Darkness in the Holler- then and now...
Traveling to Mammy's one year with dad, sitting beside him in the passenger seat when we rounded a turn next to the railroad tunnel.
Dad suddenly brought the Ford Galaxie to a stop in the middle of the gravel road. It was night time, but the headlights from the car pierced the darkness around us.... until he shut the car off and turned off the headlights!
As I sat there in complete darkness, I waited for him to explain what we were doing here in the dark surrounded by... who knows what?! My mind playing tricks on me.
"Put your hand in front of your face." Dad broke the silence. "Okay", I replied, waiting for something magical to happen...
"Can you see it?" He asked.
"No I can't. I can't see anything! Can we turn the lights back on?"
"Have you ever heard the saying, it's so dark you can't see your hand in front of your face?".
"Yeah, I've heard it before."
"This is what it's talking about." Dad explained.
I nodded my head in agreement (but of course Dad couldn't see it. Thankfully, he then started the car, turned on the headlights and we drove the remaining mile to Mammy's for the night.
With no light pollution to diffuse the darkness, Coal Branch Road really is an area where you literally may not be able to see the hand in front of your face. This same point was driven home- again- to me this past weekend.
A friend and I visited the Crooked Nail cabin in the holler to turkey hunt. Gary was an experienced hunter and I was just experienced at hanging around the shelter! Waking up at 5am to get dressed in our camo and head to our separate locations, I was told it.. "would be better if you don't use a flashlight to walk to your blind. It might scare off the turkeys."
So as we walked to our blinds- his path up the hill to the logging road and me to the picnic shelter (yes, MUCH closer), my mind again began playing tricks on me. I instantly went back in my mind to the conversation Dad and I had in the dark more than 50 years ago!
I began thinking about how the Beattyville Enterprise paper might soon run on their front page " Ohio Man Gets Mauled by Bear While Turkey Hunting in the Dark."
So, I brought my flashlight and aimed it on the ground in front of me as I walked, and on occasion pointing it in the dark around me. The sky was cloudy, so there wasn't even a hint of stars or the moon to be seen. Scaring off the turkeys was the least of my concerns.
Just thinking... if I would have had a flashlight in my hand when Dad stopped the car years before, I would have used it then too. So I sat there under the shelter in my turkey chair staring out into the darkness and waiting for the first rays of daylight... or someone to turn the headlights on!
Somethings never change. And I like it that way.
I've had this photo hanging on the bulletin board by my desk for a couple of years now. It's not real clear but I was able to get Dad to slow down setting up camp long enough to pose for a picture. I'm SO glad I did!
Dad doing what he loved best, at the place he loved best. Taken some time in the early to mid-nineteen nineties. This is the same shelter we held Sunday am church in with the youth for about 15 years and the same one I hid in last weekend trying to hunt turkeys.