CityView Magazine

publisher's note W Inside County Lines This issue is about all the local communities that make up Cumberland County and the greater Fayetteville area. We are doing local stories on Hope Mills, Spring Lake, Gray's Creek, Seventy-First Township, Stedman and Eastover. All of these communities make up our area and make it the great place it is today. When I was growing up we never viewed this area as city versus county, but as one big community. I believe we are ell, it is already September and we have been blessed to not have had a hur- ricane yet, but, boy, have we had wet and hot weather. cousins during the summer and work on the farm. I would go down occasionally to see her and experience the farm life. That was the first time I ever drank milk that came straight from the cow. Also, I rode my first horse in Gray's Creek and what a time that was! I got bounced off when a dog came out and spooked my horse, sending him off down the dirt road we were on and leaving me behind. I didn't ride for a while aſter that ordeal. I had other opportunities growing up to experience other parts of the county. When I was a Boy Scout we had campo- rees (which they now call Jamborees in scouts) at Lake Rim in Seventy-First and at Woodlake where Gates Four is now lo- cated. When I was a teenager and had learned to hunt we went When I was growing up we never viewed this area as city versus county, but as one big community. I believe we are coming back to that. coming back to that. Back then we used to drive down to Van- der, near Stedman, on a dark moonlit night to see the Van- der light. The story goes that, aſter a Pullman conductor for the local railroad had his head cut off in a train accident, you could see his ghost swinging a lantern down the tracks several hundred yards as he looked for his head. I went about five or six times but never saw anything. It was a good place to go and drink a few beers and scare the girls that were with us. Of course this stuff doesn't exist, but some people will never be convinced. My experience with Gray's Creek began when I first met my wife Sandee. Her family on her father's side and grandmother and grandfather were all from Gray's Creek. Sandee loved to ride horses and would live with her great-grandmother and 14 | September/October • 2012 all over the county duck and dove hunting. We would duck hunt at Rhodes Mill pond in Godwin and at a small pond near Upchurch Lake in Rockfish and dove hunt off River Road in Eastover and in Cedar Creek on the Carl Johnson farm land. All these places have had tremendous growth and change in the past fiſty years and I have been blessed by God to have lived long enough to see the positive change it has had on the greater Fayetteville area. We decided to do this issue on the local communities be- cause we are doing a special issue in October on Fayetteville's 250th anniversary. Be on the lookout for that very special is- sue and enjoy our stories this month on all the local commu- nities that make up this region that we all love — and pray for no hurricanes and nice, cool weather this fall.

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