Humpback Bridge

This picture of Humpback Bridge in Alleghany County was taken in 1953 just after restoration of the bridge had started. I think it says the picture was taken by Mr. S. L. Knapton. Aunt Helen was among the people who did the fund-raising to have the bridge repaired and turned into a wayside spot. Look at the amazing reflection of the bridge in the water. I have just started dipping into Aunt Helen's stuff. This is a real treasure.

Garage

My brother, Mom and I spent a good portion of this Labor Day weekend going through boxes from the garage in Covington. Scott did the laborious part of digging things out and throwing away a lot of the kind of random stuff that accumulates in a garage in 30  years or so.

Mom retired 17 years ago from the school system in Alleghany County and had never gone through the boxes from her office. As you can imagine, plowing through that stuff was very time consuming for her. Whereas my brother's point was "What can you want? You haven't looked at it in17 years?" Mom took the approach - "I'm not throwing it away until I go through it."

Scott then busied himself with sweeping and packing up the trailer we had brought to the house for just this purpose.

I assisted as best I could, but I really was stymied by boxes my father had brought to the house after my Aunt Helen Childs died in the early 1980s. She was secretary for the manager at the paper mill and was a proud member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Covington Business and Professional Women. She also was in a garden club and worked to beautify sites such as Humpback Bridge and the re-creation of Revolutionary era Fort Young - which does not exist anymore.

She also was a genealogist and an amateur historian. Hundreds of yellowed clippings were in those boxes on local history, state history, West Virginia history (primarily Greenbrier County) and even international history. She took two European cruises and had many books from places where she visited.

The picture in this blog does not show Aunt Helen. I brought it with me because it is one of the few pictures I have of my mother's father, Grandaddy Frazier Smith who was the postmaster in Covington (back when that post was politically appointed).  The picture was taken at Aunt Helen's house which was called The Pines. You can see pine shelving behind us. The whole house had pine walls and it once was used as what was euphemistically called a Tea Room. I am not sure how much tea was consumed. There were dances and dinners and other events held in the big open area that she eventually divided into two living rooms when she began using it as a home.

The picture shows my third birthday party. I am sure my Aunt Claudine Caddy, Helen's sister, made the cake. You might be able to tell that there is a doll in the center and the cake was her beautiful dress. Aunt Claudine was a well-known baker of wedding, birthday and anniversary cakes. She and Helen ran a catering business on the side. We used to get a lot of leftover food from the parties they catered. My favorite, oddly enough, was a three-layered finger sandwich that had pink and green filling that was made of cream cheese and tasted of onion. They also did pimento cheese and chicken salad sandwiches and pigs in a blanket (another favorite).

But back to Aunt Helen. She traced the Childs family and the Tucker family (her mother, Granny, was a Tucker) and had volumes of stories and pictures about people that I heard my Dad talk about. He also was interested in genealogy and I have most of his family collection too.

I packed boxes of stuff into my car when we left. I just could not let all of that history be history. Aunt Helen never had any children and my father's parents (his mother Lillian was Helen's younger sister) both died before Dad was 6 years old. So he was raised by his grandparents and aunts and uncles. He felt closest to Helen and Claudine who lived in Covington.

So, in a way, I feel like I am continuing this legacy.  I could not save it all. There was a lot of damage and mouse droppings. But I did save some and I plan to share it with others. Because, ultimately, that's what families do. I might even tell a story or two here.