OK, Cindy, Jan Rose, Tom + Stories from the past A day in the summertime in 1954; on a warm and cloudy day in Harlan County, Kentucky; on a road that connects Harlan with Cumberland, my brothers and I were traveling toward a favorite fishing spot. They enjoyed telling wilds stories of past events in which they were involved. As they began to tell their stories, I became eager to hear them and listened intently. My middle brother, Jim who was a little more out-going than either me or my older brother, Jack was the first to begin a story. Of course, I cannot speak to the validity of any of their stories. Both tended to exaggerate to embellish a story. As for myself, I try to stay as close to the actual event as I remember it to be. Jim began his story with painting a picture of the scene where the event took place, and what had led up to the event. He explained that he had been playing cards (gambling) most of the day and into the night. Luck was with him for he had been winning. The other players decided that it was time for them to quit, but Jim challenged them to one last game. He said, “I’ll bet $100.00 against $50.00 when I flip this quarter, it will land on heads.” One of the members of the party called his bet. He flipped the coin high into the air of the VFW building. It hit the ceiling, bounced around and landed on top of one of the rafters. His challenger said that he had won because it didn’t hit the ground. Jim disagreed, saying that he had said that it would land on heads. He contended that it did land, and now we need to see whether it is heads or tails. The challenger conceded the argument and proceeded to look for a ladder to determine which it was heads, or tails. After finding a ladder, they both looked at it without touching it, and agreed that Jim had won the bet. I thought it was an interesting story since Jim had won, but to me, it was a very foolish bet. I have never been much of a gambler. This concludes the first story on our way to the fishing hole. The clouds had begun to darken, and a light mist had begun to fall. The next stories were more car and road oriented. Jim told two more stories. The first one was about him riding as a passenger in a car driven by a friend who was partially inebriated. He was giving Jim a ride to Harlan from visiting our relatives “across Pine Mountain.” That’s how it was referred to -across Pine Mountain. My mother went to school at a place called, “Red Bird”. She lived at a place she often referred to as Big Branch, which was on an unpaved road far from the main road. The road was inundated with big rocks, steep curves and blind hills. The person who was driving Jim to Harlan decided to scare him. He was more familiar with the road than was Jim. He began to speed up to a very high rate of speed. He was sliding around curves, turning sideways in the road, running off the road and shooting off the top of hills. When they finally reached the main road (421?), he looked at Jim and asked,” Did I scare you?” Jim looked at him and said in a deep voice, “When a man scares me, he done a day’s work.” The friend began to drive correctly and didn’t say much the rest of the trip. The next story Jim told was about riding with a guy who was speeding on highway 119 late at night. They came to an area known as “Seven Sisters.” It was named for seven similar rock formations on the other side of the river, and was located between Harlan and Pineville. This was before HW119 had been redone. He said they shot off the top of a very high hill that was on a steep curve. The vehicle turned over several times and threw the occupants out onto the rocky slope. When the noise of the accident was over Jim could not hear anyone, although he yelled their names. He thought they had been killed. One made it out alright, but the other one was badly injured. Jim noticed that he was in his stocking feet and began looking for his shoes. He eventually did find his shoes. They were setting side-by-side as if he had taken them off and slipped them under the bed.(to be continued)
Posted on: Tue, 03 Dec 2013 21:44:42 +0000
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