"I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
I'm sorry I don't have a picture of Aunt Gayle. I remember her the year that James was born. We were there on Christmas a couple of years after his birth and the bubbling glass tubes mimicking candle lights on the tree were mesmerizing.
She had moved to Hendersonville with one of the Italian men Granddad had imported to work on the trains and tracks. Grandad found that the horses were not as efficient as trains in moving timber off the mountains, so Grandad and company helped the horse teamsters he had hired get started in Chicago. Have you ever heard of the Teamsters Union. The C&O railroad ran from Durbin WV to Chicago and to New York. You have to belong to the Teamsters to work at Rockefeller Center.
Gayle's husband was named Latt and with Grandad's help he built a timber operation in the mountains of North Carolina near Hendersonville. Along with the lumber he also operated a hardware store and his son, John G. was a contractor, building homes in the area. You can see these old homes on Realtor.com.
The point is Aunt Gayle told us they had built a home for Robert Frost in the mountains of North Carolina. You won't find this anywhere on the internet. But even as a child I clearly remember that name, Frost.
I have pondered that important poem above and the world needs to know about this.
If you take the road from Staunton, Virginia,(birthplace of Woodrow Wilson, and near the home of Thomas Jefferson) which is Route 250 towards West Virginia, you will end up, after a rigorous drive thru the woods and mountains, at an intersection where you will see a row of giant evergreen trees, the type they used to tan leather. These trees are awe inspirting.
Route 250 ends there at the Hemlock Trees. You can either go right or left. If you go left you will go past Bartow on to Cass where you will find the Cass railroad up the unusually steep grade of Cheat Mountain. Continue on around and you will find Route 66 which follows a mountain stream leading to Snow Shoe ski resort.
If you go to the right, you will go to Frank and into Durbin. Very small towns, but monumental in what they have contributed to this country. Were it not for the durable thick soled shoes produced by the Pocahontas Shoe Sole Company in Durbin, the USA might have lost the First and Second World Wars. (The South lost the Civil War because of their lack of good shoes.)
But of more interest to poets, there is something poetically extraordinary in the town of Durbin. If you stand on the steps of the Methodist Church in the middle of the tiny town of Durbin, WV and look at the mountain in front of you, you will see an extraordinary resemblance to the pyramid on the dollar bill, revered by the Masons (American Revolutionary Masonic Lodge). At that magical location (remember John Wesley was named for the founder of Methodism) you will see this pyramid shape with a ridge going straight over to the apex of the pyramid mountain.
That is why they named the mountain Cheat Mountain. The founding fathers followed the concepts of the Masons, which gave their members steps of the pyramid that they had to progress to make it to the top. These steps represented the troubles in life that you have to transcend to get to the top where you have the wisdom to oversee the world below you.
They were so fanatical about these steps, that the early Masonic carpenters that built houses in Virginia, put hints into their staircases and houses. It is a treat to study such old 1700's houses to find the hints that these prerevolutionary men left behind for posterity. I found one such house that had thirteen steps to get upstairs and on the ninth step there was a small defect cut into the stair.
In other words, the stairs were a representations of the trials and tribulations that mankind has to undergo thru life to achieve wisdom. The point of Cheat Mountain, is that there is another way. Just walk the ridgeline and you'll get to the top without all the pain and suffering life has to offer. The American Way. Cheat pain and suffering. Cure diseases, save lives and take something for pain. (This is not a advertisment for drug addition.)
When Grandad John Wesley came to America, he was the child of one of the inventors of aspirin, one of the first drugs to relieve pain, and he was seen as a hero, to such men of insight. So John Wesley's Methodist Church was built on the site where cheating pain and suffering is commemorated.
To get there you had to turn towards the tiny town of Durbin, the road less traveled by, not towards the relatively bigger timbering town of Cass which had the giant country store with millions in sales per year and where they hired 2000 men to timber the mountains in the early 1900's.
Someday, it will come out that Robert Frost had a home built in Hendersonville, NC in appreciation for what our family did for them and you will remember what I have told you here. You will find out this concept has made all the difference for many people. Ideas, philosophies make a difference in people's lives.
