About the story below: I am not a “writer,” but the local newspaper for Botetourt County had an ad from a writing group for a writing contest with a cash prize of $100.00 for first prize. I have forgotten the entry fee, maybe $15.00, maybe $20.00, just not sure. However, here is my entry, followed by “the rest of the story”… Just as I went to copy my text, I found the entry rules. The rules will be first, followed by my story next and then the rest of the story.
Rules
(THE LINKS NO LONGER WORK, NO USE TRYING THEM)
Eligibility: You are eligible to enter if you have NOT been nationally published. You must be 21 or older to enter. Your story must be based in southwest Virginia AND you must have lived or have ties to southwest Virginia.
Contest Rules: Entries must be at least 500 words and no more than 1,500 words, and of a memoir nature. Entries greater than 1,500 words or those not adhering to the theme will be disqualified. Count every word except the title. You may enter as many stories as you have time to write. Each entry must be accompanied by the $10.00 entry fee (check or money order payable to Homespun Legacy). Entries must be postmarked between April 25 and May 31, 2009. Your entry must be typed on one side only of 8½ x 11 white paper, double-spaced, with the title on the first page. DO NOT include your name or contact information on the first page. Include a separate cover sheet with your name, the title of your story, telephone number, email address, mailing address and word count. DO NOT staple your pages together. First place winners are required to be on the judging panel for next year’s contest.
Judging: Judges’ decision is final. Judging criteria includes both creativity and adherence to rules of eligibility and formatting. Be liberal with details when describing characters and place. All entries become eligible for publication without remuneration in a memoir anthology to be donated to the Genealogy Room of the Fincastle Library, displayed at Homespun Legacy workshops and available for limited sale to contest participants. Winning entries may be published at the sponsors’ discretion in local print media.
Winners will be announced at a Writers’ Reception and Reading at the June 17, 2009 meeting of the Botetourt Genealogy Club and posted on this webpage. Memoirs are less like a history textbook and more like a story.
Memoirs share stories of one’s self and
experiences.
A memoir is factual from the perspective of
the author’s personal truth.
For information about the Botetourt Genealogy Club, call Rena Worthen, President, at 540-473-8339 or visit their website at www.geocities.com/genclub01.
For information about the Botetourt County Historical Society, call the museum at 540-473-8394 or visit their website at www.bothistsoc.org.
Mail your entries to:
Homespun Legacy
Lifewriting Contest
302 Stage Rd.
Buchanan, VA 24066
Contact: Susan at (540) 473-3998 or email Info@HomespunLegacy.com with any other questions you might have about your entry.
My Entry
Jeffrey W. Crowder
Botetourt Based Boyhood al fresco Dining
540-793-1100
jeffreywcrowder@cox.net
1164 Nover Avenue
Roanoke, VA 24019
1419 words as counted by Microsoft Word
Botetourt Based Boyhood al fresco Dining
Being born late in the decade of the nineteen sixties, I was blessed to grow up in the counties of Roanoke and Botetourt. Our valley and surrounding areas are full of beautiful places to break bread and fellowship in nature. I will attempt to have the reader re-live visiting some of these places with me. Most people’s picnics tend to revolve around the holidays, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day or family reunions. Fortunately for my brothers and me, our family did not have to have a special reason to do a picnic. Some of my favorite picnic places were (and still are) Roaring Run, Craig’s Creek and Cave Mountain Lake. Many of my memories are with my grandparents – Hazel and Earl. I will share a story or two from each of these places and then end with special church picnic.
In northwestern Botetourt County, a little north of Eagle Rock, is a wonderful place for a family picnic, a hike and a history lesson. During the 1970’s if you were to attempt a picnic on a nice weather holiday weekend, you would have to arrive early to claim a picnic table provided by the forest service. Some times we would pack up Granddaddy’s ’73 Ford two-tone green pickup truck on a Saturday morning. Grandma and Granddaddy would be in the cab and the boy’s would ride in the back. (We survived many trips in this pickup bed.) When we pulled into the parking area, we would carry our supplies to a table, hopefully close to the creek. Sometimes we would just claim the table with our baskets and food containers and then hike to the falls before eating. If we arrived close to meal time, we would eat and then do the hike. The hike to the falls is a relatively easy hike on semi-developed trails; yet just strenuous enough to know you have done some hiking. The entire hike on the shorter trail is filled with spectacular views of the creek with many unique waterfalls culminating with a spectacular waterfall of several stories over a large granite stone. During one of these trips, we ate our meal and then started our hike. This young curious boy found a Dr. Pepper returnable bottle not far off the path. This was worth a whole dime! My Granddaddy tried to convince me to hide it under the leaves and pick it up on the way back. I was scared someone else would find it and my money would be gone. I would carry it all the way! Back then there was a spot that had a couple of stone steps and I was just big enough to run and jump from the bottom to the top. On this outing, I learned that Granddaddy was wise and should be listened to. On attempting to “jump” the stairs, I tripped and fell on the bottle, which broke into many pieces promptly upon hitting the rocks. Naturally I suffered lacerations on my wrist and hand. Granddaddy’s handkerchief served as a bandage for the rest of our visit. On a later visit, I ventured into an area that I wasn’t supposed to be and sat down right next to a couple of copperhead snakes coiled up together. They were only a couple of feet from me! One of the scariest moments of my life! On yet another picnic trip to Roaring Run, we went with my family and our neighbors. David and Hannah brought three of their four children. Timothy, Cindy, and Beth! I still remember all of us climbing on a boulder next to the trail and having someone take a picture with a Kodak camera.
