Bob Smallwood Part 1

Bob Smallwood Today on John Dash and Friends John sits down with one of his closest friends Bob Smallwood. A man whose music has touched lives across the mountains healing broken hearts and bringing hope to those who need it most. Together, they share a passion for reaching the lost and shining light in dark places. This is more than a conversation it’s a moment you won’t forget. We hope you enjoy this episode of *John Dash and Friends*. #JohnDashAndFriends #BobSmallwood #DashTv #DashTvNet #TalkShow #PodcastLife #InterviewSeries

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, Bob, I wanted you to come back and be with me again because we got so much stuff we talk about.

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Oh, don't tell you.

SPEAKER_00 0:07

And I I was talking to my cousin Dwayne, and he said, Well, I thought you already interviewed Bob. I said, I did. But I said, We we didn't even get to scratch the surface of things that we think about, things that could go on. I was thinking about something, Bob, today. I was thinking about how the uh, you know, every generation there's changes, okay? And and I there was a generation before me that talked about our generation, one after this that said, you know, look at them and look at the but there is always changes that go on. But there's memories I think that that we have that that I I wish another generation could have, okay? But they can't because they have different memories and different things that they go through in their life. And uh, but I I I just think about things growing up, and when you think about where did you grow up at as a boy?

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Well, I I was raised at Strangtown. I walked to Bradshaw elementary school, I guess a mile and a half miles, and um nobody worried, we didn't even have sidewalks, we just walked along the side of the road, and like we had good sense. Right. I went uh there for six years to elementary school. And of course on Sundays I used to shine shoes, you know, to go to the movies. Right. Uh the show cost twenty cents, and so that took me four people to let me shine the shoes, be able to go to the show. But I I did that a lot. In fact, that's that's that's one way I guess I met Jesus. I wasn't very old. My family never went to church. They uh they just never did. My daddy was a coal miner, and mama operated a little general store, and uh raised seven young and so but we we um I I was walking to Bradshaw one day and and the church of God there at Bradshaw, between Bradshaw and Strangtown, the doors were open, and I heard this preacher, I just beautiful sunshiny day. I stopped to listen to that preacher, and he said, somebody loved me no matter what, enough to even die for me, and I stopped and I listened. Yeah, I listened. Well, when he gave the altar call, I run up them stairs. Yeah, and I got down on my knees, give my heart to the Lord, felt like I was uh done been clean all over, you know. And I said, I I gotta tell people about it. Sort of like you have, you've told everybody about it. Now you were raised in war, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Yes, sir. Yes, I you know, I was born and raised there in war, and uh my family all from there. And you know, once you're from the county, you're from the county. Amen. You know, they don't even say McDowell County, they just call it the county. The county, yeah. You know, and I think about that a lot and that that heritage that we have. I seen the other day the uh the guy, Rocket Boys, was on Fox News and he had a Big Creek shirt on, t-shirt on under his jacket, and I said, now ain't that isn't that cool. He's he's got a Big Creek High School t-shirt on.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Now I'm gonna tell you something about Big Creek High School. I went to Jaeger High School, right, so I could tell you about this. Big Creek in the 50s was more than a legend. Right. I mean, they were unbeatable. Now, I don't mind getting beat. Of course, I played in the band, I played the saxophone the band, but they whooped up on us something bad. I mean, like 60 to nothing, 80 to nothing, whatever. But even when they played the best best in the world, they were legendary. Right. Big Creek was not not many people maybe remember that like you and I do. Yeah. But uh I can I as far back as I could remember, there's huge crowds came out to see them and at Big Creek High School.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

