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Show I The Salt Lake Tribune, Thursday, June 9, 1977 ;,:S These Here Old Hill Folks Sure Like Things the Way They Are BOONE, N.C. (UPI) It's 15 miles of bad road to Pottertown. through the birch, beech, maple and oak trees to the upper floors of the Blue ridge moun- tains. But its the likes of Old Man Booner Potter who keep the traffic down. Ned Austin, barber of Boone, explains: Old Man Booner Potter had killed six men in Pottertown which is a place the sheriff dont like to go. One day Old Man Booner and his son, Little Booner Potter, got angry and shot each other. They was living in one house. Old Man Booner had one family downstairs and a second wife and family upstairs. They took Little Booner, bleeding, upstairs and Old Man Booner was put to bed downstairs to die. Well, Old Man Booner lay there and said, I jest would like to see Little Booner one more time before I go. They went and helped Little Booner down the steps. Old Man Booner saw Little Booner standing there and reached back and pulled a pistol out from under bis pillow and fired. He missed. 1 killed six and you would have boon seven, Old Man Booner said and fell back and died. Little Booner got well but somebody shot and killed him taler, Austin said. Pay Their Bills Joe Miller, pharmacist of Boone, You got to respect the Pottertsaid, own folk, though. They pay their bills. They tip their hats to women. They do a lot of shooting of folks, though. But mainly they shoot each other, which is a grace. Down from Pottertown, but still far enough from Boone to Mean Wildcat Road is dirt and rock, Willard Watson, 71, and his wife, Ora, 69, live in a d home closer homemade, to travel map civilization. I do like Bozo, Mrs. Watson said, nodding at the yellow dog in the doorway. He dont put but his two front feet in the house and all but I miss the kids. "It was the lonesomest when the last one left. . I was homed on Powder Horn Mountain. Willard lived on one side of the mountain and I on the other. I seen him early and we got married and he carried me up here on his back I and we weighed only 90 pounds then built the house. That was 52 years ago. I remember when Herbert, our oldest, was 6 and went down the hillside and pulled up a lot of the cucumbers in the patch. Willard, he took Herbert by the hand down there and told the boy not to pull up the cucumbers. Next day Willard found the baby cucumbers had been bitten into. Her wood-heate- bert said, Daddy, I didnt pull them up I laid on my belly and bit them off. Still Likes Them Herbert was 6 then. Hes 50 now. Still likes cucumbers, she said. Out in the com crib, on shelves, stood dozens of mason jars filled with Ora Watsons cucumbers, pickles, corn, tomatoes, beans, potatoes, sweet Beets is good potatoes and beets. blood medicine. But her pride is in the room the children left. Mrs. Watson sews quilts. One of them hangs in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. She sells them for as much as $250. Her husband Willard spits into the rusting peach can beside his chair near the fireplace. Women, so goes Willards dictum, keep them barefoot and pregnant. He calls her old hen. But he eyes his wife and doffs his crusted black mountain hat the dirtiest and sweetest hat ever seen in Deep Gap, N. C. . Willard Dont call me Mr. Watson unless youre a drunk. I am willing to like everybody except a damned drunk who talks; a drunk who keeps his mouth shut, well, 1 may not kick him down the mountain wears his hat in his woodshop For half a century he labored with wood. I made 80 cents a day building that bridge down there in the Big Depression. Now they took down the wooden bridge and used cement. No matter, for I carve now. Willard carves dancing men, walking mules and wobbling pigs and pecking chickens. All move by wire. They sell from $3 to $20. What with coffee, even at the store, at about $10 for a three-poun- d sack, Im glad I carve. Its better than ; moon-shinin- I used to hunt possum for $1 a pelt and make $12 in two weeks but I believe in paying for something good. So I took the suit to get put away in. The store man said the suit came with a second pair of pants. I told him no. Up here in the Blue Ridge you need only one pair of pants to go to god in. Willard laughed. Down in Boone, Howard and Raleigh Cottrell take greater interest in idensu.ts. They are tical twins. two-pant- came They to earth s when Boone, so named because the legendary Daniel fought a bear here, had a population of 125. Now it has more than 12,000 residents, doubled by the population of a state university wrestling into the city. The twins have been mayor, city councilman, county commissioner, district judge, police chief and deputy sheriff. We are the great reseals, Raleigh said. Howard: Remember when we used our pump air rifle to shoot out the farmers barn windows?" Raleigh: Hed fix one up and then wed break another. Howard: When Old Man Jerry Ray would lead his horse by, so prim and proper, and wed be milking the cows, wed squirt the milk stream right into his ear. Chased Over Hill Raleigh: You did it. But he chased me over the hill. Howard: You stole the pie from the THE kitchen. But it was me that Mama backhanded for it. Raleigh: Well, it was you that took that girl up on the mountain but it was me that answered for it. Howard: Winch girl! They both proclaim the joys of Boone. But outside, in Washington and such, they got a need for more businessmen and farmers in Congress, a need to get lady television reporters off Jimmy Carter's back, a need for more work," said Raleigh. They laughed. And Howard: The other men of Boone are in awe of moonshine is $32 a the twins. They are the only men in town whose unpolished prose the Raleigh: "The women of Boone delight in. fishing. Howard: More Yes, it was Howard who was auctioning off the ham at the charity Raleigh: "Aw, auction and up and told the whole crowd darned reascals. that the only two places in Watauga The Howard: to is on ham both sides County get good of a pigs behind, said Raleigh, rascals. laughing. They laughed. the price of some gallon. Awful." needs more world golf. were nothing but world needs more RE-DO- ... RE-NE- W, REDECORATE PLACE... sss 4$ s AT ! V g. M ', ii - w itfSFJ if Mrs. Watson smiled and patted her I miss it all. 1 even miss the cows I used to milk. Now I aint looking ' 'mio-tj- ; ' V 0H .00 H0VJ $1 ' r5 ' 04 SH m, mpm., O' apron. for nothing. Just enjoying every day at a time. The television tells us about Washington, President Carter and all that. I wish them well. But theyre there and were her4 and well, theres nothing we can do about it. Like the energy. A shortage? We bum wood. And these mountains got plenty of that, she said. Her husband nodded. I realized my age this past winter. It was the worst I ever saw. Ice as thick as your fist on the road. Its funny. At 71 I feel tougher. But not any younger. Now when I walk through the woods, it seems that more things get in the way of my feet. I went down into Boone the other week. I know Im going and Ive always wanted to go to ground up on Osborne Mountain in a new suit. They showed me one for $115. oKl SPRAYED! , Ipillfl i Reg-5.- k 43 ilM it c CflWNT&GflRDENiDEEII Vafxxatte Supplex Promo 4 Position OSCILLATING SPRINKLER urjiifemijuttiry design with sealed turbine motor. water Four position pattern arimstmuni. distribution. Clemi-m.i- t spray A liar New find plug. Xx Nn. Kills flies and mosquitoes. Works up to four months indoors. I R 5 4' x 8' & 12 IMPREGNATED 4'x Req. SHEATHING 4.99 V x 50' Nylon Reinforced VINYL GARDEN HOSE Sanded Shop 8 PLYWOOD Supplex PORCH BENCH Attractive blank vinyl cover with three white accent stripes & tough nylon cord reinforcements. 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