Our mid 1970’s trips to Roaring Run would often be in the spring and fall because of the flowers, foliage and fishing. Then our summer picnics would usually involve areas that would have more suitable swimming spots. One of which is Craig’s Creek, not too far from Roaring Run. This spot is in neighboring Craig County.
Those in most of Botetourt County would access this spot by taking state route 615 from Fincastle across Caldwell Mountain. Many times on our way, Granddaddy would stop short of getting to the picnic area and Grandma would come to the back of the truck and let down the tailgate. She would sit with us on the tailgate for the remainder of the ride across the dirt road to the picnic spot! (There was never one injury from this action.) Before the floods of 1985 and 1987, the creek had a little island like spot that we could carry a folding table to and set up a picnic area with water flowing on two sides. We boys could play in the shallow water on one side of the island before eating (not getting too wet). After eating our sandwiches and Doritos, then waiting the required 20 minutes, we would play in the deeper water and the rapids. The rapids were great for our true car tire inner tubes. We not only filled bellies, we also filled our fish tank at Granddaddy’s house. We would catch and carry home creek minnows, snails and crawdads. It was also in this spot that my grandfather taught me to swim.
The last regularly visited spot I'll take you to is Cave Mountain Lake in Rockbridge County. This beautiful National Forest Recreation location is just a few minutes north of Natural Bridge Station. This facility has developed picnicking, primitive camping and swimming, hiking and starting in approximately 2005 or 2006 came fishing. In the 1970’s, the log pavilion had a small store that sold candy bars and ice cream bars. My dad tells me there was at one time even a complete snack bar selling hamburgers and hot dogs in a building that no longer stands. One of my favorite memories from these trips in the 70’s was the water fountains. In order to obtain water, we would have to literally pump the long handle that would bring the water from the ground well and into the fountain in which we could drink. That was probably the first thing us boys would do when we arrived and the last thing we’d do before we left. We weren’t really that thirsty, we just wanted to pump the handle and make the water come out! To this day, many of the campsites hold evidence another favorite memory from this facility – in ground trash cans. These were trash cans literally in the ground with lids that were opened by stepping on a pedal that flipped the lid open. The cans were lined with plastic bags. Once a day the forest workers would come by and take the trash away and put in a new bag. Here not only could we find the minnows, snails and crawfish, we could also find salamanders and sometimes even tadpoles! Sometimes our picnics were just chips and sandwiches with cold pork and beans. Sometimes we got to use the provided charcoal grills to cook hamburgers and hotdogs and maybe even heat our pork and beans. As a young boy, I remember the lake seeming so far from the picnic tables. Now it only seems far away just after overstuffing my belly! This place has changed very little over the years and I hope it changes even less in the future.
One very special picnic I remember was a church picnic held at the James River Limestone pool facility. Now, a ministry facility owned by Millcreek Baptist Church. This facility, just south of the town of Buchanan, blessed our little church called Grace Bible Brethren Church of Troutville for one of our picnic fellowships. (Now defunct, our building is now owned by Troutville Church of God.) There was wonderful food from our ladies, Maybelle Conner, Sylba Conner, MaryWillie Hodges, Betty Dobbins, Linda Stilwell, Eva McDaniel, our pastor’s wife, Margie Witt and I am sure I am forgetting some names from this mid-1980’s era event. Pastor Doug, Virgil Stilwell, Warren Bower, Preston McDaniel provided us young men some fine Christian fellowship as well as leadership in events like this. There were church events at other places, but this is the picnic that I remember the most with all the food, swimming and even table tennis.
These are just some of my very memorable experiences from picnics in and around Botetourt County. These are the types of recollections that I, and those that I grew up with, pray that others are attempting to give children of today! The Rest of the Story!
As I re-read this story, I am horrified at some mistakes! I got the year wrong on Grandaddy’s truck! It was (is) a model 1972 F100. Daddy still has it. I had a grammar/spelling error! Maybe a couple. Did you spot any? And the name of the church in Troutville is Assembly of God and was never Church of God.
As it turned out, I was judged as second place entry. (I hope because of my knowable mistakes.) However, at the time of the awards meeting, I felt I did not get first place for a different reason. Each of the top three contestants read their story. The third-place contestant truly liked my story and I got the idea that he felt I should have placed first. The first-place story was also well done, but by and large, the story focused on the food of a church picnic, or maybe a family reunion, I can’t remember for sure. Either way, what it appeared to boil down to was that there were not enough entries to cover the prizes. Coincidently, the first-place story was written by the president of the sponsoring group.