Train wreck, and Randolph Hite special guest sharing Bracey, VA history

In this episode, we can’t talk about Bracey’s story without rolling down the tracks of our rich railroad past. Our special guest, Randolph Hite, takes us on a trip down memory lane, sharing stories of what Bracey used to be, something about a snowball, the changes brought by the dam and lake, and the people who have kept the community special.

With the BraceyVirginia.com history page as our backdrop, the conversation unfolds like a living scrapbook—capturing what’s been lost, what’s been gained, and hopes for the next generation.

Join us for momentum, memory, and a little mischief—this one is a train you’ll want to ride.

🎧 Wired Together is produced by WinternetWeb Technologies, a family-run web design and tech studio based in Bracey, Virginia.
💻 Visit us at winternetweb.com 

Transcript

Speaker 01 0:00

Alright, we're back for another episode of Wired Together with Jason Winter and Melanie Winter. Alright, so we have a special guest today. I I guess uh publicly I am admitting that Randolph Hite is my father-in-law.

Speaker 03 0:20

So which makes him my father or my daddy.

Speaker 01 0:23

That's right. So we um we're excited about today. We are bringing him on board. You can't talk about history um of Bracey without remembering our rich railroad past. Um, real quick, I want to bring in our AI friend. So hey AI, what comes to mind when you hear all aboard?

Speaker 00 0:49

Next up, Bracey, Virginia. Where history, humor, and maybe a snowball or two have relieved the journey. Today's special guest has lived it all. Let's roll down the track.

Speaker 01 0:59

Wait, the snowball? What do you mean by snowball?

Speaker 00 1:05

Just like one snowball can set off a terrain wreck of stories. Today's episode is about momentum, memory, and a little mischief. Buckle up. This one's gonna be fun.

Speaker 01 1:16

Oh, the snowball, that's definitely maybe hang on. Some of y'all maybe listening know what's going to be coming. But um so we have uh Randolph, how are you doing today? I'm doing just fine. Thank you, sir. So um part of our idea for today's uh podcast is uh we've mentioned before, we created the BraceyVirginia.com website because our community deserves kind of like its own place on the web where locals, visitors can find uh businesses, events, and a little bit of history kind of all in one spot. You know, it's uh your guide to living, exploring, and belonging in Bracie, Virginia. Now, having Randolph on the show, our plan is so he can share stories. And if you're listening to this podcast, if you go to the BraceyVirginia.com website and go to the history page, maybe you can look along with us and this will give you kind of that director's cut narration vibe. We're just gonna see where the stories go and um take it from there. So all right. We're not gonna talk about every piece, but um, you know, we hope this will be a way to kind of get some of the memories and some of the behind-the-scenes stories of what it was like in Bracie.

Speaker 03 2:37

Exactly. And the Bracie at a glance is the the history page, and so we did put some some early things on there. Um that we always said that Bracie was kind of formed through terr transportation.

Speaker 02 2:51

So Yeah, that's right. In fact, it it went from the crossing the Runal Griffith, which it is, and then they turned it into Gaston Lake when they dammed it up. Uh, but they had a ferry that went across, and they had ferries that went across everywhere. Good laws, five or six ferries between here and Eden's ferry. And right there at 85 was uh the St. Tammany Ferry. Uh, there's a picture there of one of the ferries. It's pretty much a wooden flat bottom boat with a bunch of people on it. Probably would not be what even allowed today because it looks like no safety there unless there's dogs on there barking at the people, keeping from falling off.

Speaker 03 3:33

And there we just talked about maybe what if one of those dogs fell off? You gotta go find it.

Speaker 02 3:38

Well, either that or turn him into a duck dog.

Speaker 03 3:41

They can swim, it's okay.

Speaker 02 3:43

Kill two birds with one sand. And if you look at the next picture that's over there, how would you like to put your car on that boat and carry it across?

Speaker 03 3:51

And those cars were heavy back then. I can't imagine.

Speaker 02 3:54

And and of course, it don't seem like they were expensive, but you know, $500 was tough in 1792. So I'm not really think that was a car from there, but then again, uh, if that went down, you lose three of them right there immediately.

