April 2007 Interview with Walter Lowrie “Bud” Martin By Bruce Patterson [NOTES: An earlier tape recording had malfunctioned and could not be transcribed. There are several references to the earlier tape in this transcript. Items enclosed in brackets [ ] are editorial notes inserted for clarification.] Patterson: Today is April 26, 2007 and I’m in Edith and Bud Martin’s kitchen [146 McClure Blvd.] and we’re getting ready to have an interview with Bud Martin. This is Walter Lowrie Martin, and my name is Bruce Patterson. Who were you named after? Martin: I’m named after my dad and my granddad. I was the third. Patterson: And your granddad was the first? And your dad was the second. How many “Buds” were there? Martin: Just me. Patterson: And how’d you get to be Bud? Martin: Well, they called me Buzz when I was little. Patterson: B – U – Z – Z? Martin: Buzz, yeah. But then later on, well, a lot people called me Lowrie. When I went to high school – or grade school – I always went by Lowrie, and some of my school buddies that I grew up with still call me that. But I’ve been Bud for a long time. Patterson: And you grew up in what house? Martin: Where Ann Beard lives at the forks of 606. [3745 Brownsburg Turnpike at the intersection of Brownsburg Turnpike and Raphine Road] Patterson: And how long did you live there? Martin: Fifteen years. Patterson: And then you moved out here to the farm. [Mountain View Farm on McClure Boulevard] Martin: I lived in the big house at the farm for ten years [85 Marmac Lane], and got married and moved across the road [146 McClure Boulevard]. Patterson: And you had a brother and a sister? Martin: Yeah, a brother Sid [Martin]. Sid’s been dead for ten years. My sister was Frances [Martin] Moore, and she’s been dead for five years. Patterson: And Sid was married to Dorothy Miller? Martin: Yeah. Patterson: Now Dorothy Martin. Dot Martin. Martin: Yeah. Patterson: And your sister lived in Richmond? Martin: Well, she lived in different places. She lived in Waynesboro for a long time and then they moved to Richmond. Patterson: And what did you do when you lived out at the forks of the road? What was your normal day like? Martin: Well, get up and milk and do whatever you had to do. There were chickens and all that you’d have to do before you went to school. Patterson: How did you get to school? Martin: School bus. Patterson: Who drove the bus? Martin: Ed. Ed Patterson. Patterson: Did he? Martin: Yeah. Patterson: Who else – who was your other bus driver? Martin: Well after I moved over here, Mr. Wiseman, Tolerace Wiseman drove. Patterson: And he lived in Brownsburg where the Lunsfords live. [2651 Brownsburg Turnpike] Martin: Yeah. Yeah. Patterson: And so you’d feed the chickens and milk before you’d go to school? Martin: Oh yeah. Same thing in the afternoon. Patterson: What time did school start? Martin: I don’t know. Patterson: Nine o’clock? Martin: Nine o’clock, I reckon. Patterson: Over at three? And what did you do when you came home? Martin: Whatever chores you had to do. Get in the wood. Split wood. Everybody burned wood then. Whatever I had to do, or I’d find something to do. I always liked it. Patterson: And who was the close – your closest neighbor? Martin: Mr. Porter Beard. Lived across the road and ran a threshing machine. Patterson: He lived where the Tomans – in the stucco house where the Tomans lived? [3464 Brownsburg Turnpike] Martin: Yeah. Yeah. And he had a sawmill, and I was always very much fascinated with that sawmill. Patterson: Did you ever work over at the sawmill? Martin: Not at his, but I’ve got one of my own. [Laugh] Patterson: Did you ever lose any tips of your fingers or toes in the sawmill? Martin: No. Thank goodness. Patterson: So you went to Brownsburg Academy? Martin: Yeah. Patterson: Where was your first grade – what building was your first grade in? Martin: In the old academy. Patterson: And how many years did you go in that building? Martin: Four. And then they built the new school, and we started in the fifth grade in 1938. Patterson: And they had the elementary and high school classes all in the brick school? Martin: Yeah. Patterson: Anything in the stucco? Martin: I was in the stucco building. We were up on the second floor for three years, because we had a small class, and there was a small room up there. So they put us up there every year. Patterson: I had fourth grade up there, and they had an old coal stove. Did you have a coal stove? Martin: Oh yes. Patterson: And you had to put coal in the stove every morning? Martin: Yeah. Patterson: Did Mrs. Lowe teach you? Martin: No. Patterson: Who were some of your teachers? Martin: Well, Mrs. Leech was my first teacher. Patterson: Isabel Leech? Martin: Yeah, Isabel. And then Irene McClung was a teacher. Jen Heffelfinger taught for a little while, you know. Patterson: What did she teach? Martin: It was down in the grades. Some of that. But Mrs. Edwards. And then there was a Mrs. – I can’t think of her. In the seventh grade there was a Mrs. – Hmm. Can’t think what her name was. But anyway, then up in high school we had – well, Miss [Osie] Trimmer was the Principal until I was a senior. Patterson: What did she look like? Martin: Miss Trimmer? She was a redhead, and you toed the mark. Patterson: How old do you think she was at that time? Martin: I don’t know. She looked old! [Laugh] According to me now, she was probably young! [Laugh] Patterson: And she never was married? Martin: No. Patterson? And she lived where? Martin: She lived there on the corner where Casey Campbell lives now. [2766 Brownsburg Turnpike] Patterson: And who else lived with her? Martin: Well, it was two or three other teachers there. There was a Miss Edwards from Staunton that lived in Staunton lived there. But a lot of the teachers used to board out at the McNutts. [3334 Brownsburg Turnpike] Mollie Sue Whipple. That’s where she boarded when she first came to Brownsburg. And then there was Al Lunsford that taught in the high school. He boarded there, and a couple of other teachers. Patterson: And Miss Trimmer was more than just Principal. What else did she do? Martin: Oh yeah, she was it! Basketball coach, and girls’ basketball coach. And a disciplinarian. If anything – if you misbehaved or anything – Patterson: What happened? Martin: You went to the office. Patterson: And what happened in the office? Martin: -- and the consequences. Patterson: What were the consequences? Martin: Well, she’d whip you if she thought you needed it. [Laugh] Patterson: What did she whip you with? Did she have a paddle? Martin: Switches. No, she’d send them out there in the orchard out there and she’d get them – Patterson: You had to break your own switch off? Martin: Yeah. And she didn’t use one. She’d have three or four. Patterson: Did you ever get a switch? Martin: No. But got threatened. [Laugh] Patterson: Did you ever have to stand in the corner? Martin: Well, yes, I think have. [Laugh] Patterson: Did you ever get in any fights in school? Martin: No. Well, only one time I knew of. Carl Carroll and I got in a fight. I don’t remember what it was over. Patterson: Who won? Martin: I don’t know. [Laugh] Man, you think I’d remember all that? But anyway, you know, it – everybody in high school and all the elementary and everything was all in the same school. Patterson: And she was your Principal until when? Martin: Until I was a senior. Patterson: And then who was Principal after that? Martin: Raymond Bodkins [??] Patterson: What sports did you play in high