Sin Alley
Back during the Great Depression, there wasn’t any money to speak of.
You had to either raise what you needed or trade for it. Cream was the only thing that
you could sell for money. Every Saturday morning, every body loaded up their
cream on a wagon or cart of some kind, and took it to Morgan town to sell.
The cream factory had to test the cream to see how much butter fat and so forth
was in your cream. Then about 3 o’clock they would start issuing “Cream
Checks.” Every Saturday, preachers would go to town and grab a corner. They’d
preach on that corner all day long. If you didn’t like what this preacher was
saying, you just moved on down to the next corner.
Wood whittling was another thing people did to pass the time while they were
waiting on their cream check. If you was an amateur, you just picked up any
kind of old stick to whittle on. But others took their wood whittling more
serious. The top whittlers gathered in an alley called “Sin Alley.”
To be in this group, you could only whittle on a piece of Cedar.
People would ask you where you got your piece Cedar from? It couldn’t be just a
piece of Cedar you found around the house. Oh no, it had to come from some
place far off or hard to get to. Like the very top branch of Cedar tree hanging
out over a cliff. Otherwise you had to whittle your stick someplace else.
Sin Alley had certain standards to keep up.
There was a certain way you had to whittle, you couldn’t just come in there and
start hacking off a bunch of chips. You must start at one
end of the stick and
take a strip off the full length of the stick - which had to be a minimum of one
foot, but couldn’t be longer than two. The sharper the knife- the more times
the strip of wood would curl up when you shaved it off. Contests were often
held, and who ever had the most curls in the strip they shaved
off - won the contest.
Sin Alley got its name after it was told; that two men struck a deal in that
alley to trade wives. One man had a young pretty wife and the other one had a
wife way up in years and not very good to look at. “One young pretty wife for
one old ugly wife and a 22 riffle plus a good hunting dog and two boxes of
shells.” Good Christian folks always stayed as far away from that alley as they
possibly could. Even going near there was considered to be a sinful act.
A stranger came to town one Saturday, he stopped on the corner and listened a
while to that preacher. Then he slowly moved on down the street and listened to
each of the others for a while. But what he really needed was a hair cut, so he
asked directions to the nearest barber shop. On his way there he passed by an
alley that smelled strongly of Cedar, thinking that maybe a big furniture
factory was at the other end - he walked down the alley to take a look. At the
end of the alley, he came across twelve men sitting around whittling. The
stranger said; With all these wood shavings laying around, you’d think Noah was
down here building another Ark or is this where Joseph the carpenter has his
shop?
The twelve men wasn’t very happy to see him and all they wanted him to do, was
leave. But how do you get a preacher to leave, especially one bold enough to
walk down this alley in the first place? One of them said; Your wasting your
time down here preacher, go find yourself a nice corner with a good shade to
preach on.
The preacher said; Well I didn’t come down here to preach, but its nice to know
you're all in good standing with the Lord and don’t need preached to.
This gives me a chance to sit down and rest a while. I’ve been known to whittle a little
myself from time to time. Then he pull out some little crosses that he had
made by whittling.
They asked what kind of wood was the crosses made from? The preacher said; Dogwood,
just like the cross they nailed Jesus to. That's why the Dog wood tree grows
so small now. Dog wood use to grow as big as an Oak tree does. But it was
cursed to grow small and twisted, so it could never be used that way again. The
men said; That's a very nice story preacher,
but you still can’t whittle dogwood in this alley. They went on to explain all the rules they had to whittle
in Sin Alley.
The preacher said; Well if that's all it takes, I picked up this little piece of
Cedar about 30 miles back. Then the preacher reached into his pack and pulled
out a stick of Cedar, it was the right length and everything. By their own
rules, the preacher was able to join them whittling in the alley. The men just
shook their heads, because they knew this preacher wasn’t leaving until he was
good and ready to go.
Then the men pulled out a jug of moonshine and started passing it around.
They asked the preacher if he wanted to hit the jug? The preacher said; You know the
first miracle Jesus done, was turning water into wine. But moonshine is much
too dangerous to use for drink. I buried two brothers a few weeks ago, they
were cooking down a batch of mash and standing by the still when it blew up.
Very sad, I’d been talking to those boys for years about the Lord and I don’t
see how anybody can go to sleep at night - knowing Satan has you by the shirt
tail. The brothers talked about being saved before too long, but they put it
off - maybe just one day or one hour too long. But sometimes one second is too
long. Now Satan is cooking them down over the fires of Hell.
Everybody in Hell becomes a true believer the moment they get there.
Ever church in the world would be full today, if everybody spent last night in Hell.
Another man said; Well if some of the people I know - that goes to church all
the time - if they make it to Heaven, than I don’t have anything to worry about.
The preacher said; What do you think would happen. If you went to another town,
where nobody knew you. And you went up to the biggest and nicest house in that
town and knocked on the door. When the owner of the house came to the
door - you
say; I know you don’t know me or anything, but I’m going to be living here with
you from now on. Eating your food and enjoying everything you have.
But don’t expect me to help out or anything. You just take care of me OK?
The man said; I’d get run off before you could even blink an eye, that's what
would happen if I tried that ! The preacher said; What is the Lord going to say
if you try to get in Heaven under these same conditions? The man said; I guess
I couldn’t get in there either. The preacher said; The only other place to go
after you die is Hell, but don’t worry - in Hell, they’ll let anybody get
in..... but nobody ever gets to leave.
The first man said; I thought you wasn’t going to preach? The preacher said;
That wasn’t preaching, just idle conversation - I’ll be giving a good sermon
tomorrow. The man said; Tell us where that will be - so we’ll be sure and not go
there! The preacher said; When they don’t come to hear the word
- you bring the word to them. I’ll be preaching right here in this alley Sunday, Jesus can save
you in an alley as well as in a church.
Written By: Johnny Lee Hall
In His Mercies,
Becky
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