George Smith made a living for his family by cutting timber and rafting logs down the Obey River. Sometimes he would be gone four or five days at a time when taking logs downstream. If the logs were delivered as far as Nashville, George would ride the train back from Nashville to Cookeville, and many times, he walked all the way home from Cookeville.

While growing up, Delsie helped feed the chickens and pigs, milked the cow, and worked in the garden. Mowing the yard with what we would think of now as an old antique push mower was another job she did. She attended all eight grades at Lone Maple, a school that was a little over a mile from her home. It was a one room school then, and two teachers she remembers having there were Vonda Maynord and George Brown. Sometimes when the weather was rainy, Virgil Stover, a nearby neighbor, would haul all the neighborhood children to school on a wagon. Delsie remembered an older girl named Alma Taylor who lived not too far from the Smith home. Alma often walked with Delsie and her brother, Sherlie, on their way to school. The path they took to school was through the woods, and sometimes a neighbor boy named Donald Sells would pick on Sherlie. Alma would take up for Sherlie and would not let Donald bother him when she was along. On one occasion when Alma wasn’t with them, Delsie took matters into her own hands and got a limb from a thorn bush that she used to stripe Donald’s legs with it when he started teasing Sherlie.

Electricity was not available in that area of Overton County until the early 1950's. The first electrical appliance the Smith family had was a washing machine purchased from Coleman Brothers General Merchandise at Taylors Crossroads.

There were once two churches within a stones throw of each other at Taylors Crossroads, one being the Taylors Crossroads Presbyterian church and the other a Methodist church. Since these were the only churches in that area at that time, people came from as far away as Barnes Ridge, Hatcher Hall, and Ozone to attend services. Sunday school and preaching services would be alternately held in these two churches. Anytime there were what was called "meetin’s" held in other churches in the area, such as Fellowship, folks from other communities would attend. Delsie recalls how Ben Reagan and wife Webbie Nation Reagan would take a wagon pulled by two large, white horses and haul people to Fellowship to attend "meetin." The wagon would sometimes be so loaded, some would have to get off and walk beside the wagon when they came to a steep hill.

The Smith family owned one of the first cars around the Taylors Crossroads area. There were probably only one or two other families in that community that had a car then. The car was an Overland with a canvas top and snap-on curtains to keep out the rain. Delsie remembers a trip the family made to Creston, Tennessee, a small community between Monterey and Crossville that was also a train stop. George Smith had a sister who lived there, and on the way, the weather turned cool and rainy. Because they had not taken any type of sweater or jackets along, Delsie’s father had to stop at a business that would be considered a Goodwill store today, and find something warm for each one to put on. He also snapped on the curtains to keep out the rain. On another trip, this time to attend May meeting at Fellowship, a late snow came while they were driving home from church. Just as they got near the Gilbert Ramsey home, they had a flat tire. Everyone else had to go inside and sit by the fire at the Ramsey house while George fixed the flat tire in the snow.

While I visited in Delsie’s home to get information for this story, we looked through several boxes of old photographs. One of the really old pictures Delsie has shows a very early highway crew and what I consider strange looking equipment used to build roads with. The names of those in the picture are unknown. Another photograph depicts how logs were rafted down the Obey River and was made somewhere near Irons Creek. Another old picture she has was taken in 1900 of an old log church building that sat where Delsie’s brother, Sherlie and wife Oleeta, made their home for many years, just across from Coleman’s store. She also has a list of most of the names of the people in that photograph.