EDMONDSON ROAD

EDMONDSON ROAD

Was just thinking about something today. When I was a kid we lived on Edmondson Road which was a 1 mile, one lane, dead end, gravel road. For the first quarter of a mile it was like driving through a tunnel. Trees on both sides of the road and their branches hung over the road making a tunnel.The bus didn't come up the road when I was going to school. We either had to walk across the Reeser property and down through the woods and come out on the Stoffel's property behind the school where the dairy was. Of course that meant crossing the creek which by the way didn't have a bridge across it and going through all the blackberry bushes. And there was a lot of poison ivy which when dared one day I rubbed it on my face and arms. Wow, don't want to ever do that again. Or we could walk just a little down the road and go along the fence line by the Reesers property and cross the little foot bridge and come out by Cole's Store and walk down Washington Pike to Ritta School. I almost got run over by a car when I was in first grade crossing Washington Pike in front of the school. Or if we got the bus it stopped at the end of Edmondson Road and we walked the mile up the hill to home. In the mornings sometimes we would ride down with my dad as he was going to work but for the most part we walked to school. But what I was thinking about was on that mile long road I can remember back when there were only 8 houses. But only one house was on the left side of the road. 6 houses were on the right side and 1 house was at the dead end. As you came up the road, which we always called coming up the hill, the first house on the right was the Langstons house. I was told by my sister June today who is 10 years older than me that Mrs. Langston first lived in the house at the dead end of the road but that was before my time. She and my sister Phyllis both said they used to go to the Langston's home when they lived at the dead end. Phyllis is 5 years older than me. But neither one knew who lived in the first house on the right when they first moved to Edmondson Road. June was probably 8 or 9 and Phyllis 3 or 4 when they moved to the country. Jim was a baby and I was the first baby born after they moved to the country from town. Mrs. Bertha Langston was a widow woman and she had nine kids. My dad used to take them to church after he moved to the country. That is another post which I will share with you some day. The next house was the Congers. Louise was the woman's name but I can't remember her husband's name. And then there was Kern Lemarr's place. Mrs. Lemarr was a nurse. I think her first name was Laura. I don't remember what Kern did but he was a kind person that would offer us a ride up the hill sometimes when we were walking home from school. They had a son Marty and he still lives on Edmondson. The next place was the Emmerts. Mrs Emmert was one of my patients at Hillcrest when I went to work there. Their daughter Mildred Carr soon built a house next to them and we became friends with their children Grant and Carolynn. James and I went to church with Mildred at Union and she was in James Sunday School Class. Actually she died during the time she was in our class. Their dad Clyde smoked cigars and their house always smelled like cigars. Then we were the next house, the Spencers and there were 8 of us kids. Above us was the Warwicks and they had a house full of kids. Actually the dad, Ernest Warwick, was a first cousin to my dad. His dad and my grandmother were brothers and sisters. At the end of the road on the dead end was the Humphery's. They also had a bunch of kids and I was friends with Lula Pearl. The house that was on the left side was about 3/4 of a mile up the road and it was the Reeser's house. June also told me that when they first moved to Edmondson Road the Reeser's did not live there but she couldn't remember the name of the people that did. It was a log house. Their grandson Ken Madison has posted a picture of the log house before on facebook. Mr. and Mrs. Reeser both were unable to hear or talk. They had four children and they could all hear and talk. I learned how to do my ABC's in hand language and could communicate some with Mrs. Reeser. Mrs. Reeser would 'hire' me to wash her canning jars. I think she would pay me a dime or quarter. But the reason she would get me to do them was because my hand was little and would fit in the jars. I guess all her kids were gone from home by then. I remember going to their house and watching the Little Rascals because we didn't have a TV. Their son Robert eventually build a house further up the road on their property. He also became a deacon at North Acres but died at an early age. I remember my dad being upset because Robert died so young. Anyway I was thinking about this road today and thought it was really rather strange that only one house was on the left side. The only thing I thought was maybe someone else owned the property on the left side of the road. I know the property on the right was owned by J. C. Cameron who owned the Highland Homesites that my mom and dad bought their property from. Actually he was the one that gave the property for Highland Baptist Church which was first named Babelay Road Missionary Baptist Church but was changed after the first business meeting to Highland Baptist. The church was constituted on July 5, 1942. I have no idea how many homes are on that mile long road now and there is also a subdivision at the end in the field where I used to play with Lula Pearl. I still go up and down that road a lot because my sister June lives there still. She built a house behind the old home place. I have wondered how many times I have been up and down that road in the past 73 years. The only ones still living on the road that was there when I was born is my sister June. And she moved off for several years. Marty Lemarr has probably lived there all his life but he is a little younger than me, I think. I lived there from the time I was born until I married which was 19 years and that was 54 years ago. Makes me think of the old song Time Has Made a Change.