This is a story of six pre-teenage boys from Rockingham
back during the early 1950’s.  They belonged to a club
called the Sand Hill Club.  Henry, Nathan and Harry all
lived on the north side of the railroad tracks.  Chuck, Frank
and Steve all lived on the south side of the railroad tracks
on Sand Hill Road that is now called South Caroline
Street.  Steve lived out just passed US 1.  Chuck and Frank
lived just up the hill from the old depot.  They all attended
the LJ Bell Elementary School, which had just recently
opened.  Two were in the fifth grade, but the other four
were in the sixth grade.  This was a military club; perhaps
we should say a military appreciation club as the entire
nation was in awe of and in gratitude to our military men
who had just won World War II with the help of our allies.  
All the boys had army unit patches and chevrons sewn to
the sleeves of their jackets.  That was about the extent of
the militarism except for the use of a password to enter the
club.  Frank said he never did see the need for that, as they
certainly all knew each other.  He’d guessed they did it
because the Army did it that way.  They also had two
honorary canine members: Old Red and Iky (pronounced
Ike-key).  Old Red was a Chow-mix and belonged to Steve.  
He weighed at least seventy-five pounds and had an
ominous demeanor to anyone outside the Sand Hill Club.   
Iky was a Spitz-mix and belonged to Harry.  Everyone
denied naming him after President “Ike” Eisenhower.  
More often than not, the club time was spent watching
cowboy movies on television at Chuck’s aunt’s house
nearby.  They didn’t have cartoons much back in those days
except at the outdoor drive-in movie theaters between
features.    


Chuck’s father was a career man in the Army at Fort Bragg,
but he made Rockingham home for his family.  Nathan’s
father was a scoutmaster, but he had a traveling salesman’s
job and was often out of town.  He was a widower, and was
trying to raise Nathan all by himself, although he probably
wanted to get remarried.  Frank’s father was a cracker
salesman and traveled a lot in the counties surrounding
and including Richmond County.  Frank often traveled
with his father, and was therefore quite familiar with the
geography of the area.  The boys were good friends, but
that did little to quell their competitiveness.  They were
always trying to outdo each other.  Nathan’s father wanted
all the boys to join the scouts and for meetings to come
over to his place on Scotland Avenue just beyond the old
high school.  But that was a long way for most of the Sand
Hill Club members.  They wanted Nathan’s father to form a
scout troop over on South Caroline Street, but he couldn’t
manage two scout troops with his job the way it was.  
Nathan was the only one who actually was a Boy Scout at
the time.


At a Saturday morning meeting of the Sand Hill Club, they
were watching a black and white cowboy movie on
television about a man crossing the desert in distress.  That
gave them the idea that they should go on a hike just like
they do in the Army.  They all decided that they should use
the railroad tracks and hike to Hamlet only six miles away.  
Nathan’s father, a scoutmaster, later agreed to go with
them.  Since an Olympic runner could cover a mile in
about four minutes, they figured that they could walk a
mile in about fifteen minutes.  Even if they were in no
hurry, they could walk a mile in thirty minutes.  This
inferred that Hamlet was at most three hours away.  They
could leave at eight in the morning, get to Hamlet well
before noon, eat a picnic lunch, check out the extensive
railroad yard and the cool depot there, then leave by two in
the afternoon, and be home well before dark.  Henry said
that he had heard there were so many trains in Hamlet that
there was a locomotive doing some switching or something
like that almost all the time.  Most of the boys had
backpacks and canteens, and the ones who didn’t were
allowed to borrow one from the others who had two.  They
were planning to go on the first Saturday in October when
it would be neither too hot nor too cold.  They were so
excited about this trip that some of them were unable to
sleep at night.  Their parents had given them permission
for the hike since the scoutmaster would be with them.  


The morning of the trip finally came and the boys began to
gather at one of the railroad blinkers near the old depot
about fifteen minutes before eight.  Everyone was there
including the two dogs except for Nathan.  That didn’t
bother them at first, but when they saw Nathan walking
toward them without his father, they began to worry.  
“Where’s your old man” asked Chuck.  Nathan replied: “He
got a call from his boss man, and he had to leave early this
morning for Charlotte.  He won’t be back until late.  He
says we have to postpone our trip.”  Then the boys started
talking among themselves and realized that at least one of
them would not be able to go due to conflicts unless they
postponed the trip all the way until next spring.  They
concluded they would probably die if they had to wait that
long.  Now for the edification of you ladies reading this
article, there is this thing called “peer pressure” among
young boys that seems to override logic or previous
parental training.  They decided to go without Nathan’s dad
even though their permission was based on the assumption
he would be with them.  They figured they would be back
by the appointed time, and that no one would be the wiser.  
Almost all men had to work on Saturdays back then, so it
would have been impossible to get a substitute adult for
the journey, especially at this late hour.  