Speaker 03 4:12

The ferry at Survey, Surrey County makes me nervous, and that's they're really well-built ferry. True.

Speaker 01 4:19

A lot of cars.

Speaker 02 4:20

The old bridge that goes into uh Charleston, South Carolina used to make me nervous. It was about four million feet high. And it was riggedy steel and whatever. At the top, oh yeah, you ought to have seen that one.

Speaker 03 4:37

But as far as the and then we do go from from uh what, St. Tammany? Uh that we do have a picture of the post office, so we're um just outside there. But where St. Tammany was actually the first town of Mecklenburg County.

Speaker 02 4:54

All right, and first was it the first incorporated town of Mecklenburg or first incorporated town in Virginia?

Speaker 03 5:00

First incorporated town in Mecklenburg.

Speaker 02 5:02

Oh, okay, all right. But then again, when the transportation changed. Transportation changed everything, and then they brought the railroad through. The railroad, exactly, which is Seaboard Railroad. And of course they didn't what combined with coastline until later even in my life. That was in the what sixties, I guess they combined with coastline, or maybe in the 70s, and became the seaboard coastline. But up until then, as a small child, it was just Seaboard Railroad, and that's how we got the mail to everything. We had two trains a day that ran north to south, and they would throw it a bag of mail, and and as a small child, I would have Nancy Dunn, who ran the post office in downtown Brace, and I'd run over there and and pick up that bag, and of course they would throw it for what 500 yards down the track. So Nancy wasn't a spring chicken, so anyhow, I was a big help, and for that I got a six and a half ounce Coca-Cola. Oh yeah, so and and then she'd bring it back, sort it out, put it in another bag, and hang it back up on the little latch that was right there beside the track. And then two northbound trains every day came through. So the mail was constantly being what? North to south, south back to north, and it was a system that actually at that time worked and worked well.

Speaker 03 6:30

That is really neat. I did not know that you did that.

Speaker 02 6:33

Oh yeah, good gracious. Yeah, that's how I spent my time. We didn't have the iPads or iPhones or anything. We actually had to find stump stuff to do. Yeah, we entertained ourselves with throwing snowballs at trains and things like that.

Speaker 03 6:52

Well, you know, AI mentioned it, and now you've mentioned it, and we actually mention it on the Breezy History as a if you know, you know. So you might as well tell the snowball story.

Speaker 02 7:02

Well, we were out of school for about a week. This was uh January of 1963, and was it '64. Yeah. Oh well, January, so yeah. It just turned. It just turned. Okay, and I just couldn't keep up. Uh but anyway, Thomas Maud and myself, who well, we'd been sliding, we're sleigh riding up and down to Bracey Hill. If you know where old downtown is, you know where the the hill is, and that was a great hill to sleigh ride. In fact, at night, we would pack the snow back on the road uh to help us with our sleigh ride. It had nothing to do with anything about you know the state wanting to push it off the road. But anyhow, we we would do that. But uh one morning we were sleigh riding and Thomas Mart and myself, uh what the train was coming through and it was going from north to so, which is actually a downhill grade. So it's going faster. Well, what we would try to do, and like I just said before, we had to come up with things to entertain ourselves. So we're making snowballs to throw through the open box cars. I know it sounds like absolutely nothing of importance, but to us, you were a pretty good pitcher if you could make that happen. Anyhow, so the first ball that you would throw would usually what hit the side of the train. Because you don't have the readjust to, yeah, exactly. So the second one you would throw would get inside the car and hit up in there. Well, the third one we will get in ready to throw, as we get ready to let it go, a tank car hits across and turns sideways, and 27 other what railroad cars crash boom, boom, boom. You've ever never heard such a noise in your life. I mean, it would it was deafening as far as me and Thomas. And uh what barricaded that railroad cut. And if any of you ever look over the bridge when going down 903, that's a pretty deep cut. Anyhow, I think you've got a picture of that.

Speaker 03 9:17

There is a picture. We found it on a uh uh magazine.

