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Cuddington
The first time I tried to go caving was when my parents took me to Luray Caverns. At that time I was probably about six or seven years old and I vaguely remember it, but they said I tried to go down a passage; and sorta took off from the party. Of course the lights were only on so far, and I didn't go very far. They quickly found me.
I went on a trip with Eddie. At this time I first met Earl Thierry, and Larry and Betty Sabatinos. All I can remember of that first trip was that we went somewhere near Cloverdale to a little pit cave on Dr. Hoover's farm. I do remember this: it scared me to death. It was a 20-foot drop. I had tennis shoes on, and I finally got down the rope somehow. Well, they really just rigged a handline and I got on a flowstone slide after I got down and nearly slid off of that. I knew I'd never go caving in tennis shoes again. I only got to go on this one trip, and Earl left town. As you know in those days he was a Civil Engineer, and was always leaving to work somewhere else, for awhile. I kept trying to go caving.
I had a couple of close friends in high school who were interested in caving. Eddie wasn't going often during this time. Of course, the problem was not having a car. One of us would have to borrow our Dad's car to go, and it was always a hassle. But we went to Lowmoor Caves, and Murder Hole, and places like that. Of course at that time we didn't have any equipment to go down drops, like at Murder Hole.
Bill. Cuddington, 1967. Photo by W. Dean. |
Anyway, about 1952, I saw Earl Thierry again. He came back to town. (I'd been calling his home where his mother lived periodically to see when he might be back.) I called Earl up, and he came over to the house where we lived. I'd been carrying around five dollars in my pocket for the last couple of years trying to get in the NSS. Earl endorsed me and we sent the money in. One funny thing happened, well not so funny; it kind of aggravated us. A year or so before that, we were in Lowmoor Cave, the three of us from high school. We went in and went straight ahead and came out at the edge of that underground quarry; it's about a 70--foot drop. We heard noises, and we turned around and a bunch of people were coming in the cave with lights on. We hollared at them, and they just wouldn't stop. We took off after them. By this time, I had sense enough to have a carbide light; I'd seen Earl and them wearing them. Of course, we had cloth hats. Anyway, we ran off after them, and caught up with them. They were more or less forced to let us go through the cave with them. It happened that one of the people was John Petrie, and I talked to him a whole lot about caving and stuff in general and we had a pretty good trip. We got out of the cave, and I asked them to endorse me, but they wouldn't. I wasn't able to get in the NSS at that time. So I carried around this five dollars for, it seemed like a year or two tucked away in my billfold so I would have it when I would get someone to endorse me.
I finally got in and started caving with Earl in 1952. We would leave Roanoke Friday night and go up to Blacksburg, where I met Larry and Betty Sabatinos again, Roy Charlton, Ed DesRochers, and a fellow named Adam Chou. We began to get in some pretty good caving trips. In those days, you know, they were using cable ladders. Cable ladders with a safety rope. Occasionally we would use some rope ladders.
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The summer of 1952 we did a lot of caving. My first real drop was Higginbotham #2which you know is about a 90-foot drop, then a 20 foot drop, and then you go on down. Needless to say it was pretty scary. I do remember that when I went down the cable ladder no one bothered to tell me to put my hands behind the ladder when I climbed down, so I just put them in the front, just as if you'd climb a wooden ladder. When I got to the bottom, my wrists were almost paralyzed and my arms were really tired. The only thing that probably saved me was that I had been working out at the YMCA, climbing ropes and things like that. I actually climbed ropes to train to go to caves, because I thought that it would be the only way I could get in then - go hand - overhand - since I didn't know anyone that had equipment. Luckily I never had to use this technique in a cave. I think Roy Charlton told me the right way to put my hands behind the ladder. I didn't have hardly any trouble at all climbing out of Higginbotham.
Sometime in the spring of 1953 I got a motorcycle; I couldn't afford a car. You could buy a car then, just like you can now, for $100, but you couldn't depend on it. However, you could take a few hundred dollars and get a motorcycle which would be more dependable. I was the only caver in Roanoke; Earl was gone. I'd take the motorcycle, and go to Walker Mountain and look for caves on my own, find 'em, and go in them part way along. Of course, all the farmers got to know me, and they'd show me a pit or a cave, and I'd go in a little ways with them at the entrance. Usually someone knew where I was; none of the cavers ever did, but the farmer did. Weren't that many cavers around. Also got over into Burkes Gardenand Tasewellsome on my motorcycle. The thing about a motorcycle, you start out Friday, even in the summertime, nice and warm. When you come back Sunday night it starts raining and the rain feels like BBs hitting you in the face. This was a time when motorcycles weren't as comfortable as they are now, and of course people weren't trying to blow you off of them with a shotgun. You could go around on it, cave, and nobody ever bothered you.
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