Janelle Taylor, contributor
Mama and Daddy Layne's Sayings
Mama and Daddy told stories of their lives as young children. Things that were not really outstanding, but things that stood out in their minds when they were children. My daddy was Joseph Elbert "Ebb" Layne and my mama was Mary Elsie Payne Layne. They were both native to Grundy County, one hailing from Layne's Cove, the other from Payne's Cove.
Daddy sometimes said, "I never was a little girl, but I was a little boy one time." That made little sense to me, and I wondered why he would have such an obvious and odd little saying, so I asked him about it one day when I was older.
Daddy told of a preacher coming to his home to eat with his family, the Bill and Nettie Layne family. The preacher was apparently short on conversation for my daddy when he was a very young boy, so in the course of the conversation he made the comment that he was never a little girl, but he was a little boy one time. The saying stuck with Daddy, and he often quoted it with no explanation. Strange things stick in the minds of kids!
Mama told of her youth on the Bud Payne Ridge. She and her family lived there in a log house with no road access. Of course, they had no car, so who needed a road? One of her favorite sayings about snowy weather was, "It's coming across the peach orchard." This saying came from her youth when the Bud & Angie Payne family had a peach orchard on the ridge. Of course the land was somewhat cleared for the peach orchard they had planted while much of the surrounding area was still forested. When the snows came to her childhood homeplace, it was easier to see in the clearing; thus, " 'It's coming across the peach orchard,' meant that the snow is really coming down and moving in on our mountain home. It is obvious to the eye!" When she would look out and see snow coming across the field and peppering down in ample supply when we lived in Pelham on the Tom White Ridge much later in her life, she always commented, "It's coming across the peach orchard!"
She often talked about walking from Payne Ridge to either Payne's Cove or Bethel Church for services. To get to Bethel Church, they had a path that included a walking log across the Elk River, nevermind that the path was through the woods and along weedy paths in the river bottom and was probably 3 miles or so one way and this walk was often at night. They carried a lantern to light the way! Nobody in the family was ever was bitten by a snake or fell into the river or was attacked by wild animals! Unbelievable! The path to Payne's Cove wasn't any better, but it was a little shorter. The mountinside was much steeper, but there was a creek to cross at the base of the ridge. Still, there were no major problems that she ever mentioned.
Mama's mother Angeline "Angie" Meeks Payne died of (probably TB) when my mother was only 11 months old, so Mama was raised primarily by her father and her older sisters, Gladys Payne Meeks (but Gladys died young with the birth of her first child) and Stella Payne Oliver. Occasionally Mama and her daddy "Bud" Payne would walk up through Payne's Cove (about where the power line now ascends the mountain) to Coalmont on out to Camp Four where her brothers Jerome and Buddy Payne and their families lived. At times she would attend school at Collins School. This is an unimaginable walk for a young child today, but it was routine in the mid and late 1920's for her and her father.