Speaker 02 9:22

Yeah, okay. But yeah, this one. Yeah, exactly. But anyhow, barricaded that railroad cut, and no one really got hurt beside the the guy in the caboose, uh, the sudden jolt and stop. He fell up against forward and broke his arm. Granddaddy Hite, my grandfather on my on the height side, uh ran up the hill from the store because it wasn't like they didn't know something was happening. Right. And they had cut the um the brush, I guess you would say. It kind of, you know, they were about an inch around, stuff like that. They'd cut them with a a what do you call it? A machete. Uh-huh. A machete. Like a machete. That's right. So they were a little pointy. Well, he fell on the way up there and cut his hands. So they were the only two people who really got hurt. And walking away from that, that's great. Yeah, really. And then the rest of the train, of course, he wanted to see if the engine had gotten away, and it and it had. Of course, it dropped a couple more cars off further down the line. That's right. And if I think one of them is probably under the trussle. Right. But anyhow, uh, no, that was when Thomas and I got tagged for what knocking a train off the track with a snowball. And I should have become a uh what Major League pitcher, but they couldn't find a catcher who wanted to catch me.

Speaker 03 10:50

Or catch snowballs.

Speaker 02 10:52

That's right, exactly right. So, no, that was just another area in life and growing up in a small, small town. But the railroad not only played a large part as far as transportation, believe it or not, you could get on a train in Richmond and ride it all the way to Bracey. Yeah, and uh Hannah did that, yeah, which was my my mother's half brother half-brother, yeah. Anyway, he got off the train and whatever, and came on up to the house. My mother actually at one time they had a what they called a little short dog, and that would carry you from Bracey to Norlina. So they would get on it early in the morning, go over to Norlina, shop all day, eat and whatever, and come back in the afternoon. They spent a whole day out of town.

Speaker 04 11:40

That sounds lovely.

Speaker 02 11:41

Yeah, it does. Well, it was just quaint. Right. And uh, well, it was what you did back then. You didn't have all the highways and whatever, and the cars that were you could count on, or the tires on the cars you could count on. Things were different. We evolved just like everybody else, you know, going from a wagon to a car.

Speaker 03 12:03

Going from the river to the lake. Yeah, going from going from the train to 85.

Speaker 02 12:09

That's right. Uh we Bracie has always followed the transportation. As far as St. Tammany on the lake, as far as the town of Bracie and where the railroad used to cross, and and now in the state east by we have to build all that way. Yeah.

Speaker 03 12:25

Yeah.

Speaker 02 12:26

And as far as what what we want to do in the future? Well, we don't know whether to keep it as a small town or to expand. And we have many thoughts on that from from different people who moved to the area with a lot of uh experiences, uh, a lot of talent. Uh we we we quite a mix here and brace it now, where at one time we were one little small town where everybody knew everybody, and if you got sick, everybody in the town knew about it. But that was a good thing because everybody could come out and help you if you got in a jam, and it it didn't matter who you were, if you were a neighbor, we'd always help. And that was just the the small community-minded uh thoughts of rural America back in that day. So I knew everybody. I rode the bus with everybody, my mother went to school with everybody that went around, and that even made it a nice thing, Jason. As far as I know, you are heavy into education and stuff too. But uh the teachers were from around this area. Right. Uh our parents knew all the teachers. The teachers watched us grow up, whether it was at the barber shop, whether it was at church, we were at the grocery store, which weren't many grocery stores. They were kind of like uh you grew all your own vegetables in your garden, then you went to a butcher to get your meat. That's right. So, anyhow, but they knew us as children, and I guess it made it a little easier to teach each one individually because they knew all of our quirks. Right. They knew if we were rambunctious children or we were studious children or it was a a simpler life where today's problems are certainly uh more difficult to deal with than what we had back then. So yeah, I was glad I was raised in that time. I don't know how good I would do as a child in the this earth.

Speaker 03 14:47

Which child would you have called yourself? Rambunctious?

Speaker 02 14:51

No, that would have been someone else calling me that. I always thought I was I was studious and always on the up and up to never got into any trouble unless there were some rodeos or stuff that with we had uh calves and I think you're banking on most of your teachers being not able to listen to this podcast right now.

Speaker 03 15:19

Right. There might be a little bit of that of what?

Speaker 01 15:22

You're banking on the fact that the teachers may not be able to listen to this podcast right now, so you can say whatever you want because yeah, they're well uh will they be able to listen to it later? Well, I'm talking about your your teachers.

