Origin of the Shotgun Band (Wilkes County)

Origin of The Shotgun Band (Wilkes County)

There will be several blog post on this topic because it was the longest running band that I performed in. 
We organized The Shotgun Band as a result from a split in the Whiskey River Band and the Gold Fever Band. The original members were Bruce Evans from the Gold Fever Band on guitar, Mike Beeson on multiple instruments from Bruce's old band The Nomads  which originated from Mt Airy NC from the 1960's. Mike played guitar, fiddle, keyboard , and pedal steel with Shotgun. There was myself on bass and Keith Murphy on drums both from the Whiskey River Band. I feel the reason Bruce ask me to play bass with him was when he was with Bruce Evans and Gold Fever his bass player Rick Whitley was sick or away one weekend so he ask me if I would fill in one weekend and that's where we began our friendship. Later Bruce left Gold Fever and started The Shotgun Band. 

A lot of times there were leaders in the Bands and they were called for instance Bruce Evans and Gold Fever or Max Phillips and Whiskey River and many others titled their bands in like manner. Looking back in time the band members always felt why put them out front and that the other members were just as important as its leader but from hindsight it was a good thing. You could change members without losing the bands identity, however we were just called The Shotgun Band. Another thing to note is that Max Phillips had also performed together with Bruce in the past. We changed members during the time The Shotgun Band was together but we continued with the same name. 
When we first organized and began practicing Bruce said we were already booked and that our first gig was in two weeks. I thought the time was too short because we didn't have enough songs but we somehow got through it and the good thing about Bruce was that he kept us booked continually for the next 16 years. I made a lot of money in The Shotgun Band in so much we had to file taxes every year and keep up with our expenses. We kept up with mileage, expenses, and depreciation of our equipment. 
We started performing at the small clubs and dances when we first began such as the North Wilkesboro Moose Lodge and Willies Tavern in Roaring River NC. One thing I remember was that there was a lot of drama between the couples at the Moose Lodge. We also performed in 1984 at Richard Petty the race car drivers home at Level Cross North Carolina when Jim Martin was running to be the Governor of North Carolina. Keith Murphy left the Band a little while after that and we picked up Keith Hamlin on drums whose uncle owned The Bible Book Store, a large music store in North Wilkesboro NC. Keith Hamlin worked there part time. With this current band we performed the next six years together. This will conclude this post.

             Left to Right: Keith Hall, Bruce Evans, Richard Petty, Mike Beeson and Keith Murphy

                         Left to Right: Keith Hall, Bruce Evans, Mike Beeson and Keith Murphy

The Second Chisel Ridge Band

The Second Chisel Ridge Band 

In the year 1977-1978 we organized the Second Chisel Ridge Bluegrass Band. The members were Keith White on acoustic guitar, Jeff Shore on mandolin, myself on electric bass, and Kip Snow on banjo. We entered  the WTQR Country Music Championships in 1980.
                             Left to Right: Jeff Shore and Kip Snow (front) Keith Hall and Keith White (back)

                                Left to Right: Kip Snow, Keith White, Jeff Shore, Keith Hall

                                  Left to Right: Jeff Shore, Keith Hall, Keith White, Kip Snow

and performed at Hanes Mall in Winston Salem North Carolina. We were the winners against several bands and got to perform many of the traveling road shows for the radio station and also at the Dixie Classic Fair. One of our regular places to perform was at SRO Country in Winston Salem. SRO stands for standing room only.  When we performed there we would take World Championship Clogger JC Wagoner who would clog on roller skates on the lighted dance floor. JC later went to  Maggie Valley in North Carolina to perform. Along with paying Chisel Ridge for the Thursday nights Bluegrass performance Wayne the owner paid JC to dance while the band would take its breaks. I remember we did a promo photo shoot with Ray Key who was a practicing photographer and also an Elkin policeman shooting a whole set of pictures to later called us and said there was no film in the camera so we had to come back and do it again. We also performed at an outdoor festival called Pete's August Jam over on the Wildlife Road in Elkin. Pete Davis was the host and organizer of the event. Another band performed with us called Rampage. They played rock while we did the Bluegrass portion. Jim Taylor who I perform with at the present time of this writing played in that band. It's amazing how fate comes around and brings people together. 

