When R.J.R. Came
To Pole Hollow
The» iiiosl iiiomoralilo iravelors of a
Ion** an<l colorful procession.
By TEH DENISIY
Allhough my family lived, in the
early years of this century, in the
"backwoods” at a place called "Pole
Hollow." we grew somewhat sophisti¬
cated in our knowledge of the travel
modes of the times, and the world be¬
yond our hills.
Pole Hollow was a hidden, forest-
choked valley halfway between the
rustic but emerging villages of Pinnacle
and Pilot Mountain in North Carolina.
However, through Pole Hollow ran the
earliest link of communication be¬
tween the foothill settlements of Surry
County and the Piedmont section of
the state. That link was the Winston-
Salem to Mount Airy road — an un¬
paved red wound in the earth that
snaked in and out of the hollows,
around the foothills, over miry bogs,
across shaky bridges, and through
fords in some of the creeks. The road
has been replaced in recent years by
Highway 52. a four-laned. limited ac¬
cess thoroughfare.
The Water Stop
Furthermore, our family had. im¬
mediately across the road from our
two-roomed log house, a cold bold
spring, which my father look great
pride in and attended carefully. He
kept the crawfish from diverting the
water veins away from the basin,
scrubbed the rock walls frequently,
and cleaned the debris from the area
meticulously. He also groomed the
grounds with a scythe to discourage
the copperheads that might have
wanted to hang around there.
The spring, known to travelers up
and down the road as "Pole Hollow
Spring." became the Mecca of pro¬
duce and tobacco haulers, peddlers,
drummers, the casual passersby. and
the wandering Gypsies. As time wore
on. the long-haul wagoners, like the
apple growers from upper Surry
County and Patrick and Grayson
counties in Virginia, established two
campsites near the spring, one a hun¬
dred or so yards to the south, and the
other among the trees below our feed-
barn on the north. Both sites had
well-beaten paths to the spring.
Later, as the machine age crept in
upon us. the spring became a
stopping-place also for the first auto¬
mobiles and trucks that bumped over
the road at Pole Hollow. (The poles
had been cut from our woods nearby
and placed cross-wise over the boggy
spots in the road.) Often the drivers of
the vehicles had to replenish the water
that had boiled out of the radiators, but
more frequently the drivers and their
passengers went to the spring to re¬
fresh themselves.
Glamorous Visitors
The members of our family came to
recognize many of the "mountain
men." who sometimes hauled cabbage
and chestnuts as well as apples, by
their distinctive wagons and teams.
Jack Allen drove a pair of big-footed,
heavy-maned bays to a long, flat-bed.
big-wheeled wagon, which he always
kept painted a shiny red. Alf Leftridge
had a pair of small, spirited, sorrel
mules and a curved wagonbed. with
the white canvas-covered bows pro¬
jecting out in front and behind. Sol
Jones drove — and sometimes led — a
yoke of lumbering red-gray oxen to a
short, bob-tailed wagon, which always
sported a green oilcloth over the center
of the white canvas top.
And when the Gypsies passed in
their motley caravans, we thrilled in
fear-tingling delight at their strange,
colorful clothes, their gibberish talk,
and their big black, belled mares, often
with their colts running by their sides.
We laughed at the "tramp" w ho. w hen
we asked him about his origin and des¬
tination. said. "I've been every d---
wherc and I'm going no d--- where."
We saw one of the Allen clan, a
couple of days after the big shoot-out
in the Hillsvillc. Virginia, courthouse,
come by. not on horseback as we
would have expected, but on foot. He
got his drink at the spring and headed
south. He was later apprehended in
Montana and brought back to Hills¬
villc. where he was tried for his par¬
ticipation in the shooting incident.
Thirsty Motorists
But one of the best remembered
thrills, especially among the older
children of the family, came one hot
summer morning about 1910 when a
л
Sr.
The two-roomed log house
0»
bis boyhood, os our writer remembers it. Pole Hollow spring was |ust ocross the
rood.
22
THE STATE. Januaby 1981