school? Martin: I played basketball and baseball. Patterson: Who all did you play? What other schools did you play? Martin: Played all the county schools, and some in Augusta. Craigsville, and Middlebrook, and Spottswood and Natural Bridge and Goshen and Effinger and Fairfield. Fairfield was a big rival. Patterson: How did you get to all these games, on the bus? School bus? Martin: Yeah. Yeah. But if we stayed and practiced ball after school, then you walked home. Patterson: Did you have to walk home? Martin: Yeah. Patterson: Here and out there? Oh, you walked home here, then? Martin: Yeah. Three miles. Patterson: How long did that take you? Martin: It was all up hill! [Laugh] Patterson: It was all up hill! Martin: Cause I mean, there wasn’t any traffic on the road. Patterson: Roads paved? Martin: No. Patterson: None of them? Martin: Well, they paved the – yeah, this was paved here after I moved over here. I mean down – it was a dirt road. Patterson: It was paved? Martin: Yeah, this one was. But I remember when they paved the road out by home [3745 Brownsburg Turnpike]. Patterson: When was that? How old were you? Martin: Well after the war, they started the WPA [Work Projects Administration]. That was one of the things that Roosevelt started, and the CC camps [Civilian Conservation Corps]. And I moved over here in ’43, so that must have been about ’42, something along there they worked on out there. Patterson: What did Brownsburg look like when you were living just outside of Brownsburg? How many stores there? Martin: Well, there were three stores. The bank and a Post Office. And the Post Office was in the store that Tom [Martin is referring to Jim Bosworth] Bosworth ran. Which later became – Patterson: Bud Wade’s pool hall. Martin: Pool hall and barbershop. Patterson: And Huffmans had the store in the middle of town. Martin: Yeah. Yeah. Patterson: And they had gas pumps. Martin: And Bob Supinger had the store down there were Dick Barnes is. [Old South Antiques on Brownsburg Turnpike] Patterson: And that became Swope’s store later. Martin: Yeah. Yeah. Patterson: What year did that become Swope’s store? Martin: I don’t know. I don’t remember anything about that. Patterson: And the other store was in Dick Barnes – where he lives now? [8 Hays Creek Road] Martin: Yeah. Yeah. That was the Rockbridge Co-op right there. Patterson. The Co-op. And what was in Whitesell’s – where Whitesell’s store became? [2664 Brownsburg Turnpike] Martin: Undertaker. Patterson: And they didn’t have the store then. Martin: Uh uh. Patterson: And that was John Layton’s [Whitesell] father? Martin: Yeah. Henry Miley. [Miley L. Whitesell] Patterson: And he was the -- the next closest undertaker was Lexington? Martin: Yeah. But – Patterson: What other businesses were in Brownsburg? Martin: Well, the blacksmith’s shop. Patterson: Where were they? Martin: Well, one was behind where the store is there next to Carwell’s Garage. [Hays Creek Road on the right, just past Old South Antiques] Patterson: Did Mr. [Herb] Carwell have his garage then? Martin: Yeah, he was there then. And George Lotts worked for him. And the other one was just on the corner where Mr. Potter and Buck Potter owned. And another one up there where Beverage lives now. [2610 Brownsburg Turnpike] Patterson: In the house that the Beverages are in? Martin: Well, it was a little shop right out front. Patterson: Out front? Martin: The Potters lived there. Patterson: And what was in that white house across the road from where the Beverages are? I’ve never known anybody to live in that house. Martin: I haven’t either. Patterson: Always been empty as far as you know? Martin: Yeah. I think it was a Gilmore or something who owned it. But I don’t know why – never did anybody live there. Patterson: And then on past the Beverages there were two houses I remember. [This would be heading south from 2610 Brownsburg Tunrpike towards Lexington.] Martin: Yeah. Patterson: Massies lived in one. Martin: Yeah. Patterson: And that burned – they both burned down, I believe. Martin: Yeah. Patterson: That had to be in the late ‘60’s. Martin: Probably. I don’t remember exactly when. I say, I moved over here. I wasn’t over there for that. Patterson: Mid-‘60’s. Mid to late ‘60’s. Do you remember any other houses burning down in Brownsburg? Martin: Not really. No. The house that was down right there beside your mom’s [Martin is referring to Ag Patterson] where Randall Wade first – yeah. Patterson: Really? Martin: That house there, I don’t remember whether it burned, or whether they tore it down. Patterson: I don’t remember that. That was just a lot when we were there. Mr. Carwell owned that. Martin: That was Bob Alexander who lived there. He married – out there on Walker’s Creek. Old man Tom Walker used to come to church. A colored family lived with him that always came to church out there. Patterson: Did Dr. Williams have his office in our house then? [2744 Brownsburg Turnpike] Martin: Yeah. Patterson: Did you ever go there? Martin: Yeah. Patterson: Was he the only other – who were the other doctors in this area? Martin: Dr. Kennan in Raphine. Patterson: In Raphine? Martin: We just always went to Brownsburg. Patterson: Any doctors in Fairfield? Martin: Uh uh. No. No. Because I remember Dr. Williams there before he got married. Patterson: Was Dr. Bosworth living there then? Martin: Across the street up there on the – where the Frost’s house. [2690 Brownsburg Turnpike] Patterson: Was he practicing then? Martin. Uh uh. No. Patterson: I remember he had a practice in Lexington. Did he ever have an office – Martin: No, that was Tom Bosworth. Patterson: Tom Bosworth. Martin: Tommy. That was the son of the – Patterson: Tom’s dad was a doctor? Martin: No. What was Tom’s dad? No, that was Jim Bosworth. The one who ran the Post Office. But he had brother that lived across the road over there. I forget what his name was. Seems to me like he didn’t live long after I – Patterson: And they lived in the Frost’s house? [2690 Brownsburg Turnpike] Martin: Yeah. Patterson: Where the Frosts lived? Martin: Yeah. Patterson: And before that the Lunsfords lived there. Martin: Yeah. But now Tommy Bosworth, cause we went to him, cause Mary Lynn [Martin’s daughter Mary Lynn Martin Brown] was after he left. Then Dr. Taylor lived in there, I reckon, when Mary Lynn was born [1954]. Then after he left and Mary Lynn had so much trouble with colic and everything else, and I took her up to Tom Bosworth. Patterson: When was the last – was Dr. Williams the last doctor in Brownsburg? Martin: Well, Dr. Taylor. Patterson: Was that in the same house? In our house? [Patterson is referring to 2744 Brownsburg Turnpike.] Martin: But Dr. Taylor lived out there in the Wade house. [Castle Carbury at 34 Beard Lane] Patterson: So our house was just the doctor’s office? Martin: Yeah. But see the county – the citizens in Brownsburg owned that house. Patterson: They called it the community house. Martin: Yeah. Yeah. Had the office down in the basement. Patterson: Down in the basement. Martin: Yeah. Patterson: Until what year? Do you know about when? Martin: I don’t know, but Dr. Taylor, see, he had his office up there where Dick Barnes’ house is. [8 Hays Creek Road] Yeah, upstairs in that. Patterson: His office was in there and the Co-op was there too? Martin: Yeah, the Co-op was downstairs, and he was up in the upper part. But I don’t remember exactly what year. Dr. Williams was there in 1943; I had appendicitis and that’s where I went. Dr. Taylor was there, when