The New Grass Express Bluegrass Band

Left to right: Gary Martin, Keith Hall, Gordon Myers, Steve Brown

The New Grass Express Bluegrass Band

At the end of 1973 and 1974 I moved from Morganton NC back home with my parents and attended Wilkes Community College to study Electronics. It was in the mid 1970's we organized the New Grass Express Bluegrass Band. It consisted of Keith White acoustic guitar, Steve Brown dobro, myself on bass guitar, Gordon Myers on banjo, and Gary Martin on guitar. Bluegrass music was gaining popularity in the 1970's by young people where everyone was just like we were transitioning from the folk rock genre. You had Seldom Scene, New Grass Revival and the Country Gentlemen rearranging a lot of tunes written by Bob Dylan and other folk hits. Bluegrass music had a new genre in that period called New Grass which is where we got our name. Let's not leave out the Osborne Brothers and even some of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs later leaving and organizing the Earl Scruggs Revue. It was a new time of creativity. We were all in the midst of it. Being lesser known we opened shows for the  Country Gentlemen at Lake Norman Music Hall a large venue for Bluegrass on Highway 150 outside of Mooresville North Carolina. We later opened a show with the Seldom Scene in Statesville. We entered the Sunbonnet Festival talent contest in 1978 that the Yadkin Arts Council was sponsoring and competed against many types of talent and were the winners. The winners performed on WXII TV station and also at Carowinds Amusement Park in Charlotte NC. It has always been frowned upon to have an electric bass in the traditional bluegrass bands but The Osborne Brothers were innovators changing the ways of tradition. I have always stayed faithful to my electric bass in all genres of music.

TEXTILE TOWN, (song) by Keith Hall

I wrote the song TEXTILE TOWN (Ghosts Cry Out From the Looms) because it comes from my experiences of living in the small town of Elkin North Carolina.
It is about Chatham Manufacturing Company and my grandfather George Robert Hall who retired from there. My grandfather had eight brothers and sisters and were farmers in Patrick County Virginia. My grandfather was the eldest of the family and left his home in Patrick County and moved to Draper North Carolina where he met my grandmother Nannie Hopper Hall and he worked in the Draper Mills. Later my grandfather's siblings and his dad John Curtis Hall all left the farm in Patrick County Virginia to work in the mills at Draper North Carolina. All of my grandfather's family and my grandmother's family were textile people and retired from what was called Fieldcrest Cannon. When the depression came my grandfather had moved to the town of  Swannanoa North Carolina close to Asheville and worked for Beacon Manufacturing Company. I have been there and the factory has been leveled where it once stood. The Chatham family gave my grandfather the opportunity to come to their factory in Elkin North Carolina in 1934 and placed him over the Weave Room because he had the great ability of fixing looms where he also patented some looms for them and standardized the looms for them. He educated the other men to do the same where they could all work on the looms.

The second World War came and men were enlisting to go fight in the war an act of patriotism that we don't see in this day and time and my Uncle George Curtis Hall enlisted and left home where he too worked at Chatham Manufacturing Company. He was in the 80th General Hospital and never made it to the Philippines where he was to be deployed but died of a kidney disease in California and was transported back home to my grandfather and grandmother and they were devastated. He is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Elkin and there is a plaque at the Elkin Municipal Park with his name on it along with all the others who died in the War for the Chatham Employees and their families. Chatham Manufacturing did real well during the war effort because they supplied the blankets for the war.
Since 1988 the Company has been sold and has changed ownersip several times currently being owned by a company today called True Textiles and only a small portion of the facility is being used.
Most of the buildings where people spent their livelihood are standing empty compared to the giant it was back before 1988.

Textile Town (Ghost Cry Out From the Looms)

Eight brothers and sisters grew up on a farm
We worked in the fields each day
Then the mills came and gave us a job
To weave and spin was our way

The Depression came and the mill didn't fall
We new how to live from our past
As farmers before we knew how to plow
How long would this Depression last

Chorus

Textile town where have you
gone
The mill that blessed us with food
Greed sent all of our jobs to
a foreign land
And the ghosts cry out from the looms

The Second War came our sons went away
Their mothers grieved their loss
Some never came home but the
blankets were made
The war and their lives was the cost

Chorus

One day I came home and our mill
was sold
Our jobs was sent overseas
Now I drive a hundred miles
to feed my family

