Brook-Cause & Effect

A dual wire telephone line was built along 626 from Huddleston to Owen’s Store about 1910. The cost of its service was too great for most, so it never spread further. In the early part of 1914 telephones were introduced into this area by what was named The Franklin Pittsylvania and Bedford County Mutual Telephone Exchange. A switchboard was set up at W. D. Franklin’s near Staunton Church. The lines consisted of a single wire, and the first line was run to Dr. Bennetti’s home on 626, two miles south of Huddleston. During the next five or six years it spread over the area from Smith Mountain to Stone Mountain Ridge-from Goose Creek to Staunton River-the western limits being near Radford Church. Several years later a line was run to the home of Dr. Rucker at Moneta. A stock in the company cost $25, and the box $12. At first they paid forty-five cents for furnishing and planting a pole. The poles were from local trees-dead chestnut, locust, cedar, walnut, etc. The annual dues were three dollars at first, and went up as the lines required more repairs. The switchboard had to be moved twice, and extra dues were levied for that. By 1944 the lines had become so run down that they were dangerous along the roads, and in pastures. Suitable posts were hard to find, and the wires had begun to rust. The stockholders voted to take the lines down and dissolve the company. Those telephones had been of inestimable benefit to this community at a very reasonable cost. They were terribly missed until the dial telephones reached this area.

But even now some homes that had the old phones don't have any. The community tinker shop and trading joint was on Greer's Ford Road (853). A very beautiful holly tree over-shadows the site where the shop stood. It was called Zaley’s, and must have operated for half a century, closing in 1924. Zaley tinkered with clocks, watches, bicycles, all kinds of guns, and other things. He would trade on anything from Arbuckle coffee rings, and pocket knives to bicycles. I don't believe he ever handled a motorcycle or car. He stored many ..207.. of his wares in his dwelling house. Many young boys, and some not so young, spent all their spare money at Zaley's for purchases, repairs, or trading. Any boy with a quarter could get something from Zaley. a worn-out pistol that would not stick a bullet in soft wood, a cheap worn-out watch, or a knife. You could buy some good wares there, too, with enough money. He kept lots of bicycle parts, whenever a wave of bicycle fever hit the community. A boy could break his bicycle down on Saturday, rush to Zaley's early Sunday morning, get it repaired, or trade it for a better one, then try it out by riding to some church before Sunday School closed. Zaley was pretty good at cleaning and fixing clocks, but his watch work was not dependable. Sure, he always kept some better ones that he would trade for yours, if you would pay the difference, which usually meant buying his, and leaving yours. It was a real place for hanging out on Saturday and Sunday. No girls or women went there in my knowing.

It seems that he never had much trouble with drunkenness, or disorderly conduct. Many people sort of looked down on young men who hung around Zaley’s. They did not like for them to be suitors to their daughters, and intimated that they would never amount to much. Some of these I have observed did as well as the ones who were talking about them. I suppose they enjoyed what they did. Sometimes they played games there. Neither Zaley nor his brother Moley, ever married, but back in their younger days they had reared a very attractive, intelligent niece. She never allowed herself to be lured by the young men who hung around the shop, but married a suitable young man with the consent and blessing of her uncles. I have been told that some fancied that they were making progress with her, but for the most part it was an excuse for going there. When Moley and Zaley reached the twilight zone in life their niece came, took them into her home, and cared for them, until the shades of night settled on them. She was rewarded with whatever they possessed. It may have been much.