Mary Lynn was born [1954]. Patterson: What do you remember about building Brownsburg School? How long did it take them to build the brick part Martin: Seemed like forever! [Laugh] Patterson: They started in ’35? Martin: I don’t remember what year they started, but we went to school there in ’38. All of ’38. Patterson: And you said there was a contractor out of Roanoke that built it and he used local, mostly local people? Martin: Yeah, there was a lot of local help. Back then, people didn’t make any money then. I mean, a dollar a day or something like that was good – considered good wages. Patterson: What changes do you remember during World War II that affected people here? Did you have to ration a lot of stuff? Martin: Everything was rationed. Sugar and stuff like that was rationed. Gas. Patterson: Where did you get your gas ration stamps? Martin: I don’t remember where they got them. Patterson: How much – do you remember – do you have any idea how much gas you were allowed to use? Martin: Well, you had stamps like for five gallons, or something like that. Patterson: But you could only use ten bucks for the gas? Martin: Yeah, then of course, people who had trucks or tractors or something like that could get extra. Patterson: Oh because farmers got special – Martin: Yeah. Patterson: They got extra stamps? Martin: Because when we were seniors in high school, Tulley Coffey and I ran around together. And he talked his daddy out of their old car. They had an old ’35 Chevrolet. And we would go to Rockbridge Baths. Patterson: Is that where the women were? Martin: Ollie Berry lived up there. And his granddaddy, old man Mohler Dudley, had trucks and tractors. And Ollie would talk his granddaddy out of a stamp, and we’d get five gallon of gas and go to town. Patterson: You’d get the tractor gas stamps and put them in the car and go to town? Martin: You’d just get a stamp for five gallons of gas. Patterson: [Laugh] Martin: You’d usually run it out by the time you’d get home. Patterson: And you’d do that on weekends? Whenever you went – now what did you do – Martin: Now a lot of times we would – Tulley [Coffee] and I’d walk to Fairfield. Patterson: Really? Martin: Hitchhike. Yeah. Sometimes he’d get on one side of the road and I was on the other. And wherever we caught a ride, we’d go. Most times it was to Lexington. Patterson: And when you couldn’t go to Lexington and you had to stay home, what did you do in Brownsburg, on Saturday nights? Martin: I didn’t go into Brownsburg much on Saturday nights, cause it was kind of rough in there. Patterson: [Laugh] So what would you do on Saturday nights? Martin: Just stay home. Patterson: And do what? Martin: Just listen to the radio and go to bed. Patterson: What did you listen to on the radio? Martin: Oh, “Lum and Abner” and “Amos and Andy” and whatever. “Inner-Sanctom Mystery” [Laugh] Patterson: [Laugh] And ya’ll had horses on the farm? Martin: Yep. Patterson: Most of the time you were growing up? Martin: Yeah. Patterson: And you had one steel-wheeled tractor? Martin: Yeah, that was after we moved over here [Mountain View Farm on McClure Boulevard]. When we lived over there at home [3475 Brownsburg Turnpike] Zack Franklin ran the farm, and of course Zack never had a tractor. Patterson: So what was your main job on the farm? Whatever needed to be done? Martin: Yeah. Patterson: When did you start the dairy business? Martin: 1948. Patterson: What did you do before that? Raise cows? Martin: Well they had wheat and corn mostly on it. Patterson: And you’d use horses to get that in? Martin: Yeah. Patterson: How many teams of horses would you have? Martin: When I moved over here, we had seven horses. Patterson: And how much land? How many acres? Martin: Well, there was 250 – no, it wasn’t that much then, cause he bought that extra land. It was probably 180. And then, of course, he and his brother farmed together. [Martin is referring to his step-father, Jim McClure, and his step-uncle, Finley McClure.] But they’d put out 130 – 140 acres of wheat. Patterson: Who had the other big farms around Brownsburg? Martin: Sterretts and Beards and Whipples had land. The Rees’ had a big farm. Patterson: Big Eye? [NOTE: Patterson is referring to Carl Reese.] Martin: No. Walter Rees. Of course Big Eye farmed out there in Pisgah. Patterson: And when you lived out at the forks in the road [3475 Brownsburg Turnpike] the McNutts had the farm across the road? Martin: Well, they joined it, yeah. Patterson: And what house – what was the farmhouse – where did they live? Martin: They lived where Pat Patterson lives now. [3334 Brownsburg Turnpike] And then the Strain place was down there where Billy McClung owns now. [3191 Brownsburg Turnpike] Where – it became Clemmer Brown’s place. Patterson: When did Clemmer Brown buy that? Martin: Well there’s been – McCorkles. Dave McCorkle that married Anne Buchanan, they moved to Rockingham County, I’d say about the same time we moved over here, ’43, ’44 along there. And then the Browns bought it. Patterson: Who had the farm down along the creek going towards the church [New Providence Presbyterian Church] on the right side? Martin: Wades. Patterson: Miss Mattie and Miss Amelia? Martin: No. That’s when Jen – Patterson: Jen Heffelfinger’s family. Martin: Yeah. Yeah. Patterson: And they lived in the big stucco house? Martin: Castle Carbury [34 Beard Lane] [Laugh] Patterson: [Laugh] And you went to New Providence, [Presbyterian Church] that’s the only church you’ve ever been to? Martin: That’s true. Patterson: And who’s the first preacher you remember? Martin: Mr. [C. Morton] Hanna. Dr. [Henry] McLaughlin was there when I was young, but I didn’t remember him. [unintelligible] Dr. Hanna. Patterson: We did this a little earlier on the tape, but it didn’t work. Tell me what – when Dr. Walthall was there, what was your job? Every day? Martin: Oh, I went up to his house and milked the cows and fed the hogs and chickens and built the fires and mowed the yard. Got five dollars a month. Patterson: And you did that – every day you milked the cows in the morning and afternoon. And then mowed the yard with a push rotary mower. Martin: Push mower, yeah. Patterson: Every week. Martin: Well, yeah. And I worked up at the Beard’s farm between times, and I made a dollar or so. Patterson: Did they have a dairy then? Martin: No. Uh uh. Patterson: Who had – anybody have a dairy farm around here then? Martin: Only dairy farm was down here where Smith’s place is [49 Ridge Road] which [Francis] Houston owned then. Patterson: And when did – when did you – you say you started the dairy business in ’48? Martin: 1948. Patterson: When did the Sterretts and the Beards start? Everybody about that time? Martin: Mc [Sterrett] started before we did. We started milking – shipping milk in April of 1948. Then I met [my future wife] Edith in June of 1948. Patterson: That was a good year! Martin: It was! Patterson: And where did you ship it to? Martin: Over at – we first shipped in cans. And it went to Verona. And then they loaded it on a tanker or something and it went to Norfolk. Patterson: So who would pick it up? Somebody from Verona would come pick up the cans? Martin: Well they had a truck here – Patterson: You’d have it in a big – Martin: Yeah. Ten gallon cans. Patterson: Ten gallon cans. How’d you keep milk cold – Martin: We had a cooler. Patterson – until they could pick it up? Martin: Had a cooler with water that was cold. We put a tank in in 1956. Started shipping. Patterson: And before