Back in the 1940's there was a lumber yard in Hazard, Kentucky called "Home Lumber Company." It was across the bridge from down town, over near the railroad station. They cut logs into lumber and stacked it around to "cure." They didn't just sell lumber. They made stuff like cabinets and lawn chairs. There was always some waste in the form of small pieces of wood and saw dust.

Most people in town heated with coal from the local mines. But you had to have kindling to get the coal started. That took care of a lot of Home Lumber Company's waste. There was an elderly black man in town who had a mule and a wagon. He would go across the bridge and pick up a load of small scraps of wood, then go up the hill to the residential area and sell it for 50 cents a load. One load would usually do a homeowner all winter.

As kids will do, we searched kindling piles for useful pieces of wood to make toys. Store-bought toys were scarce during the war years, but if you had a couple of long, thin strips of wood and a little string and paper from the grocery store, you could make a dandy kite. A piece of lumber cut in the shape of a pistol was great for playing cowboy, and we even made guns that shot rubber bands that we cut from old inner tubes. A really nice rubber gun had a clothes pin trigger.

I remember carrying an arm load of Home Lumber Company scraps up the hill to make a ladder to climb a big beech tree. We just nailed a slat about every foot or so and climbed right up. Why? So we could climb back down, of course.

When we could lay our hands on a piece of rope, Home Lumber Company supplied the seat for a swing.

We also built "jitneys" which were four-wheeled coasters built with scrap lumber and any kind of wheels we could find. We rode them down Hazard's steepest hills with no brakes. Fortunately, there was almost no traffic during the war.

Once we made a wood cover for a storm drain on Cedar Street and flooded an intersection. We had fun splashing around until somebody came by and removed the cover. It drained six inches of water in about five minutes. I think it was one of the men from the street department. Guess where the wood came from.

One time a man gave me a dime to go over to Home Lumber Company for a load of sawdust. He had a big wooden wheelbarrow with a steel wheel. Once it was full of sawdust, it was all I could do to balance it, but I made it back without a mishap. He used the sawdust to sweep his auto repair shop and to soak up oil. There weren't many cars moving around then, but the ones that did required constant repair.

Another use for sawdust, was to cover the floor of a chicken house. Most people would leave it there for a month or two and when sweep it out and put in on their yard. It stunk, but the grass grew. I hauled fresh sawdust in a cardboard box on a red wagon. I can't remember what I got, but it was probably about a nickle a load.

When we hiked in the mountains around town, we often built a fire and cooked lunch. Usually it was a potato and a hot dog. In order to get a fire started, we would find a piece of pine with a really rich knot in it, and carry it with us. A wooden kitchen match would usually get it burning.

I haven't been to Hazard in decades, but I think Home Lumber Company is probably still there. I wonder if they knew how helpful they were.
Howard