I’m Next! And Other Snowbird Stories

I’m Next!

Johnny Belyeu
Johnny Belyeu

On this trip to Snowbird, our hideaway in the mountains of North Carolina, there were 20-some people there, family mostly. People were just starting to get up but, already, there was a line waiting to get in the bathroom.

It would have been a long wait for Johnny Belyeu, Brother Pop’s son-in-law, if he had not gone back to his tent and got his pistol.

He pointed his gun at the sky and fired several rounds  and shouted “Bear! Bear!”

When everyone rushed out of the cabin to see what was going on, Johnny walked inside, into the restroom, and closed the door.

Twice Was Enough

Captain Dave
Captain Dave

There’s a bridge over Little Snowbird Creek at the Denton Place, the end of the state-maintained road to Snowbird, that no one has ever had trouble with but Dave.

My brother dropped a tire off the right side a few years back. He had to chew up the ends of the bridge planks a little but he eventually got it back up on the bridge and we went on.

John Sullivan was riding with him.

The very next time we went to the mountain I’ll be darn if he didn’t do it again, dropped a tire off the right side of the same bridge, only this time he had to call a wrecker.

John Sullivan
John Sullivan

John Sullivan was riding with him.

The next time Sullivan rode with Dave he told him to stop when they got to that bridge, and then he got out and walked across.

I guess he figured: 

“Fool me once, that’s your fault.”

“Fool me twice, a, that’s still your fault.”

“Fool me three times, No, wait! Wait! I’m getting out.”

Wasn’t Me

We were up at Snowbird, sitting around the fire chewing the fat, when Pop said, “The Highway Patrol stopped me on the way up here.”

Charles T. "Pop" Stith
Charles T. “Pop” Stith

“Were you speeding?” I asked.  “Did you get a ticket?”

“No, I wasn’t speeding. I didn’t get a ticket.”

“Then why did the trooper stop you?”

“He said somebody had called in a complaint about a red pickup truck with Alabama tags, pulling a four-wheeler, weaving all over the road.”

“What did you say?”

“I said it must have been some other red pickup with Alabama tags, pulling a four-wheeler.”

Coming Monday: Hexed

Why Her And Not Us?

Editor’s Note: Not many people have been hurt at Snowbird, our hideaway in the mountains of North Carolina. And no one has ever been killed although there has been a close call or two including the biggest, closest, call of all last Friday night.

There were seven of us on the mountain: John Sullivan, an old newspaper friend who teaches journalism at American University; his young son, Ben; and five other men. All seven of us had been to the mountain before, some many times, so we had pretty much seen it it all, or thought we had.

There was a storm coming, it would probably be a rainy night, but Ben wanted to sleep outside so he and John pitched their tent on one of the few flat spots near the cabin. My nephew, Chuck Stith, and my friend, Shane Colvard, two Alabama boys who usually sleep outside, set up next to the fire, under a canopy.

But this is John’s story so I’ll let him tell it:

John and Ben's campsite
John and Ben’s campsite

I’m not exactly sure what made us leave the tent. It might have been the lightning off in the distance, my lack of confidence in the rain fly I had hastily assembled by lantern light, or the heartburn from the smoked pork. But Ben, my 10-year-old son, and I grabbed our sleeping bags and pads and ran for the cabin.”

The Sullivan's had dodged the bullet.
The Sullivan’s dodged the bullet.

By the time we had dashed 40 yards  to the porch rain was falling sideways. Chuck and Shane, who were camping nearby,  were holding onto metal poles supporting a canopy the wind had snatched and thrown into the air like a piece of paper. A few minutes later we heard a deafening crack.”

Standing on the back porch of the cabin, peering into the darkness, we couldn’t see what had happened.  Then a

The oak had been damaged at its base by loggers in 2014-15.

flash of lightning illuminated the side of the hill: A tall oak tree had split open, broken off, and fallen across our tent.”

Ben didn’t really understand what had happened, how close he and I had come to being killed. But the three men on the porch did. Chuck and Shane have kids, too. We hugged and thanked each other, and God, that we were safe.”        

The next day we surveyed the damage. The top of the oak had crushed our tent, landing

Ben and John Sullivan
Ben and John Sullivan

where we had laid down to sleep. One branch had left a four-inch deep impression in the ground.”

After we got home, back to Bethesda, MD, we heard the news story about an 11-year-old girl in Indiana who had been killed by a falling tree that weekend.”

Why her, and not us?”

Coming Monday: The Fatal Surprise