The first thing they had to decide was which way to go.  The
tracks in Rockingham are east-west which is more or less
parallel to Washington and Franklin Streets.  Should they
go east or should they go west?  Broad Avenue (the original
highway 74 bypass) was still under construction, and was
not open to traffic.  They all more or less knew that Hamlet
was south or southeast of Rockingham.  But as they looked
down the tracks to the east toward Hancock Street and the
US 1 overpass, the tracks seemed to bend south.  And, as
they looked down the tracks toward the old Great Falls
Mill, the tracks also seemed to bend south.  That didn’t
help.  Then someone suggested that they should go into the
depot and ask the stationmaster.  However, that was
quickly ruled out as they felt the stationmaster would tell
them they could not use the tracks for hiking and he might
even call the authorities.  Frank said his father often came
down to the depot to mail orders to his company in
Charlotte.  Whenever he was with his father for this
purpose, the mail train was always headed west.  That
meant Hamlet had to be east.  Steve pointed out that the
mail train could easily go to Hamlet on it’s way to Charlotte
since just about everything went through Hamlet.  Then
Harry said that his family took a train ride a couple of years
ago, and that they went through Hamlet on the trip from
Rockingham, and that the train headed west then.  So they
decided to head west toward the old Great Falls Mill.


They had a trestle to cross before they lost sight of the old
depot.  This was a little tricky as it wouldn’t be much fun to
be in the middle of a trestle when a train started coming.  
Some of the boys were not able to swim.  And some trestles
were much too high to jump from.  Their method was
twofold.  First they listened very carefully.  Next one of the
boys would put his ear down very close to the track; the
idea here was that he might be able to hear the rumble of
the train echoing in the track.  I don’t think this second
part has much validity, but they did it anyhow.


They walked about an hour or so when they saw some
hobos ahead.  Steve said his father had told him that hobos
were not dangerous.  Many of them had simply had lost
their jobs and hitched rides on freight trains to look for
work.  He had said that back during the Great Depression,
whole families were often destitute, and would hitch rides
on trains along with their parents.  These particular hobos
started out innocent enough.  They said they were hungry,
and asked the boys for food.  The boys did give them three
or four cans of sardines and a package of saltine crackers.  
Then one of the hobos asked the boys if they had any
money.  About this time, Old Red was starting to get
uncomfortable with the situation.  He started to growl.  
The boys sensed it was time for them to leave; so one of
them hollered: “RUN”.  The boys started running on down
the tracks, and the hobos started to run after them.  The
dogs reluctantly followed their masters, but they really
weren’t that interested in avoiding a good fight.  Hobos are
not near as fast as young boys, not to mention healthy
dogs.  Soon the boys were in the clear, but then they
realized the hobos were now between them and home.  It
was isolated out there.  There were no houses or
settlements along the tracks.  The trees were beautiful with
the fall colors but hid any signs of civilization from them.   


About this time, they heard a freight train coming.  The
boys ran to a nearby bank and held their dogs tightly.  The
train came through at full throttle; it was probably going
seventy-five miles an hour.  They waived to the engineer,
but he either didn’t see them, or else he just ignored them.  
Then they learned an important lesson.  The smokestack
from these old steam engines not only blew smoke all over
them; they also blew a lot of small cinders, which had a
tendency to get in one’s eye.  They learned very quickly to
cover their eyes and the dog’s eyes with their hands.       


They traveled for another hour or so and soon came to this
huge pond.  It was much larger than the Great Falls
millpond just across from the old depot there on South
Caroline Street that resulted from the damming of Falling
Creek.  They stopped to look, and several of the boys picked
up rocks from the railroad tracks and threw them parallel
to the surface of this lake.  The idea was to skip the rocks
across the water.  Most of the boys were good at this, as
they had had plenty of practice at the old millpond back
home.  One of the boys asked if anyone was interested in
taking a swim.  They decided it was too cold in October for
swimming.  Then Nathan spotted a snake.  It looked like a
rattlesnake, but it didn’t rattle.  All they boys quickly
became alert and looked around them.  There was an old
adage that where you find one snake, you may find
another.  Then someone pointed out that that was only
during mating season, and he thought that was only during
the spring.  Then Chuck found a huge rotten log and threw
it into the water where they had considered swimming.  
When the log hit the water, about twenty snakes
immediately attacked it.  The way they were biting that log,
they must have been water moccasins.  The boys didn’t get
close enough for the snakes to show them the backs of their
open mouths, which give them the nickname
“cottonmouths” since the backs of their mouths are as
white as cotton.  Then Henry spotted another snake near
the tracks. They only had one way to retreat, and that was
farther down the tracks.  They moved very carefully.  They
walked on the rails themselves since they knew there
wouldn’t be any snakes there.  They were also good at this
from all the practice they had had near the old depot back
home.  Soon they were beyond the pond.  But now they
realized that they had two bad things behind them.  That is
both the snakes and those hobos.  Still they hadn’t seen any
houses except for some sort of abandoned building on the
far side on this large pond.  The trees were just starting to
turn to their fall colors.  Some of the trees were really
beautiful, but kids never pay any attention to subtle things
like that.


