978-1-933251-36-3
1-933251-36-0
$19.95 paperback
158 pages
Parkway Publishers
|
The Bridge Crew is the story of a group of kids growing up in a Blue Ridge mountain village in the 1940's and 50's. This was a time before
television, video games, personal computers, and personal automobiles. Adults labeled them the "bridge crew"
for their meeting place on a pedestrian walkway underneath the canopy of a huge sycamore
tree in the center of town. There the kids met to plan their "activities." These activities included such antics as building huge spider webs on the bridge from Horace Isenhower's waste socks from his tiny hosiery mill to oiling the tracks to watch the Virginia Creeper attempt to leave the Warrensville depot.
The Bridge Crew
demonstrates the creativity of youth who never realized they were poor until the government began telling them. They were rich with a village full of
characters that helped form them into responsible adults. It was a great time and a great place to be young and energetic. There were times when the adults
did not think so. Many antics were not funny when they took place; however time has a way of turning bad
situations into humorous ones.
about the author
Samuel Estel Shumate is a graduate of Lees- McRae College, and holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from Appalachian State University. Sam taught in schools in Myrtle Beach, SC and Cranberry in Avery
County, NC, before returning to Warrensville to teach at Northwest Ashe High School. He spent
twenty-five years at Northwest Ashe as an English and journalism teacher, assistant
principal and principal, retiring in 1992. Today, Sam along with his wife and two sons, manage Buffalo Fir
Company, a Christmas tree farm named for the creek that flows through Warrensville.
|