then most everybody had the big cans? Martin: Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Patterson: Do you still have any of those big cans? Martin: A couple of them. [Laugh] Patterson: [Laugh] Don’t want to give any away, do you? Martin: No. Patterson: [Laugh] Martin: Christy [Huger] will probably take them. Patterson: Who were your buddies when you were growing up? Martin: Well, the Beard boys. I grew up with all three of them. [Kenneth, Donald, and Richard Beard] Dan and Ed Franklin, Zack’s boys. Patterson: And that’s in the mid – late ‘30’s? Martin: Yeah. Patterson: And early ‘40’s. Martin: Yeah. Patterson: Did black kids and white kids play together very much back then? Martin: Well, we did. Because I know we played together a lot of times. The colored kids – I mean, I rode the school bus and the colored kids walked to school. And we’d ride. Patterson: Where did they go to school? Martin: Out there on the – there was a little colored school there right – well, it’s really hard to say, but it’s right on this side of Janis Ayers [32 Old School Lane]. There was a school right there on the bank. It was a colored school. Patterson: Between Janet Ayers and Lib Ward’s house? [2763 Brownsburg Turnpike] Martin: Yeah. Patterson: And how long was that – when did that – what happened to that school? Martin: Well, after they – they started running a bus from Brownsburg to Raphine, Steeles Tavern, Fairfield, and hauling the kids to Lexington on that. Patterson: We moved – yeah. We moved to Brownsburg in 1960 and they were – they were hauling – they had to get on a bus at seven o’clock in the morning and go to Lexington. Martin: Yeah. Yeah. But before that, they went to school there. They had a little old one-room school. Patterson: And those were the kids from Brownsburg and as far away as what? Martin: Yeah, a lot of those out at Zack, out there probably, from Walker’s Creek. Patterson: And did they have a school in Fairfield? Martin: Yeah. Patterson: Every little community had a black school and a white school? Martin: Yeah. Yeah. And I said, we’d ride right by them. I mean, if the weather was raining bad, or whatever, we’d – Patterson: And that’s just the way it was. Martin: Yeah. We’d pass right on by. But, I said I grew up with Uncle John Franklin who lived over there next to David Lee Runkle [49 Harvest Lane off of Raphine Road]. And he was always over at the house. A lot of times he’d come over and eat, you know. And he would doctor on us when we were kids. He’d go back in the woods and get roots and herbs and stuff like that. And if you had the croup, that’s what you took. Patterson: And it worked most of the time? Martin: Yeah. Or if you had it real bad, he’d take a spoonful of sugar and put three or four drops of kerosene on it, and you’d take that too. Patterson: And who cured your warts? Martin: That was Harve Matheney. Patterson: And what did he do for a living? Martin: He was a shoe cobbler. He had a little place right there where you go up to the Driver’s. [22 Hays Creek Road] You know that lane up there. It was just a house on wheels. Patterson: And he’d go around from house to house? Martin: No, no. People just took their shoes in there. Patterson: They’d take their shoes to him? Martin: Yeah. He never moved his house. Patterson: And he lived in the building in the back part of it. Now tell me how he cured your warts. Martin: He’d buy them from you. [Laugh] He’d give you a penny for them. Patterson: And did he rub the penny on the warts? Martin: No he’d just take that penny, but then they’d sooner or later, they’d just disappear. Patterson: So if you had a wart, you gave him a penny. Martin: Yeah. Patterson: And the wart would go away in a week? Martin: Well, you’d never know. I mean you just – it just would go away. [Laugh] Patterson: Did you know of anybody who made moonshine back then? I always heard stories about moonshine in Brownsburg. Martin: No, I never did. But I’m sure it was around. People used to make home brew and stuff like that. Patterson: Who worked in the bank? Martin: Oh, the Wade girls. Miss Margaret. Jen [Heffelfinger] worked in there some. Different ones. Patterson: And Miss Margaret lived down in a stucco house down-- going on Sterrett Road towards where McManamas live? [Patterson is referring to 2613 Sterrett Road] Martin: See, that was old man Hugh Wade. He was the original banker in Brownsburg. Patterson: Miss Margaret had a sister? Martin: Yeah, she – Patterson: She had a couple of sisters? Besides Mrs. Heffelfinger – besides Jen, who were they? Mary? Martin: Eleanor [Wade Marchant], and Mary [Wade], and Margaret. Patterson: And where was the phone company? Martin: Up over the bank. Patterson: And who worked there? Martin: Ossie Supinger. Patterson: Miss Ossie Supinger. Martin: Well and then her sister, Mattie Wade. Patterson: Do you remember having a phone at the house? Martin: Yeah, we always had an old crank phone. Patterson: Do you remember what your number was? Martin: Yeah, a long and a short. Patterson: A long and a short. We were two longs and a short. Martin: [Laugh] Patterson: And so what would happen when you dialed a long and a short? Martin: Well, you’d crank it, you know. And everybody on the line would pick up! [Laugh] Patterson: And it would ring at everybody’s house. You’d know somebody was on the phone. Martin: Yeah. Patterson: And Miss Ossie [Supinger] would pick up eventually. Martin: Well, you know, if you had to call somebody on another line, you had to call her, and then she’d hook you up to that next line. Patterson: Did you ever go up to the phone office where she worked? Martin: Sure. Yeah. Patterson: We used to take school – we’d take a school trip up there. Martin: Yeah. Patterson: Did anybody else ever work up there with her? Martin: Not that I know of. Patterson: So she – Martin: So she and Bob Supinger, that’s where they lived. They lived up there all the time. Patterson: So she knew everybody, and everybody’s personal problems? Martin: And if you needed to know anything, or you know, what was going on, or who was sick or who was having a baby – Patterson: You asked Miss Ossie? Martin: Yeah. Patterson: And Mr. Supinger had the store? Martin: He had one down there where Dick Barnes is. [Old South Antiques on Brownsburg Turnpike] Where the antique shop is. Patterson: What other businesses were in Brownsburg? Bud Wade’s barbershop? [2707 Brownsburg Turnpike] Martin: Yeah, and he had a pool table in the back, too. Patterson: And he drove a bus, too? Martin: Yeah. Patterson: He was my first bus driver. Did you have old busses where the seats were lengthwise, and you had to put your knees in with whoever was sitting across from you? Martin: Yeah. Yeah. I remember, of course your daddy [Ed Patterson] ran through Pisgah, and in the winter time, they’d just put a couple of chains in there and they never closed school. I mean seldom it would ever get bad enough that they’d ever close school. They’d put chains on the busses and go on. Patterson: Who’s the first girl you dated? Martin: One of the Beards. [Laugh] That I recall. Patterson: Who was the prettiest girl in school? When ya’ll were little in grade school, who was the prettiest girl in high school? Martin: Oh, Lord, I don’t know. When I was in grade school? Hmm. I didn’t pay that much attention! [Laugh] Patterson: Did they ever have any beauty queens? Did they have beauty pageants? I remember Dorcas Campbell won Miss Virginia from Fairfield. Martin: Oh yeah. Patterson: Did they