Speaker 02 15:36

Oh my teachers need not be my teachers. I really appreciated them, and wherever they are, I hope they know I appreciated them.

Speaker 01 15:48

I'm just flipping through this, just looking at some things. Uh like how about the tornado in 1923?

Speaker 02 15:54

Just uh that came through, and we haven't had well, we've had some many tornadoes come through, take tops out of trees, and maybe blow something over or whatever in the past few years, but as far as a large tornado count coming through, 23 was the one that came through. Took the old Bracie Baptist Church, which sets what used to set where the community house is today, and uh blew that away, except for it left the uh I think the the fuse sitting there, but the building was gone. Uh I think we we have some of the uh the things that came out of that old church, but and it had changed everybody from going to the Bracie Baptist Church to I think they started to go to one in South Hill. Right. Which l was like going to one in Washington. A bit further away when you got a slower transport. Further away and you got slower transportation exactly. Exactly right. So that was another change that came about and we just evolved like every little small town in America. Yeah, what else do you have?

Speaker 01 17:11

Well, we're sitting right now in what is Tomes Cole store. Maybe you can tell us a story of you know Oh yeah.

Speaker 02 17:21

Well, Mr. Cole was one of the first vegetarians that I had ever heard about. I mean, he was a vegetarian. He uh he ate just vegetables. Well, what was going on with that? I mean, we didn't understand it. We had fried chicken almost every night, if it wasn't spaghetti. And uh we had pork chops and we had steak on occasion. Uh, but it was pretty much whatever was around at the time. My father used to go in with somebody else and buy half a half a cow and have uh have it cut up and and put it in the freezer or ha buy half a pig or a whole pig and have it cut up and put it in the freezer.

Speaker 03 18:04

That is still done today.

Speaker 02 18:06

It is, exactly. So in the hair, Mustard Cole was a vegetarian. And the only first one I ever knew, the first one I ever learned what a vegetarian was. In the hair, so in here, he and later years he and Ralph Harper and even uh oh what was his name? Uh lived up on the curve. Woody Haynes, that's right, Woody. Uh they all three were I think bought shares into Must's store. And of course, Ralph had the uh the cotton gin that was over there behind it, so he could work at the store and run the cotton gin at the same time, which was all a good deal. But anyhow, Mustard Cole lived at ripe old age. He was like 93, 96, something like that, and lived lived a good life. But I used, and everybody else that lived on Bracey Drive or close by, used to catch the bus on the what? At the store, which is this building, except if it was across the street. And I would never imagine as a small child going to elementary school and eventually high school, still catching the bus in front of Miles Cole's store. And of course, we we love getting there early, so we could probably buy something and eat it before we got on the bus even. But uh I would never imagine that I would wound up with the store. But after Mr. Cole passed away, his daughter, uh Jeanette, gave me a call and asked me if we would like. Well, she knew I'd like keeping things in Bracie, preserving the history and whatever. And she wanted to know if if I would buy the store. Well, I gave a lot of thought to that because your mother and I had had no money at that time that was, you know, that we could put over here. And so I I told I'd get back with her. And we we oh I called a local person here in South Hill that moves buildings, and he told me it would take about $8,000 to move just across the street. Well, not the street, but the road, and onto our property. So that was gonna be this was 1995. So that was gonna be a foundation and then moving the building. Well, I called Jeanette back up. Told her Jeanette, look, this $8,000 just moved across the street. Uh there's no money to to buy that from you. Well, at that time, this is where it got really tough. She said, Randolph, we want you to have it.

Speaker 03 21:06

That was nice.

Speaker 02 21:07

Oh, thanks. Put an albatross around my neck. Why don't you? So about $75,000 later, we have what you see today. We've got a marriage on the inside with running water and the handicapped bathroom and and nice walls and insulation and and double pane windows and whatever. Uh and it still looks like Mr. Cole's old store on the outside. So so we did save Bracey for what it was, and it became that one little piece got saved. And and and I wish we had done more of that with uh some of the other towns, and of course Lake Ross has still got a way of doing it, and South Hill has kind of, but they they could take that old architecture and and make something new on the inside, and just what put sugarcoat outside a little bit to keep the architecture of the era, but at the same time just be innovative as far as the business that you're putting in. So I've seen that in so many different towns that it's a wonderful thing to have happen, and I'd I'd love for more people to enjoy and to join me and keep and brace this history alive.

