Greenbriar River

 

My Granny Whitely was a character.  She had six sisters and two brothers.  In order to be able to visit them all each year, they would rent a cabin on the Greenbriar River near Hinton, West Virginia where all of them could meet.  The sisters would stay two weeks with nieces and nephews, cousins, etc. dropping in for a night or two.  My brothers and I would stay a week and swim and fish to our heart’s content.  The days’ activities were great, but the stories and fun at night were the best.  Granny and her sisters would tell tall tales trying to outdo each other while us kids would sit spellbound listening to a time long gone.  One night, after Granny and Aunt Ruth had gone to bed, we caught some toads.  We began throwing the toads through the open window aiming for the beds.  Suddenly, Granny yelled!  We laughed and laughed.  The ladies threw the toads out of the other window, but we collected them, and back into the first window they went.  The ladies were good sports pretending to be shocked and angry.  But it was all in good fun.  I enjoyed renewing acquaintances with distant cousins.  Granny and her sisters cooked wonderful meals on the wood-burning camp stove.  Dinner was always finished up with a fried pie.  But even when we were camping out on the Greenbriar River, we went to church on Sundays.  Often we would double the attendance of the little country church when we walked in.  Granny and her sisters were often asked to sing a special.  And they did!  I remember drawing closer to the Lord as I watched the love of life in my Granny Whitely and the older folk.  Solomon reminded us in Ecclesiastes 12:1, to “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.”  Just as clay is molded and then hardened, children are molded and taught.  And they grow up, they are as they were taught.  I am thankful for the Godly heritage that I have.