Chorus

© 2016 Keith Hall

PICKLED EGGS, a Form of Survival

One day I was in the local grocery store and I began to look for a hard to find item. It was pickled eggs preserved in beet juice and vinegar. Most grocery stores here in the south still have them but they stick them in unusual places so that you really have to look hard for them. As a young boy when you would visit a bar, tavern or pool hall, (beer joint) you would find these for sell in big jars on the counter along with a big jar of large pickled cucumbers. I could find small jars of them in the produce sections but they were pickled in a clear vinegar unlike the ones in the beet juice and vinegar which gives the egg white a purple color. I thought these would be easy to fix. You just need a large empty jar and lid, then boil some eggs, a can of beets from the store, and apple cider vinegar or clear distilled vinegar, enough to fill the jar and cover up the eggs. Be sure to peel the shells from the eggs after you boil them. Place all of this in the jar and seal tightly. Whenever you need one just go and eat one for a snack because eggs are very healthy especially the boiled ones. The real reason I wanted to blog this was because back in our forefathers days people had large families to help them farm and one would be blessed to have a lot of children. In order to feed them they needed to store up food and preserve it. They would have a few barn yard hens and the hens would lay eggs and they would gather them to feed their families. If they have many hens the eggs would get old before they could cook them all and would have to throw them away. The refrigerator hadn't been invented at this time. They could take these eggs and fix them just as I described above and they would store a long time in the vinegar. If you owned a lot of hens you could do this and sell them to your neighbor or barter for something that they had. If your children had grown up and were married and had their own kids, then you could give some to them. This was a matter of survival. The next time you are in a bar, tavern,pool hall, (beer joint) or even the grocery store look for this unusual delicacy and try one. If you are inventive make you own.

Davis Arcade, Mt Airy NC, 1971-72, Surry County

It was back in 1971-72 I played in a band called The Caboose Show and Dance Band. We were all from Yadkin County which is the next county over from Surry. What a thrill it was for a young teen to play at a place that was packed with young teens. Our manager Roy Crissman of Crissman Talent Agency met us in Mt Airy with all of our band equipment and we met in the ally behind The Davis Arcade. What a neat place! We loaded all of our band equipment on a big freight elevator which was on the outside of the building and we rode up to the top floor to the back stage area. It seemed like we were in the big time and in a big city, Mt Airy to perform. We set up our equipment and performed for a packed house. In the Caboose Show and Dance Band was Robbie Hall on guitar, Chris Shore on drums, Kim Pardue lead vocals, Kathy Fleming lead vocals, Keith Hall on bass guitar, and Dick Steelman on keyboards. We had a couple of other vocalist Bobbie Jane Moxley and Diane Graham but I am not sure if they were there that night. One event that stands out in my mind was that a fight broke out between two girls fighting over a guy. It seems there was a lot of fighting going on the farther north that we went. We performed at places like Fairview Ruritan outside of Galax Va and Hillsville VFW in Hillsville Va during that time period. Maybe you can remember going there. What a neat place for kids to go. It is a shame there is not anything like that today.

Richard Petty, Level Cross NC, Shotgun Band, Governor Jim Martin 1984

It was the summer of 84 and The Shotgun Band was booked to play at Level Cross NC, south of Greensboro at the home the famous race car driver Richard Petty. Richard Petty was the winner of over 200 races in his career. We were performing for a political fundraiser for Jim Martin for governor. In 1985 Jim actually won the gubernatorial race in North Carolina. North Carolina with its long line of Democratic governors and Jim Martin was a Republican was one of the first republican to win in a while. We arrived at Richard Petty’s home in the mid afternoon and what a nice peaceable place to live. It wasn’t a real large home like some that you see today but was real nice. There were tennis courts and of course a large garage connected to the house. Richard greeted us as we arrived and showed us where the band was to set up and perform. We went behind the house next to the pool where a nice tent was set up for a shade. The event was to take place in his back yard and there were bales of hay scattered all over the yard for people to sit on and eat their barbecue. It was of course a fundraiser and kind of like an outdoor pig picking. The plates were catered with barbecue, baked beans, slaw and rolls. Richard’s #43 car was in the yard and he was available for people to have their picture made with him. Once we set up the band equipment Richard invited us into his house and he told us to make ourselves at home while he showered and got dressed for the fundraiser. Making ourselves at home is exactly what we did. We made pictures all over and around the house. Some of the details that I remember were Richard’s game room. There was a pool table with a stained glass lamp hanging over it with his race car #43 embedded in the lamp, a photo of Richard and Ronald Reagan shaking hands, an old antique showcase with his #43 car from various toy manufacturers and all types of memorably. One of the bedrooms had a porcelain doll collection on the bed leaning them up against the pillow shams. His wife is a real nice person too. Her kitchen was decorated with everything strawberries. There was strawberry wallpaper, strawberry canisters, and I remember in the middle of the table was a strawberry pedestal cake plate. When the people arrived for the dinner they stayed outside and sat on the bales of hay while they enjoyed their meal. Richard’s patio had a bathroom open to the public outside so there was not any reason to go in his house. The Shotgun Band performed and the party was a success and as a result Jim Martin became governor thanks to his supporters and people like Richard Petty. Richard and his wife Lynda are really down to earth people and made us feel at home while we had the opportunity to perform at his home in Level Cross. Thanks for the memory Richard.

