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Barefoot In The Sand: Remembering the Waning Days of the Hopewell Community (1998) Bruce C. Gragg 11/123

THE TIMES “DEY WASA CHANGIN”

By the time I came on the scene the community was beginning to
change. Many of the local sons had answered the call of their country
to serve in the war. Most of the families had one or maybe two boys
in the service during the war years, the Rhoden's had five at one
time. All the neighborhood boys came home safely. When it was over,
many became restless and wanted to move to "Town" for a better paying
job, and the better life.

Beginning when the whiteman took the land from the natives, and
continuing until today, forest related businesses have always had a
great part of the local economy for the entire region. These
businesses included sawmills, pulpwood, utility poles and post and
turpentine, just to name a few. During the late thirties and early
forties turpentine was still a big business around there. It was a
labor intense job and it provided income for a lot of families so
involved. This business was referred to as "Naval Stores." The resin
was primarily used in the ship building trade. Also, a number of
consumable products are made from the pine resin. At one time there
were turpentine stills all through the area, it was such a big
business. As logging took over the timber business, the turpentine
business slowly faded away. In the days of wooden sailing ships the
pitch used to waterproof the ships was made from the resin.

To collect the resin the laborers would make a "cat face" on the
Slash Pine, install a pair of metal gutters and hang a clay cup to
collect the sap. The clay cup looked like a clay flower pot with no
drainage hole in the bottom, just a hole in the top rim to hang it on
a nail. They used a "hack", a tool to cut about 1/2 inch of wood, sap
layer and bark each week during the sap running months. The handle of
the hack was about 12 to 15 inches long with a weight about 3 or 4
pounds on the other end, this helped take a lot of work out of the
chipping. The blade portion of the hack looked a bit like a "J", and
the cutting edge was kept very sharp. The sap running season was from
early Spring to late Summer or early Fall. The term to describe this
operation was "chipping boxes". It was very hard, hot work, of course
they always had keep an eye for the ever present danger of snakes. We
were in an ideal place for an Ole Rattler or Moccasin, as there were
a lot of wet areas and dry pine hills to give a perfect place for
either to be found. It was a very hot and sticky job, the resin would
get on the hands and clothes.

Frank Davis ran the turpentine business for Emory Carter, on his
tract of land. Frank used some of his relatives to help him run the
operation. He also leased trees from Mrs. Mills and Papa for

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