You were introduced to Willie Hudson in last week’s column. We found out where he was born and lived his family as well and how his Pa thought that Willie had a curse. In this week’s column we’ll explore more about Willie, his family, friends and about the culture surrounding the Pee Dee River Hills of Richmond Co. N.C.
As we found out last week that Willie’s Ma had died right after Willie was born. It wasn’t unusual in the early nineteen-hundreds to be raised by one parent or even siblings. It was a hard life for most rural folks back in those days.
Willie, being the youngest in his immediate family was growing like a weed and was always asking questions. Being around six or seven Willie, like his siblings, he had chores to do around their small farm. Sometimes Willie would just be talking so much that the rest of the family would tell him that he best gets his chores done before Pa got out his razor strap and got a hold of him.
It wasn’t long before Willie found himself a friend about his age. It was a young black boy who lived just across the hollow from Wille’s family’s old dog-trot house. The boy’s name was Tom, but everyone called him Patches. Don’t know why they called him Patches because back then all farm children wore hand-me-down sometimes over size clothes with patches sewn on them.
Both Willie and Patches would help each other with their chores and when it came time to eat, they ate at each other’s home. Seems where you seen one the other was tagging along.
One time the two boys were pushing a metal wagon rim with forked sticks there in Willie’s yard. Don’t know which one it was, but one of the boy’s wagon rims got away from them and quickly rolled down the hill right into Mr. Hudson’s bee gums. Yes-sir that rim done and knotted over two of those bee hives and those angry bees started stinging everything in sight. Why they got so hot on that old mule that he broke out of the fence and headed toward the river.
Willie’s Pa came up from the field about that time to see what all the commotion was about. Why, he was as mad as a wet sitting hen, but when the bees calmed down so did he. Although both boys got a good talking to Pa decided that it was just an accident or one of Willie’s curses.
Seems on another hot summer day that Willie and his family had come in from the fields to eat dinner. After dinner most of the family would rest or take a nap before going back to the fields in that day and time. Well Willie and Patches decided they would have time to go
down and wade in Mountain Creek. This would be a refreshing break on their sore feet and hopefully cool them down. Now Mountain Creek in places can be a few inches deep but in other places four or five feet deep. Well neither boy could swim and they were flocking in the creek around what hill folks in that area called Harry’s Den. This is an indention or cave in the side of the creek that in slave times a young slave named Harry hid from his master for quite a while before being caught cooking a goose.
As the boys ran up and down the creek, Patches slipped on a moss-covered rock and was swept into a deep hole in the creek. Not being use to deep water Patches panicked and was about to drown. Well seeing Patches being swept down the creek Willie didn’t know what to do for his friend. Finally, Willie grabbed a wooden branch that was lying in the water and reached out for Patches to grab. All is well that ends well and Patches was rescued from a watery grave, but it took a long time before Patches would ever get into water.
Seems just before Willie’s Ma died his Pa had promised his wife that he would try his best to keep the rest of the family in church. So, just about every Sunday morning some of the family would hook the mule to the wagon and the rest of the family would hop in.
The closest church for the family to attend was just across Mountain Creek and up a long river hill. This was a long hard pull up that muddy hill for the mule and sometimes some of the family would have to get out and walk. The name of the church was Bethal Baptist and from the church yard you could see for miles and even the Pee Dee River as it wound through the river hills.
Every Sunday if it wasn’t raining or storming the preacher would stand in front of the church and greet each person. Willie enjoyed going to church and he loved to sing. Now this was a fire and brimstone old time preacher with a lot of amens and shouting about the Lord’s kingdom. Willie was amazed how that calm mannered preacher could get so riled-up about the Lord.
On the way home, Willie, would ask his Pa what that preacher was talking about and what it meant for him. His Pa would try and explain the best he could but would always say, “Willie, you just might become a preacher one of these days.”
Next week we will continue with Willie’s Adventures and how the Lord might just be working in Willie’s life.