The Nasal Cycle

Did you know that the nose has a nasal cycle? Several times during the day one nostril will partially close while the other one opens up totally and then the other one will close and the opposite one will open up. Try this experiment at various times throughout the day. You will notice that you can breathe better out of different nostrils at various times of the day. Most people that I talked too even my doctor have never heard of such a thing. The nasal cycle was first described by the German physician Richard Kayser in 1895. Yogi’s have known about the nasal cycle hundreds of years ago. The human body in its perfect creation by our creator keeps the cycle going all throughout the day to keep a balance of oxygen between the right side of the brain and the left side of the brain. Throughout the night while we are asleep you will notice that we changed the side that we are lying on too. This is to balance the cycles between the nostrils and we do it involuntarily. Our subconscious mind does this for us just like it controls the other involuntary functions of our body. Never of heard of such? It seems new to me too but just check it out on numerous search engines and you will find article after article on the subject. I wonder why they didn’t teach this in anatomy.

The Beginning,Elkin NC, Old Elkin Water Plant

Back in 1971 in Elkin NC there was a man who had a vision. His name was Ab Crater and he was over the Elkin Parks and Recreation. He wanted a place for the young people and teens to go to and have a good time and hang out. He took the old Elkin water plant and made a place called “The Beginning” or the coffeehouse as it was also called. Back in the 1970’s I was playing in a band called “The Caboose.” All of The Caboose members went to Starmount High School and consisted of Robbie Hall, Kim Pardue, Dick Steelman, Chris Shore, Kathy Fleming, Bobbie Jane Moxley, Diane Graham and myself Keith Hall. Most of the people who came to The Beginning went to Elkin High School and we made a lot of friends from that school. The bands would set up on the top floor to perform and the walls in the water plant were painted many different colors with sayings from that era. Slogans of Earth Day which began in 1970, War, Peace Symbols, Chicago, Three Dog Night, Sly and the Family Stone, Lobo, The Beatles were painted on the walls. The Vietnam War was going on and the rock festival Woodstock had taken place in 1969 so the paintings and drawings were centered on the events of that era. The paint used on some of the walls was fluorescent and glowed when placed under a black light. Some of the rooms had blacklight bulbs in them and glowed in the dark especially where the bands would perform. Parents could trust leaving their kids there for a while and later come back to get them. Ab Crater would make sure they were safe. We also lived in a different era back then and a lot of things we worry about today didn’t happen too much back then. There was a small admission charged to get in to help pay for the bands and it was up to each band to take up their own admission. My mom would sit there at the door with a cigar box and take up the money. I believe we performed all of the songs of the drawings on the wall. We would play Joy to the World by Three Dog Night, Dance to the Music by Sly and the Family Stone, some Joe Cocker and Grand Funk Railroad to name a few. About a year ago I was wondering if those old paintings still exist. I contacted Adam McComb of the Elkin Park and Recreation Dept and he said that they were still there. The rest is history. Here are a few of them and I hope you will enjoy. We had some real good times back then with some good friends, time to reminisce.