ever have a Miss Rockbridge Pageant back then? Martin: No. No. But later on, we’d go to town on Saturday night and shoot pool and go to the movie, or something like that. Patterson: How many movie theaters did they have in town? Martin: They had two. State and the Lyric. Patterson: Did they have a drive-in then? Martin: No, not till later on. But you could go to town. You could take a quarter and go to town. Ten cents to go to the movie. Go down to Steve’s Diner. You remember that. [End of Tape 1] Patterson: When did you get your first car? And what was it? Martin: Hmm. Eighteen. It was a ’41 Chevrolet. Patterson: What color? Martin: Black. The first new car I bought was a ’51 Chevrolet. Patterson: Where did you get it? Martin: Got it from Fulwider’s Garage in Raphine. Paid $1,500 – $1,503. Patterson: For a new ’51 Chevrolet. Martin: Yeah. Yeah. Patterson: And you’ve had Chevrolets ever since. Martin: Yes. Patterson: Why? Martin: Cause I like them. Patterson: Why didn’t you ever buy a Ford? Martin: I’ve just never been a Ford man! [Laugh] Patterson: So did – how many people had – how many boys had cars when you were in high school? Very many? Martin: Kenny Beard had one. Patterson: Not very many. Martin: No, he was the only one that had one. Patterson: So when ya’ll wanted to get around on weekends, you had to borrow your parents’ cars? Martin: Yeah. Patterson: Or find a friend that had one. Martin: Or walk. Patterson: Or walk. Martin: Yeah. Go to Fairfield and hitchhike. Patterson: You didn’t have too far to walk to Fairfield, thank goodness. How long did it take you to walk to Fairfield? Martin: Well, it’s two miles. But sometimes you wouldn’t catch a ride coming home. You’d walk halfway home. Patterson: From Lexington? Martin: Yeah. [Mrs. Martin enters] Mrs. Martin: It’s only about a mile and a half from Fairfield. Martin: Yeah. Patterson: So what time did you have to be home when ya’ll were growing up? What time was curfew? Martin: [Laugh] Dark. Patterson: [Laugh] Martin: No, cause I mean you didn’t leave – well, on Saturday sometimes or something, you could take off and go a little early or something. But then later on in years, we’d just meet in Fairfield. Junior Swope and Bennie [Fauber] and Jerry Swisher and some of those. Patterson: So Fairfield and Brownsburg boys would meet and go Lexington. Martin: Well, yeah. Just meet down there. At one time Tolerace Wiseman drove a – ran a bus from Fairfield – I mean from Brownsburg to Lexington. Patterson: Just to pick people – just to take people to Lexington? Martin: Yeah. Yeah. And the year I moved over here, that fall I stayed down at Aunt Kate Brown’s [762 Hays Creek Road], which was across from the mill down there at Dunlap’s. [Martin is referring to Hays Creek Mill near 803 Hays Creek Road.] I stayed down there that winter with her. Patterson: What mills – what mills do you remember running besides Wade’s Mill? Martin: Well, Harold Wade ran the other mill down there [Hays Creek Mill]. Patterson: Which one was that? Martin: Beside Bill Dunlap. [803 Hays Creek Mill.] Patterson: When did that stop – when did they shut that one down? Martin: Hmm. I don’t know. Harold, I reckon, ran it on up until when David [Wade] could run it. I don’t remember. Patterson: What was that called? Martin: It was just a Wade’s Mill, too. Patterson: That was Wade’s Mill, too. Martin: Yeah. Patterson: I don’t remember that one ever operating. Martin: Yeah. I stayed down there that winter, and milked and did whatever I had to do for them. Patterson: And Ross Moneymaker had a big farm – [Bellevue at 952 Hays Creek Road] Martin: Yeah. Patterson: -- back then. Martin: And the East place was a big farm. [This is referring to Mr. George East’s farm: Breezy Hill at 1223 Hays Creek Road.] Patterson: So when you got your car – your first car – you were 18? Martin: Yeah. Patterson: And you’d finished high school? Martin: Yeah. Yeah. Patterson: And when you finished all your work at home, could you go wherever you wanted to go? Martin: Well, you didn’t go very far, cause you didn’t have no money! [Laugh] Patterson: You couldn’t get gas? [Laugh] Who’s the most famous person you ever remember coming to Brownsburg? Martin: Well, when they dedicated the new school down there, the governor came then. But I can’t remember who that was in 1938. Patterson: And that was the ceremony to open the school? Martin: Yeah. Yeah. To dedicate the school. Patterson: What’s the most important thing – most important innovation in farming that you remember when you were growing up. Martin: Hmm. I don’t know. There’s been so many. I reckon the tractor changed more than anything else. And no-till farming. But I’m sure that a lot of the old farmers would come back, and they’d say, “Well, just take me on back.” You know. With all these modern things; people don’t plow for corn and stuff like that. Patterson: When did you get your first rubber-tired tractor? Martin: It was probably about ’46 or ’47. Patterson: Did ya’ll get that new? Martin: No, it was a used tractor. Patterson: Where would you get your tractor? Martin: Well, we bought this one from L. C. Lockridge which was in Raphine. But of course the new tractor we bought came from Harper and Agnor. Patterson: In Lexington? Martin: Yeah. Patterson: How many tractor dealers were in Lexington? Martin: Just them. International. Patterson: When did the first tractor dealer open in Fairfield? Martin: Hmm. Fred Bates opened that – hmm. Your momma [Ag Patterson] could probably tell you. Patterson: And that was Buck [Bates] and Roberta’s [Bates Fauber] dad? Martin: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was the Allis Chalmers dealer. The first tractor we had was an Allis Chalmers. A rubber-tired tractor. But I think we traded it to Fred [Bates] for a WD-40 or something then. And the first round baler that came out was an Allis Chalmers. That was one of those that they said you had to have eyes in the back of your head to run them. Cause you had to stop – the table stopped when you made a bale and you had to wait until it tied, and then you could move on. I don’t know – what year did your daddy [Ed Patterson] take over? He and Frank [Lackey]? Patterson: That had to be about – I don’t know, I would guess late ‘50’s. Martin: Yeah. Patterson: We moved to Brownsburg in ’60, and he was already doing it then. I would guess ’57, ’58 probably. Martin: Well, I cut my hand – fell off the roof over there and cut it. And that was in ’59. And Frank and your dad were in business down there then. Patterson: I remember when he did it. We were in Rockbridge Baths, but it was not long before we moved to Brownsburg. Martin: Ya’ll lived up at Back Draft? Patterson: Yeah. Martin: Okay. No the first new tractor we bought was an International – a Super A. Patterson: And you bought that in Lexington? Martin: Yeah. Patterson: Did – who had the first tractor around? Who got the first rubber-tired tractor? Martin: I don’t remember the first rubber-tired tractor. Patterson: Who had the first tractor? Martin: The first tractor I remember was – the Beard’s had one. They had a John Deere on steel years ago. That was when I was still living over there. Patterson: Who went in the dairy business first? Martin: Probably Mc Sterrett. Patterson: Then after that, how many dairy farms were around here? Martin: Oh gosh. Both the Sandridges were in the dairy business. And Fred Whipple. The Beards. John Snider over here. Then the Alexanders [in Fairfield] went in. We were in. Lipscombs up there [at Timber Ridge]. I don’t know, there were a lot of little dairies. Not many left. Patterson: What other business do you remember in Brownsburg? When did Whitesells open up their store? Martin: I don’t remember exactly. Patterson: Did they have the undertaker business and the store at the same time? Martin: No. Patterson: So it was after John Layton’s [Whitesell] dad passed away? Martin: Passed away, yeah. Didn’t have any undertaker business then. Patterson: You don’t remember the saddle shop or anything like that in Brownsburg? Martin: No, I don’t go back quite that far! [Laugh] Patterson: [Laugh] I don’t know how far back that goes! [Laugh] Do you remember when they built – put the Sears house up at the Carwells? Martin: Yeah, I remember when the first one – the other one burned. Patterson: Was that a big thing, that he had a Sears house? Martin: Yeah. Yeah. Patterson: Not very many people had them then? Martin: Mail-order house. Yeah. Patterson: Do you know of any other ones of those around? Martin: Uh uh. No. Patterson: His house burned, and the two houses at the far south end of Brownsburg, I remember when they burned. You don’t remember any other big fires, or any other big disasters in Brownsburg? Martin: No, not really. [unintelligible] Patterson: Do you remember – they used to have a Chrysanthemum Show at the church [New Providence Presbyterian]. What did they call it – a Lawn Party? Martin: It was a Chrysanthemum Show. Patterson: I remember that. A lot of people would come in for that. Martin: Oh yeah, people from Roanoke and everywhere came in for that. Patterson: And that was once a year? Martin: In the fall. Cause Mrs. Trenton Beard and somebody else always raised Chrysanthemums. And they had those in the upper rooms in the Sunday School building upstairs. Patterson: And they had homemade ice cream outside. Martin: Oh yeah. Yeah. And I used to – up the fence row there between us and the McNutts, bittersweet grew along there. It’s kind of a – of course, you know what it is. But anyway, we used to cut that stuff, and we’d sell it at the Chrysanthemum Show, just little bunches of it for ten cents, or something like that. Anything to make a dollar. And I used to trap polecats or anything. Patterson: What would you do with the polecats? Martin: I’d skin him, and sell him to Calvin Allen. Patterson: For what? Martin: For a dollar and a dime. Patterson: And what would he do with it? Martin: He’d ship them somewhere. But you’d get a dollar and ten cents for a Number One. Patterson: For a skinned polecat? Martin: Yeah. And I’ve skinned many a one of them. Patterson: [Laugh] Martin: Yeah. I mean, you’d do anything for a dollar! Patterson: What else did you trap? Martin: Huh? Patterson: What else did you trap? Martin: Well, I caught a weasel one time, but I got a quarter for him. [Laugh] Patterson: [Laugh] And where would you take – who would you give it to? Martin: Calvin Allen. Patterson: Calvin Allen up at Bustleburg? Martin: Yeah. He’d come by. Patterson: I remember that. Martin: He’d come by every so often. Patterson: And he’d have the skins hanging out on the – he’d tack them up on the building out there. Martin: Yeah. Yeah. He’d come by every so often to see if you had any hides. And muskrats. I caught some muskrats [unintelligible] Patterson: Was rabies a big problem back then? Martin: No. Patterson: More of a problem now than it was then? Martin: I reckon. I never heard about it back then. Patterson: What was the biggest problem you had on the farm back then? Martin: Just making a living, I reckon. Patterson: Did you have any kind of diseases that would come through and wipe out – Martin: No. Patterson: Who was the closest vet? Martin: Zack Franklin! [Laugh] Patterson: He’d go in the woods and get stuff. [Laugh] Martin: Zack did all the veterinary work for people. I mean, if anybody had calves that were cut, or pigs, or something like that. But you had to have the right sign [of the zodiac]. And Zack was very much of a believer in signs. Patterson: Did Dr. Showalter ever come out here? Martin: Only after we went into the dairy business, he’d come out here. Patterson: When did he start – Martin: Well, even for horses. I remember one time he came over there for a horse. Patterson: Was he the only vet – the only professional veterinarian? Martin: Yeah. Yeah. Patterson: So you just had to – when something happened, you had to take care of it yourself? Martin: Yeah, pretty much so. But Zack used to do a lot of vet work for people. Patterson: Did you ever have any problems with the mountain lions or wild animals getting sheep? Did ya’ll raise sheep any? Martin: No. No we didn’t have any – yeah, we had sheep over at home. But didn’t have any trouble with dogs or – Patterson: Most everybody that had a farm raised beef cattle, or dairy? Martin: Yeah, yeah. You had your hogs. You always butchered. Had your own eggs. Take eggs to the store and trade them for groceries. Patterson: Bennie [Fauber] and Clarence Tolley made molasses. Anybody else do that around here? Martin: Well, Jess Lotts up there at the church. He was the sexton up at the church [New Providence] for years. And he had a molasses cane mill right there along the road where you – Do you – you don’t remember the house where he lived? It sat right out over the bank as you drive in that side road. [The house is no longer there, but it was along the driveway to the New Providence “mini-manse”.] And he had a cane mill. A lot of people fussed about that part of it. And everybody, I mean, you made molasses and everybody made apple butter every year. You know, people didn’t have any money, but it really didn’t take any money back in them days. I said when I got married, I was making twenty dollars a week. Patterson: And got by. Martin: Yeah. Just had bought this place for $10,000. Patterson: When did -- so what’s now Sterrett Road, do you always remember that being paved? Martin: Yeah. Patterson: Route 252 through Brownsburg, do you always remember that being paved? Martin: No, they didn’t pave – well, I think it was paved right in Brownsburg up through there, but they didn’t pave it out to my home until, oh, it must have been ‘42, somewhere along there. Patterson: So they just paved right around right around Brownsburg – Martin: I think so, yeah. Patterson: -- and a mile or so on each end. Martin: Yeah. Patterson: Was that the way they did all the little villages back then? Martin: Probably, yeah. But I remember Jim’s [McClure] brother, Mr. George [McClure]. He said he remembered playing ball in front of the school over there in Fairfield on Route 11. That’s where the ball field was, was out in the middle of Route 11. And he said very seldom they ever had to stop, you know. Patterson: For the traffic? Martin: Yeah. Patterson: I think we said on the other tape but not on this one: where was Brownsburg’s ball field? Martin: Mc Sterrett’s meadow. Patterson: Behind the Thorne house on the corner. [2166 Sterrett Road] Martin: And then when they had the independent team, they played over in the other meadow over there, right behind there [behind 2249 Sterrett Road]. Patterson: Where did you play – where did they play basketball before they build the new – the brick building? Martin: Outside. Outside. Patterson: So Fairfield would come over and play basketball, you played outside. Martin: I didn’t play on that. I was still in grade school. But that was one of the punishments Miss Trimmer had. If you were bad, you went out there and picked those gravels