Leonard Cordova Road

January 4, 2012 | Emily

“There were enough kids for two baseball teams,” those who remember the heyday of this area would tell you. Once filled with running creeks, fertile farmland and the sound of baseball bats cracking on a Sunday afternoon, Leonard Cordova Road is one of the many side roads off US 219 that used to hold its own dynamic community. Miles off the main drag, Leonard Cordova Road is located 17 miles north of Lewisburg on US 219. Drive north on US 219, take a left turn down Leonard Cordova Road and you will find yourself in “Spring Creek”, probably without knowing it. At least three schools, two churches and one store provided for this community at one time.

“There was a big family of us, and we ‘s poor. I finally figured out why when I started buying groceries, because I think we fed everybody in Spring Creek every Sunday. And there were enough children there to make two baseball teams.”

“We had about an acre of potatoes. A lot of them anyhow, but that was my job. I used to do a couple of rows and head to the crick and go swimmin’.”

Swimming in the creek on a hot summer’s day down in Spring Creek used to be common, but we hear the creeks have changed now.

Spring Creek, where it passes U.S. Route 219 below Renick.

“And back then, they stayed water in them, but now, they’re dry a lot.”

Some of the children, who grew up there, still visit today.

“I go down there and reminisce sometimes. And there’s a cave on the road. And somebody put up a mailbox, and it said, The Flintstones. And I told Peggy, but we were gonna put a note in there, tell Mr. Flintstone, ‘your property tax is due.’ We thought that would be funny.”

“…And we used to go up there in the winter time, see we didn’t have frigid-airs, back in that one holler in the rocks, you could get ice there year round.”

“I go down there, to tell you the truth, I haven’t told Peggy, I was down there today. That’s my childhood, you know. Those mountains used to be my playground. It was a lot of fun.”

But it wasn’t always fun, here he remembers being punished with the switch, or “getting his legs warmed”

“Me and my friend, my close friend’s name was called Doodle. Me and Doodle got blamed for everything. Now we was ornery, I’m not saying we wasn’t ornery. So this woman accused Doodle and me of stealing her chickens. We didn’t do it and I got my legs warmed over it, you might say. So we got a bunch of her chickens, tied their legs together, come up next to the road, and tied them to the trees like this you know? We went back that night to get them, they was gone. I’ve questioned everybody, and the last time I talked to Doodle before he died, we have never figured out what happened to them chickens.

Oh everybody in this country loved Doodle, he was something else. Doodle, he might have quit in fourth grade, but he was really smart….Just a strange wonderful life.”

…Tangled Chickens and Baseball has been a collection of stories bringing to life past childhood memories of the Community called Spring Creek, to be found just off highway 219…

How to find the landmarks down Leonard Cordova Road:

The Flintstone’s Mailbox: Driving north on US 219: 17 miles north of Lewisburg, turn left down Leonard Cordova Road, drive 2 and a half miles and come to Robin’s Fork, take the fork in the road to the right, about half a mile down the road on your left you will see the “Flintstone’s Mailbox” that is mentioned in our interview.
The Rockcamp Community Church: Driving north on Us 219: 17 miles north of Lewisburg, Turn left down Leonard Cordova Road, continue for 3.2 miles and turn right onto Rockcamp road at the “Rockcamp Community Church Road”. You will find the church shortly after you turn.

Tags: churches, Greenbrier County, schools, tinypass