Speaker 03 22:25

Yeah, and actually we've seen a lot in in a lot of the small areas, small towns nearby and everything, um, revitalize. So uh and you know that's that's an interest of of you and me and and I think you know, a lot of people that are um new and old here.

Speaker 02 22:44

That's right, exactly. In fact, one of the pictures, Melanie, the 19 1885 picture, uh I knew it was before 1918 because Great Granddad Brace's store is wooden.

Speaker 03 23:00

Yep.

Speaker 02 23:01

That store burned in 1918. Now, see, there's a lot of people that live in the area that have no clue that that was a wooden store there. They've all since they've ever been here, it's always been that two-story brick store, which was to me the very first Walmart. Or as my mother would say, he sold everything in there from a needle to a casket. They actually had caskets upstairs. Uh funeral homes weren't even what known of at that time because everybody had large houses, and when you passed away, they would carry you back to that house. Well, as houses got smaller, the birth of the funeral home came, and we started having it in an area that was suited for having that rather than trying to deal with windows and doors of uh smaller houses.

Speaker 03 23:56

Why most most of the older funeral homes are a house? They are because that's what the the job would have eventually transformed into.

Speaker 02 24:05

That's right, exactly right. But then we got regulation.

Speaker 03 24:10

Well, I mean, you know.

Speaker 02 24:11

That's right. Apparently, in that picture going across that lake, there's no regulation in that very. If you wobbled in and you just fall right off, you have nothing to catch on to beside your next door neighbor, and they would probably go with that dog. One or the other, exactly. Oh, geez. But anyhow, uh, Great Granddaddy Bracey, I don't know, just skipping over to looking at the community house. Great granddaddy Bracey was the last living trustee of uh of the old Bracie Baptist Church that the tornado blew away. And so he uh he gave that land to have a community house, but on so the community would have somewhere to go to celebrate birthdays, weddings, uh receptions, uh uh they had dances there when I was a child, and and uh what they had everything that went on around at some of the churches, they would certainly have their receptions there or or even meat there to to eat. And so the community houses played a large part. He's been doing that today.

Speaker 03 25:33

Exactly.

Speaker 02 25:34

Exactly right.

Speaker 03 25:36

So we will simply um wrap up our our history with um just a little little hint of of maybe what the future should or maybe could look like here.

Speaker 02 25:56

Well, the three people you see there in that early 1900 pic picture is Waller Bracie and uh John Rideau and Ed Lamb, but they were the three biggest shopkeepers, and and I'm sure in their time they saw quite a change as far as innovation coming about. Oh, turning center, absolutely everything running water. Right electricity, yeah, telephones and telephones and and and granddaddy braced it, which I call him granddaddy, his great granddaddy, and they have, but uh he said on the the first uh it was the REA board which became Mecklenburg Electric to bring electrification to rural Virginia, and once they got that done, well the next step, and and granddaddy was a visionary, uh the next step would have been to oh, we need telephones, we need to talk to each other. Well, back in that time there were several families throughout the county that actually ran their own lines, and they had the the crank phone that you see hanging on the wall, and you put the other one in your ear and talk in the mouthpiece, anyhow, but they were like party lines. Uh maybe three, four different people on that one telephone. So when you rang it, everybody picked it up, and not everybody hung up and they found out that it wasn't them that you wanted to speak to. So, anyhow, I just know uh here, granddad had one connected to the store and connected to uh well who else had it? Uh Celeste had it, uh, and Cun Evelyn had it. And so all of them were on that. And I know up in the m towards Smith Crossroads, uh, the Trims had a line of their own. So anybody to remember them, they they certainly had their own lines. And in fact, when the phone company came through, they had to deal with these people that had their own lines to just keep them up there. So but they were important people.

Speaker 03 28:03

As far as the future Bracey, well, as it's evolved so far, yeah, it will continue. Well, we went from telephones to um what what do you call it?

