DOGWOOD ACRES, 01/26/09, ELANE CRUM
Hello friends. Rick was kinda under the weather with a cold all week and now the sneezes are after me. I went to Erin’s basketball game at Taneyville Thursday night and enjoyed visiting with Janice Wolfe who is the gatekeeper. I had gone straight from work but told Rick we would have Wall-Eye when I got home. He did not forget, had taken it out of the freezer and was starting a skillet of fried potatoes.
Marty Bilyeu came to see Uncle Rick one morning and they talked about knives and guns, guns and knives. Marty had visited with Chuck Keithley recently and I think they had similar conversation.
Saturday morning I ran into the supermarket to pick up just a few things but delayed my shopping when I met Roscoe and Wanetta Keithley. Their shopping was finished and they invited me to join them for a cup of coffee. We got big cups full and I don’t know how we ever managed to drink as we all talked hard and fast for about an hour.
Roscoe said that Wanetta, almost 87 years young, gets up every morning dancing and singing or whistling a tune. A couple of her favorites are Rag Time Annie and Durang’s Hornpipe.
Wanetta said Roscoe is the only person she knows who can talk and talk and never get any relief from it. He is full of stories and memories and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like to listen to him tell them.
I took advantage of my time with them to learn more about family and local history. Recently I had an email from a man who purchased the old Oak Ridge Store building and surrounding land on Hwy 176. He had done a lot of restoration on the old building but wanted to know more of the history. I just knew that Uncle Ros would know and that was one of the old stories brought to life.
The basic facts are that his Uncle Theodore Holt owned the property and Tip Keithley built the building for him. Uncle Ros thought that was around 1934 or ’35. Theodore had paid $40.00 for eighty acres there next to the store. I would venture to say the new owners paid a great deal more than $40.00!
Auntie Wan was quick to tell me that is where she and Roscoe met. To repeat her words the short version of that story is: “girl from Bear Creek goes up over the high hill that separated Bear Creek from Bull Creek to the store”. Roscoe, home on furlough from the CCC’s , was buying a bottle of orange pop and she said, “so you are Roscoe Keithley”!….and he said, “Yes, what’s left of him”. That was the beginning of their romance.
After Mr. Holt ran the store for a several years, he sold it to Mary Reynolds (old-times all call her Mary R.). Mary R and her daughter, Rita, ran the store and it also became a meeting place for local teenagers. There was horseshoes to play by day and cards at night. An occasional scuffle amongst the young fellows would bring Grandma Jane Davis up the hill to see what was going on.
Roscoe’s Uncle Guy Keithley lived across the road, catty-cornered from the store; Aunt Lula Keithley lived directly across the road and Roscoe’s Aunt Jane Davis who was also Wanetta’s Grandma lived just down the hill.
I also learned that Grandma Jane’s little house had housed Waldo Armitage’s store in its early years. That was before Theodore Holt had the new store built just up the hill. Roscoe remembered that not only did Waldo carry groceries, but also used clothes, and at least one guitar. He had traded his coat to Waldo for that guitar and learned to play. In his wildest of dreams, he could not have known that one day he would be Emceeing and judging fiddle contests at the California State Fair.
Well, we finished our coffee and parted ways. They were going to visit Taney and Wilma Houseman and Bill and Roma Smith, so I expect there was a few more yarns spun before the day was over.
Sunday afternoon Rick and I went to Ava to attend visitation for Sean Dobbs, a young man from our church who passed away following a valiant battle with cancer. After leaving the funeral home we went south on 5 Hwy to take pictures of a house, then took the shortcut home, the one that goes near Bill and Cathy Dalton’s place and on to the Rome Road. We had traveled that road a time or two and knew enough to know that we would reach the Rome Bridge and then it would not be much farther to Hwy. 76.
We passed Walnut Grove Church and saw Dalton’s house in the distance so knew we were on the right track. Well, I guess we were, for awhile. After making several choices of which way to go at crossroads, it became evident that we may have made a wrong turn. We just kept on driving until finally, there was pavement and we were shocked to see that we were at McClurg. Believe me, we traveled more than a few miles of Douglas County gravel roads to get from A Hwy to W. Still do not know where the wrong turn was but we got home. Bye for now.
ELANE CRUMCell: 417-239-4059
Website: http://www.elanecrum.com/
Website: http://www.elanecrum.remax-midstates.com/
Blog: http://www.dogwoodacresonline.blogspot.com/
