden, there was a blood-curdling scream, “HE’S WITH THE BEAR!” Mother knew exactly what I had done. After the dust had settled, I got to give Patsy her Nehi. People with cameras were taking pictures. Wish I had one of those pictures.

It was a different time back then. More about the Grimes’ family. When we were little kids Granny Grimes, Dave’s mother, was still around. I can remember whenever we went to camp, sometime on the trip we would pay Granny Grimes a visit. She would always be in the kitchen and pulling food out of the fridge saying, “Let’s make some sandwiches.” Mother and her would then sit at the kitchen table and have at least one cup of coffee, sharing the latest news of happenings. Granny would always pull out two bags of toasted coconut marshmallows. One for Steven and one for me. As we were munching away and mother was drinking her coffee, Granny pulled out this box giggling. It was called “The Merry Monk” (Picture below). Granny pulled out this little monk and placed him in front of mother. “Push down on his head”, she giggled. When mother pushed down on it’s head a penis shaped thing popped out of the front of the monk’s robe. Mother was so embarrassed. Granny burst out laughing.

One of the reason’s we became so acquainted with the Grimes’ in the first place was Sitlington Creek ran through their property. Daddy stopped in at the Grime’s to see if it was ok for them to fish through their property. Of course, back then it was no problem. Mother would go down the hill behind our cabin and would fish the creek from there to the Grimes’. At the same time, daddy would drive to the Grimes’ and park the car and fish from there into Dunmore. When mother would get to the Grimes’, she would take the car into Dunmore and pick up daddy. The next time they would switch out.

The hunting Party	Daddy cleaning water can in front of the cabin.	Steven and I At Spruce Knob WV’s highest elevation
My Cousin Marie Sprigle in Daddy’s bunkbeds.	Mother at the cabin door.	Story of Granny Grimes Above