Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 15, 1993 TAG: 9311150096
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CAROLYN CLICK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MAGGIE LENGTH: Medium
Before the morning mist rises above the valley, before the first rifle shot shatters the silence of the dawn and sends deer skittering across the ridges, hunters come to the Forks of Johns Creek Christian Church in Craig County.
They gather outside the white clapboard church on the afternoon before hunting season, a congregation of mostly men in casual flannel and khaki and the occasional blaze-orange cap, waiting patiently to participate in a tradition that is, for many of them, as important as the season itself.
It is the annual hunters supper, a mouth-watering feast prepared by the women of the church and the community to benefit the local volunteer Fire Department. It has been going on since 1979, and Sunday the hunters returned to sample the ham and green beans, fried chicken, hot macaroni and cheese, rows of chilled salads and rich desserts.
It is an ever-changing smorgasbord - as the last helping is dished up, the empty bowl is whisked away and another hot, steaming dish carried in from the kitchen.
Unbelievably, it is the second installment of a weekend eat-a-thon to welcome back the area's hunters. On Friday, Johns Creek volunteer firemen put 15 hams on to roast overnight, said Ina Caldwell, in preparation for a Saturday pig roast. The leftover pork formed the first course for the hunters' supper on Sunday.
These are ladies who love to cook. Sixty-four-year-old Anna Helms got up at 3 a.m. and put in a full day's work at Kroger in Blacksburg before returning home at noon to finish preparing barbecue chicken, beans, potatoes, turnips, cole slaw, macaroni and two cakes.
"You can't beat the folks in this valley for food," said Fred Smith, 55, who first came to Craig County to hunt with his father in 1959. He is back this year with the elder Fred Smith, his brother, Donnie, half-brother, Larry Northern, nephew, Larry Northern Jr., and friend, David Altizer. The hunters supper is part of their reunion ritual.
For Gerald Dye of Honaker, hunting season without the supper is unthinkable. "We have been coming to this dinner since the beginning of time," he said.
He and his cousin, Henry Ray of North East, Md., have been hunting over Potts Mountain with 15 to 20 other friends and relatives for nearly two decades. The deer have thinned out over the years, but their enthusiasm for their two weeks roaming the national forest has not diminished.
To hear these hunters tell it, the deer are secondary to the food and companionship.
"Whether I see a deer, shoot a deer or fire a gun, it doesn't matter," Fred Smith said. The men, he says, have come for the companionship and the solitude, two weeks of roughing it in campers, without benefit of a telephone and other trappings of civilization.
"It's more the fun of coming," said Altizer, of Buchanan County.
"Quite a few hunters tell me they don't even care if they get a deer," Ray said. "They just like being out in nature."
"That's just icing on the cake, if we do it [get a deer]," said Ken Tillison, a retired state employee who has been hunting with his friend "Big John" Bowen for 23 years. Bowen's wife, Dani, is also a veteran of the November ritual.
By 7 p.m., 200 hunters and family members have toured the food line, some, encouraged by the women, to return for seconds. The community, which boasts the tiniest election precinct in Virginia, hopes to clear $2,000 from the weekend, money that will be used to keep the Fire Department's equipment up-to-date.
It is a cooperative venture, said Caldwell. "See, the hunters' cabins are protected by the Fire Department," she said.
The men and women linger over sweet tea and coffee, and another rich dessert. The Rev. Hershel Stone, pastor of the 65-member congregation, bags trash and shares a memory or two with the hunters he has grown to know in his four years here.
Earlier, he has prayed over the food, thanking the good Lord for a valley that is so breathtakingly beautiful on this hot fall afternoon and for the hunters, who he prays will be safe.
by CNB