> I haven't done much rock climbing lately.
> Howard

I haven't done much rock climbing lately either. But I did a lot of rock climbing as a young boy growing up on Gray Eagle hill in Knoxville near the old Ramsey House Plantation. Gray Eagle hill was so rocky that people would have to park their cars down on Thorngrove Pike and trek up a narrow path to their houses, which were built on rock as well.

I recall that it was in 1947 that old Doc Gammon parked his new car down on the pike and walked to the top of that hill to deliver my younger brother John. Except for the Doc, the only other people who ever came to our house was the grocer who always delivered to us a two week supply of groceries in his old International truck. At that time there were already six children and the truck load of food costing ten dollars would last us about ten days.

Near Gray Eagle hill was the Gray Knox Marble Co. We used to go swimming in the "quarry hole" as we used to call it. It was a very dangerous place and some of the boys would climb to the top of the quarry and jump fifty feet into the water. There were signs everywhere warning of the danger but every summer the quarry was full of swimmers. I was always afraid of that place.

I recently drove up Thorngrove Pike to Gray Eagle and all the old shotgun houses on the hill are now gone, and just a few old locust trees remain. On Thorngrove Pike, the old Ramsey House Plantation is still a popular tourist attraction.
Calvin