Now Chuck said: “Guys, look, the sun is directly overhead,
so therefore it’s noon.  (Note that North Carolina did not
have daylight savings time back then).  They all looked, and
no one was casting a shadow.  We’ve been out here walking
now for about four hours.  We should have been in Hamlet
an hour ago.  Also, I don’t remember any pond this size
between Rockingham and Hamlet.”  Then Frank
interjected: “We must have gone the wrong way.  If we
continue down this way we will eventually come to the Pee
Dee River.  You can see the railroad trestle in the distance
from the highway 74 bridge as you cross the Pee Dee.  It is
very long and high above the water with many rocks
below.  It would be difficult, if not impossible, to cross that
trestle; but if you did, you would soon come to the town of
Morven.  If we got that far, we could phone for help.  There
is also another highway bridge just south of the trestle
across the Pee Dee, which I think is the main highway from
Wadesboro to Cheraw.  If we got close to the Pee Dee, it
might make more sense for us to cross through the woods
to that highway and then backtrack into Morven.  Another
thought is that if we are where I think we are, we may be
near Cordova.  I remember a large lake there.  The road is
just below the dam just like it is at Roberdel, and it always
scared me to go that way.  However, the pond we just past
is not the Cordova lake since there is no road near the dam
that I can see.  Anybody got any ideas?  We can’t just go
back you know.  I don’t know which scares me the most,
the snakes or those hobos.”  


Well, then, the boys decided they would stop for a rest on a
nearby bank and eat their lunch.  They were quite hungry
by this time.  About that time a second train, a passenger
train, came flying through and paid no attention to the
boys.  The boys figured they were in a big mess.  They were
mostly concerned with getting back home alive; the
thought of the punishment that would be waiting on them
never crossed their minds.  Maybe if they walked a little
farther, they could see Cordova in the distance, or maybe
there would be some houses near the tracks.  Doesn’t a
road go from Cordova to highway 74?  So after at least an
hour lunch break, the boys continued on their trek hoping
to see Cordova or maybe get to the Pee Dee River and cross
over to the Cheraw highway.  This would have been a good
time for a cell phone, but it was to be forty years after this
when cell phones came into existence.  After another hour
or so the boys started to get disheartened.  They found a
nearby bank and started taking inventory of their food and
water.  Steve said: “It’s no use to go on.  Why don’t we stay
here until they send a rescue party to look for us?”  Franks
responds: “Well for one thing, no one will start to miss us
until after dark.  I don’t care too much about being out
here after dark.  We can probably make our food and water
last until in the morning.  We could try to flag down a train,
but they are going so fast, and they don’t seem to pay any
attention to us.”  About that time a third train did come by;
Frank was right about that.  They didn’t pay any attention
to the boys.   


Then when it seemed all was lost, Henry said he could hear
what sounded like one of those new gasoline powered lawn
mower.  If someone is cutting their grass, then they should
be able to help us.  They thought they should walk toward
the sound of the engine, but as they started to do so, the
sound of the engine started getting louder as if it were
coming to them.  Then out of nowhere, they could see the
source of the motor.  It was one of those small railroad
repairman’s vehicles used by the maintenance men to
travel on the tracks looking for problem spots.  Well out of
despair came exhilaration.  The little open-top motored car
stopped and the two maintenance men asked: “What are
you kids doing out here in the middle of nowhere?”  Chuck
answered that they were walking to Hamlet, but had
obviously went the wrong way.  They answered: “Yes, you
sure did.  It’s only about a half-mile to the Cordova Road
and another three miles to the Pee Dee River.  Here, hop
on the car and I’ll run you back into Rockingham.  I’m not
supposed to be carrying passengers.  They could fire me.  
So don’t tell anyone that I gave you a ride.”  


Well none of the boys told on him. They arrived back at the
old Rockingham depot at about five o’clock.  They hadn’t
seen any signs of the hobos on the way back.  They did tell
one of the men about the snakes and he said he would send
a crew out there to dynamite them.  The boys also never
told their parents about this fiasco.  Most of their parents
had to work on Saturday anyhow, so the boys hadn’t been
missed.  Later next spring, Nathan’s father along with
Chuck’s father and the entire Sand Hill Club did make it to
Hamlet.  They did take the right way that time.  
Remarkably, the boys never talked much about this, not
even among themselves.  Their parents and friends still
don’t know about it to this day.  And each one of the boys
wonders to himself whether this really happened or not.