Away back on "Coon Creek" about the year of 1833, lived and old couple by the name of Engle. The incident occurred, old timers tell us, during the year "the stars fell." Old preacher Engle, as the story goes, had only one pair of "breeches."

Since they were badly worn he had taken them off for his wife to mend preparatory to making a trip some place early the next morninng. When the "stars began to fall" (metors, in fact it was almost as light as day outside and the people ran "helter skelter." They thought the end of time was at hand.

The old man ran round and round yelling for his wife to bring his "breeches" quick.

"Bring them here quick," he yelled.

His wife tried to calm her husband and assured him she was mending them. The old man was in such a fizz. She asked, "why do you want your "breeches" now?"

"Do you think I want to go to heaven in my shirt tail?" he replied.

Drummers used to stop at the old folks home very often. Twice a year the early pioneers across Pine Mountain rode horses into Harlan and on to Virginia where they caught a train for Knoxville or Louisville to "lay in goods."

Most of the practical articles were hauled from Pineville via Straight Creek. The roads were merely "bridle paths." The first wagon road was the crossing near Cumberline to Line Fork. This was called "Hurricane Gap."

Peddlers usually stopped to spend the night at one of the houses on Pine Mountain when the came to Harlan from Pineville. The guests were always welcome.

The food was plentiful, such as it was, and the travler was always welcome to "pull up a chair and eat." This particular family owned a dog who insisted on being fed everytime the family ate.

Jump Into Guest's Lap

Sometimes he would even jump up with his front feet into the guest's lap. One day a peddler came over the mountain and the family was having supper.

He was asked to eat and that pleased him very much because he was hungary. As they sat around the table eating, "Rover" Popped his dirty paws up on the guest's lap.

The old man who was eating on the opposite side of the table said to the visitor, "job your fork in him if he don't be-gone", that's the way I do."

The guest looked at him sheepishly and probably thought to himself, would that be "boarding house manners."

Experts On Moon Phases

These pioneer people may or may not have been highly educated but they were experts on many logical things such as the phases of the moon and when crops should be planted or hogs should be butchered or harvest time for tobacco.

They knew the planets by local names such as the Big Dipper, Job's Coffin and etc. Many plants had their own special medicine, whether it was taken in a tea or eaten in some way. In the spring young ladies as well as older ones went to the hill and tucked their aprons at the waist to hold a "mess of wild greens."

May 2, 1954

Volume 53 Number 108

page 1 & 6

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