Sacketts Night Club, Radford Va, The Shotgun Band

Back in the mid 1980's I played electric bass in a band called the Shotgun Band. We were based out of North Wilkesboro NC. The members of the band were Bruce Evans, Mike Beeson, Keith Hamlin and my self Keith Hall. One of the many interesting places that we performed at was called Sacketts in Radford Virginia. Its motto was the New River Valley's #1 Hotspot and truly it was. Radford was a college town and Sacketts was the place where many would go to hear some of the area's top bands perform. There was bands like Streetfeet, January Rose, Cimmaron, Blackwater, Southern Cross and of course Shotgun. I have performed a lot in my day and I have never saw so much beer consumed in one place in my life. When the night was over I never saw so many long neck Budweiser's lined around the dance floor one right after the other and in the restrooms there were about 50 or more in each stall on the tanks of the toilets. We would leave from North Carolina and travel our two hour drive to Radford Va and from the first time that we went there they fed the band member's real well. There was a restaurant attached to the night club called the Stationhouse Restaurant serving Mexican Food and

some of the best shrimp and prime rib that I have ever tasted. I had to stop eating the shrimp however because after peeling all of those shrimp and playing the bass the smell got kind of fishy on those strings. We opened one weekend with the national recording artist Ozark Mountain Daredevils. They brought their instruments and sound man and used our sound system. What I can remember was that while Ozark was playing some drunk was trying to give their sound man a beer and he ended up spilling it into our sound board and the sound kept going on and off the rest of the night. The sound system worked good on Saturday night after it had dried up and never gave any more problems. One weekend we left North Carolina for Radford in the Shotgun mobile which was a Charles Chip panel truck converted to carrying our sound system and all of the band and that particular weekend we hit a terrible snowstorm going up Interstate 81. The Shotgun mobile at first didn't have a good heater so with Bruce's ingenuity he used a kerosene heater inside that moving vehicle and I don't know why it didn't catch on fire or turn over but it didn't. You have to know Bruce not only was a lead singer and guitarist he was also a good mechanic. Later he solved the heater problem and hooked up a heater that was used under a school bus seat and we then had plenty of heat. We had a pretty good crowd that night with all of the snow but we were forced to get a room in Christiansburg Va and stayed there to perform again on Saturday night. In between the band's sets they had a DJ and one of the most liked songs at that particular club was Mony Mony, Billy Idol's version. Shotgun decided to learn Mony Mony and perform it at all the other clubs that we performed at. It was a good choice to get the crowd hopping. It seemed that every other band in the Carolina's began to perform Mony Mony and to think it was Shotgun who brought it back to the Carolina's from Sacketts. We got our foot in the door at performing at Sacketts because the owner's fired a band for a New Year's performance and they ask us to come at the last minute and that was our start in Virginia. They didn't mind giving you a fair pay at Sacketts because they had the place full every time the doors were opened. I am writing this hoping some of you can remember Sacketts in Radford Virginia even though it was 27 years ago to me it seems just a few years ago.

Martin's Bake Shop, Jonesville NC, Yadkin County

As a young boy growing up in Jonesville NC in the early 1960's I lived over on Bridge Street and we would walk to Jonesville School which was about half a mile. There were two treats that we would have on our walk and one was the Martin's Bake Shop. They always had fresh Hot N Now doughnuts in the window when we would walk by. Krispy Kreme didn't have any thing on Martin's fresh doughnuts. They were five cents a piece when I was growing up and other's have said they can remember when they were two for five cents. Martin's was a very successful business in Jonesville at that time and even there after. I can remember in later years they made some of the best Fried Pies that I have ever tasted. Every country store around sold Martin's Fried Pies. They did real well evidently in the distribution of the fried pies. I will have to hand it to Thad and Leon Martin they had a good product. There is nothing like it today. Today we have preservatives and corn syrup in every thing we buy. That is where the real taste has disappeared. I wished someone had their old recipes laying around somewhere. Jonesville misses you Martin's Bake Shop.

