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Barefoot In The Sand: Remembering the Waning Days of the Hopewell Community (1998) Bruce C. Gragg 111/123

VISITING 'EM THAR HILLS

About the only vacation we ever took as a family was in 1950. Uncle
Curtis, had traded for a 1948 Plymouth convertible just before going
to Okinawa in June of 1950. He left it with us. Burnette, Mama, Aunt
Nita, Solene (Nita’s daughter) Vera and I loaded up and went to ’’Em
Thar Hills" in northeast Ga. for a week. Papa, didn't want to go, as
he didn't exactly enjoy it when they lived up there in the thirties.
He had no desire to return to the site of his misery. That was the
longest trip we ever took. I kept asking, every few minutes "Are we
there yet?" This began after about a couple of hours on the road. We
finally made it in the rain. Before going up the unpaved mountain
road, we parked on the side of the road below Seed Dam for a long
time, waiting for the rain to slack off some. It rained just about
all week, not uncommon for that time of year. As a kid from the "flat
lands" those mountains sure seemed high. I was all wide-eyed the
entire week, with all those sights to see and such a short time to
see them. They were building the community house in Flat Creek
Community during this time. Uncle Vivian had supplied the lumber for
the project.

On Sunday afternoon before Labor Day, we loaded Uncle Vivian's DeSoto
and went for a ride in the mountains, through Helen, Ga. on the way
to Hiawassee, Ga. Then Helen was not more than a small mountain
village with nothing that really mattered about it. This took us over
and around what seemed to be a very high mountain, on what seemed
like a very long, winding road. That was quite a thrill for a couple
of kids to ride in the far backseat and go around those sharp curves.
On the way down near Hiawassee, we stopped to walk across a swinging
bridge. Vera and I were 15 and 12 years old at the time, and we were
wide eyed for everything we saw.

Uncle Laurie, a brother of Burnette and U. Vivian, and his family
were there at the some time. He had bought some land and house from
U. Vivian several years before. This is the some house Uncles Curtis
and Edwin built while they lived up there in the early thirties, it
was a log cabin. A rather nifty little house. I still carry a scar on
my right knee from our trip. One of our cousins and I were playing
and I slipped on the rocks and cut a big gash in the knee. I did not
want to let her know how it hurt, boy did it! On this trip Vera and I
met a lot of relatives, some of whom we would never see again. Even
with all the rain that week we still had a good time, all too soon it
was necessary to return home for the new school year. I thought the
ride up there was long, the ride back home was what seemed three
times as long and tiring. It was eighteen years before I visited the
area again, and sure enough it had changed a lot in those years.

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