up off the basketball court. Patterson: Was it just brushed off gravel, or did they have a concrete court? Martin: No, it was dirt. Patterson: Just dirt? Martin: Yeah. Yeah. Patterson: And did they play – when did they play, after – was it during school hours, or after school? Martin: I played afterwards. Patterson: Right after school. Martin: Yeah, because there wasn’t no lights or nothing out there then. Patterson: And when did you play baseball? On a school day right after school? Martin: Yeah. Yeah. Patterson: And would they take a bus over to the Sterrett’s field? Martin: No, I think most people either walked or got over there the best way they could. Patterson: I wonder how people from Goshen – did they bring a bus from Goshen? Martin: Yeah, I remember they brought a bunch over there. But baseball wasn’t that big a deal. I mean basketball was the big, big deal. Patterson: Who did you play basketball with? Who was on your team? Martin: Oh, Kenny Beard, Tulley Coffey, Pickle Newcomer, Ollie Berry, Charlie Mynes, Eugene Jarvis, Harvey Cox. Patterson: Who was the tallest basketball player around? Martin: You mean in Brownsburg? Patterson: Yeah. Martin: Oh, Lord, wasn’t anybody really tall. Kenny Beard was probably the tallest of any of them, and he wasn’t any taller much than I am. Patterson: You didn’t have any John Miley Whitesells? Martin: Oh, no. Uh uh. No. Nothing really outstanding. Patterson: Did the girls play outside, too? Martin: Well, yeah, back in those days. But as I said after they built the school in ’38 – I was in the fifth grade then. The girls just played half-court back then. Patterson: And when they tore down the Academy after they build the new school, where was the baseball field then? Martin: Right beside the – they played out on the – mainly softball, they didn’t play too much hardball. Patterson: Where the parking lot is now? Martin: Yeah. Uh hmm. Patterson: And that was level. That was all level then? Martin: Yeah. They leveled all that off. Patterson: When did they put the baseball field on back there in the field? After you finished? Martin: Yeah. I finished in 1945, so that’s – Patterson: Where the Drivers live now, the Fixx’s lived? [22 Hays Creek Road] Martin: Yeah. Patterson: What did Mr. [Guy] Fixx do? Martin: He worked down at the East place [off of Dutch Hollow Road]. But that was a Dice place. That was Walter Dice’s place. Patterson: What did Mr. Dice do? Martin: I never did really know him doing anything. Well, they farmed where the Poole place is out there. Where Charlie Poole and them’s place is [Dutch Hollow Road]. That was the Dice place. They retired from farming. But see, his brother lived down there where the Billings live now. [2597 Sterrett Road] But they retired from farming. Both moved to town. Patterson: We’ve been going for an hour. Is there anything else you need to talk about? Anything else we haven’t discussed that you think people should know twenty years from now? Martin: No, I don’t reckon. Patterson: What’s the worst thing you ever remember happening in Brownsburg? Martin: Well, I’ve heard a lot of bad things, about the shootings, and fighting. There used to be always somebody fighting or something in there on Saturday night. That part of it. Patterson: Where would most of that happen? Was it just anywhere in Brownsburg? Martin: Anywhere, I think. Anywhere. Patterson: Up and down the streets. Martin: Yeah. Patterson: When do you remember – did they have streetlights when you were real young? Martin: Oh no. Patterson: When do you remember them going in? Martin: Oh, that was in modern days! [Laugh] Patterson: [Laugh] It may have been after we got there. Martin: Yeah. What are you, fifty – what? Patterson: Six. We moved there in ’60. I don’t remember if they had streetlights then or not. Martin: You and George [Moore] are the same age. Patterson: Um hmm. Martin: But George’s daddy died when [unintelligible] Patterson: Who lived in the house across from us where the Post Office is on the end of it? Martin: It was a Pitt. Miss Pett. Berry? Pett Berry? Must have been Pett Berry, yeah. Patterson: Carl Swope took over the store after Mr. Supinger stopped. Martin: Yeah. Patterson: And Huffman’s had the store from the time you remember until they closed down. Martin: Yeah, yeah. But they always called Supinger “Teddy Bob.” Patterson: I don’t remember him. Martin: And if you ever – and if you’d charge anything, he’d just tear off a piece of wrapping paper and write down on it and stick it in the door. Patterson: And when you went to buy something you would trade – Martin: Eggs and stuff for them, yeah. Patterson: Were most of the groceries you’d get from trading or from paying for them with cash? Martin: Most of it was trade. Then you’d trade meat for sugar and stuff like that. You’d go to the mill and get your flour. Always took wheat over there for that. People just didn’t – people didn’t have any money. You didn’t make any money. Patterson: How often would you go do Lexington – Martin: Oh, gosh. Patterson: -- to do something that you needed to do? Martin: Very seldom. Patterson: Why would you go to Lexington – to get clothes, mainly? Martin: No, they ordered them from Sears and Roebuck or Montgomery Ward. Patterson: And deliver them to the house? Martin: Sure, yeah. I remember going to Staunton more than I did Lexington for some reason. We never did go there often. Patterson: And what you do on Saturday night if you didn’t go to town? Where would the guys go? Martin: Oh, well, when I was – later on, we’d go to Lexington. Patterson: If you didn’t go to Lexington, what would you do? Martin: Stayed home and go to bed. Patterson: You wouldn’t go to Brownsburg and – Martin: No. Patterson: -- and hang around? Martin: No. Patterson: Because it was a rough place. Mrs. Martin: Nobody hung out in Brownsburg. Martin: Oh, well, they’d – a lot of them did later on. I mean – Mrs. Martin: Sorry I can’t help you all. Patterson: [Laugh] Martin: She’s a city girl! Well, she wasn’t in the city. Roanoke city limits were down there at [Route] 460. That’s been 59 – it’ll be 59 years the 19th of June. Since I laid eyes on her. Patterson: That doesn’t seem nearly as long as it used to; 59 years doesn’t seem – So how old are you now? Martin: Well – Patterson: I’ve already got your birthday on here. You’re going to be 80 years old this year. Martin: Yep. Patterson: That doesn’t seem nearly as old as it used to, does it? Martin: No! [Laugh] That’s what my permit says. [Laugh] It’s just hard to believe it. But I lived in, you know, two eras of farming. And I’m glad I did, really. Because I enjoyed working the horses and everything. And Zack Franklin really taught me how to farm. Patterson: When did he die? Martin: He died in ’52, I think. Patterson: Did he have any kids that stayed around here? Martin: Well, Dan [Franklin] lived in Staunton. Dan died a couple of years ago. Zack had 10 kids, and there are only two girls left now [Virginia Bell Franklin and Eleanor Franklin Hawkins]. They live in Washington, D.C. But when I was little, I’d go follow them when they were plowing or something like that. Just to get them to let me plow, you know, something like that. And I remember plowing corn with a one-horse. You had a three-shovel plow. And Zack was plowing. And he was going to let me plow. Well I was wrestling the thing and Zack said, “Just turn it loose. All you’ve got to do is guide it.” And he said, “You don’t have to fight it.” Which you didn’t. But I was with Zack and the