Flavious Josephus, The Pyramids in Egypt and Their Purpose

It never ceases to amaze me the things that I find concerning Bible History. It has always been a mystery to scientist and archaeologist of who built the pyramids in Egypt and what was its purpose and how they built them.
Flavious Josephus was a Jewish historian who lived 2000 years ago and was of the sect of the Pharisees. He wrote much about the history of the Jewish people. He wrote about the time of the beginning starting with Adam and Eve. I would feel safer to believe his writings than to believe some scientist or archaeologist from the twentieth century because he lived closer to the time that they were built and had a clearer vision of why they were there. In his writings in the Antiquities of the Jews in Book One and the second chapter he writes,
"They also were the inventors of that peculiar sort of wisdom which is concerned with the heavenly bodies, and their order. And that their inventions might not be lost before they were sufficiently known, upon Adam's prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire, and at another time by the violence and quantity of water, they made two pillars, (10) the one of brick, the other of stone: they inscribed their discoveries on them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain, and exhibit those discoveries to mankind; and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by them. Now this remains in the land of Siriad(Egypt) to this day."
We can

see from his writings, who built the pyramids, why they were built, and where they were built.
We can see that the ancient fathers had the knowledge of the planets and stars and how they moved through space and that they built these pillars of stone and rock to survive the deluge, the great flood as a testimony throughout all time until the earth will be destroyed by fire.
Josephus said that they were still in the land of Egypt during his day and time and we know that they are still there today. What a witness in stone for those that can hear and see the truth.

Pizza, A Life Without Pizza by Keith Hall

When I was a young boy growing up in Yadkin County North Carolina Pizza was just not a part of our diet. Can people today even think about going through a life without pizza? A large majority of the restaurants today are centered on pizza.
We had a good neighbor George and Barbara Holmes that had a daughter, she was an only child. We would always go to their house and play. It seems like they had every board game that was offered at that period of time. They took us under their wing and fed us as one of their own children for many years. We even started a garage band and their daughter Jennie played the keyboard with us.
One evening they invited us to go and eat pizza. This would have been the first pizza that we had ever eaten. It was in the late 60’s that we went to Shakey’s Pizza Parlor in Winston Salem NC. The theme at Shakey’s pizza was centered on ragtime music. They also had one of those player pianos which played the rolls with the holes punched in them. This was really fun and looking back brings back wonderful memories. There was another place that they took us to eat pizza and that was the Village Inn pizza restaurant in Statesville NC. Village Inn has stood the test of time and the restaurant is still there. When the 70’s came around we had a place in Elkin NC called Demarko’s Pizza on North Bridge Street where Basin Creek Restaurant has just recently closed. The next pizza place I can remember is The Pizza Den which Jerry Moses owned. He and his wife were always friendly. I can remember it being where the Food Lion store is on North Bridge Street and later at the intersection of Oakland Drive and North Bridge Street it was on the same spot as the CVS Pharmacy.
Now we have Dominoes, Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, and many others too numerous to mention. It seems like in this economy pizza restaurants are the only ones making a profit. Restaurants like Subway have even added a personal pizza to their menus which have been selling real well for them. People can’t wait to get their hands on a sweet pizza like chocolate chip, brown sugar and cinnamon, and apple. There is even chicken alfredo and also a Texas Pete hot and spicy pizza. Frozen pizza sales in the grocery stores are a big part of their profits. Whenever our company has a meeting with a working lunch they always serve us pizza. Churches have youth parties and even at Bible School the food they bring in for the kids is pizza. This makes pizza available with a lot of different varieties. There are vegetarian pizzas, meat pizzas and sweet pizzas. Schools have even made it part of their everyday lunch menus. Growing up without pizza and then having pizza, I never thought it would come to this. Pizza I believe is the most popular food that there is. I just thought I would give you this to make you think. What would life be like without pizza?

Book of Gratitude, Air Conditioning

When I was born in 1955 in Elkin NC at the Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital, I was born premature. I weighed 4lbs and 5 oz. My mother was able to return home while I was left at the hospital to stay in an incubator until I was big enough to come home. My mother and father said that when they pulled up in the parking lot of the hospital they could hear me crying outside of the hospital. I never thought about it until I had grown up that the hospital didn’t have air conditioning and that the windows were raised to keep cool in the middle of July. We grew up in Jonesville NC without air conditioning and I didn’t think a thing about it being so hot. All of our cars didn’t come with air conditioning either. We just rode around with the windows down. We used an oscillating fan and that was all that we had in the 1950’s and 1960’s. I can remember when my grandfather built his new house in Hamptonville NC that he put in an attic fan. When the fan was on it would suck the outside air in and the curtains would stand straight out. Later on dad had one installed in his house too. A few years later dad bought a 50,000 btu window unit to go in our den and he had to have it specially wired for 220 volts. This was probably in the mid 1970’s. After I graduated and moved out and got married he had central air installed in his house. Today it is a common thing to have central air conditioning in every new house and also the older apartments now have a window unit. All the automobiles now come with air too. I am gracious for air conditioning everywhere that I go now. You just couldn’t imagine going into a restaurant or a store shopping that didn’t have air conditioning. If people had to go without air conditioning for just a few days they would have a hard time making it in today’s society. The schools in our community in Yadkin County would dismiss early when the summer heat was above a certain temperature because some of the rooms were not air conditioned. Just think of all of the animals that live and sleep outside in the summertime. Some of them do not even have any shade. The first thing that we look for while we stay outside is a good old shade tree to keep us cool. I must say again that I am grateful for air conditioning, fans and also shade trees to keep us cool in the summertime.

