Greenbrier County, West Virginia - Letters from Oleta Arritt Pitcher

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The records for this work have been submitted by Louise Perkins, 
E-mail address:  perkins @digital.net, October 1998.
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625 Johnston St., Virginia Beach, VA 23452, Jan. 4, 1990;  to the editor: 
I received a copy from your paper of the article, Teaberry-The Village by
Roberta Patton Rodgers.  It was sent to me by my cousin, Mrs. Homer Phillips of
Ronceverte.  The article was most interesting and it brought back many
memories.

  I was one of the children from the East End of town and attended the two
room school house just across the Lewisburg and Ronceverte Railroad tracks. We
lived within sight of the cemetary.  The most memorable teacher in my
childhood years was Miss Nellie Hogshead.  What a beautiful head of red hair she had:
Grades 1 - 3 were in the "Little Room" and grades 4 - 8 were in the "Big
Room". Miss Hogshead taught in the "Big Room" and I still have a composition book
filled with notes on geography, history, English and Civil Government. I
passed the eighth grade in 1924 and entered Greenbrier High School that
fall.
   Teaberry was farther up the road from us.  We walked up there many times
to visit friends and relatives.  Many times Uncle Andy Wright would bring us
home with the horse and buggy.  Uncle Andy had a valley below his house with a
dozen or more chestnut trees.  Every fall my mother, Neta Green Arritt and my
grandmother Margaret Honaker Green would take my cousins and me to pick up
chestnuts.  These chestnuts were much smaller and sweeter than those found
in the stores today.  A few years later a blight killed all the chestnut
trees.
  Every Sunday, my grandfather, J. J. Green took us to Sunday School at the
Presbyterian Church in the West End of Ronceverte.  That afternoon he took
us for walks through the woods where we played and picked wild flowers and
nuts.
  My aunt Katie (Hanifin) Green took several of us to the river many times
near Brown's Factory to play in the water.  Of course, bodies weren't exposed
then so we went in the water with our dreses and stockings on.
  The Brackmans were mentioned in the article.  We went to their house
often and bought milk for ten cents a quart.  We also bought milk from the
Kelleys.
  Three events stand out in my mind as a child.  The first was the West
Virginia State Fair.  We caught the trolley in front of what is now the
Waugh house.  At that time it was the home of the Clyde Baker family and before
that, my father had a small general store there in part of the house where we
lived. (I remember the pickle barrel and the glass candy case).  The trolley cost
twenty cents to the Fair Grounds Gate.  We spent the day, returning home
just before the gates closed at night.
  In the fall was apple butter time.  The neighbors came to my
grandmother's house and peeled and cored bushels of apples.  The next morning a fire was
built in the yard under a huge brass kettle and the apples were put in.  It
took all day to make the apple butter and many people had to continually
stir it with a long ladle.  By dark it was ready to put into the jars.
  The third memorable event was hog killing time in November.  My sister,
Elva (Arritt Luchard) and I always ran to the back of the house and held our
hands over our ears to keep from hearing the shots.  This was an exciting time to
our brother, Clayton.  The next day was spent grinding sausage, salting the
meat and getting it ready to hang in the smokehouse to be used during the winter.
During those years, we had no modern conveniences but life was good and we
were happy.
  This past summer I visited my cousins, Basil and Leon Baker and their
families of Teaberry.  I was amazed at the growth of The Village. Where
there had been fields and open spaces there are now many homes.  I found that the
people there are just as proud and interested in their Village as they were
when I was a child.  t/s/Oleta Arritt Pitcher.