How Many Lives?
How Many Lives?
Have major events caused you to change the course of your life and triggered you to rethink and reinvent yourself? I’m in my golden years now, and because there’s so much to look back over, I’m often astonished at the growth and changes. Sometimes it even seems like I’ve lived multiple lives.
In 1969 as a young woman not even twenty years old and with David, my nineteen-month-old baby, my first husband and I left our home in Middle Tennessee and moved to North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, for work. With a desire to see and experience this country and the world, I first loved the idea of moving to a new state. And this quaint little town, known as the Key to the Blue Ridge Mountains, sounded like an excellent place to start. We packed a U-Haul with our meager belongings and headed into the wild blue yonder.
But as we settled into the basement-level apartment of an old rock home, the tiny town didn’t seem like the adventure I’d hoped for. Aside from looking after David, there was little else to do, and I grew woefully homesick and lonely within the first week. I considered going back to college, but with no money to finance it, I had to put that dream on hold.
The family visited while we were there, which helped, but I was glad to move to Fayetteville, NC, after six months. I got a job there, made friends, and gave little thought to North Wilkesboro – for fifty-two years. That’s when I read a novel titled, The Moonshiner’s Daughter by Donna Everhart.
Prohibition was in effect in this country from 1920 to 1933. But the law didn’t stop people from wanting to drink or being willing to produce and sell white lightning or purchase the finished product. After all, bootleggers had already been brewing and selling it and had regular routes like any delivery service of the day until the government made it illegal.
The secluded Blue Ridge Mountains in the rural south turned out to be a perfect place to set up and carry on the business of making moonshine, and it seems Wilkes County, NC, was the Moonshine Capital of the World.
When we moved there early in 1969, the wild days of bootlegging, outrunning the law, and keeping the customers stocked with white lightning were still vivid memories in the local’s minds.
Because it was a dangerous business, bootleggers' cars had to be reliable and specifically modified to be fast enough to outrun the law. They’d often jump from the vehicle and run if they encountered a roadblock. Occasionally, the owners of the souped-up cars would race each other, thus the birth of NASCAR racing in 1947 in North Wilkesboro, NC.
James had a service call in Raleigh, NC, in March this year. He said we’d stop in North Wilkesboro and look for the house I’d lived in a lifetime ago. I had no doubt I’d recognize it if it were still standing. But it had to be close to 100 years old by now. I expected it to be demolished and something new in its place. Besides, I didn’t have the address. Still, the idea of looking for it was intriguing. It wasn’t a happy time in my life, but it was the place that made me grow up and started me thinking about my future.
We arrived after lunch in the quaint town, still just a wide spot in the road. At first, I didn’t see the rock house as James drove through the neighborhood. Then I spotted it on the corner of Brame St and 9th St. “There it is,” I called out. We parked and walked around the place.
It was odd stepping back in time where the memory of that young girl with the baby still lingered. Thoughts of my life there filtered through my mind–caring for David, trying out new recipes in my one cookbook, and reading. I read Gone With the Wind for the first time when I lived there. I’d make a pizza from a Chef Boyardee box mix every Thursday, and we’d eat it at the local drive-in theater. I enjoyed the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
As James and I climbed into the car to leave, I thought about how, like me, North Wilkesboro had reinvented itself over the years. Bootlegging lost its popularity as it became legal to buy alcohol, even white-lightning. NASCAR moved to a new location. The town spread out some and became the birthplace of the Lowes chain.
A few years after leaving North Wilkesboro, I returned to Tennessee and had another baby, Wendy. Later I met and married the love of my life, James, and we had Jonathan. So, I raised children for thirty-six years, and when Jonathan was just a toddler, the grandchildren began coming along. I love that I was young enough to enjoy them. The first four grew up alongside Jonathan. And now, I am also blessed with two younger grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
I’ve been lucky enough to visit almost every state and lived in six. I owned and managed a prosperous wallpapering business, earned a college degree, and had a successful nursing career. Now I take pictures, grow flowers and write.
Like the old rock house in North Wilkesboro, my outer structure has seen better days. And just as the old place served as a home for many others over the years and the little town grew and evolved, my thousands of experiences and memories have transformed my life into one I now savor and enjoy. How about you? How many lives have formed the person you are today?