Thank you to http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/frost_road.html
I'm sorry I don't have a picture of Aunt Gayle. I remember her the year that James was born. We were there on Christmas a couple of years after his birth and the bubbling glass tubes mimicking candle lights on the tree were mesmerizing.
She had moved to Hendersonville with one of the Italian men Granddad had imported to work on the trains and tracks. Grandad found that the horses were not as efficient as trains in moving timber off the mountains, so Grandad and company helped the horse teamsters he had hired get started in Chicago. Have you ever heard of the Teamsters Union. The C&O railroad ran from Durbin WV to Chicago and to New York. You have to belong to the Teamsters to work at Rockefeller Center.
Gayle's husband was named Latt and with Grandad's help he built a timber operation in the mountains of North Carolina near Hendersonville. Along with the lumber he also operated a hardware store and his son, John G. was a contractor, building homes in the area. You can see these old homes on Realtor.com.
The point is Aunt Gayle told us they had built a home for Robert Frost in the mountains of North Carolina. You won't find this anywhere on the internet. But even as a child I clearly remember that name, Frost.
I have pondered that important poem above and the world needs to know about this.
If you take the road from Staunton, Virginia,(birthplace of Woodrow Wilson, and near the home of Thomas Jefferson) which is Route 250 towards West Virginia, you will end up, after a rigorous drive thru the woods and mountains, at an intersection where you will see a row of giant evergreen trees, the type they used to tan leather. These trees are awe inspirting.
Route 250 ends there at the Hemlock Trees. You can either go right or left. If you go left you will go past Bartow on to Cass where you will find the Cass railroad up the unusually steep grade of Cheat Mountain. Continue on around and you will find Route 66 which follows a mountain stream leading to Snow Shoe ski resort.
If you go to the right, you will go to Frank and into Durbin. Very small towns, but monumental in what they have contributed to this country. Were it not for the durable thick soled shoes produced by the Pocahontas Shoe Sole Company in Durbin, the USA might have lost the First and Second World Wars. (The South lost the Civil War because of their lack of good shoes.)
But of more interest to poets, there is something poetically extraordinary in the town of Durbin. If you stand on the steps of the Methodist Church in the middle of the tiny town of Durbin, WV and look at the mountain in front of you, you will see an extraordinary resemblance to the pyramid on the dollar bill, revered by the Masons (American Revolutionary Masonic Lodge). At that magical location (remember John Wesley was named for the founder of Methodism) you will see this pyramid shape with a ridge going straight over to the apex of the pyramid mountain.
That is why they named the mountain Cheat Mountain. The founding fathers followed the concepts of the Masons, which gave their members steps of the pyramid that they had to progress to make it to the top. These steps represented the troubles in life that you have to transcend to get to the top where you have the wisdom to oversee the world below you.
They were so fanatical about these steps, that the early Masonic carpenters that built houses in Virginia, put hints into their staircases and houses. It is a treat to study such old 1700's houses to find the hints that these prerevolutionary men left behind for posterity. I found one such house that had thirteen steps to get upstairs and on the ninth step there was a small defect cut into the stair.
In other words, the stairs were a representations of the trials and tribulations that mankind has to undergo thru life to achieve wisdom. The point of Cheat Mountain, is that there is another way. Just walk the ridgeline and you'll get to the top without all the pain and suffering life has to offer. The American Way. Cheat pain and suffering. Cure diseases, save lives and take something for pain. (This is not a advertisment for drug addition.)
When Grandad John Wesley came to America, he was the child of one of the inventors of aspirin, one of the first drugs to relieve pain, and he was seen as a hero, to such men of insight. So John Wesley's Methodist Church was built on the site where cheating pain and suffering is commemorated.
To get there you had to turn towards the tiny town of Durbin, the road less traveled by, not towards the relatively bigger timbering town of Cass which had the giant country store with millions in sales per year and where they hired 2000 men to timber the mountains in the early 1900's.
Someday, it will come out that Robert Frost had a home built in Hendersonville, NC in appreciation for what our family did for them and you will remember what I have told you here. You will find out this concept has made all the difference for many people. Ideas, philosophies make a difference in people's lives.
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