kids and Dan and stuff. Dan and I played together. Gosh, we’d shoot marbles, pitch horseshoes and play Monopoly. Patterson: Fishing? Did you go fishing? Martin: We fished some, but not much. Patterson: Did they stock the creeks back then? Martin: Um hmm. Yeah. Patterson: I remember when I was growing up, they would stock Hays Creek until the flood in ’69. They stopped stocking then. Martin: Yeah. The creek down through the Wade farm down there, you didn’t catch anything but suckers, or something like that. Patterson: Yeah. Martin: No, didn’t do much fishing. Patterson: People do much hunting back then? Martin: No. Cause, I mean deer, you never saw any deer or anything. Patterson: Not like you do now? Martin: No. No. When I grew up, I mean it was a rarity that you ever saw a deer. People who used to hunt, they’d always have to go to Bath County. But no, I remember one time a bear came through there. [Unintelligible] we saw it. Out there it was a gate that went up the hill there. And the bear climbed that gate, just like a person. I can remember that. Patterson: Who had the fanciest car in Brownsburg? Martin: The fanciest car? Hmm. I don’t remember exactly. I was just thinking about Mr. Herr down here has got his place for sale. [The Log House at 1926 Sterrett Road] Well, the Powells lived there. And he had a touring car. And he was a very stylish gentleman. He wore knickers, you know, and a cap thing. But he would – cause sometimes we would be coming from school or something, and he would pick us up and bring us over to his house. Touring-type car. Patterson: Not very many of those. Martin: John Layton Whitesell had one. That was back when John Miley was just a young buck, baby, or something. He had a big old touring car. As I said, they had the Model T’s, and Model A’s and old man Sandy Benson had a Model B. And when left the church, you could always hear him, cause he would wind that thing up! [Laugh] Patterson: [Laugh] Martin: [Unintelligible] he’d let out on the clutch real quick, he’d jump on. But Miss Sallie Reid McClung, she taught Sunday School all the time. And Miss Jones. Mr. Jones had a Model A, and Miss Jones had a Model T. But it was a [unintelligible] job, I mean. But no, it just wasn’t any traffic around much. Cause I mean when we were kids at home – of course we were sitting there at the forks in the road there. And we would play a game, like to see who was going to get the most cars going to Raphine or the ones going straight on through. Just little things like that. Patterson: Mr. [Herb] Carwell was the only mechanic here? Martin: Well, George Lotts worked for him, yeah. George lived back in Pisgah. Patterson: And there was a mechanic in Raphine, and one in Fairfield, probably? Martin: Harry Borthwick was in Fairfield, yeah. Yep, that was back in the good old days! Well, you know, I’m glad I grew up in both eras of farming and so forth. I’ve seen a lot of changes. They said in the next 50 years, there’ll be as many changes again. But, you know, it’s hard to believe. Of course now, the good tractors will drive themselves with lasers on them and so forth. Of course, I don’t think it will work for these hills. That’s what they use out west in places like that. No, I said, you know, farming is hard work. The old saying is you earned your living by the hard, you know, sweat of your brow. Cause you went to work at I’ll say daylight, and you worked til dark, and then you’d eat supper most of the time and go to bed and get up the next day it seemed like. But I enjoyed it. Patterson: That’s all the questions I’ve got. Martin: Allright. Patterson: Thank you! [End of Tape 2] Walter Lowrie “Bud” Martin Index A Alexander Farm · 41 Alexander, Bob · 14 Allen, Calvin · 43 Allis Chalmers Tractors · 40 Automobiles · 58 B Barter System · 54 Bates, Fred · 39 Beard Farm · 22, 24, 41 Beard, Donald · 26 Beard, Kenneth · 26, 35, 50 Beard, Mrs. Trenton · 43 Beard, Porter · 4 Beard, Richard · 26 Benson, Sandy · 58 Berry, Ollie · 19, 50 Berry, Pett · 53 Bodkins, Raymond Brownsburg School Principal · 9 Borthwick, Harry · 59 Bosworth, Dr. Tom · 15 Bosworth, Jim · 11, 16 Brown, Clemmer · 22 Brown, Mary Lynn Martin · 16 Brownsburg · 42 Bank · 29 Barbershop · 32 Baseball Team · 48, 49 Blacksmith's Shop · 12 Bus to Lexington · 36 Cobbler · 28 Colored School · 26 Doctors · 15 Doctor's House · 17 Moonshine · 29 Phone Company · 30 Pool Hall · 11, 32 Post Office · 11 Saturday night · 20, 52 School · 5 Sears House · 42 Stores · 10 Undertaker · 12 Brownsburg School Basketball · 48 Construction of · 17 Dedication in 1938 · 38 Sports · 9 Buchanan, Anne · See McCorkle, Anne Buchanan C Campbell, Dorcas Miss Virginia · 33 Carroll, Carl · 8 Carwell, Herb · 12, 58 Carwell’s Garage · 12 Civilian Conservation Corps · 10 Coffey, Tulley · 19, 50 Cox, Harvey · 50 D Dice, Walter · 51 Dudley, Mohler · 19 E Edwards, Miss Teacher · 7 F Farming · 56 Chores · 4 Dairy · 21, 24, 41 General · 46 Horses · 21 No-till Farming · 39 Sawmill · 4 Threshing machine · 4 Tractors · 20, 39, 40 Fauber, Bennie · 36, 47 Fixx, Guy · 51 Franklin, Dan · 26, 56 Franklin, Ed · 26 Franklin, Eleanor · See Hawkins, Eleanor Franklin Franklin, John · 28 Franklin, Virginia Bell · 56 Franklin, Zack · 21, 45, 56 Fulwider’s Garage · 34 G Gilmore House · 13 H Hanna, C. Morton New Providence Minister · 23 Harper and Agnor Tractor Sales · 39 Hawkins, Eleanor Franklin · 56 Heffelfinger, Jen Wade · 6, 23, 29 Huffman’s Store · 11, 53 J Jarvis, Eugene · 50 L Lackey, Frank · 40 Leech, Isabel First grade teacher · 6 Lipscomb Farm · 41 Lockridge, L.C. · 39 Lotts, George · 12, 59 Lunsford, Al · 7 M Marchant, Eleanor Wade · 30 Martin, Dorothy Miller · 2 Martin, Edith · 24 Martin, Frances · See Moore, Frances Martin Martin, Mary Lynn · See Brown, Mary Lynn Martin Martin, Sid · 2 Martin, Walter Lowrie "Bud" Appendicitis · 17 First Car · 34 School · 5 Massie Family · 13 Matheney, Harve · 28 McClung, Irene · 6 McClung, Sallie Reid · 58 McClure, Finley · 21 McClure, George · 48 McClure, Jim · 21 McCorkle, Anne Buchanan · 22 McCorkle, Dave · 22 McLaughlin, Henry · 23 McNutt Farm · 22 Medicine Croup · 28 Cure for Warts · 28 Miller, Dorothy · See Martin, Dorothy Miller Moneymaker, Ross · 37 Moore, Frances Martin · 2 Movie Theaters · 33 Mynes, Charlie · 50 N New Providence Presbyterian Church · 23 Chrysanthemum Show · 43 Lawn Party · 43 Newcomer, Pickle · 50 P Patterson, Ed · 3, 33, 40 Phone Service · 30 Polecats, trapping · 43 Poole, Charlie · 51 Potter, Buck · 12 Powell Family · 58 R Radio · 20 Rees Farm · 22 Rees, Walter · 22 Reese, Carl "Big Eye" · 22 Roads, paved · 10, 47 Rockbridge Co-op · 11, 17 S Sandridge Farm · 41 Showalter, Dr. Veterinarian · 46 Snider, John · 41 Sterrett Farm · 22 Sterrett, Mc · 24, 41 Strain Farm · 22 Supinger, Bob · 32 "Teddy Bob" · 53 Supinger, Ossie · 30 Supinger's Store · 11 Swisher, Jerry · 36 Swope, Carl · 53 Swope, Junior · 36 Swope’s Store · 11 T Taylor, Dr. · 16, 17 Tolley, Clarence · 47 Trimmer, Osie · 7 School principal · 6 W Wade Farm · 22 Wade, Bud · 11, 32 Wade, David · 37 Wade, Eleanor · See Marchant, Eleanor Wade Wade, Harold · 37 Wade, Hugh · 29 Wade, Margaret · 29 Wade, Mary · 30 Wade, Mattie · 30 Wade’s Mill · 37 Walker, Tom · 14 Walthall, Dr. New Providence Minister · 23 Whipple Farm · 22 Whipple, Fred · 41 Whipple, Mollie Sue · 7 Whitesell, John Layton · 58 Whitesell, John Miley · 50 Whitesell, Miley L. · 12 Whitesell’s Store · 12, 41 Williams, Dr. · 14 Wiseman, Tolerace · 3, 36 Work Projects Administration · 10 World War II · 18 Rationing · 18