Back in the Day

On a recent trip to the mountains of North Carolina, my dad took me on a trip down memory lane as we went "back in the day" to his childhood and the place he called home. At one point in time, my great grandfather, William McKinley Forbes, owned much of the land that we traveled on. Many said that, at one time or another, he owned the whole mountain. Now, scattered houses dot the landscape.

McKinley's father, Charles Forbes, had owned much of the land and at one time there was even a train stop named FORBES STOP. There was no station... just a stop on the route. There was a church... Crabtree Freewill Baptist Church down that road. The congregation outgrew the church and there was need to expand the building; however, rock was in the way of expansion so some of the men who were in the mining business, decided to use dynamite and break up the rock.... one small problem.... the dynamite that blasted the rock also blasted the church! The church is gone but the rock stands firm!!!



During my life time, William McKinley and Leanor Marie Forbes (Daddy and Mama Forbes) lived in this trailor. I don't remember Daddy Forbes but absolutely loved visiting Mama Forbes as a little girl. She was so jolly and easy going! If you wanted to eat, you ate... if you weren't hungry, you didn't! She tried to teach me to weave a basket and to crochet.



Before my birth... when my dad was a child, this is where Mama and Daddy Forbes lived. It was a modest house with a small store in front of it that they ran. Beside the store was a large building...



Dad said that his Uncle Herb brought some Army cots with him when he visited from the base and the children would sleep in this building on old Army cots. I can imagine, for little boys who were cousins, it might have been quite an adventure! And a little scary!



This house is where McKinley's sister, Arizonia and her family lived...



Here were some plants growing by the road...

... and while the whole mountain is no longer owned by the Forbes family, at least one little corner of it is still represented...

This old tree is where Blaine and Dee Forbes lived in the early 1960's. They had a trailer that sat here...

... and this is a pond up the road

This plot of land sits across the road from where Blaine and Dee lived. My grandparents, Paul and Elsie had a house that sat on the top of this ridge. Daddy said that the house was old, drafty and that sometimes he would wake up in the morning to have plaster on his bed that had fallen from the ceiling during the night. It is at this spot that his sister Shirley Faye died and he recounted the horrors of waking that morning to his dad crying that she was dead as he carried her little body. With the laughter and joys of childhood, there were also traumatic times and hard times.

Papa Paul built a house on this spot many years ago and they lived here for a while...

This is the home of one of William McKinleys other brothers...

Modest by all means but not bad considering there were no contractors... no real jobs to be had in the mountains... and that most homes were built by the owners who were farmers and homemakers...