We went one time we went upstate when I was there in in high school, we went upstate in football. But you know, we just somehow skinned into it and got upstate, you know. And buddy, we went up there and you know, we didn't have a lot of guys on the bench. It wasn't a great big team and got up there and this team were enormous. These guys were like, you know, big old guys, and all the way down the bench, I don't know, they had like 50 players, and I thought they they destroyed us. But but they they were just they were monsters compared to our guys, just just you know, that were scrappy. You know. And you know, I I was thinking about a while back how I was talking to another friend of mine about North Fork and basketball, you know, because they they set world records in basketball and winning championships. And I don't know if they tore that high school down, but I don't know if they tore the gym down, but somebody said they maybe had kept part of it or something, but I mean they still got a signs up over at North Fork talking about their championships that they did win. So much. That history so much. And and when you look back and see McDowell County and the people that have come from there and the heart of people there is so much is is such a strength about that. It's not uh it's not a veneer, it's it's a deep strength.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

It's real.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

And uh and just with a little bit of help too, Bob, I think so many times that uh I I would love to see people c somebody to come in and and not necessarily hand out blankets and turkeys, but but if they would set up a place just working with education.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

Okay, you know what I mean? And just a place dealing with education, helping people, and how much more that would be and how how much that would really help. Because when you start to get a little education in some areas you start to feel a little better about yourself. You know, and uh I never liked to feel like I didn't understand or didn't know. And uh but I I see that. But Stringtown, Stringtown, Jolo, yeah, all over in there, you know.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Slabtown. Yeah, yeah. That probably don't exist no more, but used to.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

We got Bug Hurley now over that way.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

I talk about sometimes a lady lives in Bug Hurley Holler's a friend of mine, her and her daughter, daughter's in a wheelchair and all, but she she loves the Lord and she used to sing, but now she's got a trek right here and she can't talk. Uh, but they live up there alone in Bug Hurley Holler. And I tell the people why how'd that get the name? Because Bug Hurley, who was a friend of mine, ran a little general store right there in the mouth of the holler. When you started to turn left to go up Bug Hurley Holler as he's going up three forks, right? Right there was Bug Hurley's store. And I always stopped with my mule and went in and got me a moon pie and an RC. Bug Hurley was was a nice fella. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Well, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

Yeah, that's where the name came from, Bug Hurley's Holler, Bug Hurley Holler. And uh they live up there and and uh they they live alone now. Uh Kenneth died, uh her husband. He was a good Christian man. Yeah. I like good Christian people. You know, you know, Big Creek had some secrets people didn't know about that I learned, you know. Me being me being a teenager, even though I was Christian, I was a little on the wild side, and I used to dance. Boy, I I love to dance. Right. And there was a place up at Big Creek, right before you get to the high school as a bridge. Okay, right. But on the right there was a store. Right. Underneath there was a place called the Duggout. I didn't know what it was called. The Dugout. I knew it was there. And that's where we danced. And I you could not get in that room uh if you didn't get there early on the Saturday or Friday night, or if it was football, but I was always there, and I danced, and the girls would sit on benches, you know, chairs, I mean, all the way around, and just go ask them to dance. And didn't hurt my feelings. But I don't know if anybody ever turned me down or not.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

But if it did, it didn't bother me. If it did, you don't remember that, so that's good.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

I bet you there ain't a viewer that remembers uh the dugout. But I hope there is, but th this was back I'm talking about the 50s. Uh uh in the early 50s, I that's where I learned to dance good, and then I thought it was good anyway. Most of my people are dead now, so they may not remember.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Well, you can say it's good now. That well, they're gonna say.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Yeah, it was great. And then uh you've heard of uh you probably know Mike Payne, the singer. You know, he's from Joe Low there. I mean, his daddy was my uh um Harvey Payne was his grandpa. Now Harvey was a tall fella with a hat on, a little sh hat, yeah, and uh gray-haired old man, and he was my friend. Right. When I was a little old boy, not too old, he would stop their strain town and little old truck, I always drove a truck. And uh, Bob, we ain't been to the hole in the wall to get our liver sandwich. I said, Well, I'm going. I didn't have no money back there. He always paid for mine, Harvey did. Yeah. He paid for it, and and of course that's that's where that uh that uh Mike's daddy was raised there. And his wife, Omi, I mean his wife's uh uh mother, Omi, I used to eat dinner with him out there on Peep Patch Ridge. Not too far away.