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Monday, October 7, 2013

A Day of History

Yesterday we went to my grandfather's birth-place and several other locations where he grew up. 
Below is where the house that he was born in sat. Now it hosts three aging cars.
Across the street from there is the house his family moved into soon after he was born. This location had a store directly beside it where his father sold anything from gas to groceries.
Just beyond the white house is the elementary school
 that he walked to when he got old enough to go to school.
This is one of the many wild flowers that covered the grave-site of his house. :)
This is the store that now occupies the place behind the old store. In other words, the old store was much closer to the road, with only enough room for a small car to pull into between the hand-pumped gas tank and the road. Granddad said there were only a few cars that passed by each day, but it was enough for it to be worth keeping the gas tank. His family only lived here until the Great Depression, when they lost everything.
Where the old store sat.
After this we went to the Mayo river, where Granddad's father would bring the kids in the summer to cool off. It was amazingly beautiful!
The rock they used to dive off of.
So much nasty graffiti!
Beautiful Elisabeth.

I saw this in the woods and it made me wonder what had happened to Derek DePeau. It is sad. After looking it up, all I could find was that he had died suddenly.

This is the only beach most people in the area ever went to in those days. It's different, yet could it be better?
More wildflowers.
Then we went to see Priddy's General Store, established 1888. They are still open and have live music on Saturdays.
Then we went to the church that my Great-grandfather helped found.

They still had the stained glass inscription in the window.

Great-grandfather was originally buried in a different graveyard in 1930. But when his wife died five years later and was buried here, his brothers dug him up and moved him beside his wife. :)

After that we had lunch/dinner at a country place called the Dan River Family Restaurant. They had THE best hamburgers around, no kidding! And their country fries where Amazing!
All in all, It was a wonderful day!
P.S. This is Saturday's sunset.

5 comments:

  1. It was a lot of fun and such good memories. I enjoyed hearing all the stories Granddad told as well. Of course Dad and Granddad got the famous Carolina Burger which they declared is the best ever! Lydia said her hot dog was the best ever!!!

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  2. It looks like ya'll had fun! You're making me jealous! lol The river looks absolutely beautiful! I wish I could have gone with ya'll. ;)

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