Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 3, 1993 TAG: 9309260235
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by KENNETH LOCKE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
RETROSPECT. By Elison A. Smyth. Pocahontas Press. $9.50
I must confess that sometimes it is easy to forget that we in Western Virginia have a distinct and colorful heritage that adds spice to our lives and gives us an original way of looking at the world and all that is in it. Two recent books of memoirs by long-time New River Valley residents should help remind us of where we have come from and how much of our past we should be thankful for. They should also delight local history enthusiasts and collectors of oral history.
The first is an entertaining look at our past by a long-time writer for the Radford News Journal, G.P. Hatcher. His "Memories of an old West Virginia Hillbilly" are exactly that. Born in West Virginia 74 years ago, he grew up on a farm and moved to Fairlawn as an adult to work for the security force at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant. His articles are generally short and describe life as he knew it in our local hills.
Many readers will know exactly how he felt trying to sell chickens for coal mine scrip, trading his dog for a new rifle, working in a Civilian Conservation Corp camp (and being stabbed over a girl while there), being captured by moonshiners while out hunting, watching his first moving picture show, and the heart- ache of being separated from his mother after she could not pay the taxes on the family farm.
Other readers may well remember the volunteer fire station he helped start in Fairlawn, the price of houses in the '40s, and some of the citizens of note he knew and befriended in the '40s and '50s. Hatcher's style may be a little rough for some refined readers, but others will appreciate his roots and the home grown truth of what he has to say. "Memories" is a fine book and is full of local history, color and humor and is recommended to all local history enthusiasts.
Another self-professed hillbilly with a long memory and a penchant for memoirs is Ellison A. Smyth. "RetroSpect" just goes to show that two people can be born and live within a few miles of each other and have vastly different experiences.
Born on the Va Tech campus (his father taught biology) at the turn of the century, Smyth writes about the days when the Corps of Cadets had wood fires in their rooms, when faculty kept cows in their back-yards, and when a campus fire could easily destroy several buildings. After graduation he spent a few years in Schenectady, New York, as an electrical engineer before deciding that the Presbyterian Ministry was his true calling.
Smyth writes in a lively, entertaining style about his graduate work in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the `20s; his time as an officer in the British Army; ministering to a Southwest Virginia chain gang; his rural churches in Virginia, Tennessee and Canada; bicycling through France; revival meetings of the British Salvation Army; and numerous other events and people that he has known in his eventful life.
Throughout these short articles he views the larger world and its inhabitants in a friendly fashion but clearly through the emotional filters of small-town boy. "RetroSpect" is recommended for those who simply enjoy reading about the lives of others and those who want want to know how our natives "way back then" viewed the larger world.
Kenneth Locke is a Radford pastor.
by CNB