Elkin and Alleghany Railroad, Elkin NC, Ticket Station, 1911-1931

This is a photo of the Elkin Ticket Station for the Elkin and Alleghany Railroad. It was also one of Elkin's first libraries and also was the offices for the Elkin Manufacturing Company. It was built around 1870. This is one of the only things left standing after one hundred years have gone by.
There were nine stations or stops along the Elkin & Alleghany Railroad. Here is a list of them along with the mileage that they were from Elkin according to the report of the corporate commission in 1914.
Elkin 0 miles, Adsit 1 mile, Klondike 5 miles, State Road 7 miles, Currans 8 miles, Parks 10 miles, Thurmond 12 miles, Doughton 14 miles, Veneer 15 miles.

Elkin and Alleghany Railroad, Elkin NC, 1911-1931

One hundred years ago the early Pioneers of Elkin NC had a vision. Their intention was to build a railroad that would connect Elkin with Marion, Va. Another purpose was to connect two major railroads together and intersect in Elkin. The Richmond and Danville Railroad would connect with the Norfolk and Western line at Jefferson NC some sixty miles away. The construction of the railroad began in 1907 but the railroad was dedicated and celebrated its anniversary on July 4, 1911. The railroad was very useful and prosperous for about ten years until US highway 21 was built and then it was totally abandoned in 1931. Now only an empty roadbed can be seen through the woods from Elkin and beside US 21 all the way to the foot of the mountain. Only sixteen to eighteen miles were ever completed of the railroad.
Here is a listing of the officers and directors for the Elkin & Alleghany Railroad.
Officers:
J.A. Mills, President and general manager
F.T. Ricks from Raleigh NC was the assistant to the President
Hugh G Chatham from Winston Salem NC, Vice President
Alexander Chatham jr.,Secretary and Treasurer
C.B. Penny, general manager
P.P. Gwyn, general agent

Directors:
R.A. Doughton, Sparta NC, AH Eller, GW Hinshaw, Hugh G Chatham, Gilvin T Roth, J.S. Atkinson, A.M. Smith, R.M. Chatham, A.G. Click, J.F. Hendren, E.F. McNeer, J.W. Ring, J.A. Mills, C.W. Smith Laurel Branch, J.C. Smoot, N Wilkesboro, NC.
All of these men were well known business owners even before the railroad was constructed. They saw the railroad as a good investment and important to grow the business in and around the Elkin community. They would bring in experienced men such as Mr Mills and Mr Ricks who were already in the railroad business to oversee the company.
Photo credit given to Elkin Historical Collection

Hugh Chatham Memorial Bridge, Elkin NC, 1931-2010

Many years ago as a young boy growing up in a small town, namely Jonesville, NC in Yadkin County, my grandma Nannie Hopper Hall would take us for walks. Grandpa had his driver's license but grandma never learned how to drive so we would walk every day from Jonesville where they resided to Elkin NC. The two small towns were divided by the great Yadkin River, another story for another time. We would begin our stroll on North Bridge Street and walk down by the Northwestern Bank, then by Roses Village Motel where grandma must have known someone that worked there because she would always stop and talk. Then we would stroll across the Hugh Chatham Memorial Bridge which crosses over the Yadkin River. Our journey would always end up at Roses 5 and 10 cent Store where they had a counter full of hot cashews and peanuts. There was also all types of candy that you could buy by the pound. Grandma would always buy a pound of something and share it with us. A few years ago the bridge was condemned by the state for vehicles and for the last few years has been used as a walking bridge. This year however the death sentence has be sent out to take the bridge down on July 26th. DLB Inc from Hillsville, Va got the contract and has already begun moving in the heavy equiptment. The old icon is going to be torn down along with all the old memories. We also don't want to forget who it was a memorial for. Hugh Chatham one of the pillars and owners of Chatham Manufacturing Company in Elkin, NC. They were a major employer and provided a lot of jobs for the people of Elkin and the surrounding area. The Chatham Family generously did so much for this town and now that is being torn down. My grandma, grandpa, dad and mom all worked for the Chatham's. Bye, Bye Hugh Chatham Bridge.

