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My
First And Last Trip To The Pinnacles By: Addie J. Wood (First Appeared in The Mountain Laurel,
August 1986 issue.) It
was 1922, as near as I can recall the date, the last week in July. Six of us
decided we wanted to climb the Pinnacles [of Dan] and have a horse back ride.
Lillie Wood, Eunice Lipscomb (summer school teacher), Bonnie Webb, Thelma Webb,
Matt Burnett, Clyde Wood and myself ended up going. The
distance we would be going was about four and a half or five miles, so we left
around one o’clock on the outing. Things went fine for us and we reached there
in good shape. We left the horses at the foot of the little pinnacles and
started to climb. The boys would pull and push to get us over the rough spots. We
all made it to the top. It being a real hot day in July, we realized we didn’t
have any water with us. We made some pictures. All we could see was the
mountains around us and the [Dan] river flowing between the pinnacles and
mountains. It was such a nice scene, I wonder about our creator building them
for us to enjoy. We
then crawled back down getting hotter and thirstier. By the time we reached the
little pinnacles, Thelma had fainted on us. Lillie had gotten sick. We laid them
in the shade. Bonnie
knew where an old house was that was near, so he went to hunt water.
Blackberries were good and ripe, so I ventured out in the field and picked
berries in my hands and carried them to moisten the sick girls mouths until
Bonnie came back with a quart of water. He said that was all he could find to
bring it in. By
then the girls were able to ride, so the first place we came to was Lynch’s.
Mrs. Lynch was walking up the road with a bucket of spring water and a dipper in
it. Lillie asked her if she might have a drink of water. Mrs. Lynch replied,
“Sure,” and handed every one of us a dipper of water. My, my, how good it
was. Lillie drank two and wanted more, but Bonnie told Mrs. Lynch not to give it
to her as she had been hot and sick and needed to wait awhile. Mrs. Lynch agreed
with him that Lillie could drink too much. When
we reached Mayberry Spring at the store, Bonnie offered Lillie water, but she
said, “You wouldn’t let me have all I wanted out the road and now I’m not
going to drink til we get home.” That
night I could not sleep for something on my left leg from my knee to ankle. I
went downstairs the next morning and showed my leg to my mother and she said,
“Child, you got chiggers.” We didn’t have any on the mountain [where we
lived]. I told Mother about picking blackberries for us to eat as they were
sweet and good. “Yes,” she said, “And that is where you got them
chiggers.” I only had 28 between my knee and ankle. You
can see from the photograph there wasn’t much space to stand or walk around in
on top [of the Pinnacles]. I
always told people when they asked when I was going back, “I never lost
anything up there and I didn’t have any set time to go back.” Now, here at
84 years [of age], I know that was my first and last trip to the Pinnacles. I
often wonder where Miss Lipscomb went to and whether she is still living. I
don’t remember where she was from. Matt doesn’t recall either, and he was
her boyfriend. If you are still living, Miss Lipscomb, and read this article,
drop us a card at Meadows of Dan. REMEDY FOR
CHIGGERS Make a brine from table salt right thick and rub on them two or three times and it kills them.
Editor's Note: Miss Addie is now 99 years old and lives on her farm in Mayberry, Virginia. Back to The Mountain Laurel Home Page
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