Speaker 01 28:15

Um the but the internet fiber fiber fiber up. Oh yeah.

Speaker 03 28:20

Um a lot of the um technology has changed.

Speaker 02 28:26

That's right. That way you can work from home and still what have a job in St. Louis or Tampa or actually there's a lot of people that do that.

Speaker 01 28:36

Enjoy the recreation and you know, live in a quieter area, exactly and still work in big business. Do the corporate hustle, yeah.

Speaker 02 28:44

And pretty much it it evolves as, you know, if we got two people that need it, well, right there you're probably not gonna get it done. You have two hundred people needed, you're probably gonna get it in there quicker. Right. So uh as Bracey grew, especially on that lake, because once the the dam was put in as a hydroelectric dam to create current, just like uh John Kerr Dam did up at uh at uh Bugs Island. Uh the first years were really great for all of us who were around here then. The the lake was there, there were no houses on it, people were starting to buy property. Well, with no houses, made duck hunting and goose hunting a whole lot easier. You didn't have to worry about where you shot, right? And here, so after that uh they put uh single wides on those lots and then years down the road you saw the single wides go away, and double wides got on the lots. And then years down the road, those a lot of those went away, and they Yeah, you see what you have in multi million dollar houses out there right now. And uh and those people actually uh do a wonderful or bring a wonderful thing to the area, but like I said earlier, they bring in a lot of talent that uh was not here in the area from all different aspects, aspects, and walks of life.

Speaker 03 30:23

Right. Uh and but maybe brought a little stretching too that we need to work with and maneuver through.

Speaker 02 30:29

That's that's true. And of course, you know, change doesn't come easy.

Speaker 03 30:34

Nope.

Speaker 02 30:35

I mean, I don't know of anyone who's from here that wants a stoplight at 903 and Nelly Jones.

Speaker 04 30:42

No.

Speaker 02 30:42

No. Probably there are people who come here who would like to see that happen. Well, it'll probably be a while. That's right. We we we are trying to keep Bracie uh a little more rural. We certainly don't want an incorporated town as of yet, because that only brings one more thing we know about, and that'd be tax. Because it takes tax to run a town. So we've got the best of both worlds at the moment. We've got rural America, we've got small town feeling, we still have small town community feeling as as a lot of people that have moved here are becoming more involved with the civic organizations, with the local churches and whatever. Well, we can communicate with each other and keep that small town atmosphere working.

Speaker 03 31:35

Right. I like that.

Speaker 02 31:37

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 03 31:39

I feel like maybe Bracey Virginia helps in that that communication.

Speaker 02 31:43

And it did.

Speaker 03 31:44

Give it out there, get get the opportunity to see what's happening and and how we can all connect.

Speaker 02 31:49

Hi, connect, that's right. And speaking of connecting, uh, you're doing a wonderful job here, Jay, with trying to keep that connection between with the Bracey.com.

Speaker 01 32:01

Yeah, the Bracey Virginia.com website, it was just we wanted to uh have a place where all the businesses could be featured. So um if you have a business and you're not on there, or if yours is on there but you want more information added, please let me know. Um we can get you a username and everything, you can go in and maintain it. And again, this is something that we have sponsored um and are paying for for all the Bracie, Virginia 23919 uh addresses. Um but those outside, you know, are able to participate as well. Yep, exactly. More information on there. We're not gonna go down that rabbit hole. All right. Okay, so well, Randolph, thank you so much for being willing to be on our podcast today. Um it helps, you know, a family when you're a family member and we can kind of just say, hey, by the way, you're gonna be doing this. Um, but I think um, you know, a lot some of these stories I've heard, some of them I haven't heard to the detail. So it's always enjoyable. And uh hope you all um at home, you know, able to follow along and maybe learn something. We'd love it. Yes, exactly. And that's that's the whole purpose with this whole thing. So we'd love it if you can follow or leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen, whatever platform you use, um, you know, on social media, share it privately with your friends, uh, post it online. All of this helps us to grow and keep the conversations going. Haven't been to it yet? Go to BraceyVirginia.com and uh on Wired Together, unplugging for now.

Speaker 03 33:57

But always stay connected.