Slop Jar, or Proper Chamber Pot

My grandmother and grandfather grew up in the old ways of living. My grandfather had a house in the city limits of Jonesville NC with indoor plumbing and sold his nice home and moved to a cabin in Lone Hickory NC without any plumbing. He had nothing but an old outhouse. I guess since he grew up that way it didn't bother him very much. As a young boy playing in that old cabin I used to see a white enamel bucket with a lid under their bed and I ask grandma what that was? She said it was a slop jar. Well being young I didn't question it anymore until it hit me just a few weeks ago. I was thinking what it would have been like to live back in the days of no indoor plumbing and nothing to use but the house out back. I thought to myself that it would be mighty cold to go out and use the bathroom in twenty degree weather and how cold it would be sitting on the throne in the dark in the middle of the night. That would be almost intolerable. Then it came to mind what grandma had said while I was about seven years old. What is that old bucket under the bed grandma? She said it was a slop jar, and now I realize why you didn't have to go out in the cold, cold weather to use the bathroom. I still can't imagine how one would put the merchandise into the jar but that is another story to ponder upon. I can only imagine a special wooden chair with a hole cut out in the center.

The Bitter End, New Yorks Oldest Rock Club

Back in 1973 David Tenery and myself had a band. We were into the acoustic-folk scene at that time. Artist like Arlo Guthrie and Jim Croce were doing real well along with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. David wrote some real cool songs such as "Southern Serves the South" a very popular train logo on the boxcars and inspired from working in the train yards at Drexel Furniture. In our band was Ricky from Elkin, NC playing banjo and guitar, his brother Micky playing fiddle, guitar and conga drums, David Tenery on acoustic guitar and myself on bass guitar. We were invited by a lady that ran the rock club to the The Bitter End in New York City to come and audition. We had put together a demo tape and sent it to her and she really liked the sound. We were practicing at Ricky and Micky's apartment in Gardner Webb where they were attending college and everything seemed like a go with the audition. We were on our way to stardom. If we made the audition we were to go on tour on what they called the "coffeehouse circuit" all over the country. I'll have to admit we had a unique sound and style of music which everyone was into at that time. A week before we were to leave for New York City, Ricky and Mickey backed out of going because they were in college and wanted to continue their education. Looking back, that was a wise decision for them but at the time all the effort we had worked on and put together was shattering our dreams. David and I were determined to go and perform in New York City in Greenwich Village. We put together a last minute band with Rob Conrad on electric guitar from Elkin, NC and Paula Dagenhart on drums using the same songs but now it had an electric sound. There were no banjos, fiddles, or congas to be heard. We went and performed for the audition and the lady knew that it wasn't the same band so we failed the audition, but we still got to perform at the Bitter End, New York City's Oldest Rock Club back in 1973. Maybe we should try again because the place is still there and I am still performing a similar style of music to this day. We have banjos, fiddles, and mandolins doing the Americana Sound.

Sneakers
Isn’t it surprising how tennis shoes have become a way to make a statement? I don’t think kids think about it, that it is a type of peer pressure. I can remember when I grew up in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s we only had three types of sneakers that I can remember. They were a Converse sneaker, PF Flyers, and Keds shoes. The PF Flyers were supposed to make you “run faster and jump higher”. I was discussing this with my son that tennis shoes were comfortable to wear but not a statement of style as it is in this day and time. In this day and time you have to worry about getting your shoes stolen because they are so pricey. Back in my teenage days no one would ever steal a pair of shoes. It is also amazing how people are buying the Converse basketball high tops, like we did back then. It seems what goes around comes around. The only difference is that we never coveted any ones sneakers. That makes a new law come to mind. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s sneakers.