Sunshine and slightly cooler temperatures dominated the skies except for a barrage of fireworks in our hometown this weekend, celebrating a launch into the second half of the year.

We left you in Eastport last week wandering around with Hugh L. Gregg. I'll tell you a little more about the family and then start his recollection of the death at Rattler Cave. I did talk to retired judge Kenneth Porter, who will give me his first-hand report as a witness when he was about 12 years old. That's coming up July 11, incidentally the day of a new moon over Newport.

Hugh was not an only child, as most families had many children. Elizabeth died as a baby when the family was traveling to New York. Anita Fowler was married to Harold, of Cosby; Joan Clark married Bud; Hugh Jr. married Sylvia Thompson, of NY; Jack married Donna Donavtich; Betty Faye married Gene Payne. The Hugh Gregg Sr. family lived in Newport until 1948, when "Daddy moved us to Gastonia," NC after selling all his paint contracting equipment to Alton Johnson. From there the family moved north to Michigan. It was in Detroit at a small restaurant that Hugh Jr. bumped into his future wife, 32 years ago (about 1978). "She's God sent. She saved my life several times since I've been sick." She is a member of Grace Baptist Church. All of the children died in Detroit, and Hugh Jr. was the only one to make it back home. He and Paul Gregg are the only survivors of the clan. Hugh Sr. retired in 1959 after falling three stories at the Stroh's brewery where he was painting. They bought a house off Third Street and he lived until about 1978.

Let's go back to junior's life and times now. By 1949 he joined the Army but since he was just 16 he got kicked out. After a short wait he reapplied and was accepted. The next 10 years he built an interesting Army life traveling to Tokyo, Okinawa, Honolulu, and Guam working at Army hospitals. Leaving the Army, he joined General Motors in Detroit as a "stock chaser" at Detroit Diesel. It was a time the giant company was building motors for the Alaska pipeline. Hugh completed 15 years there retiring in 1980.

Hugh and Sylvia have lived a modest and comfortable lifestyle in Newport, but at first they lived in Freshour Hollow and off Baltimore Road. By about 1994, they acquired their current home in Eastport. One change he is glad to see this month is that the old abandoned house next door is being razed. Sylvia has three grown children and the couple has one daughter, Amy, who is married to Rusty Miller. They live at Bybee with their three children: Sarah, Sidney, and Aaron.

During one of several visits this year with Hugh, we talked about the death at Rattler Cave. I am not a cave visitor but each year hear about spelunkers coming to the county to explore some of the many caves we have. A lot of them are not far from the Pigeon or French Broad Rivers. I have heard tales that adventurous young Newportians from years ago discovered a cave network that connects the rivers. Tip Brown has also told me a few stories about the caves.  It is said that boys often hid in the caves to play hooky from school. The story Hugh tells is of the death of Billy Gregg, when Hugh was about 13 so I am guessing it was in 1946. Some of Hugh's schoolmates at the time were Bobby Evans, J.M. Poe, Art Fisher Jr. Younger by a few years than Hugh, was Ken Porter, also a friend who was in the circle.

The planned visit to the cave by Billy Gregg, Art Fisher and Ken was known among the boys in the Eastport neighborhood. Hugh told them, "No, I'm going to Guy Freshour's to ride horses." The group of boys would swim across the Pigeon River to the Unaka Farm and seek the riding horses, which they "borrowed" for rides. Bob Ray accompanied them that day, too. After their western or explorer fantasies, the summer ride had to come to an end, and Hugh headed home to Eighth Street about 4 p.m. to get ready for church. The first that Hugh knew something was amiss was when his father located him outside and gave him a smack on the head, after fearing Hugh had disappeared in the caves but he was safe at home. Hugh recalls some commotion from Bert Poe, J.M. and Tom Poe's Dad, that the "Gregg boy" fell in. This early talk must have led to Hugh Sr.'s fears that it was his son who had an accident. Quickly, Hugh Sr. and Bert got into Hugh's 1936 Dodge truck traveling towards Ed Burnett Bridge and Hugh Boy was riding in the truck bed. They were mistaken at first that the accident had happened at the Pigeon River cave. Hugh Boy corrected them and they turned up Edwina Road towards Asheville Highway. Rattler Cave is on land below the city water tower and during the 1940s there was a business called T&S near the railroad tracks just east of the bridge and across the highway from the Col. M.M. Bullard property where he made his home. I have never been to the cave, but perhaps you have. The opening is oval shaped and large and inviting mouth into the bowels of the earth. As word got out about the accident, many men gathered around the cave and nigh began to fall. They cut a large tree to place across the opening for ropes to lower into the cave. Lanterns lighted the night. Hugh guesses there were 75 to 100 people, and remembers there was no Rescue Squad at this time. Hugh has been in the cave and says there is a series of ledges on the way down hundreds of feet to the bottom. Here there are bones of animals that have been so unfortunate to fall in and die.

The rescue was difficult because of the darkness, depth of the cave, and difficulty working the ropes to lower men. "The air was bad and they had to wear masks," said Hugh. Art Fisher Sr. finally brought his "Big Bertha" tow truck, the largest in the county, to help handle the lowering and lifting. After many hours, rescuers found Billy's body on a ledge and brought it out. Hugh said he was within feet of the victim and saw the wounds made to his red-haired friend. "He had rocks embedded in his head and back." Hugh remembered that Billy always wanted to be a Marine, wore a Marine ring. He was six feet tall and lived not far from the Hugh Gregg Sr. family at 7th Street. The victim's stepfather was a gravedigger. Hugh Boy remembers the quiet as the carefully carried Billy's body to the bed of his Dad's Dodge truck and drove into Newport to a funeral home. "There was a tremendous write-up about it in the Plain Talk," he said. I have not looked at the back issues and should do so. You can go to the Stokely Memorial Library and view these on microfilm provided by the Plain Talk for most issues and select issues from WW II era and earlier.