It was sad to see the Sivley/Shearer home torn down in the Mountain Creek Valley. I did enjoy the article written by John Shearer about the history of the home and valley. I was raised up there along with my three brothers on our father and mother's farm. A lot of work but a lot of fun and good memories.
Our home place is now an apartment complex. Across the road where our barns, pastures and livestock were is now Reb Bank Elementary School.
The Moses home John referred to is now apartments and the land we owned across from the Sivley’s is now apartments.
We used to walk blocks to the Mountain Creek School. Very seldom would we see cars pass. Now they have built sidewalks or it would be impossible to walk it with all of the traffic.
The school is now a storage company.
Our best friend was our neighbor, Dan Sivley, who lived within the Sivley/Shearer home with his parents and brothers and sisters. We had great times together. Dan, my brothers Crawford, Martin and David would hike and play on the side of Signal Mountain building Fort Bean there. We also would play and fish in Mountain Creek.
We respected our teachers and prayed in school.
They say change is for the better. I’m not so sure about that.
Back then it was the best of times and the best of times.
“The future ain’t what it used to be to be, ” said Yogi Berra.
Russell Bean